Damage to your heart can come from a variety of sources including congenital heart defects, high blood pressure and stress, but the most common causes are due to lifestyle choices like smoking, lack of exercise and consuming an unhealthy diet.

Making small changes to your daily life can improve your health and lower your chances of heart disease. Consider the following:

• Add exercise to your day. It’s simple – we need to use up the calories we consume daily to avoid extra weight and give our heart the workout it needs.

• Stop Smoking. We know that smoking contributes to heart disease by damaging the heart and blood vessels.

• Improve your diet. A good rule of thumb is to emphasize a variety of fruits, veggies, healthy proteins, and whole grains. Limit alcohol, sugar and salt.