Having a healthy heart is one of the most important steps to living a long and healthy life. Heart disease is the number cause of death in America. Sadly many heart attacks could be prevented if everyone would do just a few simple things. Here are 5 steps you can take right now to have a healthy heart and help you prevent heart disease in the future.

1. Recognize if you are a high risk. If you have a history of heart disease in your family you could be at risk. If you have diabetes you stand a higher chance of having narrow blood vessels restricting the flow of blood to your heart. Do you smoke? Smoking is one of the major causes of heart attacks and quitting smoking can increase the odds of having a healthy heart and preventing a future heart attack.

2. When it comes to your heart, you are what you eat and fatty foods plus foods with high amounts of salt are bad for your heart. Eating lots of whole grain foods, vegetables and fruits are good for your heart plus drinking lots of water flushes your body and can have a good impact on your heart as well.

3. Take a walk or ride a bike. Go swimming or get on the treadmill. Start slowly. Try and exercise for 30 minutes 3 to 4 times a week.

4. Stay calm. If you can find something that relaxes you everyday you will reduce your stress levels. When your stress is low your blood pressure goes down and so does your odds of developing heart disease. It is probably impossible to totally eliminate stress, but if you recognize something that causes you stress on a consistent basis deal with it.

5. Do you notice anything different about how you feel? A burning sensation in your chest could be a warning signal of a heart attack about to happen. Shortness of breath or tightness in your neck or left arm may be a signal to go and see your doctor. At the very least get a yearly check up whether you feel any symptoms or not, just to be on the safe side.

Having a healthy heart takes a little effort everyday. You may need to take heart medicine and a cholesterol lowering drug regardless of the things you can do naturally. If you are over 40 your chances of having heart disease increase and you should have your cholesterol checked yearly anyway. It is better to be safe now than to be sorry later.