National Nutrition Awareness Month: Healthy Food Choices You Should Make

 Every year, March is celebrated as National Nutrition Awareness Month By the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The campaign majorly focuses on healthy nutritional choices, creating a sound eating pattern, and partaking in physical activities to reduce the risk of chronic disease, maintain a healthy weight, and promote overall health. 

 Here are some healthy food choices you must consider to start eating right on this National Nutrition Awareness Month.

Start with breakfast

Grabbing an apple for breakfast isn’t a healthy way to start your mornings. Your breakfast should include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein. A breakfast wrap or burrito is an excellent choice to fulfill your body’s nutritional needs. You can also consider scrambled eggs, whole-grain cereal, and low-fat plain yogurt. 

Eat healthy snacks

Snacks provide energy between meals or after physical activities. Healthy snacks, such as raw veggies with peanut butter or low-fat cottage cheese and apple or banana, decrease hunger pangs and keep you from overeating at mealtime. 

Add colors to your plate

Make a healthier choice by adding fruits and vegetables to your plate. If your current diet includes zero fruits or greens, start with just one fruit a day. Include a vegetable to the dinner menu, strawberries to yogurt or cereal, or plan a day without meat once a week.

Drink more water

Drink plenty of water throughout the day. Avoid quenching thirst with drinks with added sugars. Stay hydrated, especially if you are active or live in hot climates.

Following a restrictive diet for thirty days isn’t a way to create a healthy lifestyle. However, small but consistent changes to a diet over time have a beneficial effect on health, especially heart health. Apart from making informed food choices and developing physical activity habits, keep the health of your heart in check with cardiac telemetry. 

American Heart Health Awareness Month: How Stress and Heart Health Are Linked?

February is recognized as American Heart Health Awareness Month across the nation to raise awareness about heart health in communities. In hospitals and healthcare settings, health workers and staff members wear red while volunteers crochet or knit red hats for newborns to bring awareness that heart disease, which is the leading cause of death in America,is preventable. Today, we are bringing your attention to stress and how it is linked to heart health.

Stress is normal in today’s hectic lifestyle. But it affects many factors and behaviors that increase the risk of heart disease - including high blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Many individuals choose alcohol and smoke to deal with every chronic stress, which leads to health conditions like damaged artery walls and an increase in blood pressure. 

Headache, stomach, and back strain are common body’s responses to stress. Other ways include feeling low, insomnia, forgetfulness, and out of control anger. Generally, a chain of stressful events results in adrenaline release in the body, which speeds up the heart rate and breathing, resulting in rising blood pressure. These reactions help you prepare for a ‘fight or flight’ response in stressful situations.

When stress is constant, it harms you in many ways. High-levels of cortisol released by the body due to long-term stress increase blood cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, and triglycerides. Even minor stress for prolonged periods triggers heart problems, including poor blood flow to heart muscles. When the heart does not receive enough blood or oxygen, the risk of blood clots and stroke substantially increases. 

Managing stress is the best way to improve overall wellbeing. Maintaining a positive attitude, a healthy diet, and a healthy weight are a few ways to deal with chronic stress. Apart from daily exercise, quitting smoking, drinking, and too much coffee is a smart decision. Learning stress management techniques is a brilliant way to manage stress. It is best to take care of your heart and health with a Stress ECG to monitor your heart's response to the stress. 

5 New Year Resolutions To Keep Your Heart Healthy

 

New Year begins with new resolutions. From being productive to beating procrastination to eating healthy and exercising, people make all sorts of commitments to make their new year better and more satisfying than the previous year. However, seldom do they realize that making heart-healthy resolutions is also vital to lead a healthy and fulfilling life.

Studies suggest that people with health problems experience a host of emotional and physical symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, insomnia, sleep troubles, and others, all of which can significantly affect the quality of life. It turns out that keeping cardiovascular health in good shape and preventing heart problems is as crucial as focusing on physical health and other aspects of life this new year.

Here are a few New Year resolutions you should make to keep your heart healthy:

Regularly check heart health: first thing first. Keep your heart health in check taking a Resting ECG test.If there are issues in the test, you may be referred to do a Stress test or wear a 24- hour Holter monitor.

Quit Smoking: smokers are twice as likely to develop heart problems and experience a heart attack than those who don’t smoke. Smoking damages the lining of your arteries and raises blood pressure, both of which are enough to trigger heart disease.

Consume less sugar: too much sugar in your diet can cause weight gain, which can raise blood pressure and result in heart disease and diabetes. Control your sugar intake.

Eat more green veggies and fruits: Vegetables and fruits are a powerful source of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, and other essential nutrients that keep the heart in tip-top shape. Make sure you don’t overlook their importance.

Cut back on alcohol: alcohol use not only damages your liver but also causes high blood pressure, arrhythmia, and other heart problems. If you are dependent on alcohol or any other drug, it’s time to seek help.

Besides making these resolutions, consume a diet low in salt and saturated fats and high in essential nutrients to boost your heart health. Don’t forget to exercise three to five times a week to strengthen your heart muscles. Once you make these resolutions and stay true to them, you will notice a significant improvement in your heart on your Resting, Stress Test or Holter Monitoring test.

Ways To Keep Your Heart Healthy In The Upcoming Year

 

We’re about to bid adieu to this stressful year, which has been impacted severely by the COVID-19 pandemic. Time for making new resolutions has almost come. Why not make a resolve to stay healthy in the upcoming year? Instead of entirely focusing on material goals, why not focus on keeping ourselves and our heart healthy? Every year, doctors have to make use of Holter monitor system more and more to check patients’ heart rate and rhythm. This is down to increasing cardiovascular problems, most of which can be avoided by living a healthier lifestyle. In this blog, we’ll share with you some ways you can keep your heart healthy in the upcoming year.

§  Most people resolve to lose excessive weight, which is a great goal. Being overweight increases your risk of hypertension, blood clots, high cholesterol, diabetes, and of course, heart disease. So, by all means strive to lose weight in the upcoming year

§  Commit to having an annual physical done. An annual checkup of the body lets you know about any underlying major health problem. Many people have not been to a doctor for years, which is not good. Annual physicals help you keep your heart in a good condition

§  You will be surprised to know this but anxious and stressed-out individuals tend to have more strokes and heart attacks. So, strive to bring down stress in your life next year. Make time for things that you love to do such as playing a sport, reading books, listening to music, talking with friends, etc.

§  Not getting enough sleep often leads to problems such as overeating, hypertension, heart failure, and atrial fibrillation. Add sleeping 6 to 8 hours every night to your resolution list for next year

Do these next year and you will stay away from heart problems. People who do the opposite of the things mentioned above face heart complications and diseases. So, strive not to be among those people next year. You can also consider buying a Holter monitor system online to check your heart rate and rhythm.

National Diabetes Awareness Month: Self-Care Practices for Diabetic Patients

 

November is National Diabetes Awareness Month- a month to raise awareness about diabetes. Though 10.5% of the U.S. population is diabetic, many individuals are unaware of its potential risks and have lots of misinformation about this chronic condition.

This year, individuals and healthcare professionals are teaming up to get the focus of youth who have diabetes to self-care practices. Here are some tips for youth with diabetes to avoid serious health complications and hospital visits.

Manage Blood Glucose Levels

Children and teens should take the right dose of prescribed medicines at the right time - even when they are feeling good and have achieved their blood glucose and cholesterol goals.

Adopt Healthy Habits

A healthy eating plan, getting enough sleep, and regular physical activities are imperative for individuals who have diabetes, and especially if they are taking insulin. Youth who have type-1 diabetes should always take note of their blood glucose before and after physical activities.

Be Prepared for Emergencies

A basic go-kit with medical supplies and equipment, a medication list (along with doses and dosing schedules), and a health care professional and emergency contact list, helps youth to stay prepared for emergencies.

Monitor Diabetes Complications

Early diagnosis can help reduce the risk of potential health problems, such as heart disease, nerve damage, and vision loss.

Seek Mental Health Support

Encourage youth to connect with other individuals who have diabetes to talk about their concerns and feelings about their chronic condition.

Attend Annual Eye Exams

An annual visit to an ophthalmologist can help catch early signs of retinopathy. It is a condition that causes damage to the blood vessels in the eye and eventually partial blindness or blurred vision.

Celebrate National Diabetes Awareness Month by informing individuals who have diabetes about self-care practices. Also, guide them on how to eat healthily, become more active, and monitor their heart health with an Ambulatory ECG.

Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month: How to Recognize SCA and Respond?

October is observed as Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month across the nation. According to the Heart Rhythm Society, Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) is the cause of more than 350,000 deaths every year. To bring the number down, it is important to understand what SCA is and how to respond to an SCA event.

Sudden cardiac arrest is a treatable condition that doesn’t necessarily lead to sudden death; however, most people often misunderstood it as a massive heart attack. When an individual suffers SCA, they might be fine one minute but collapse the next without any warning signs. Without immediate and proper intervention, the victim may die.

What is Sudden Cardiac Arrest?

Sudden Cardiac Arrest is a medical emergency that occurs when there is a sudden electrical malfunction. SCA causes an abrupt and unexpected loss of heart function. When the heart stops to beat entirely, the individual also experiences a sudden loss of consciousness, breathing, blood circulation to the brain, while other vital organs cease instantly. This medical situation is completely different from a heart attack, where the heart continues to beat, and only the blood supply is compromised. It is crucial to respond immediately; otherwise, the victim may suffer structural brain damage, or even death, within minutes.

What to do if you witness someone in an SCA emergency?

Given the severity of SCA, response time is crucial. You can make the difference between life and death by understanding what to do in such an emergency.

● Recognize Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) - A person suddenly loses consciousness in SCA. Also, normal breathing stops, and you see no signs of life. Instead of waiting for professional rescuers to arrive at the scene, immediately intervene as there might not be enough time. With each passing minute, the chances of survival decrease by 10%.

● Call 911 - It goes without saying - calling 911 should be your first response or better yet, ask someone else to get professional help on the way while you begin treatment.

●   Find and use the Automated External Defibrillator (AED) - If AED is immediately available, apply the electrode pads to the victim’s chest and follow the instructions as shown on diagrams on the AED. The electrical therapy will automatically shock the heart to restore the normal heart rhythm.

●Start chest compressions or CPR - If AED is not immediately available, begin chest compressions and Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

When a bystander initiates these lifesaving tasks, the victim’s survival rate increases from 10 to 50 percent.

Invest in portable EKG machines to take care of your heart during this Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month.

 

National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month

Did you know September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month? According to CDC, 19% children in the USA suffer from obesity which is worrisome. Childhood obesity has negative repercussions on the overall well-being and development of children. The condition is particularly troubling as those extra pounds often lead to the onset of serious health issues like Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and depression. Make lifestyle changes in your family to encourage your child to do the same. Eating right and exercising regularly go a long way in reducing childhood obesity. Ensure that your child gets stress EKG or the exercise stress test done, from time-to-time, to keep track of his or her heart health.

When to worry?

Not every child who is plumper than most kids of his or her age is obese. Some children may have body frames that are larger than average. It is also important to know that at different stages of development, children carry different percentages of body fat. So, just by looking at your child, you can’t reallydecipher if you need to be concerned in the first place.

Calculate his or her BMI or body mass index to get a clearer picture. BMI is the measurement of weight in comparison to height and is used to determine if a person is overweight.Your child’s doctor will probably use growth charts and other tests like the stress EKG to figure out if his/her weight falls under an unhealthy range.

Major causes for childhood obesity

With a sedentary lifestyle most families are used to, children get little physical activities. Their calorie intake often succeeds the desired level. They prefer a McDonalds burger over a bowl of veggies, video games over an hour of playing in the backyard. All this sums up in an obese child.Sometimes, hormonal or genetic factors may also be responsible for excessive weight gain among children.

Final words

Since risk factors are immense, it is of utmost importance that parents pay diligent attention to the weight of their children. Treating childhood obesity will ensure your child remains healthy now as well as the future.

Choosing your child’s doctor is also a crucial task. Always prefer a clinic that has efficient stress EKG machine,like the Nasiff CardioStress, among other things.