The Best Things You Can Do for Your Heart

Another great way to help your heart is by getting off the couch and doing something — really, anything — to stimulate your heart muscle. Even just walking for half an hour five times a week can have a positive effect on your heart. Exercise can not only help you lose weight, but it can also improve your cholesterol and lower your blood pressure. A sedentary lifestyle — where your job and your leisure activities involve little or no physical activity — may double your risk of dying from heart disease. This is similar to the increased risk you would have if you smoked! Exercise works by helping your heart muscle become more efficient. The more you do, the better your heart is able to pump blood throughout your body. Exercise also increases your levels of HDL, or the "good," cholesterol that lowers heart disease risk. It works by flushing the artery-clogging LDL, or "bad," cholesterol out of your system.