The heart is a delicate organ that needs to be taken care of, especially with aging. A correct diet and exercising can help improve our health, even at home, if we strike the right balance.
7 TIPS ON NUTRITION FOR THE HEART
First of all, in case of obesity, you need to follow a low calorie diet agreed with a nutrition specialist. However, there are many other things to know in order to have a healthy diet for the heart:
Reduce the consumption of salt; precisely, it is recommended to use a maximum of 3-5 grams per day. It is also necessary to avoid some substances in packaged products, such as sodium glutamate, sodium benzoate etc., which hide a further content of salt
Limit bread and baked goods, important sources of salt on our tables every day
Avoid foods preserved in salt or oil, pre-cooked or pre-packaged products and sauces such as mayonnaise
Eliminate (or limit as much as possible) sugary drinks, alcohol and spirits
Prefer simple sauces, vegetable sauces for pasta, vegetable broth for risottos and so on
Prefer steamed, grilled, and en papillote cooking for meat and fish; boiled, steamed and baked cooking for vegetables. Avoid fried food in any way
· If you are on anticoagulants, you must pay attention to the coagulating action of Vitamin K (which can be found in broccoli, cabbage, soy, parsley, etc.)
Even the regularity with which you eat certain foods can make a difference. For example, you have to reduce processed meats and sausages to no more than once a week. Furthermore, it is better to prefer white meat and eat it once or twice a week; fish should be eaten three or four times and eggs no more than four per week.
These are the general guidelines for taking care of your heart through food, but they are often not enough. In fact, according to the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, a sedentary lifestyle is a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases.
5 TIPS ON PHYSICAL ACTIVITY FOR THE HEART
A regular physical activity is among the most effective prerequisites to reduce the risk of cardiovascular problems without the use of any medicine and without the intervention of a doctor. Just a little effort is needed. With regular exercising, the heart becomes stronger and more resistant to fatigue; aerobic activities also increase the workload of the heart and lungs, improving circulation. A trained heart pumps more blood without extra energy consumption.
But why does regular physical activity decrease the risk of cardiovascular diseases and strokes?
The reasons are different and varied:
It helps to keep blood pressure under control by preventing hypertension; just moderate and regular exercise is necessary
It helps to reach and maintain the right weight, balancing the energy taken in by the organism and the one consumed in physical activity
It helps prevent and control diabetes
It helps to keep cholesterol under control by increasing the level of HDL (‘good’ cholesterol) without altering the levels of LDL (‘bad’ cholesterol)
It decreases the desire to smoke and it helps to quit
In addition, physical activity helps to lose overweight, reduces stress and it is also good for the skin and the beauty of our body. It is not necessary to carry out intense physical activities, moderate and regular effort is very effective. Although all physical activities are good for improving our health, the Istituto Superiore di Sanità recommends some repetitive activities for the heart:
Walking;
Running;
Cycling;
Swimming;
Dancing.
30 minutes a day for 5 days a week is enough and it is never too late to start.
With these tips you can start taking care of your heart right away. At Palazzo Fiuggi, however, specialists will give you directions to improve your optimal eating and sports habits, meeting your needs.
With the ‘Optimal Weight’ program – based on the study of individual host’s parameters and the evaluation of genome-environment interaction – an interdisciplinary team will study a tailor-made program that will help you:
Encourage the management of a target weight;
Improve physical activity;
Promote a healthy lifestyle;
Make yourself aware of your eating habits and possible complications, including heart problems, related to weight.
This will be possible thanks to a protocol based on personalized nutritional diets and capable of radically changing the state of well-being.
The food program, designed by the three-star chef Heinz Beck, is not punitive and it will lead to a loss of fat mass without affecting the muscle mass. The latter will be enhanced by the training program. The approach aims, in fact, to see food as a real medicine together with the water of Fiuggi, which has known healing properties.
At Palazzo Fiuggi, science and tradition have been combined thanks to the ancient recipes of healing herbal teas of the Benedictine monks of the area. These recipes, adjusted with today's phytotherapeutic knowledge, will have benefits for the body: for example, the Relaxing Herbal Tea will help you to control anxiety and stress, lending a hand to your heart.
Thanks to the intervention of Cryotherapy – which is based on a lowering of the temperature of the affected area and the consequent narrowing of the blood vessels – the tissues are cleaned of toxins, fluids in excess and of fat cells, deposits of ‘ancient’ fat that are very difficult to get rid of through exercise and nutrition.
Finally, with the Celliss bed technology, you will be also able to restore the optimal lymphatic and blood flow by reducing subcutaneous fat with a non-invasive manual percussion process. In this way, the skin of buttocks, abdomen, hips and thighs is pulled simultaneously, increasing the production of fibroblasts. This treatment also helps to reduce cellulite and it makes the whole body more toned.
Discover all the other treatments to improve the well-being of your body and prevent cardiovascular diseases offered by Palazzo Fiuggi.