Do You Have a Healthy Heart?
July 5, 2009 by admin
Filed under Heart Disease
One huge life-changing thing that could hold enormous important in your life is heart disease. Not only will it lessen your entire span of life and cause you pain, but it will do the same for the loved ones that you may leave behind. This does not have to happen, though. Lots of times, heart disease is entirely preventable with simple changes in your lifestyle. In order to have a healthy heart, you should know about its different aspects and tips to prevent heart disease or even completely stop its progression or reverse the effects of heart disease altogether.
Your diet can greatly impact how heart disease impacts your life, if it ever does. Congenital defects could lead to heart disease, as could the consumption of foods rich in fats, cholesterol, salt, and sugars bad foods that could greatly lead to heart disease. Try to add food rich in fiber to your diet, such as beans, peas, and whole grains. Some foods, such as celery, garlic, onions, and celery even have the ability to completely cleanse your arteries that are clogged with fat. They also help lower bad cholesterol levels and stop the formation of blood clots and its build up in narrow arteries. Some foods, like citrus foods, fruits, vegetables, and complex carbohydrates all have components like antioxidants that could also help in fighting oxidizing agents that harm the body and lead to heart disease.
Another option is chelation therapy; although it is not a new invention, it is hardly taken into consideration when it comes to heart disease, for some reason. A main factor that contributes to heart disease is the accumulation of certain minerals in the arteries and inside the heart. To reduce the minerals, chelation therapy is used to break them down to restore the body’s balance. This is mostly effective when a certain man-made amino acid is injected into a person’s bloodstream to take out the extra minerals that are then flushed out of the body by the kidneys.
In order to completely stop or reverse the effects of heart disease, it would help to know the fats in food by heart. Certain meats may contain both saturated and trans-fats, so it is best to opt for lean cuts only. Margarine, butter, shortening, and other things used to fry foods usually contain the worst forms of fat.
There are some good fats out there, however, such as mono-unsaturated and poly-unsaturated fats, which help lower one’s cholesterol levels; as well as triglycerides, which lower one’s blood pressure more factors that could eventually end up in heart disease. These good fats can be found in abundance in vegetable oils, nuts, natural peanut butter, avocadoes, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and seafood. Omega-3 and omega-6 are other essential fatty acids that are important to prevent heart disease and help your heart become healthier, as well.
But even though someone is very conscious about food intake, it is sometimes still not possible to get all the nutrients you need to properly fight or prevent heart disease effectively. In this case, there are some pill or capsule supplements that can be taken, such as magnesium. Magnesium if important for the heart’s health to prevent heart disease and can be consumed through food, as well To strengthen blood vessel walls and protect them from damage, there are some antioxidants you can take, as well, in the form of vitamins C and E. Oxygenation is very important, in order to have good cell health.
There are many things that could help prevent heart disease, but just as many that could lead to it. Some methods may work better than others, so you should experiment to find out what’s best for you. Generally, clean living will lead to good heart health and help you prevent heart disease.
Can Stress Lead to Heart Disease
July 4, 2009 by admin
Filed under Heart Disease
A lot of people believe that stress leads to heart disease, but is there any truth to this belief? If stress does increase heart disease risk factors, what kind of stress are we talking about? For regular people, stress is often seen as emotional problems at work or at home. However, medical professionals say that stress has to do with physical health factors.
Physical stress is actually seen as something good since it is measurable. Exercise, for example, raises the heart rate and can be measured by counting your daily steps. But if you lead an inactive life, the introduction of physical stress isn’t exactly great. In fact, it can become one of the heart disease risk factors.
As long as you are healthy, physical stress is good. But with a lazy lifestyle, doctors will need to introduce you to exercise in order to prevent heart disease.
If heart disease is in your genes or remains undetected, intense exercise will be detrimental for your well-being. Physical stress may cause chest pain, dizziness or fainting, if your heart does not get enough oxygen to work properly. As long as you are in good health, however, exercising and other physical activities should be fine.
When people talk about stress, they oftentimes refer to emotional things, such as a problem at work, a death of a loved one, etc. But how does this affect the heart physically, if it even does? Although emotional stress is definitely harmful, there are still no links to whether this is one of the heart disease risk factors.
Most of the time, heart disease is only incidental when related to emotional stress. Unexpected and huge life changes where emotions go into frenzy may lead to heart disease, but most experts believe that this is predisposed. Does it directly have anything to do with heart disease, though?
Emotional stress is unavoidable but is not necessarily bad. Emotional stress usually leads to a learning experience, most of all when released in a healthy way. Those who have severe emotional angst, however, are more likely to suffer from heart disease.
Stress needs to be released, not kept in; otherwise this could lead to overeating, smoking and drinking, and eventually heart disease. Plus, the ups and downs of adrenaline could work the heart muscle and cause blood clotting that could also lead to heart disease.
Stress does not necessarily lead to heart disease, per se, but it could lead to lifestyle choices that could affect the outcome of heart disease. It is recommended to find exercise programs to help release stress or find someone to talk to, as this could help prevent heart disease in the long run.
Diet Supplements to Combat Heart Disease
July 3, 2009 by admin
Filed under Heart Disease
All around the world, heart disease has become a huge health issue because it kills the most people compared to other diseases combined. What is sad is that most heart disease cases could easily have been prevented. Heart disease shortens your years of life and ruins your lifestyle, but it is controllable. Simply by eating right and working out, heart disease can be prevented or reduced.
It is important to be completely strict when it comes to your diet to fight heart disease properly. Being strict may not be enough to fight heart disease, though; in fact, the majority of people find it almost impossible to really follow a proper diet for a healthy heart since they do not find the food within appetizing. For help in getting the right amount of minerals, vitamins and nutrients, you need to create a healthy body atmosphere.
If you do not have heart disease at the moment, it is still recommended to take some supplements to keep heart disease at bay. Before taking anything, though, it is advised to ask your doctor which supplements would benefit you as a unique individual.
Homocysteine is an amino acid that builds up the blood and the plaque in the arteries. BY taking vitamin B supplements of B6, B12 and folic acid, you can keep yourself safe from this occurrence. Another B vitamin is niacin that could help combat heart disease by lowering your cholesterol and improving blood circulation. Niacin also improves your HDL cholesterol, while lowering your levels of triglyceride.
To get rid of cholesterol oxidation that could ultimately protect your blood vessels, it is advised to take some vitamins C and A, which is important to prevent heart disease.
Fish and flaxseed are rich in omega-3 fatty acids that could combat heart disease in various ways, like lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Its Q10 co-enzyme also helps maintain the heart’s health.
Herbs can also be used and have been used for thousands of years now to prevent heart disease and the symptoms of heart disease. Garlic can prevent the clotting of blood platelets and the sticking of them to fatty deposits in the artery walls. Garlic also lowers blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Gingko Biloba is known to boost blood oxygenation and circulation while ginseng reduces the heart’s resistance to insulin to battle heart disease.
If you do have heart disease and are already medicated, you should ask your doctor what you can or cannot eat and what herbs you can or cannot take. Grapefruit, for example, may stop medicine from being properly absorbed by the body and may cancel its effects entirely. Be sure you know that there are a lot of ways to prevent heart disease and that it can still be reversed with the right supplements and diet.