Safeguard your heart and your mood!

Keeping blood vessels flexible boosts circulation to cut heart trouble risk by 66%. But by delivering oxygen-rich blood to tissues, removing wastes and increasing levels of happiness-boosting brain chemicals, supple vessels also safeguard your mood.

- Melissa Gotthardt

In fact, Swedish research found when blood vessels expand and contract correctly, depression risk drops by 35%. And while vessels can become up to 50% less elastic as we get older, these tips help reverse that process

Go a little bit nuts!

Snacking on a handful of walnuts or mixing them into salads, oatmeal or muffins does more than add flavor and crunch: Enjoying 8 to 13 walnuts daily makes vessels 74% more elastic in four weeks. That’s the word from Spanish experts, who explain that walnuts’ fiber and friendly fatty acids combat stiffening by keeping cholesterol from clinging to vessel walls. Not fond of walnuts? Research conducted at West Virginia University reveals that enjoying a handful of almonds delivers similar results.

Stroll the county fair