February is a month focused on the heart and love, so the challenge this month is to create a helpful article connecting heart health and plumbing.

Happy National Heart Month

When considering heart health and happiness, we came up with a few ways to work plumbing into National Heart Month. For instance, pipes, much like arteries, need to remain clear of clogs. The way to achieve this for both is to avoid putting in the wrong things. For arteries that means limiting the trans and saturated fats, salt and sugar we consume. For pipes that would include keeping grease, liquid drain cleaner and pretty much anything other than water (and of course toilet paper in the right circumstances) from getting into our drains. We discussed what NOT to put in your drains in an earlier post, so today we’re going to make another connection between plumbing and heart health: Stress.

Effects of Stress on the Heart

While stress may not be directly connected to heart disease, it can lead to behaviors that increase heart disease risk, according to the American Heart Association. When stressed, people may choose to drink more alcohol, smoke, overeat or become inactive, all of which can create high blood pressure, damaging arteries in the process.

Deal with Your Stress

There are several ways to deal with stress that do not require medicine. Here are just a few:

• Encourage yourself daily. Speak positively to yourself daily out loud. You can say things like. “I can do this.”; “I’ve gotten through worse.”; “This is going to be a great day!”
• Practice meditation. Mediation is the act of quieting the mind, often by focusing on breathing. There are many ways to meditate and some cool apps out there to teach you how like the Calm app.
• Do something you enjoy doing. Take a walk, read a book, take a class. There are plenty of activities you can do to reduce stress.
• Take a bath. (You knew we’d have to bring it back to plumbing somehow. But seriously…)

Bathing Your Stress Away

Baths are a terrific way to reduce stress. Remember the Calgon commercials? The first one that comes to mind depicted an angry boss, a crying baby, and even a barking dog surrounding a harried woman. Her response was to take a nice, relaxing, water-softened bath. Huffington Post made a great little slide show that brings home our point. Here’s the crux of it:

• Baths can boost brain power with the use of essential oils. (Sage, Rosemary, Cedarwood, etc.
• Baths are calming,
• Make sleeping easier, and
• Can help relieve cold symptoms!

Now that we know how promoting heart health and plumbing can work together, let’s take a look at that tub. If everything is working, wonderful! Go run some warm water, light a candle and soak your worries away. If not, don’t stress! Give Justice Plumbing a call so we can get your stress reliever up and running.