It’s important to maintain a healthy lifestyle

Incorporating a heart-healthy lifestyle will help your recovery, and help you both mentally physically. These changes could include:

• A healthy diet can lead to a healthier heart. Eat more vegetables, fruits and embrace whole grains, poultry and seafood whilst limiting salt, sugar and saturated fats.
• Aim to keep a healthy weight. If you are overweight or obese, your doctor may recommend losing weight.
• Physical activity is important. It only takes a small amount of physical activity every day to make a difference.
• Try to minimise stress by doing relaxing activities and spending quality time with friends and family.
• If you smoke, quitting is good for the health of your heart. Speak to your doctor or call Quit line on 13 7848 for support with giving up smoking.

Try to maintain a healthy state of mind

The journey from diagnosis to treatment of heart valve disease can be a mental health challenge as much as a physical one. You need to do all that you can to support your mental health moving forward.

Talking to a professional can help with your mental health. Counselling or psychological therapy can be very useful for managing mental health and your condition. Your doctor can provide you with some options, and give you a referral to a psychologist.

Alternatively, to talk to someone at hearts4heart about any concerns you might have about your valve disease, email [email protected]. We can provide you with answers to your questions from a clinician, or a member of the patient advocate group.