Taking care of your heart can feel like a tomorrow problem. After all, strain on the organ often piles up stealthily, plaque building in your arteries or blood pressure ticking upward for years without noticeable symptoms—that is, until a serious issue strikes, and you wish you intervened yesterday. It’s the reason cardiologists suggest auditing your lifestyle now, which includes not only incorporating healthy habits but paring back the less-supportive ones.
You can probably name two of the biggest hitters when it comes to bad habits for your heart: smoking and alcohol use. Among other detriments, the former can wreak havoc on your blood vessels and pump up your risk of a clot; and the latter can spike your blood pressure. But there are a handful of other everyday behaviors that can threaten your long-term heart health too. Below, six cardiologists reveal the common things they personally avoid in service of their own hearts, so we can all take a page from their book.
1. They mostly steer clear of red meat and fried and highly processed foods.
This dietary pattern was top of the list for nearly every cardiologist SELF spoke with. Julie Delphin, MD, a cardiologist at the Joan H. Tisch Center for Women’s Health at NYU Langone Health, tells SELF she’s a pescatarian during the week and reserves red meat for weekends, as an easy way to curb her intake without having to count servings.
For Sonia Tolani, MD, a cardiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, limiting red meats and fried and ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) is a byproduct of sticking to a Mediterranean diet, which she points out has been repeatedly shown to lower risk of heart disease. “A pillar of the diet is using olive oil as the primary fat while keeping protein intake to leaner options like fish and legumes,” Dr. Tolani tells SELF.
This way, you’re slashing saturated fat, which raises blood cholesterol levels, Megha Agarwal, MD, a cardiologist at UCLA Health, tells SELF. (It’s worth noting, recent studies suggest the type of saturated fat in full-fat dairy, specifically, may not be as big of a heart-health offender as the kinds in red meats and UPFs.) Not to mention, UPFs like cookies and chips tend to be laden with sugar and salt—a blood-pressure-raising combo—without much in the way of nutritional value, Aparna Srinivasan, MD, a cardiologist at Hartford HealthCare Heart & Vascular Institute at St. Vincent’s Medical Center, tells SELF.
2. They don’t crash-diet or crash-work-out.
Jumping into these kinds of life-altering routine shifts is a no-go for Emily Lau, MD, MPH, a cardiologist and director of the Women’s Heart Health Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. As Dr. Lau tells SELF, “heart health is a marathon, not a sprint,” so anything you can’t sustain long-term is bound to bring little benefit.
And plenty of regimented diets and high-key workout plans can backfire, Dr. Lau says. Overloading on protein, for instance, can up your risk for plaque buildup; and restricting carbs can leave you missing key antioxidants, sending you down the path toward inflammation. Meanwhile, going beast-mode at the gym risks causing an injury that sidelines you from exercise for a while—which is ultimately worse for your heart.
Opting for consistency, instead, when it comes to regular physical activity and good nutrition, is the name of the game for Sergiu Darabant, MD, a cardiologist with Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida. Maintaining these habits long-term is what leads to “normal blood pressure, a healthy weight, and low cholesterol, which then lowers the incidence of heart disease and stroke,” Dr. Darabant tells SELF.
3. They don’t worry about having a “perfect” exercise routine.
Dr. Tolani used to hit the gym three to four times a week, often fitting in an hour-long workout class. But then her career picked up, she had kids, and she found herself waiting to move her body until she could make time for “a 45-minute Peloton ride or a five-mile run”—which rarely happened. Since then, she’s switched to embracing movement however she can do it: a 20-minute power walk, a handful of jumping jacks, dance parties with her kids.
Also crunched for time, Dr. Delphin does shorter bursts of high-key cardio like cycling and rowing a couple times a week. And Dr. Srinivasan peppers each day with activity by avoiding elevators. After all, there’s a measured heart benefit from just not being sedentary for long stretches. And research has consistently shown that some activity is better than none. For instance, just 15 minutes of low-key exercise daily can extend your lifespan, and 15 to 20 minutes of vigorous movement weekly can reduce your risk of dying from heart disease.
4. They don’t switch up their sleep schedules.
Dr. Lau makes a point of slipping into bed and waking up at the same time each day, not just to ensure she gets enough sleep but to maintain sleep regularity—a metric that research suggests is uniquely critical to long-term heart function. An erratic sleep schedule can prevent your blood pressure from dipping in its usual fashion while you snooze, and may trigger inflammation that paves the way for plaque to clump in your arteries. Hence why Dr. Lau tries to “avoid any inclination to stay up past my bedtime, whether it’s to finish work or watch one more episode of that show.” In the same vein, Dr. Delphin aims to “minimize the late-night phone scroll” to keep from throwing off her sleep pattern.
5. They don’t drink from single-use plastic bottles.
It may seem like a small change, but it can have a big impact in reducing your exposure to microplastics, Dr. Agarwal says. (These bottles can leach a ton of microplastics into their contents.) She started avoiding them after a 2024 study uncovered a tie with heart disease: Researchers tested the plaques removed from diseased arteries and found that the people whose plaques contained microplastics were four and a half times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke, or to die, throughout a nearly three-year follow-up period.
Of course, the occasional beverage from a single-use bottle won’t spell trouble for your heart, nor will a rough night of sleep every so often or a steak dinner. Rather than hard no’s, think of this list as offering guidelines that you might aim to follow in broad strokes. As Dr. Lau says, “It’s the little changes that you integrate into your routine over the course of years that will really make the difference for your lifelong risk of heart disease.”
Related:
- 7 Lifestyle Habits to Pick Up in Your 30s if You Want to Live Longer
- 6 Heart-Healthy Foods All Women Should Be Eating Regularly
- I Had a Heart Attack at 34. Here’s the First Symptom I Experienced
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