5 Keys To A Healthy Heart

Keep your ticker in tip-top shape with these simple tips.

- Vera Tweed

Heart disease continues to be America's leading killer, but unless it strikes close to home, most of us probably don't think about it too much. At the same time, there’s some good news: Deaths from the most common form, plaque build-up (aka coronary artery disease), have been decreasing in the last decade. But there’s a lot more we can do to protect ourselves. Perhaps surprisingly, some of the biggest heart-healthy benefits come from these simple lifestyle changes and heart-smart supplements.

Get More Oxygen

It’s no secret that smoking, high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol, and diabetes increase the odds of heart disease, but the American Heart Association has concluded that there’s “a potentially stronger predictor.” Called “cardiorespiratory fitness,” it’s all about our ability to use oxygen.

When we breathe air into our lungs, oxygen gets absorbed into blood, transported to the heart, and pumped through arteries to various organs and muscles. How well that process works, and how efficiently the muscles absorb and use oxygen, determines our cardio respiratory fitness. Exercise that makes the heart pump harder is the chief way to improve and maintain this type of fitness, but as we get older, the process can get sidelined if we aren’t able to produce enough nitric oxide, a gas that dilates blood vessels and enhances blood flow and oxygen transport.