In today's world, a healthy heart is a myth. However, one can inculcate easy lifestyle changes into his daily routine. Cardiovascular disease is one of the most common cause of deaths worldwide. The number of deaths from CVD in India showed a huge spike from 2.26 million deaths in 1990 to 4.47 million deaths in 2020. Moreover, the prevalence rates in India increased from 1.6℅ to 7.4% in rural areas and from 1℅ to 13.2% in urban population.

Now the question arises what are signs of an unhealthy heart? Or how one can know that his heart is not working efficiently?

Here are the few signs and symptoms indicating heart failure:

-Shortness of breath (dyspnea)

-Chest pain during exercise or even during rest

-Weakness

-Dizziness or Fatigue

-Swelling in legs, ankle and feet

-Rapid heartbeat or heart palpitation

-Pain spreading towards the arm

-Nausea, heartburn, indigestion,

-Throat or jaw pain

In case, an individual experience any of the above symptoms, one must consult a doctor as early as possible. Early diagnosis of a heart disease might reduce the severity of the condition suspected. 

What a person eats in day also affects the heart directly or indirectly. Therefore, one must take care of the food intake as well as the portion size. 

Following are the ood habits that increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases:

-Sugar, salt, fat

-Bacon

-Soda

-Baked goods

-Alcohol

-Butter

-Processed meat

-Pizzas, French fries, cold drinks

Above are the food habits one must avoid to reduce the risk of heart failure or cardiac arrest.

In order to keep the heart healthy, few dietary changes can be made in the daily meals. Doctors usually advice people with high risk of heart failure to follow a cardiac diet. The main objective of a cardiac diet is to encourage people eat healthy as well as develop a healthy attitude towards their lifestyle.

A cardiac diet includes:

- a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.

- dry fruits

- limit alcohol intake

- avoid smoking

- avoid full fat dairy products

- avoid processed food and processed meat

- including oats in breakfast meal

- avocados

- fatty fish and fish oil

- berries

- whole grains

- walnuts

- dark chocolate

In addition to dietary changes, physical exercise also contribute towards a healthy heart. Improving physical fitness can help a person lose excessive fat and thus reduces risk factors like obesity. Maintaining physical fitness also lowers the level of LDL(bad) cholesterol and increases the level of HDL(good) cholesterol.

A good combination of a healthy diet and physical exercise can help an individual maintain a healthy heart.