How Can I Support My Heart?

Your heart is at the centre of all you do. A muscle about the size of your fist, your heart sits in the middle of your chest, slightly to the left. It pumps blood around your body as it beats, circulating oxygen and nutrients and carrying away waste products and carbon dioxide.

Having a strong and healthy heart can help you live a healthy life, and support general health and wellbeing, and there are steps you can take to maintain your heart health. These include having regular heart health checks with your doctor and perhaps even taking vitamins, minerals, or nutrients aimed at supporting your heart health. Heart health is something you can work on every day, but it doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming.

Factors that Challenge Your Heart Health

There are several lifestyle factors that can challenge your heart health and the way your heart functions, including:

• exercise (or a lack of exercise)

• what you eat in your daily diet (including excessive saturated fats, trans fatty acids, and a lack of omega-3 fatty acids)

• smoking

We’ll take a look below at what you can do to improve your heart health, but first, it’s important to have an understanding of just how healthy your heart is.

The Importance of Regular Heart Checks

If you’re over 45 (or over 30 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples), it’s recommended you see your doctor for a heart health check. That check will allow your doctor to check your:

• blood pressure

• cholesterol

• diet

• exercise

• family and medical history

You and your doctor can then discuss what you might be able to do to maintain or improve your heart health and manage any risk factors. Men need to take particular care and consider following a healthy diet, exercising regularly and taking multivitamins, magnesium, vitamin K2, fish oil or coenzyme Q10.

Always read the label and follow the directions for use.

How to Support Your Heart Health

There are several ways you can keep your heart healthy with the choices you make each day.

Exercise

Exercising regularly reduces your risk of developing heart disease by helping to reduce blood pressure and cholesterol and keeping your weight in the healthy range. Any movement is better than no movement, so if you’re just starting out, take it slow and build up your exercise over time. 

Diet

Eating a consistently healthy diet with plenty of variety can help strengthen your heart. That means a diet that is low in saturated and trans fats, salt and added sugar, and high in wholegrains, fibre, antioxidants and unsaturated fats. 

Smoking

Smoking damages your blood vessels, which makes you four times more likely to die of a heart attack than a non-smoker. Quitting smoking can reduce that risk straight away. It’s not easy, but there is help available, and it’s worth it for your heart health.

Vitamins and Supplements

CoQ10 is a great antioxidant that maintains and supports heart health and the vessels around the heart.

Omega-3s are also beneficial for their anti-inflammatory properties. It’s a good idea to look for omega-3s that contain EPA fatty acids, which support heart health and help maintain healthy blood lipids.

Vitamin K is another supplement that may support heart health, since vitamin K2 is essential for K-dependent proteins, including Matrix GLA Protein (MGP). MGP inhibits Calcium mineralisation of the arteries and blood vessels, to help maintain blood vessel health.

Always read the label and follow the directions for use.

Daily Heart Maintenance

Taking care of your heart is important – and it’s a practice you can easily build into your daily general health and wellbeing management. It’s as easy as ensuring you’re active, eating a balanced and healthy diet, not smoking, and taking health supplements if you need them, with the assistance of your health care professional.

Always read the label and follow the directions for use. 

Want to learn more about taking care of your heart? Visit our heart health page for products to support your heart health.