**Protect Your Heart: 10 Key Recommendations**

Unhealthy diet, sedentary lifestyle, smoking, excess weight; numerous factors ranging from diabetes to high cholesterol and hypertension lead to heart disease. Prof. Dr. Ender Semiz, Cardiologist at Acıbadem Maslak Hospital, notes that cardiovascular disease—which ranks first among causes of death worldwide and in our country—is increasingly prevalent among young people, and emphasizes that heart disease can be prevented through some simple measures. On the occasion of World Heart Day on 29 September, Prof. Dr. Ender Semiz shared 10 measures to protect our hearts and offered important warnings and recommendations.

Healthy Nutrition

Consume vegetables, fruits and whole grain products; prioritize a diet based on legumes and fish. Studies show that the Mediterranean diet reduces mortality risk. Avoid fast food, processed products such as salami, sausage and cured sausage, trans or saturated fats, refined carbohydrates known as simple sugars, and carbonated or non-carbonated sweetened beverages.

Do Not Neglect Exercise

Regular physical activity should be a fundamental lifestyle for protecting and improving heart and cardiovascular health. Physical exercise reduces the risk of heart and cardiovascular disease. Engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or at least 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity per week.

Stay Away from Smoking

Approximately one in three deaths from heart disease stems from smoking or passive smoking. Studies show that electronic cigarettes are not harmless and carry the same risks seen with conventional smoking.

Achieve Your Ideal Weight

Excess weight leads to diabetes, elevated blood lipids, high blood pressure and ultimately cardiovascular disease; therefore, achieving ideal weight is very important.

Limit Salt Consumption

Cardiologist Prof. Dr. Ender Semiz states: "It is known that reducing salt intake by 1 gram per day in adults aged 30-80 with high blood pressure will lower systolic blood pressure by 3-4 mmHg, thereby reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease."

Maintain Sleep Schedule

Sleep lasting less than six hours or poor quality sleep raises blood pressure; consequently, it creates conditions for cardiovascular disease. Excessively long sleep duration also increases the risk of heart disease. For this reason, make sure to maintain a proper sleep schedule.

Manage Stress Well

Psychosocial work stress and anxiety about job loss, as well as mental states such as depression, anxiety and anger increase the risk of heart disease and mortality from heart disease. Moreover, problems related to personal and social life also threaten heart health. For this reason, stress management must be handled well with a rational approach, and these problems must be resolved—or at least their effects must be minimized.  

Be Social

A small social circle, loneliness and weak psychological support increase the risk of heart disease. The result of 148 large-scale studies examining the link between social relationships and mortality risk shows that adequate and healthy social relationships increase survival rates by 50 percent compared to poor and inadequate social relationships.

Pay Attention to Heart Health "Check-Up" Programs

Especially if you have one or more of the following conditions that lead to increased vascular stiffness—diabetes, hypertension, elevated cholesterol or triglyceride levels—or if you have family members who experienced heart attack or stroke at a young age, if you smoke, or if you are past middle age; you need to have regular annual heart check-ups.

Use Your Medications Regularly

Cardiologist Prof. Dr. Ender Semiz states: "Especially if you are taking blood thinners, cholesterol-lowering or blood pressure-lowering medications, never stop your medications without consulting your doctor, do not change doses, and take your medications on time! Cholesterol, one of the important building blocks of living cell membranes and the basic substance of all hormones, is certainly necessary for living organisms, but only to a certain extent. If cholesterol is not brought below certain levels with medications in excess or in high-risk individuals, it seriously invites cardiovascular disease, particularly heart attack and stroke."