“Verily in the body there is such a piece of flesh that if it remains alright the whole body keeps well but if this piece of flesh develops some defect the whole body becomes unhealthy. Behold,- this piece of flesh – it is heart.” (Bokhari, Muslim)
Heart failures and heart diseases do not necessarily occur in fat or obese people only. A heart can become weak for many other reasons other than eating fatty foods. Depending on this, heart failures can happen to any body. Fat or thin, young or old.
Are you at risk of any Heart problems ? Find out before its too late ! Because when your heart fails, everything fails.
Different parts of our body, need a good supply of blood to function properly. When the blood supply is affected, it affects the proper functioning of our organs. The heart pumps blood to different body parts providing them oxygen to function well. Every organ in our body depend on the blood supply maintained by our heart. Therefore, keeping the heart healthy and in good working condition should be our utmost priority.
If the heart is not healthy, the blood supply in the heart is restricted and it is forced to pump faster to meet the needs of the body’s blood supply. This increases the heart’s Resting Rate. This means that the heart is beating more, to pump the same amount of blood. This extra pressure on the heart damages the muscle cells of the heart and makes the heart weak. Over time, this leads to heart attacks or heart failures.
Lets first find out if you have a healthy heart
The health of our heart is determined by measuring the Resting Heart Rate. The Resting Heart Rate also determines our Fitness Level and can also spot developing health problems if any.
A strong heart will have a Lower Resting Heart Rate. This means that it is able to pump more blood with each beat, therefore less beats per minute are required. A heart with a Lower Resting Heart Rate is no doubt a healthy heart.
Unhealthy heart is one which has a Higher Resting Heart Rate, because it needs to beat more, to pump the same amount of blood, therefore more beats per minute are required. This makes us feel tired and out of breath easily.
The Normal Resting Heart Rate is approximately 72 beats per minute.
The chart below shows the Resting Heart Rate and Fitness Level of men and women at different ages.
As can be seen in the chart below, our Resting Heart Rate can vary with our Fitness Level and with age — the fitter we are, generally the lower the resting heart rate.
Resting Heart Rate for WOMEN
|
| Age |
18-25 |
26-35 |
36-45 |
46-55 |
56-65 |
65+ |
| Athlete |
54-60 |
54-59 |
54-59 |
54-60 |
54-59 |
54-59 |
| Excellent |
61-65 |
60-64 |
60-64 |
61-65 |
60-64 |
60-64 |
| Good |
66-69 |
65-68 |
65-69 |
66-69 |
65-68 |
65-68 |
| Above Average |
70-73 |
69-72 |
70-73 |
70-73 |
69-73 |
69-72 |
| Average |
74-78 |
73-76 |
74-78 |
74-77 |
74-77 |
73-76 |
| Below Average |
79-84 |
77-82 |
79-84 |
78-83 |
78-83 |
77-84 |
| Poor |
85+ |
83+ |
85+ |
84+ |
84+ |
84+ |
Resting Heart Rate determines our Fitness Level.
The lower the Resting Heart Rate, the fitter the heart is.
The heart is more at risk when the Resting Heart Rate is higher.
How do we measure our Resting Heart Rate?
Resting Heart Rate can be measured during the morning after waking up when you are calm and relaxed.
To measure your Resting Heart Rate, simply check your pulse. Place your index and third fingers on your neck to the side of your windpipe.
When you feel your pulse, count the number of beats in 15 seconds. Multiply this number by 4 to calculate your beats per minute. Heart Rate can also be measured easily by using the Heart Rate Monitor.
Keep in mind that many factors can influence heart rate, including your
- Activity level
- Fitness level
- Body position (standing up or lying down, for example)
- Emotions
- Body size
- Medications
So, take your Resting Heart Rate over at least 3 days so that you can get an average reading.
Having a Higher Resting Heart rate could be a risk to our body
Let us understand what are the harmful effects of having a Higher Resting Heart Rate and what damage can it bring to our body.
We understand that having a Higher Resting Heart Rate is because our heart is not healthy enough to pump enough blood needed by our body. So it needs to beat more, to pump the same amount of blood, therefore more beats per minute is required. This unhealthy condition of the heart can lead to two things:
First, when the heart is not able to pump enough blood effectively required by the body, this leads to poor supply of blood to different body parts and thus poor supply of oxygen. This affects the proper functioning of our body parts. For example, insufficient supply of oxygen to the brain leads to brain fog, loss of memory, poor concentration, sleep apnea and even brain strokes. Other problems caused by poor oxygen supply to our body are numbness of limbs, swelling of feet, diabetes etc. All of this because of poor blood supply by an unhealthy heart.
Second, because the heart needs to beat more to pump the same amount of blood, this puts extra pressure on the heart and leads to the damage of the muscle cells of the heart and makes it weak. Over time, this can lead to heart attacks or heart failures or other heart related diseases.
Changes in our lifestyle for a Healthy Heart
We can make simple changes in our lifestyle to keep our heart healthy and beating normally. Thus maintaining a good supply of blood needed by our body parts to perform and function properly. These simple changes are explained below :
Eating Healthy :
What we eat affects the health of our heart. This affects our Resting Heart Rate.
Unhealthy fatty food such as excess red meat, soda drinks, processed sausages, fried foods can hurt our heart. These food build up fat in the walls of the heart and restricts blood flow increasing the Resting Heart Rate. Increased Resting Heart Rate cause the heart to become weak and prone to various heart diseases.
We must include food which are good for our heart and that help prevent heart diseases. Some of the heart healthy foods are Salmon, brown rice, beans, walnuts, blueberries, strawberries and lean meat instead of red meat.
Regular Exercise :
Regular exercise makes the heart strong and decreases the Resting Heart Rate. A strong heart pumps more blood with each beat. So less beats are required per minute. This makes the heart efficient at meeting our body’s blood supply needs. The fitter we are, the lower our Resting Heart Rate.
Our body responds positively to any form of exercise. Simple exercises such as walking for half an hour can actually increase the blood supply to our heart.
Ordinarily, the tiny vessels in the heart are closed but continuous walking can open up and create alternative blood flow. This could actually save your life if your coronary arteries are blocked.
Just start from where you are now. Even little exercise is better than no exercise at all.
Good Sleep :
We need to eat healthy and exercise regularly to keep our heart healthy. But we cannot forget the importance of good sleep in our life to keep our heart healthy too.
Our heart pumps blood throughout our life. So, when does it get rest? It gets rest when we sleep. Yes, our heart rate and blood pressure lower a bit when we are sleeping. And that is key in keeping our body overall healthy.
People who don’t get enough sleep, usually less than 6 hours of sleep have higher rate of heart disease and diabetes and stroke.
Adults need 7 to 9 hours of sleep to feel and perform best. It’s not only the adults, but young children who don’t get enough sleep are also at risk of heart diseases. A healthy heart and a good night’s sleep go hand in hand at any age. So it’s never too late to think about our heart health. Create healthy sleep habits and make sleep a priority in your life.
Positive Emotions :
It is interesting to note that not only does our body have Physical Requirements to keep the heart healthy but it also has some Positive Emotional Requirements.
Our attitude and emotions play a very important role in our Resting Heart Rate. They affect our well-being to a great extent.
When we are emotionally upset, frustrated or anxious we produce stress hormones. This results in the increase of heart beats and sometimes could also make the heart to skip its beats. So, negative emotions such as anger and depressions can have negative effects on our heart. These emotions cause the heart pattern to be totally chaotic and blood supply is affected. Directly affecting the functioning of our body parts.
In order to control our negative emotions and maintain a good Resting Heart Rate we really need to work on forgiveness and gratitude, to control our anger and hostility.
On the other hand, staying happy has a positive effect on our Resting Heart Rate. Being joyous, having a great sense of humour and having a positive outlook keeps the heart beating in a coherent rhythm, thus maintain a good blood supply to our body.
When our hearts are calm, the hormone levels that influence the immune system become more balanced. We make better decisions. Stress and anger on the other hand can disrupt the brain and heart connection. No wonder anger makes people stupid and even intelligent people cannot make very efficient choices.
What’s more interesting to note, is that all the healthy habits for a healthy heart and body was already laid down in the Sunnahs of our Prophet (saw).
If we can change our lifestyle on the advice of our doctor to save our heart,
there is no reason why we should not follow the Sunnah of a healthy lifestyle,
which includes the Sunnah of eating healthy, exercising regularly,
sleeping well, being humble and grateful and having a positive attitude towards life.
Let us look at some of the Sunnahs of our Prophet (saw) of maintaining a healthy lifestyle :
Sunnah of eating healthy :
Allah says in the Quran, “O mankind: Eat of what is lawful and good on earth” (Quran 2: 168). Our Prophet (saw) encouraged us to eat what is healthy and good for our body.
In Surah Baqarah 2:219 Allah strongly discourages the consumption of alcohol and drugs stating that both of which have more harm than benefits. Consumption of alcohol and drugs results in irregular heartbeat affecting the proper blood circulation in the body.
Sunnah of exercising regularly :
Sports was a Sunnah of our Prophet Mohammad (saw) in order to maintain and encourage a healthy lifestyle. The main sports that our Prophet was personally engaged in and encouraged others to be a part of were wrestling, running, horse racing, camel racing, swimming and archery. He organised sports competitions and distributed prizes thus encouraging us to maintain a healthy lifestyle in order to build character, mental strength and behaviour.
In a hadith Abu Huraira narrated about our Prophet saw, “I did not see anyone walk faster than him, as is the earth folded for him. A few moments ago he would be here, and then there. We found it difficult to keep pace when we walked with him and he walked at his normal pace.”
Sunnah of sleeping well :
Prophet (saw) used to sleep right after Isha prayers and used to wake up before Fajr. By this Sunnah we are encouraged to have a good night’s sleep which is essential for a proper functioning of our heart and our body.
Sunnah of Smiling :
In one Hadith Ibn Jaz reports: “I have not seen anyone who smiled more than the Messenger of Allah (saw).”
Smile is like an anti-depressant hormone for the person who carries it. Smile is an inexpensive act which can lift your mood and make you more grateful and more content. So let’s smile more often and spread joy and peace as our Prophet (saw) instructed us. Smiling and being humble and grateful keeps you happy which keeps away negative emotions such as sadness, stress and anger away from us. This helps in keeping our heart in good condition.
Follow the Sunnah of eating healthy, exercising well, sleeping well and controlling your negative emotions. All of this will keep your heart in good condition which in turn will keep the rest of your body performing well.
As also mentioned in the Hadith hundreds of years ago, “Verily in the body there is such a piece of flesh that if it remains alright, the whole body keeps well but if this piece of flesh develops some defect the whole body becomes unhealthy. Behold,- this piece of flesh – it is heart.” (Bokhari, Muslim)
A healthy body and mind not only makes this life beautiful but also improves our Ibaadah (worship) and gives us a beautiful Aakhirah (afterlife). And this reason should keep us motivated to take care of our heart for life. After all, it’s all in the heart.
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