Ways to keep your heart and brain healthy
What’s good for the heart is good for the brain to prevent things like dementia and support your mental health
Simple things you can do to help your heart stay healthy
Even small changes to your daily routine can help your heart and circulation. These could include:
- being a little more active
- making small changes to what you eat
- drinking a little less alcohol
- stopping smoking
- taking some time to de-stress
Over time, all the small changes you make add together and make a big difference to your heart health - walking for just 30 minutes five times a week can reduce you blood pressure by ten points.
Know your numbers
Checking your blood pressure regularly is important for knowing how healthy your heart is, and you can see what’s happening over time. When you have your blood pressure checked, the result comes as two numbers, a top number and a bottom. To know what the results of your blood pressure check mean for you, you need to understand the numbers.
Find out how to interpret your blood pressure result.
If you’re getting consistently high results, you should take some action to get your blood pressure lower, and you may want to raise the issue with your GP.
Eating Well
Eating well is important for both mind and body, and helps your heart stay healthy.
Eating well means enjoying your food and having plenty of variety in your diet so you get all the nutrients you need and maintain a healthy weight.
The Eatwell guide shows how much of what you eat overall should come from each food group.
It’s never too late to start eating healthily. A healthy diet doesn’t have to be dull or costly, and it doesn’t mean you have to give up the less healthy things you enjoy – it just means eating them in moderation and as part of a balanced diet.
Grow to Give recipe cards.
Grow it, Cook it, Eat it.
Bucks Online Directory
Stopping smoking
Smoking damages the heart and blood vessels and can cause heart attacks or strokes.
Most smokers who stop smoking will experience a quick recovery, even long-time smokers can see rapid health improvements when they quit.
Within a year, heart attack risk drops dramatically. Within five years, most smokers cut their risk of stroke to nearly that of a non-smoker.
Even a few cigarettes now and then damage the heart, so the only way to keep your heart safe from the effects of smoking is to stop altogether.
In Buckinghamshire we offer personal support to see you through quitting via our Be Healthy Bucks programme which has already helped over 1,600 Bucks residents to stop smoking.
What does smoking do to my heart and circulatory system?
Illegal tobacco.
Keeping active
It’s well-known that exercise is good for your health. When it comes to your heart, it can reduce your risk of heart and circulatory diseases by up to 35%.
Exercise and heart health.
There are so many ways of keeping active, from taking up a sport right through to informal activities such as going out for a walk or gardening – it’s entirely up to you.
Where to find a community garden.
If you want the support of others, then joining in group exercise classes or other group physical activities could be for you. Not only is the exercise good for your heart, there’s a social side too that can help boost your mental wellbeing.
Get Active is a service specifically for Buckinghamshire that aims to help you to be more active by letting you search for activities near you.
Find other ways to keep healthy.
Bucks Online Directory
Learning to relax
