1. Stop Smoking

If you smoke or chew tobacco, one of the best ways to improve the health of your heart is to quit. There is no healthy amount of smoking and no way to be a “healthier smoker” even with smokeless tobacco or light cigarettes. Dubbing cigarettes “light” is just the cigarette company’s way of targeting conscious but un-informed smokers and making them believe they are being healthier, but they are not. Especially if you have heart disease in your family, quitting it the best thing you can do for yourself.

2. Exercise

Exercise is one of the best ways to improve the heart. Especially cardiovascular exercise will improve the condition of your heart. Regular physical activity including jogging, running, swimming, tennis, basketball or other activities that raise your heart rate, all can reduce your risk of a heart attack or other heart diseases by nearly 25%. This is a very significant reduction in risk.

3. Eat “your heart-out”

But in a good way. A heart healthy diet is very important for cardiovascular health. In fact, just eating a good diet can lead to lower blood pressure and can help lower your risk for heart disease. The best foods to eat for your heart are antioxidant foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low fat dairy products, and legumes. Eating foods that are nutrient rich means foods that aren’t necessarily high in calories, but have excellent sources of nutrients. It is also important to avoid certain foods. Especially ones that are high in trans or saturated fats. These clog the arteries.

4. Stay Slim

Maintaining a healthy weight is crucial for heart health. Obesity seriously increases your risk of heart disease. Following the steps above will help you maintain a healthy body weight. Consult a physician about weight loss if need be. It’s working for Weight Ladder.

5. Get checkups

Even though I’m afraid of doctors, I recognize that regular checkups are important for making sure you are staying on track with your health. The most important things to have checked regularly are blood pressure and cholesterol. These are two indicative signs of your heart health. Schedule appointments with your doctor every six to twelve months to help ensure that you are of good health.

If you follow all the above you will be putting yourself in position to live a longer life.

1. It was a rat’s heart, not a human one.
2. It required cells from a newborn rat’s heart. Those cells were then added to a cadaver’s heart
3. The heart only beat in a dish. It was not transplanted into a rat.

None of those conditions should come as a surprise as innovation always has to start somewhere. The possibilities seem endless. Cancer got your lungs from smoking too much? Why not just get new ones? If we can replace body parts as simply as one replaces a water pump for a car, how long could the average person will live? It seems like science is on the brink of being able to expand our longevity significantly.

Let me stop you before you go get that pack of Camels. I think I’ve been reading articles of amazing medical breakthroughs for about 20 years now. Some of them translate into true medical procedures – others fade away. There’s no guarantee that this, or any other early medical success is going to help you down the line. It’s best to remember that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

7:00AM – Wake up
7:15AM – Have some Shreaded Wheat for breakfast (it has no refined grains or sugar unlike many other cereals). (Also, having breakfast within the first 90 minutes of your day will make you less likely to be obese). Or consider this cheap and healthy breakfast.)
7:15AM – Have a red grapefruit (lowers bad LDL cholesterol by 20%)
7:15AM – Have an 8-ounce glass of water with that cereal. 5 glasses reduce your chance of a fatal heart attack by 54%.
7:15AM – Take a 250 Magnesium pill with that class of water
10:15AM – Drink an 8-ounce glass of water (become 40% less likely to die of any cause)
12:15PM – Have some berries with your lunch (reduce risk of stroke and cut risk of cancer)
12:25PM – Pop a couple of Hershey’s Kisses (Dark Chocolate). Reduces risk of dying of heart disease.
12:25PM – Take a multivitamin (helps prevent DNA damage that causes cancer)
12:25PM – Take a fish oil pill (reduce your risk of stroke)
12:25PM – Have some mint tea with lunch (reduce risks associated with diabetes by 52%)
12:30PM – Watch a funny video (improves the bloodflow to your heart by 50%)
2:30PM – If possible grab a 30-minute nap (reduce your risk of coronary death by 37%)
1:15PM – Drink an 8-ounce glass of water
4:15PM – Drink an 8-ounce glass of water
6:00PM – Exercise off 150 calories (burning 1,100 calories a week prevents the accumulation of body fat… it can lower your blood pressure by 13 points as well… you’ll feel 61% less stressed ). I recommend swimming
6:20PM – Lift some weights (reduce stroke risk by 40% and heart attack risk by 15%)
6:45PM – Have a watercress salad with dinner (increase lutein and betacarotene to fight cancer)
6:45PM – Top that salad with olive oil and vinegar (olive oil reduces cancer risk, vinegar slows the absorption of carbs, limiting insulin spikes)
7:15PM – Drink an 8-ounce glass of water
11:00PM – Go to sleep. (getting the right amount of sleep is healthy)

This isn’t meant to be an all inclusive plan. I left some things off like specific lunch and dinner options as they weren’t mentioned in the article.