7 Ways to Improve Your Heart Health

If you’re among the millions of Americans who made a New Year’s resolution to lose weight, exercise or eat better, here’s one more reason to stick with it: Doing so can protect your heart.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. And habits like smoking, poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle can lay the groundwork for disease long before symptoms appear. These habits “won’t kill you the next day,” but they may dictate how well you live in the last decades of your life, said Dr. Kyla Lara-Breitinger, a cardiologist and an assistant professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

“If you say you’re going to be hiking in the Dolomites at your retirement, what are you doing now to prepare?” she said.

First, take stock of where you are.

Doctors can use your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels to predict your risk for heart disease and suggest possible treatments. So start by visiting your primary care physician to get your numbers checked, said Dr. Sadiya Khan, a preventive cardiologist at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.

A visit with your primary care doctor also offers an opportunity to talk about your health goals. You can discuss what might be getting in the way of meeting them — and map out a path for change.

“It can feel overwhelming if you’re trying to do all of it at once,” Dr. Khan said. But you can talk to your doctor about starting with what’s easiest, or what changes would make the biggest difference.

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