In this article, we look at which habits can affect heart health and what you can change in everyday life.
Important: if chest pain or pressure comes on suddenly or gets worse, if shortness of breath appears at rest, or if you faint, seek medical help immediately. In situations like these, don’t wait for a scheduled appointment.
Too much time without movement
For your heart, it matters not only whether you train, but how the rest of your day goes.
Someone might spend an hour at the gym and then another eight hours at a computer. That doesn’t cancel out the benefit of exercise, but long periods of sitting still remain a separate part of your lifestyle.
Rather than waiting until the evening to try to make up for a sedentary day with a workout, it helps to add movement throughout the day. For example, you can take a walk after a meal, use the stairs, do a short stretch between tasks, or walk part of your route.
For adults, the American Heart Association recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity. If you’re not moving much right now, you can start small and build up gradually.
Not enough sleep and a shifting schedule
A lack of sleep is often seen as a problem of focus and mood, but sleep is also linked to cardiovascular health.
Most adults need about 7 to 9 hours of sleep. Regular sleep times are important too. Going to bed and waking up at very different times each day does not help your body recover well.
Instead of trying to catch up on sleep only during the weekends, it is more helpful to keep your bedtime and wake-up times about the same each day, if you can.
The salt you don’t notice
If you rarely reach for the salt shaker, that doesn’t necessarily mean your diet is low in salt.
A significant share of sodium comes from ready-made and restaurant food. Sauces, cold cuts, cheese, bread, convenience meals, snacks and other products that don’t always taste particularly salty can all contribute.
Too much sodium can raise your blood pressure, especially if you are sensitive to salt. So it helps to watch not just the salt you add, but also the salt in foods you eat often.
The habit of not measuring your blood pressure
High blood pressure can go without noticeable symptoms for a long time. The absence of headaches or other unpleasant sensations doesn’t, on its own, mean your pressure is normal.
The only way to know your numbers is to measure them. One elevated reading isn’t enough for a diagnosis: hypertension is confirmed by repeated correct measurements, considered alongside other factors.
If your blood pressure stays high when you measure it several times, do not just assume it is because of stress, the weather, or coffee. It is better to talk about your results with a doctor.
“Healthy” eating that turns out to be monotonous
Looking after your heart doesn’t have to mean a strict diet.
What matters far more is the overall structure of your eating: vegetables and fruit, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, protein sources and mostly unsaturated fats. This matches current recommendations for cardiovascular health.
You do not have to make eating a list of things you cannot have. You can still enjoy your favorite foods, but try to choose less processed options more often and watch the amount of salt, added sugar, and saturated fat.
Not knowing your numbers
Some indicators can’t be judged by how you feel.
For example, raised cholesterol and glucose levels can go without noticeable symptoms for a long time. Yet disorders of lipid and carbohydrate metabolism are linked to higher cardiovascular risk.
That’s why it’s important to know your key numbers and discuss them with a doctor, taking your age, family history and other risk factors into account. Depending on the situation, the doctor may recommend monitoring your lipid profile, glucose or other indicators.
Living in constant tension
Removing stress from life completely isn’t possible, and stress on its own doesn’t mean a person will inevitably develop heart problems.
What matters more is what ongoing stress leads to. You might sleep less, move less, change your eating habits, or start using coffee, alcohol, or nicotine to cope.
Caring for your heart is not just about trying to worry less. It is often more helpful to focus on what you can change, like improving your sleep, moving more, cutting back on nicotine, eating regular meals, and making time to rest.
Waiting for symptoms before you check your health
There’s one more habit that’s easy to underestimate: seeing a doctor only when things get really bad.
Some important indicators simply can’t be judged by how you feel. High blood pressure and elevated cholesterol, for instance, often develop without noticeable symptoms.
Reasons to discuss your condition with a cardiologist can include a recurring sensation of palpitations or skipped beats, unusual shortness of breath, dizziness, fainting, chest pain or discomfort, and a noticeable drop in your tolerance for everyday physical activity.
Not every symptom like this is always caused by heart problems, since there can be different reasons. But if these symptoms keep coming back, get worse, or happen during physical activity, do not just assume they are from being tired or stressed.
To assess your condition, a doctor may order an ECG, a heart ultrasound, lab tests or longer-term rhythm monitoring. Holter monitoring, for example, records the heart’s activity over an extended period and can be useful when a standard ECG doesn’t catch an episode of rhythm disturbance.
You can read more about what a 24-hour Holter shows and who might need one in our separate article: “Holter Monitoring: Who Needs a 24-Hour Cardiac Recording?”.
Assuming heart problems only come with age
Cardiovascular disease is indeed more common in adulthood, but heart issues can also appear in children. Some conditions are congenital, and rhythm disturbances can show up in childhood and adolescence.
A child isn’t always able to explain exactly what’s bothering them. So it’s worth parents paying attention to unusual shortness of breath or heavy fatigue during physical activity, dizziness, loss of consciousness, a sense of a strong or irregular heartbeat, and recurring chest pain or discomfort.
Such symptoms don’t necessarily mean heart disease, but they are worth discussing with a doctor, especially if they repeat or appear during exertion.
Silk Medical has a pediatric cardiologist on staff. Depending on the complaints and examination findings, the doctor will decide whether additional studies are needed, including a heart ultrasound.
Checking the heart comprehensively
Sometimes what you need isn’t a single test, but a fuller assessment of cardiovascular health. In that case, you can take a cardiology check-up: the doctor evaluates the state of the heart, key indicators, and, if needed, orders further investigations.
Silk Medical offers several cardiology check-up programs:
- Standard — cardiologist consultation, ECG, echocardiography, lab tests and a follow-up consultation.
- Maxi — an extended program with cardiologist consultations, ECG, echocardiography, lab tests, brachiocephalic vessel Doppler ultrasound and other investigations. Holter monitoring of the ECG or blood pressure is added if clinically indicated.
- Arrhythmia diagnostics — cardiologist consultation, ECG, echocardiography, lab tests and Holter ECG monitoring.
- Chest pain diagnostics — cardiologist consultation, ECG, echocardiography and the necessary lab tests.
The choice of program depends on your symptoms, age, risk factors, and any previous test results. You do not need to do everything at once. The cardiologist will decide which tests are needed for you.
What can you do today?
Caring for your heart doesn’t have to start with a long list of changes. You can begin with a few simple things:
- add more movement across the working day;
- aim for a consistent sleep schedule;
- pay attention to the amount of salt in ready-made products;
- measure your blood pressure from time to time;
- know your cholesterol and glucose numbers;
- don’t use nicotine as a routine way to handle stress;
- don’t put off a consultation if recurring or unusual symptoms appear.
Good heart health does not come from just one perfect habit. It is the result of many daily choices. If you notice a change in how you feel, do not try to figure out the cause by yourself. A doctor can help you decide if you just need to watch and wait or if more tests are needed.
At Silk Medical, you can see a cardiologist or a pediatric cardiologist and have a heart ultrasound, an ECG, Holter monitoring, and other necessary studies as indicated. That makes it possible to tailor diagnostics to your specific complaints, age, and risk factors.
