As we get a little older, we all become more aware of the role that heart health has to play in our life. Heart disease is one of the most common chronic health conditions around and is responsible for a huge swathe of fatalities each and every year. However, your heart health isn’t just about the heart itself, it’s also about the vascular system, the veins, and arteries that transport blood around the body. What can you do to improve that health?
Eat to improve circulation
Managing your weight through dietary changes and exercise is important. However, aside from controlling your calories to reduce your risk, you can also eat foods that improve your circulation. Foods high in antioxidants and vasodilators like nitrates can all help you improve your circulation. This can include things like pomegranates, onions, garlic, fatty fish, and leafy greens like spinach and collard greens.
Avoid tobacco if you can
Tobacco is one of the biggest risk factors when it comes to worsening your vascular health. While vaping is better for you than smoking, it’s a myth that it’s entirely risk-free. The nicotine in most vapes can be a risk factor, too. Nicotine can both weaken artery walls while also thickening blood, making it more likely to clot, which leads to heart attacks, strokes, and so on.
Be mindful of sedentary lifestyles
If you spend a lot of your time sitting, then you should make sure that you get up at least every hour to walk, stretch, and generally move around. While sedentary lifestyles have not been proven to be the killer that they were thought to be, deep vein thrombosis still remains one of the big risks of spending too much time sitting down. This is especially true in long car or plane rides, in which changes in air pressure can affect your blood pressure, too.
Should you be concerned about more visible veins?
In the vast majority of cases, your veins becoming more visible isn’t anything to worry about. It’s a fairly common side-effect of aging. However, if your veins look ropey or lose smoothness, then they could be varicose veins, which you should get looked at. Otherwise, you could seek a vascular specialist for treatments specifically to help make your veins look a little less visible. This isn’t a health concern so much as an aesthetic one for a lot of people as they get older.
Compression gear and its role
If you’re aiming to manage your blood pressure because you think you may be at risk of heart or vascular conditions, then there are some things that can lower your risk while you work towards creating a healthier lifestyle and tackling those risk factors. Compression socks are one of the most widely used examples, and they can help you improve your blood flow by decreasing the diameter of your blood vessels. This can prevent deep vein thrombosis, for instance.
If you are concerned at all about your heart health, then keep your vascular health and circulation in mind at the same time.