Manage Stress for Your Heart Health (National Heart Month)

Courtesy Image from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Reducing stress can reduce high blood pressure. High blood pressure makes your heart work harder to pump blood and it accelerates the nervous system due to too much stress. It causes heart palpitations, shortness of breathability, and headaches can occur. Yet, controlling your stress can reduce fast heart palpitations. Fast heart palpitations feel like your heart is going to come out of your body because of the elevated level of stress.

Fast heart palpitations can occur in tense situations such as having a loved one in the hospital, a car accident, a train accident, or a natural disaster event. These fast heart palpitations are like looking at someone that you like a lot and cannot be controlled due to the active nervous system. However, when you like someone a lot and you do get heart palpitations, it is just a temporary feeling and not an everyday occurrence. Nonetheless, fast palpitations due to stressful situations can affect your daily routine and make it difficult to manage your nervous system. Therefore, reducing your high blood pressure with relaxation techniques and with a prescribed high blood pressure medication can manage fast heart palpitations.

Your doctor can prescribe a high blood pressure medication based on your specific health needs. Understanding systolic and diastolic for your blood pressure can help you read your blood pressure readings. When you are diagnosed with high blood pressure, your doctor recommends checking your blood pressure with a blood pressure monitor. In addition to the comprehension of systolic and diastolic, you need to learn about your pulse rate. Systolic blood pressure is the measurement of the energy that is produced to make the heart beats while the Diastolic blood pressure measures the energy between the heart beats.

The energy between the heart beats is when your heart rests before making the next heart beats. Whereas the pulse rate is the difference between the Systolic and Diastolic blood pressure measurements. The pulse rate is the number of times that your heart beats in a minute. You can find the Systolic by reading the top number of your blood pressure and the Diastolic is the bottom number of your blood pressure. Therefore, it is recommended to check your blood pressure twice a day. 

Consult with your doctor regarding your blood pressure medication and your blood pressure measurements. Practice relaxation techniques such as mindfulness, yoga, breathing exercises, walking, swimming, jogging, cycling, Zumba, gardening, and other relaxing activities. Doing self-care activities can also help lower your blood pressure. An effortless way to help you relax is by doing walking meditations in your garden, indoors, or in a place where you feel comfortable. Avoid too much worrying, negative thoughts, and overthinking to lower your blood pressure.

Yoga poses are also recommended to help you relax such as the Chair pose, Tree pose, Mountain pose, Stick pose, Cat pose, Butterfly pose, Dolphin pose, and other poses. However, if you want to exercise at a faster pace, you can practice Zumba which incorporates aerobics and dance postures. Yet, before trying Yoga, Zumba, or other exercises, always consult with your primary doctor. If you struggle with worrying too much about your loved ones, finances, or other personal issues; It is best to speak to a therapist to help you manage your thoughts and stress levels. Also, journaling and keeping yourself busy with activities might help you from overthinking to reduce your stress.

Each year in February is National Heart Month. Dedicate some time to managing your stress for your heart health so you can sleep better, lower your blood pressure, and take care of yourself. Additionally, you can post resources on social media for bringing awareness of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and other heart health topics. Use the hashtag # Our Hearts to post information about National Heart Month. Find ways to control your stress for your heart health, wear red for heart health awareness, and donate for more heart research.

Meditating, eating healthy, and reducing caffeine also helps to lower your blood pressure. Limit your caffeine to one caffeine drink per day or select caffeine-free beverages. As well as drinking decaf can help lower your blood pressure. Your doctor might recommend changing your food diet to a low sodium or a sodium free diet. Here are resources for National Heart Month. 

Ways to Give, Make a Donation-American Heart Association:

Ways to Give | Make a Donation | American Heart Association

5 Things to Do Every Day to Keep Your Heart Healthy-Cleaveland Clinic:

5 Things to Do Every Day to Keep Your Heart Healthy (clevelandclinic.org)

Blood Pressure Matters-National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute News in Health:

Blood Pressure Matters | NIH News in Health

* Courtesy Image from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute:

Cardi-O Heart Character Series | NHLBI, NIH