Heart Aging at 40! 2 ways to fight aging and rejuvenate the heart

Aging heart is no longer a disease of the elderly, but tends to be increasingly younger. Cardiac aging can cause heart failure and sudden death. Protecting the heart can start with adjusting the diet and training the calves - the 'second heart' of the human body.

Beware of sudden death and heart failure - 4 reasons why the heart ages prematurely

When no specific part of the heart has problems, but the function becomes poor and the response to the outside becomes slower, that is the aging of the heart. For example, a 60-year-old man may slow down for an hour because his heart has enough stamina, but his heart becomes less elastic and cannot sprint suddenly and quickly.

In terms of words, the 'aging' of the heart must be the main disease of the elderly. Under normal circumstances, the human heart begins to age after the age of 60. However, cardiologist Liu Zhongping, who is also the director of Wuping Clinic, Taiwan, said he discovered in his outpatient clinic there are many patients who now have heart aging at a young age. 40. This group of premature aging hearts has several characteristics:

• Three high (high blood lipids, high blood sugar, high blood pressure) and obesity: People with obesity are the most common, these people are often accompanied by hypertension, hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia. If blood pressure is too high for a long time, it will increase the likelihood of heart failure and heart aging. Too much sugar in the blood is also easy to cause the body to age such as a less elastic heart and poor microvascular circulation.
• Bad living habits, working all night: Some young people have bad living habits such as staying up late playing video games and watching movies, some need to work night shifts due to work.

Dr. Liu said: 'For people who often work at night, I notice that the person's heart becomes less elastic. He's young, but he's gasping for breath on foot.' When these people's hearts were examined, it was found that the heart function was still functioning normally but was impaired, which is a phenomenon of heart aging.

• Overworked work: People who are overworked in this type of work are also prone to irregular lives, turning their days and nights upside down. Dr. Liu said that many of the patients he encounters with premature heart aging are due to overwork or being overweight.
• Bad eating habits: Eating too salty, too fatty or too sweet often makes the heart work harder. In particular, too salty food puts more burden on the heart.

Foods high in oil, salt, and sugar will make the heart work harder.

We also often hear about cases of sudden death in middle-aged people, Dr. Liu believes this is related to aging heart tends to rejuvenate. Because the cause of this type of sudden death is basically the same as the aging of the heart such as overwork, turning the day and night. These reasons can lead to poor heart function, increased susceptibility to arrhythmias, or abnormal decline in heart function, and lead to death.

In addition, aging of the heart can lead to heart failure, a disease with a high mortality rate.

Walk, exercise and supplement with these 2 nutrients to reverse the aging process of the heart

Heart aging patients should not be too worried, there are still anti-aging ways for the heart.

Dr. Liu pointed out that in addition to taking medicine regularly, going to bed early and getting up early, and controlling the 'three tall', patients need exercise to be able to move their calves and adjust their diet.

1. Calf movement exercise – 'second heart' of the body

Calves are known as the 'second heart' of the body, because calves need to bring blood from the lower body back to the heart, this process requires a lot of bounce, and the muscles of the calves play a very important role. big. The best cardio exercise is to move your legs and get your heart beating a little faster. Dr. Liu said: 'As long as there are no other problems with the lower body, everyone is encouraged to do more exercises for the lower body.'

Exercises such as tiptoe, walking, climbing stairs, cycling, squatting, . can exercise the calves, even just exercising the calf muscles can help keep the heart healthy. Many elderly people who exercise only by walking can achieve the effect of exercise. 

Nowadays, many office workers do not have time to exercise, Dr. Luu shares a practical and simple method: After leaving work, don't go into the house right away, but walk around the house about 10- 15 minutes for the body to sweat, then you can go home to relax and shower. This not only helps with fitness, but also helps reduce stress.

In the West there are also many studies on walking and cardiovascular health, it has been found that brisk walking for short periods of time is beneficial for the heart and mental health.

A 2002 study in the Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise showed that 10 minutes of brisk walking 3 times a day is equivalent to 30 minutes of walking once a day. /day, are all done 5 days/week, both of these methods have the same effect on reducing cardiovascular risk, reducing stress and anxiety.

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition also had a similar study in 2008: Young men who accumulated 10 3-minute brisk walks and 1 30-minute brisk walk, both had equally effective in reducing postprandial lipids and systolic blood pressure.

Studies have found that short brisk walking is beneficial for heart and mental health.

In addition, calf massage is a passive exercise, although it is not as effective as walking, it is also very useful for the heart. Because some people are born with thin blood vessels or have to sit for a long time, so they are prone to blood clots, calf massage can reduce the risk of embolism and can also slightly promote circulation in the legs.

2. Adjust your diet

First of all, avoid a high-fat, high-sugar and high-salt diet. It is possible to eat spicy food, but Dr. Liu reminds that many spicy foods are often accompanied by too much oil and salt, such as spicy condiments, chili oil and chili sauce. In addition, the taste buds are stimulated by spicy substances, it is difficult to taste food, you may eat too much salty food unconsciously.

Next, you can add two scientifically recognized heart-protective nutrients fish oil and fiber:

Fish oil: The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends that everyone eat fish at least twice a week, such as mackerel, king mackerel, sardines, trout, tuna, herring, and varieties. Other fish are rich in omega-3 fatty acids and good fats. This is great for maintaining the elasticity of heart blood vessels and reducing blood clots.

The British Medical Journal published a large study in 2020 investigating fish oil supplementation habits and disease risk in 420,000 people without cardiovascular disease. The results showed that habitual fish oil supplementation was associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality.

Fish oil is a scientifically recognized heart-protective nutrient. 

Fiber: Fiber from vegetables and fruits can remove cholesterol from the walls of blood vessels and increase blood flow.

In 2017, the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine performed a retrospective review of 31 articles from 1980 to 2017. The results showed that individuals consumed more fiber. was associated with significantly lower cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.

Many patients have been greatly improved, maintain the heart in this way, the heart will not age too quickly.