We may think that the older we get the more important it is to make sure that we are taking care of our hearts. Well this is true, we shouldn’t wait until we are already older to to do this. Finding a doctor that we trust and can stay with daughter lives is important to maintaining our health. There are a lot of questions to ask a cardiologist regarding the heart and if you don’t have a good relationship with your medical specialist and maybe time to find a doctor that you can begin to build a rapport with. Among all of the questions to ask a cardiologist, you should be inquiring about how to take charge of your own heart health and avoid even preventative medicine. Here are a few ideas of things you can do to take care of your heart and live a heart healthy lifestyle.

Yearly check ups
The importance of routine check ups cannot be underestimated. Every year you should schedule a check up to have everything regarding your heart health looked at. This includes blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels. One of the questions to ask a cardiologist is how to reach or maintain a healthy weight.

Get active
It doesn’t matter if you’re just walking for 30 minutes a day or getting a full on workout in at the gym several days a week, anything is better than nothing. If you do know exercise at this point in time than you should begin by simply stepping or jogging in place for 10 to 15 minutes a day while you’re watching TV. Each week increase your activity by five minutes until you were getting the recommended 30 minutes a day. When you feel comfortable, take your exercise into the outdoors to get some fresh air as well.

Drink water
Water keeps you hydrated and helps to maintain weight. While these things are good for your heart, they are also great for the rest of your body. Water can help pretty much every organ and tissue in your body including your brain. It keeps your blood oxygenated and pumping smoothly so that your heart doesn’t have to work too hard.

Eat well
You’ve heard it before: you are what you eat. Put that in terms of your heart. Do you want your heart to be fast food and sugar? Probably not in the best way to go about this is to read your home of unhealthy snacks. Replacing them with fruit and vegetables and whole grains snacks will force you to eat better.

Quit salt
Salt can higher your blood pressure so if you want to maintain a low blood pressure then you’ll need to be careful about your salt intake. Salt includes anything with “sodium” in the name.

Quit smoking
Smoking not only damages your lungs but it reeks havoc on your heart as well as the oxygen in your blood vessels. This causes your heart to have to working overtime cutting down its lifespan. Of course, quitting smoking is not as easy as it sounds and will be a process that may take you several weeks but if you are determined to live a heart healthy lifestyle this is something you will have to do. Another of the questions to ask a cardiologist is the best way for you to quit smoking. They may have connections to meetings you can attend or sponsors that can help you.

Maintain weight
If you are not yet at a healthy weight then talk to your doctor about how to get to that point and how to achieve a steady weight in order to decrease your risk of heart disease, stroke as well as diabetes. Eating healthy and exercising of the best ways to maintain a healthy weight once you have reached your goal.

Think positive
The process is not going to be perfect. You may not have time to exercise one day or perhaps a stressful day will induce a cigarette or you’ll comfort eat fattening meal. When you fall off the wagon, stay positive and get back on. One cigarette or fattening meal is not going to cause too much damage just like foregoing one cigarette or fattening meal would give you a healthy heart. The progress comes in consistency and making a lifestyle of it.