Your Heart Needs A Fighting Chance!

It's important to maintain your entire baseline of health. That's true. But the sudden death of another apparently healthy young athlete, Darryl Kile of the St. Louis Cardinals, shows that cardiovascular disease can be the weak point along that line for many of us.

While in Kile's case, it's possible that the condition was hereditary - his father died of heart disease at 44 - and not entirely preventable, for most of us, cardiovascular disease is something we can in many ways prevent.

Yes, death can come suddenly, but the causes leading up to it often take time so that the cause of death isn't really a heart attack or artherosclerosis, but the things we do that block and harden the arteries and result in a heart attack. It's things like what we eat or don't eat and whether or not we get enough exercise that ultimately kill us.

To give your heart a fighting chance, here are some things you might want to do or avoid. Studies have, in some way, related all of them to heart and circulatory health.

SOME THINGS TO AVOID

Don't eat foods with a high fat content. We know that a regular diet of high fat foods can contribute to heart disease but research now shows that eating a fast food meal that's high fat can have an immediate impact on a person's heart and circulation and even lead to sudden death.

Avoid heavy drinking. Along with it's other bad effects, it can also cause heart failure.

Consider eliminating coffee from your diet. Coffee might interfere with the ability of Vitamin B-6, folic acid, to keep levels of homocysteine in check and homocysteine can increase your risk of heart disease. There is also a link between coffee drinking and high cholesterol.

SOME THINGS TO DO

Eat more fish. Oily fish, rich in omega-3 fatty acids, can help prevent cardiovascular diseases. Fish such as tuna, salmon, mackerel, sardines, and lake trout are best. Besides protecting your heart, fish oil can reduce the risk of stroke and sudden death from an irregular heart beat.

Eat oatmeal. Oatmeal is known to lower cholesterol levels. It can also lower blood pressure to the point where the need for hypertension medications can be reduced.

Eat fruits and vegetables. Five servings daily can lower blood pressure, especially when rich in potassium. And the fiber content can help lower cholesterol.

Eat more frequently! That's right, instead of eating three meals, divide what you eat into smaller but more frequent meals. People who eat frequent, smaller meals have lower cholesterol levels. This has to do with insulin, metabolism, and how fat is stored when you have a big meal after not eating for a time.

Snack on nuts. As sources of magnesium, unsaturated fats, and Vitamin E, research shows that they can cut your risk of sudden coronary death in half.

Drink orange juice. Two glasses of fresh orange juice per day can lower your blood pressure.

Take tea with your meals. Ordinary tea, black tea, can prevent cholesterol build up from what you eat on artery walls significantly improving the function of the cells that line the walls and the ability of the vessels to change in size as needed to circulate blood throughout the body.

Exercise more. People who are physically fit have less inflammation in the body and this reduced inflammation lowers the risk of suffering a heart attack. Walking as little as an hour per week, even at a slow pace, can cut your risk of coronary disease in half. Common recommendations are walking 30 minutes daily or 40 minutes per day 5 times a week.

Enjoy a drink now and then! A single alcoholic drink each day can help lower cholesterol. Moderate drinkers are also more likely to survive a heart attack than non-drinkers or heavy drinkers and are less likely to suffer heart failure. Moderate drinking can make blood less likely to clot, much like aspirin does. It can also lower blood pressure and increase your level of "good" cholesterol.

Stay upbeat. Whether the glass is half empty or half full, the chances of optimists developing heart disease are only half that of pessimists!

Get enough sleep. If you sleep six hours or less each night you may be sleep deprived. Sleep deprivation can cause a form of inflamation that, in turn, leads to heart disease and artherosclerosis.

Lawrence Stepanowicz, ND

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Reprinted from Practical Health. For a
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Copyright Lawrence Stepanowicz, ND