Written By: Dr. Amit Mishra
Attention Young Entrepreneurs, Take care of Your Heart
“To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business and your business in your heart.”
Thomas J Watson
Be a Healthy Entrepreneur
Do you have the experience of following your heart, soul or gut instinct at times and that came out to be the incredible decision ever made by you!
Making a successful move in business requires a lot of time, focus and luck. However, perhaps profoundly it requires a true understanding of how you can be in business from the core of your heart. In business, there should be a perfect balance between brain and heart while making a decision.
The heart is the central pumping station for circulation of blood, which keeps the body alive, whereas the brain is the central processing unit cum command and control centre, which makes the body functional. Therefore both are essential to be in healthy conditions for effective business life. In this article, I have tried to discuss in detail about the healthy heart, its essentiality for an Entrepreneur, the reasons behind heart ailments, and its preventive measures.
Heart disease and strokes are the leading causes of death across the globe. However, there’s good news around the corner. About 80 percent of all the cases of cardiovascular disease (premature heart disease) is preventable by making modifications to your lifestyle including doing some things that are easy, simple and even enjoyable you can lower your risk significantly. Let’s find out.
There are a number of lifestyle factors that increase the risk of heart disease including stress, High blood pressure and cholesterol, Smoking, Alcohol, Obesity or Overweight, Diabetes, Genetics (Family history), Junk food, Age (Women of 55 and above are more prone), A history of preeclampsia (High Blood Pressure) during pregnancy, Staying in a static position for extended periods of time, such as sitting at work.
Is Heart a Muscle?
Your heart is an amazing organ made up of hardworking muscle. It’s located in the thoracic cavity to the left of the sternum (breastbone), between the lungs. The fist-size pumping organ beats around 100,000 times per day.
Being the central core of the circulatory system, the heart is essentially responsible for pumping blood and distributing oxygen and nutrients throughout the body. Normally, a healthy adult heart completes three cardiac cycles or 72 beats per minute.
Heart Ailments
There are different types of heart disease:
- Coronary artery disease or Ischaemia heart disease, CAD (Because of Plaque formed due to cholesterol)
- Arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat) (Person suffering feels like a vibrating or a racing heart).
- Dilated cardiomyopathy (Dilated chambers as a result of weak heart muscle)
- Myocardial infarction (Heart attack usually due to the blood clot, atherosclerosis)
- Heart failure (It is the condition when the heart does not pump blood)
- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (Genetic disorder)
- Mitral regurgitation (Irregular functioning of the mitral valve)
- Mitral valve prolapse (The valve present between the left atrium and left ventricle does not fully close)
The Common Symptoms of Heart Disease are uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain in the centre of your chest. It sustains more than a few minutes, or goes away and comes back. Feel of pain in one or both arms, the back, jaw, neck or stomach. Shortness of breath (dyspnea) with or without chest discomfort. Other signs are sudden cold sweat (chilling of body), and nausea or light-headedness.
Prevention for Heart disease
Foods that are beneficial for your heart:
- Flowering Plant Asparagus or Sparrow grass contains an amino acid called homocysteine and is filled with useful nutrients such as beta-carotene, folate, and fibre which help your heart.
- Legume family plants or Pulses (Latin word Puls means thick soup) or Legumes, Dark beans, such as kidney or black beans, peas, chickpeas, and lentils are high in fibre, Vitamin-B, minerals and are good for the healthy heart.
- Simple Fresh Fruit Berries (blueberries, strawberries, cranberries or raspberries in cereal or yogurt) are substantially full of heart-healthy phytonutrients and soluble fibre.
- Fruits (Healthy nuts) such as almonds or walnuts help your heart.
- Fresh broccoli, a type of cabbage, are useful heart-healthy vegetables with a lot of nutrients, including vitamins A, C, K and E, potassium, folate, calcium, and fibre.
- Chia seeds (a flowering plant of the mint family) and flax seeds (also called linseed) contain omega-3 fatty acids (alpha-linolenic acid), fibre and phytoestrogens to boost heart health.
- Fish (e.g. mackerel, trout, herring, tuna, and salmon) in your diet as they contain a high amount of omega-3 fatty acids.
- Oats (Cereal) contain antioxidants called Avenanthramides and plenty of fibre beta-glucan which are highly beneficial for a healthy heart.
- Dark chocolate (Having 70% cocoa) is good for your heart health, prevent stiffness of the arteries and adhesion of white blood cell (WBC).
- Fruits (oranges), which are rich in beta-carotene, potassium, magnesium, and fibre help your heart.
- Tomatoes, even sun-dried varieties in winter months, provide lycopene, vitamin C and alpha- and beta-carotene which is very useful for the heart.
- Red wine has the ability to improve good (HDL) cholesterol levels.
- Green Tea or Coffee helps in reducing high blood pressure.
Conclusion
With the alarming rise of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in India in recent years, it is of paramount importance for Entrepreneurs to follow a healthy lifestyle to decrease the risk of developing heart disease. For providing better heart care, the door of start-ups has opened nowadays with an aim to develop revolutionary ways of providing solutions to battle heart disease.
