While some health conditions and illnesses are unavoidable, others can be linked to our lifestyle choices. For example, smoking and drinking lots of alcohol are both known to raise your risk for various dangerous conditions.

This is also true of heart disease, which is one of the biggest causes of death globally.

Cardiovascular disease, which encompasses all heart and circulatory conditions, is also one of the most deadly diseases in the UK, accounting for a quarter of all fatalities.

With this in mind, an expert took to social media platform TikTok to share six lifestyle changes you can make to slash your chances of heart disease.

Doctor Abeer Berry recommended the following steps:

• Choose anti-inflammatory foods
• Do moderate exercise
• Reduce stress
• Think positive
• Evaluate unhealthy habits
• Get adequate sleep.

Choose anti-inflammatory foods

Diet can be a major contributing factor to your heart health.

Dr Berry said: “Number one is to choose anti-inflammatory food, so you want to cut out processed foods, fried foods and reduce the amount of meat you’re eating. Focus more on fruits, veggies and legumes.”

Get moderate exercise

Even just walking more could help lower your risk for heart disease, she said.

“Number two is to get moderate exercise in and moderate exercise is going to vary from individual to individual,” she explained.

“What might be moderate for one person might be light for another person and so on and so forth.

“The goal is to move as much as possible, so even getting a short amount of swimming, walking or cycling also counts.”

The NHS recommends getting around 150 minutes of exercise a week.

Reduce stress

Stress is known to have a major influence on both our mental and physical health.

Dr Berry continued: “Number three is to try to reduce the amount of stress you have.

“So you should be making time to reflect or have a spiritual moment or time to meditate in order to reduce the amount of stress that you’re dealing with on a day to day basis.”

Think positive

Similar to dealing with stress, this step takes into account your mental wellbeing.

Dr Berry said: “Number four is to think positive. The more that we’re able to think positive and have hope about events in the future the more likely we’re going to have positive health outcomes.”

“It’s difficult to reduce stress and think positive,” she added.

“But we need to keep our hopes up and think optimistically and pray for peace in the near future.”

Evaluate unhealthy habits

This may be a lot easier said than done, especially as some of these habits can be addictive.

“Number five is to evaluate our unhealthy habits like smoking, alcohol and other substance use like drugs,” Dr Berry said.

“And if you are having a hard time stopping this, please seek the help that you need. You shouldn’t be ashamed to seek the help that you need.”

Get adequate sleep

People who sleep less than seven hours a day are at higher risk for cardiovascular events, said Dr Berry.

She advised: “So, make sure you’re getting at least seven hours of sleep a day – do not compromise your sleep.”