Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, causing close to 600,000 deaths a year.[i] Often, this is related to plaque build-up in your arteries, known as atherosclerosis, which can hinder blood flow or lead to a blood clot. This, in turn, can cause a heart attack or stroke.

Yet, heart disease isn’t only a matter of heart attacks. Heart disease also refers to many other heart and blood vessel conditions, including heart failure (when your heart doesn’t pump blood as well as it should), arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythm) and heart valve problems.

In some cases, you may receive some warning signs that your heart is in trouble. Chest discomfort, pain in your arms, back and neck, shortness of breath, nausea, lightheadedness, or even extreme fatigue can be signs of heart attack, for instance.

But in some cases, you’ll receive no warning at all.

An irregular heart rhythm can lead to cardiac arrest and sudden death within minutes of the first onset of symptoms. Nearly 360,000 cardiac arrests occur in the United States every year, including in people who have not been diagnosed with heart disease[ii] …

7 Tips to Prevent Heart Disease

While medications and surgery are the standard heart disease treatments, there’s a lot you can do to prevent this disease in the first place, and many of the best strategies are related to your lifestyle choices.

7. Eat Nuts

Eating nuts daily may lower your heart disease by 29 percent, thanks to the healthy fats, minerals, and inflammation-fighting compounds they contain.[iii]

6. Get Enough Sleep

Men who have trouble falling asleep have a 55 percent higher risk of heart disease than those who do not.[iv] Why the connection? The study’s researcher explained:[v]

“Poor sleep has influence on endocrine function, it can increase chronic inflammation and also it can change circadian patterns.”

5. Minimize Stress

Chronic stress is also pro-inflammatory predicts the occurrence of coronary heart disease. Those experiencing work-related stress, loneliness or social isolation have an increased risk of having a coronary event, such as a heart attack,[vi] and acute episodes of stress also pose risks to your heart.

4. Eat Sardines or Take High-Quality Fish Oil

The omega-3s in low-mercury fish like sardines or wild-caught salmon are invaluable for heart health, as they lower inflammation and the risk of chronic diseases like heart disease.

3. Exercise

It’s no secret that exercise is good for your heart, both by helping with weight loss and via direct effects on the heart. Research even shows that exercise works as well as drugs in the secondary prevention of heart disease.[vii]

2. Eat More Vegetables

A veggie-rich diet (think kale, broccoli, bell peppers, cabbage, etc.) is at the heart of the Mediterranean style of eating, which emphasizes fresh produce, olive oil, nuts, beans, fish and even wine. Eating this way (as opposed to the veggie-poor, overly processed Standard American Diet) could prevent about 30 percent of heart attacks, strokes and deaths from heart disease.[viii]

1. Fight Chronic Inflammation

Part of the allure of many of the strategies above is that they reduce inflammation in your body. Chronic inflammation is common in heart disease and stroke patients, and it may promote the formation of fatty plaques in the arteries, raising your risk of heart disease (and other chronic diseases) considerably.

Chronic inflammation is often the result of many years of poor diet, inactivity, excess alcohol, cigarette smoking, excessive stress and other unhealthy lifestyle choices. The key word here is ‘choices.’ You can make a decision, starting today, to drastically lower the inflammation in your own body — and you don’t need anti-inflammatory drugs to do it.

A comprehensive anti-inflammatory diet, consisting of inflammation-fighting food, drinks and herbal supplements — is an invaluable tool to help keep inflammation, and thereby heart disease, at bay.

Proteolytic enzymes also have an unsurpassed ability to fight chronic inflammation and underlying pain. These enzymes are naturally produced in your pancreas, but your natural production declines with age; these inflammation-busters become largely depleted as you hit 40 and over.

Fortunately, there’s Heal-n-Soothe, the best systemic enzyme formula to replenish your body’s supply of vital enzymes. Heal-n-Soothe® not only gives you the healing power of proteolytic enzymes in a convenient capsule but it also goes where no other proteolytic supplement has or will with 12 additional proven anti-inflammatory ingredients. If you want to lower your risk of the top cause of death in the United States, and you want to do it naturally, take matters into your own hands.

Clean up your lifestyle and get Heal-n-Soothe.