Heart disease doesn’t typically strike overnight. In most cases, it develops gradually over many years. Many cardiologists will tell you that heart disease is the result of small choices you make day to day that don’t seem harmful in the moment.
It’s common knowledge what to watch out for, generally speaking. Cigarettes, fatty foods, bad habits. But some of the worst choices we make for our hearts are ones we don’t even think about.
Tiny daily routines, shortcuts, or activities that we think are normal can be harming your heart without you even realizing it.
The best part is that these are habits you can kick once you know what you are looking for. Here are 10 slip-ups cardiologists say may be harming your heart.
Sitting
Imagine your blood flow is like a stream coming down a mountain. When it flows, everything is clean and works well. If the water were to stagnate for hours, it would become dirty.
Sitting at a desk all day is like building a dam in that stream. You may think going hard at the gym afterwards will rebuild it, but the sludge of inflammation and fatty acids will already be building up in your arteries.
Small constant movement is how you keep that stream cleansed and your heart healthy.
Ignoring gum health and dental care
Who would’ve thought flossing benefits your heart? Your mouth is like the portal into your entire body.
If your gums are red or bleeding, they are essentially open wounds. This allows bacteria to enter your bloodstream and travel to your heart, causing damage and inflammation (yes, that is what clogs your arteries).
Dental hygiene doesn’t just help you have a nice smile. It helps you keep your heart’s front door locked.
Living with constant loneliness or social isolation
Loneliness doesn’t just hurt your mental health. It’s also associated with heart disease.
Lonely people tend to have higher blood pressure and greater inflammation. The hazards loneliness presents to the heart are on par with those of not getting enough exercise, research indicates.
Maintaining close relationships is one of the easiest ways to keep your stress hormones at bay and your blood vessels healthy.
Letting stress stay high all day
Episodic stress is OK. Chronic stress throughout the day isn’t.
When you’re stressed from morning to night, your blood pressure stays high, and your body’s hormones constrict your arteries. The result is your heart has to work harder over time, and you become more susceptible to heart disease.
To keep your arteries in good shape, try incorporating short, stress-relieving breaks.
Being a night owl for years
You’re a night owl. And it’s never been a problem until now.
Not getting enough sleep at night could be harming your heart without you even knowing it. If you’re awake when you should be asleep, your heart doesn’t get a chance to recover. The usual nightly drop in blood pressure doesn’t happen, and stress hormones stay active.
Studies link night owls like yourself to higher risks for heart attack and stroke. You may think your sleep schedule isn’t a big deal, but it actually can be detrimental to your health.
No Daylight
Sunlight isn’t just good for your mood, it’s good for your heart too.
Working indoors all day is actually damaging to your heart health. The sun’s rays help keep your internal clock ticking smoothly, impacting blood pressure, sleep, and how your body processes food.
If you aren’t exposed to sunlight frequently, your cycle becomes off balance and your heart works harder than it needs to.
Go outside for a few minutes in the morning. Exposing yourself to a few minutes of sunlight in the morning helps kickstart your body into its awake mode. Sunlight helps blood vessels dilate and relax.
Irregular sleep patterns
Continually changing when you go to bed can stress your heart. Varying your bedtime can disrupt your body’s internal clock. Because your internal clock manages blood pressure and metabolism, messing with it forces your body to work harder.
Studies show that frequently changing your bedtime by even a few hours can gradually lead to stiffening of the arteries.
While it’s important to get enough sleep each night, it’s also important to sleep around the same time each night. Give your heart a chance to get into a healthy rhythm by keeping your bedtime consistent.
Overusing over-the-counter painkillers
Don’t let the fact that it’s over-the-counter fool you into thinking it’s safe for your heart. There’s a direct correlation between high doses of NSAIDs and increased risk of heart attack.
They raise your blood pressure, and have even been shown to cause blood clots by altering vascular response. If you pop ibuprofen like candy, you are taxing your cardiovascular system greatly.
Stop bandaging your symptoms. Start defending your pump.
Relying heavily on ultra-processed healthy snacks
Once upon a time, a snack was an apple or a handful of nuts.
Nowadays, we engineer snacks. Take some great whole foods, deplete them, and pump them full of chemicals so they’ll sit on the shelf until needed and taste like “something.”
Your heart is old, and it likes simple fuels. It really struggles with the weird mix of additives and sneaky sugars in those snack bars and shakes.
This isn’t just a fleeting fad; it’s giving your heart exactly what it needs, in its most basic form.
Ignoring environmental air quality
A healthy heart just can’t thrive when the air around you is dirty.
Tiny toxic particles called fine particulate matter (PM2.5) get deep into your lungs and into your bloodstream, where they cause an inflammatory fire in your arteries.
Long-term exposure to poor air quality has been linked to heart failure and stroke.
If you’re not paying attention to the air quality where you live, work, and play, you’re ignoring one of the biggest risks to your heart. Let’s stop treating pollution like it’s something that only happens outside.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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