Life can feel more complicated than it needs to. We’ve all experienced our fair share of unexpected stressors in these past two years, so it seems like a good time to regroup and create some simple steps for maintaining optimal health. There are various aspects of health and wellness, including attending to our emotional states as we navigate life. Our unique seat at the healthcare table provides us with a particular lens for the cardiovascular system. This is the part of the body involved in delivering oxygenated blood to all organs. A healthy heart and vascular system ensure that blood reaches peripheral areas like the hands and feet. It helps us to enjoy regulated body temperature, and it also filters CO2 from the blood. These are no small tasks, but they are tasks that we rarely think about, if ever. When it comes right down to it, we don’t have to know exactly what the cardiovascular system does. We just need to know that it is critical to ongoing health, and we need to know how to support it. Here, we discuss the simplest suggestions we know.
Sleep
You may have heard that sleep is important for overall health and wellness. Most people are aware of this. That doesn’t mean we all take action to make our sleep a priority. So many things come before it, including our work projects, families, friends, school, and even our worries about the future. According to multiple studies, if we want the longest and best future, we must take sleep off the backburner and make it a daily habit just like eating well and exercising. Most people need 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night to allow their bodies to fully recover from the day, right down to tissue repair.
Physical Activity
The heart pumps blood through the vascular system all day every day. When we exercise, the rate at which blood travels through the body quickens. As a result, the heart, arteries, and veins can remain stronger than they would otherwise. Exercise like walking and biking, which require us to contract the muscles in the lower legs, can be a preventative practice that reduces the risk of venous insufficiency, the condition behind varicose veins. When we shift our perspective on exercise from activities to lose weight and get fit to a practice in health and wellness, we may feel more motivated to do a little something every day.
Stress Management
Clinical research into heart disease, stroke, and other vascular conditions has been clear about one thing, stress is a major risk factor. Unmanaged stress isn’t only a psychological problem, it can have a massive impact on physical health. We cannot eliminate stressors from our lives, but we can develop the skills that will help us navigate them more efficiently. Experts suggest meditation, which can be done through guided practices online or on a smartphone. Yoga, walking in nature, gardening, and other creative hobbies are also proven to help reduce stress.
The cardiovascular system doesn’t require us to do much that we wouldn’t already do for general health and wellness. If problems do develop, we are here to help address them. To schedule a visit at Minimally Invasive Vascular Center in Laurel, MD, contact us at (855) 803-MIVC (6482).