In order to maintain a good health, one must always take care of the heart. Our heart is one of the most important actor in our body and it is also one of the first organs which manifest possible health related issues. Our main goal, as humans, is to prevent any type of illness that may appear, and it all starts with changing our lifestyle and habits. If we manage to restrict ourselves from certain temptations such as junk food and laziness, we can notice immense improvements to our general health.

As all muscles in our body, our heart needs to workout in order to function at its full capacity and at its highest! Moreover, in today's world, many occupations can cause heart problems due to their stationary required activities.

However, you can still improve your lifestyle by exercising at least 30 minutes, for at least 5 days per week at a moderate intensity. Below you can see some benefits of exercising regularly:

Weight loss: One of the main causes of heart related diseases is obesity. By losing weight through exercise not only will create a physical-psychical balance, but will help you live a longer and healthier life!

Reduces Bad Cholesterol (LDL): A high cholesterol level can be one of the most dangerous disease. Due to the fact that it can deposit on the walls of your blood vessels, it can form clots which, if they break off, can cause heart attacks or strokes.

Increases good Cholesterol (HDL): Not all types of fats are bad fats. HDL is one of the good fats that helps removing LDL. Therefore, it keeps your blood vessels' walls clean and reduces the risk of atherosclerosis.

Stabilises Blood Pressure: High blood pressure (Hypertension) is another major factor that can produce heart diseases. Moreover, it is a silent disease. One in three people suffers from hypertension isn't aware of the condition. Exercising will help regulate the blood pressure.

There are a series of exercises recommended for improving health and strengthening the heart muscle. The best course of action in this case is combining Cardio Exercises (Aerobic) with Strength Exercises. Experts suggest the following:

Aerobic Exercises (Cardio): Walking can be a daily activity that is accessible to everyone. However, sport such as Cycling and Swimming can drastically improve the overall health and cardio resistance.

Exercises for building strength: Before you start any activity that implies building strength, it is recommended you stretch in order to avoid injury. Therefore, below you can find a series of activities that will improve your strength and heart muscle:

- Yoga: Yoga provides great exercises for stretching. It is recommended you start with it before any workout to reduce the risk of possible injuries.

- Weightlifting: It helps you increase your muscle strength and impacts the bone density

- Floor Exercises: Squats, planks and lunges are great alternatives if you do not want to invest in weights or gyms.

- Wii Fit: According to the American College of Sports Medicine, Wii Fit qualifies as a great exercise. You can improve your overall health in a fun and practical manner.

Strengthening your heart muscle can be easily achieved with dedication and consistence. Two or three hours of exercise per week can bring you tangible, real results!

Stress is a definitive adjective to the modern world. Moreover, it is extremely dangerous for our health due to its silent nature. However, there are ways you can reduce the stress levels and its effect of the body and heart.

Stress manifests in the body by increasing the blood pressure, increasing the heart rate, releasing adrenaline and much more. This happens instinctively when the brain detects any possible danger around us, in order to activate the "fight or flight" mode. However, if the exposure to such situation becomes daily routine, the stress can become chronic. This has a strong, negative impact on the heart and body.

High blood pressure can narrow the arteries and veins, increases the bad cholesterol level (LDL), hence resulting in the increase of heart related diseases. The high level of adrenaline can affect memory and learning ability and increases the risk of mental illness.

The exposure to high levels of stress can have serious health repercussion. However, no matter how much we try, we cannot avoid all stressful situations. What can be done is learning how to manage them in order to reduce the negative effect on our bodies and hearts.

Exercising - the production of endorphins during exercising reduces stress.

Healthy Diet - maintaining a behaviour of healthy eating can help overcome stressful situations.

Relaxing activities - people have different activities which have a calming effect. Try finding yours! Music can be a great way to relieve stress, too

Meditation - taking time to meditate everyday has proven results of reducing stress.

Slowly breathing - Taking time and concentrating on your breath helps you manage stressful situations.

Seeking Medical Advice - If the stress becomes chronic, visiting your doctor is recommended.

Try the mentioned techniques the next time you find yourself in a stressful situation and you will definitely see immediate results!

The pressure of packing, organizing and buying all the stuff required for the long awaited holiday can be extremely stressful! Holiday season should always be a great time for "me time" and relaxing experiences. However, the adding pressure of the kids not packing the right things or the stress of having everything set up for the dream vacation can ruin everything - including health!

This is definitely the wrong way of preparing for the best week of the year! Here are some ways you can fully enjoy your holiday and manage stress:

Walking: Take your time and focus on yourself! Taking regular walks helps increase vitamin levels, improves sleep, hence creating a better state of mind when organizing your holiday.

Saying no!: You don't have to do everything by the book if you don't feel like it. Every situation has more than two perspectives, therefore, if you just don't want to take part into an activity just say no!

Eating: The good news is that eating help you reduce stress. Although the "go-to" meal when stressed implies junk food and tons of ice cream, we strongly recommend you go for healthier alternatives such as fruits!

Listening to Music: The biggest advantage to listening to music is wearing headphones and not hearing the other family members walking around feeling stressed because they forgot their favorite T-Shirt. Jokes aside, music helps relax the blood vessels and increase blood flows. This helps to relaxation, hence to having the best holiday ever!

As a final piece of advice, in order to have a relaxing holiday and reduce stress and pressure, focus of yourself, exercise and clear your mind!

Fitness Apps are more and more popular among health enthusiasts, and this is why developers started to create more and more. However, not many of them meet all the necessary requirements for being a complete app that takes care of every aspect of a healthy lifestyle! Therefore, we've decided to list below top 5 apps that, together, create the best combination of dietary choices, workouts, coaching, heart monitoring and syncing!

1. My Fitness Pal - My Fitness Pal is one of the best apps when it comes to calories count. Medical studies have shown that one of the best ways to lose weight is to keep track or your food intake. This app provides a complete database containing over 5.000 foods. Moreover, you can also scan the barcode on foods and the app will automatically pull the specifications form its data base. It is a great, useful and free way to keep a journal and monitor your food intake and exercise routine.

2. Strava - A useful app dedicated for runners and cyclist. Strava can be used on iOS devices, Android or any device which has dedicated GPS. Another great aspect Strava brings is the competitiveness. The app lets you compete gains yourself or against other people that have used Strava while running or cycling. Moreover, it records the miles you've traveled, the time speed and, the best part, the heart rate if you wear a compatible heart rate monitor!

3. Training Peaks - Having a clear plan of your workouts can help motivating yourself into working harder in the gym! The app provides scientific tools and methods which have become a standard in the industry and is endorsed by the highest trained athletes and trainers such as Olympians, the Tour de France teams and Ironman World Championship participants! The software runs on iOS devices and it's compatible with more than 100 apps.

4. Garmin Connect - A truly amazing app dedicated to synchronizing the data gathered from all your Garmin sports GPS devices. It syncs the data as it happens and provides features that help you planning and reviewing your workouts.

5. Cardiosource - A software developed by medical experts from the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology in order to help in reducing the number one cause of death in the US - Cardiac Diseases. The app enables the doctors to create a better professional bond with the patients and provides valuable information regarding hearth health! It can also help doctors determine 10 year and lifetime risks for developing atherosclerotic cardiac disease, hence preventing possible ischemic strokes or heart attacks. The Desktop Version of the app can be found on these two links: www.cardiosource.org or www.myamericanheart.org

Hypertension, or commonly knows as high blood pressure, is a silent killer. It is estimated that 1 in 3 people in the USA suffers from hypertension, and half of them are not aware of the condition, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Despite being the number two enemy of public health (tobacco is the number one), hypertension can be managed and it can even disappear if a proper change in our lifestyles happens.

Check for Hypertension: First thing you should do is finding out if you suffer from hypertension. Being a silent disease, hypertension doesn't necessarily manifest through certain symptoms. Therefore, make sure you check it at different times of the day and also visit a doctor if you know other members of your family suffer from hypertension - it is hereditary.

Weight Loss: Having a body mass index exceeding 30, you are considered overweight. People with such body mass index are six times more likely to be hypertensive. Therefore, a good diet and regulate exercises will definitely help you lose weight and regulate your tension.

Stop Drinking Alcohol: Excessive intake of alcoholic drinks is know for increasing the blood pressure. However, a moderate intake does not affect it. A moderate drinking is usually defined by maximum two drinks per day for men and one drink for women.

Quit Smoking: If you cannot quit smoking by yourself, make sure you seek for medical advice. Smoking affects blood pressure because it stimulates the accumulation of fatty material (plaques) on the arteries.

Healthy Diet: A healthy diet is the answer for many medical issues. Blood pressure can be managed by completely changing you eating habits. Reduce salty foods to avoid high blood pressure and water retention.

Contact Your Doctor if Needed: There are cases when changing your lifestyle may not be enough to solve the hypertension problem. Medication can be helpful in such cases, however make sure you visit your doctor for accurate diagnosis and treatment.