Dr. Gupta’s Guide to Reduce Your Heart-Disease Risk

Lift Weights

Any workout will lower your blood pressure, cholesterol, and stress levels, but weight-training can kick-start your metabolism so you burn more calories all day.

“We’ve become such an aerobics-focused society that even people who exercise a lot tend to overlook upper-body resistance training,” Gupta says. The simple bench press is one of his favorites. He likes it because the exercise expands the chest cavity, giving the heart and lungs more room and making you less prone to pneumonia as you age.

He also exercises an hour every day. No matter what his mission, or where it takes him, he finds a way to workout. “It doesn’t matter what you do,” he says. “The key is just to get your heart rate up and break a sweat every day.”