It may be an age old symbol of emotion, but everyone knows that the human heart is really nothing more than a pump. Or is it? New research suggests a direct link between your state of mind and the state of your heart. Here’s how to keep it ticking happily.

You’ve seen it on TV. A hospital humming with urgent activity, the echo of footsteps on shiny floors, a roomful of white coated figures, and an unbroken note that pierces the air. A flurry of gloves, a jolt of electrical energy, and the note shifts into a regular, rhythmic pattern. The human heart, pulsing back into life.

But the industrious organ that shepherds your blood and its vital cargo of oxygen through the body is also an age old symbol of emotion. Be it aching or breaking or brimming with love, the heart has always overruled the brain as the supposed wellspring of the way we feel.

As it turns out, this may not be such a fanciful notion. A growing body of clinical research seems to confirm what poets and songwriters have long proclaimed. There’s a real and direct link between our hearts and our minds. Or to put it in the language of the white coated figure; psychosocial factors may present stronger risks for acute myocardial infarction than diabetes, smoking, hypertension and obesity. Which means that stress at work or home, along with your perceived ability to cope with life, can significantly increase your risk of heart disease. The mortality rate in heart failure patients with major depression is two and a half times higher than in heart patients without depression.

Yet, depression in heart failure patients often goes undiagnosed. This is partly because of the overlap in the symptoms of the two conditions (among them: fatigue, loss of energy, poor appetite, and sleep disturbance) and partly because many patients see depression as a character weakness or personality flaw, when it’s really a common clinical condition that affects as many as one out of five patients with heart disease.

It is here that the big question of cause and effect comes to mind. Is depression a natural consequence of the life changing impact of heart failure? Or is heart failure a likely outcome of the physical effects of depression? The answer, in both cases, is yes. If you’re depressed or anxious, you are more likely to develop a cardiovascular problem. How, exactly?

A heart attack is cause by a blocked blood vessel to the heart and depression is one of the known contributors to the development of such a blockage. Inside the blood vessels we find the lumen, where the blood is able to flow. Factors such as smoking, high cholesterol and depression can cause fatty deposits to accumulate on the wall, forming a plaque that juts into the lumen. If this plaque becomes damaged or ruptured, your body’s repair system shoots to the rescue, building a blood clot to patch up the gash.

But the clot also seals off the artery’s lumen, blocking the blood flow and leading to possible bypass surgery. Depression is a risk factor for heart disease, but heart disease is also a cause of depression. When your heart is heavy, you may lose your natural inclination to get out and get active, and you’re more likely to drink and smoke and eat the wrong things. Heart failure patients should be screened for depression and treated when depression is found to be present. This may help to improve the patient’s quality of life, and potentially improve long term outcomes.

But it’s not only all up to the doctors. We all need to learn how to make our hearts happy. The heart is an easy organ to please. It all begins with proper exercise and nutrition. Nobody can change their family history, but we can all do something about the foods we eat and the activities we do.

A healthy diet consists of the four essentials: Fats, Fiber, Fruit and Vegetables.

Your body doesn’t need a lot of fat to stay healthy, so try to keep your fat intake low. Fiber is a must because it lowers your cholesterol and fills you up so you eat less. Physical activity is equally important. It boosts your circulation, reduces stress levels and stimulates the release of happy hormones or endorphins. Even if you have a heart condition, exercise can help you get back on track.

Goal number one? Do whatever it takes to keep your heart happy. Love your body. Live your life. And above all, never lose heart.

Submitted By: Sandra Prior

It is quite common for one to hear about all of the reasons that you should exercise. You typically hear that it is good for your health or can help us to lose unwanted pounds. But, these reasons are a bit vague for those of us who are a bit more scientifically minded.

Specifically, what positive effects does exercise have on the heart? Sure, you know that working out, walking, biking, swimming, and related exercises are good for your heart. But, you may find yourself wanting more facts and details about exercise's effect on the heart.

If you are wondering about exercise's effect on your heart, here are 10 ways exercise helps your heart:

1. Helps you lose weight, which means less strain on your heart muscle:
Working out - especially engaging in cardiovascular exercise - burns calories. Over time, along with the proper diet, this has the effect of helping you to lose noticeable amounts of weight. And as the weight comes off, your heart has to work less hard to pump blood through your circulatory system.

2. Strengthens your heart:
Your heart is a muscle. And, by elevating your heart rate to about 60-80% of your target maximum heart rate for at least 20 minutes per day, you can strengthen that muscle significantly.

3. Reduces bad (LDL) cholesterol:
Working out can reduce the amount of LDL cholesterol in your blood. This is the kind that, if it goes unchecked, can lead to the buildup of plaque and hardening of the arteries. In turn, these problems are the main causes of both heart attacks and stroke. Having less than 100 mg/dL of LDL in your blood is optimal.

4. Increases in good (HDL) cholesterol:
Having higher HDL cholesterol levels is also a common result of exercise. Higher HDL can provide some protection against heart disease. An HDL cholesterol of 60 mg/dL or higher is desirable.

5. Lowers your blood pressure:
Blood pressure is simply the pressure that the blood exerts on the walls of your blood vessels. Having high blood pressure puts you at risk for heart attack because it can result in the restriction of oxygen flow to the heart, leading possibly to angina or a heart attack. Exercise can bring down your blood pressure to reasonable or even optimal levels.

6. Improves sleep, which gives your heart more chance to rest:
Studies have shown that working out regularly can help you get more sleep at night. Getting enough sleep is an important way to allow the entire body, including the heart, to get the renewal it needs each night.

7. Increases your energy level:
Anybody who works out regularly will tell you how good they feel when they do. This is due to an overall increase in the body's energy levels. When you have more energy, your heart does not need to work nearly as hard.

8. Strengthens your muscles:
Lifting weights or doing other forms of resistance training greatly strengthens your muscles. With stronger muscles, you are able to perform physical tasks more easily, which puts less strain on your heart.

9. Improves endurance:
The more you exercise, the longer you will be able to endure any particular strain on the body, from extreme physical exertion to daily moving about home, office, or town. Better endurance means the less hard your heart has to work.

10. Boosts self-image and self-esteem:
The heart responds to psychological and emotional stimuli, as well as to the physical. By exercising, you will start to look and feel more fit, which leads to improved self-esteem and often to more rewarding social interactions. This, in turn, will make you feel happier - a key ingredient to a healthy heart.

Take these 10 positive exercise effects on the heart into account as you find ways to work exercise into your daily routine.

Submitted By: Everett Maclachlan

Exercising for at least 30 minutes everyday is great for your health! You may have heard or read about this phrase more than once before and on many occasions while looking for health related help. Where you encountered these golden words of wisdom is not really the big deal, but knowing their importance is. 

I refer to them as words of wisdom first, because they are true and secondly because if you act on them they will change your life. We have heard or read time and time again that daily exercises when added to healthy eating can be the difference between spending our hard earned finances to pay for hospital bills and going on our favorite well deserved vacations.

To understand why exercising daily is a crucial part of a healthy lifestyle in the modern world; we need to understand how the human heart functions. This is not to scare you, I am not about to tire you with hard to understand terminology, but rather layman’s reader digest version. We all know that a normal adult human heart rate is around 72 beats per minute.

Of course this will vary depending on what the person is doing at any given time, for example the heart rate will drop significantly when one is asleep and rise beyond 72 when a person is working. Other factors such as stress, body weight or sickness may also cause the heart rate to rise. As I said before, I am going to restrict this explanation to exercising or involving in your favorite recreational sport.

The increase or decrease in heart rate - assuming all other factors are kept constant, will dictate the amount of energy the heart will require to pump sufficient blood to all parts of the body. Remember the body systems need oxygen in order to accomplish their particular functions. The heart on the other hand needs energy as well, but is usually self sufficient as long as one is not extremely starving. 

By the way if you do not know, the heart is made up of muscles. These muscles depending on their strength, determine how much blood goes out of the heart to rest of the body. It therefore means a heart with stronger muscles pumps more blood than a weaker one. Also remember it does not matter whether you are sleeping, sitting in your living room or doing recreational running, a heart beat is a heart beat. What this means is, we can only manipulate the heart rate but not the type of heart beat.

What makes a strong heart? Well literally speaking, stronger heart muscles. This sounds easier than done, but with determination it can surely be done. I am not talking of surgical procedures, I am talking of exercising. 

When you exercise or engage in any of your favorite recreational sport such as walking, jogging, swimming, running among others daily, you are actually pushing or training your heart to work harder. A word of caution, do not be tempted to start and accomplish everything in one day if you are beginner, take one step at a time. You can read more about this in another related article at Recreational sports for life website. 

When you continue stressing your heart with exercise, you are increasing its strength. This in turn makes it more powerful and as a result pumps more blood (oxygen) with fewer heart beats. The arteries become bigger and stronger allowing for more and more blood to flow out of the heart. This is what makes it easier for athletes to play their sports successfully.

If you started out walking for one mile in 30 minutes, you will soon see one of these two things happening. You will cover the same distance with less time or cover more distance with the same time, whichever way you win. Now if you are looking to cut down some weight, you will begin to see some positive results especially if you continue exercising daily. 

Do not forget that the amount of calories burned depends on the amount of work done, the more the better. So the more you exercise, the stronger your heart will be and consequently, the more work you will accomplish without overworking your heart. Using fewer heart beats to do more work (or burn calories) is the main goal. Another word of caution though is to eat healthy; you need energy to burn calories!

It is a fact that extra body weight causes the heart to work harder to supply enough blood to the whole body. That is why before you begin exercising your resting heart rate may be as high as 70, but after few weeks of committed daily exercises, you will see a significant drop. What this means to you is, if you help you heart to work less, by exercising daily, you will help it to last longer. Save those heart beats now when you can for later on in life, they will be precious when you cannot exercise as much due to age.

Submitted By: Philip Rotich

If you're fighting with anxiety, you can attempt meditation; a lot of people discover it actually helps to steady their nerves and get their tension levels down. It's conceived that more than 60% of the humanity suffers from a variant of anxiety at some point in their lifetimes. 

Yield comfort in this statistic; it demonstrates that you're not alone! The fundamental key to addressing anxiety effectively is to handle the problem in the early on stages. It is not a beneficial thought to plunge your head in the sand and trust that the problem will disappear on its own. Oftentimes, episodes of anxiety decline over time, both in terms of duration and frequency.

Relief from anxiety using meditation is usual for numerous reasons. First of all, it's a straightforward mental process; although it does involve concentration and exertion and it could take a bit of time to get used to especially if you've never cared for the idea of this type of remedy.

When applied, it's an extremely effective process that can be utilized in just about all situations or environments. Meditation techniques for anxiety concentrate on mind control, breathing exercises, and visualization.

Anxiety and breathing go conjointly; while you're feeling apprehensive, your heart begins to race, your sensations are enhanced and it may become difficult to take in your breath. The merest of all breathing exercises is simply breathing deep; concentrate on utilizing your total abdomen as you inhale--you want to be mindful of it filling up with air--and refrain from using your chest.

Rehearse breathing in and breathing out in this manner for a couple of minutes, whenever your feeling anxious or stressed. You should discover that it promptly calms you down and therefore more capable of addressing the nerve-racking situation. The wonderful thing about this exercise is that you'll be able to apply it at any time, regardless of where you are: at home, in the workplace or in your car.

Mind control and visualization is a different efficient way for tackling anxiousness. Begin by going to a cool, tranquil, peaceful spot, assume a comfy position and close your eyes. Attempt to remove all uneasy and discomforting thoughts from your brain and replace them with just stillness and serenity. Envisage yourself in a place of everlasting relaxation and peacefulness.

A few people blend this method with prayer or additional spiritual techniques; it's solely up to you how you aid yourself to reach your destination of inner peace. Yoga is also a usual method of subsiding the mind, in addition to being outstanding for unwinding, toning up and strengthening the physical structure. Yoga consists of several different motions and positions, which should be united in a sense to help you undergo a fantastic emotional state of relaxation.

Applying one or all of these methods to treat problems with anxiety can bring you alleviation, and slim the likelihood of being forced to consume prescription medication. If you are serious about controlling your anxiety, meditation is the place to start. In is imperative that you seek out any and all methods that will bring you relief.

Submitted By: Anna Wehr

Do you know what to do to slow down the aging process? Although we can't stop the process of getting older, we can certainly slow it down with the right foods and activities.

There are quite a few things we can eat and do to prevent the characterizations of aging such as having deep wrinkles, losing precious memory, declining physical prowess and onset of age related diseases like heart diseases, high cholesterol level, diabetes, hypertension, loss of libido, erectile dysfunction, joint pain and degeneration and many others.

Since it is not possible to be youthful forever, why not make an effort to slow down the aging process by keeping yourself fit and healthy by having a regular exercise routine and eating the correct foods? If you have to grow older as the clock ticks away, then why not age healthily and with elegant grace?

Simply by changing your eating habits coupled with a regular exercise program not only makes you look and feel younger, it can even save your life and let you live longer. Isn't that a wonderful way to age and getting to see your love ones for many more years?

There are many reasons why we age with time and the main reasons are the exposure to free radicals and the drop in the levels of our important hormones such as our human growth hormones or hgh for short and testosterones.
To offset the damages of free radicals, we need to consume more antioxidants. Antioxidant mops up the free radicals to prevent them from further damaging your cellular tissues. This in turn can help you to prevent diseases such as various cancers, cardiac diseases, Alzheimer's disease and high blood pressure. Aesthetically, because of less free radical attacks, you can reduce the formation of wrinkles making you look younger.

Antioxidants can be found in many types of vitamins so it may be good idea to supplement with multi-vitamins and minerals since our absorption of these micro nutrients are also compromised as we get older with age. Food items that are rich in antioxidants are all forms of fruits, berries, broccoli, spinach, green tea, garlic, fruits and tomatoes.

Do avoid eating processed and refined foods. The foods that come in packed boxes or are chemically refined or processed has many nutritional defects and can make you age faster or make you obese.

You should also consume less sugar laden foods and drinks. Sugar can and do raise your blood sugar level and will also cause you to store body fat besides other health risks. So drink your coffee without sugar and avoid syrupy or soft drinks.

Although this may be sheer common sense, but is usually unheeded. If you are a smoker, it is time to quit smoking. If you are a drinker, it is about time to stop alcohol consumption or at least to cut it down. Smoking not only puts you at risk with many age related diseases, it is also a cause of free radical damages to your body.

Alcohol in itself is a poison that can wreak havoc in your internal organs. Try to drink plenty of plain water instead to flush out toxins. Water is great for detoxification.

A regular exercise routine is also very important for a healthy body and healthy mind. If you have joint problems or arthritis, you can do low impact exercises like riding a stationery bike, go on a stepper, practice free form tai chi or join a yoga class. You should also train with weight resistance exercises to keep you strong and your bones healthy.
Regular exercise not only keeps you fit and healthy, it also helps your body to produce more of your anti aging hormones such as hgh and testosterones. Many people also consume hgh and testosterones releasers to help their bodies produce more of these hormones naturally.

It is rather easy to slow down the aging process. The question is, are you willing to change the foods that you eat and exercise regularly?

Submitted By: Chris Chew