Many people make New Year’s Resolutions, a common one being to make lifestyle changes and improve their health.

This can be difficult to do alone and campaigns such as BMI Healthcare’s Big Health Pledge offer valuable help and support.

The five big preventable health killers – heart disease, stroke, cancer, lung and liver disease – account for more than 150,000 deaths a year among under-75s in England alone. The Department of Health estimates 30,000 of these are entirely avoidable.

The lifestyle choices you make can affect your general health. You can help to maintain and improve the health of your heart by making small changes to your lifestyle. By eating a healthy balanced diet, maintaining a healthy weight, staying active and stopping smoking, you can help to reduce the risk of developing health problems including heart disease. If you make these changes part of your normal routine, they will become your normal lifestyle giving you more chance of sticking to them long-term.

Regular physical activity is also very important to heart health. It helps your heart pump more effectively, improves circulation, and maintains healthy blood pressure, cholesterol and weight levels. Start slowly and build up your activity gradually until you are doing moderately physical activity for 30 minutes, at least 5 times a week.  Always check with your GP before starting new physical activity for the first time.