Getting a healthy heart - it´s never too late.
Health advice from Dr Miriam Stoppard.
This article was published by Healthspan.
Except in very few people, heart disease overtakes us because the coronary arteries that carry blood to the heart muscle fill up with fat (atheroma) and therefore cannot keep the heart supplied with enough blood to function efficiently and painlessly; especially in emergencies when we´re called upon to make a strenuous effort. The heart pain angina is the result.
Unless you are blessed with genes that keep your blood fats low, keeping a healthy heart means that you have to eat right and regularly put your heart (and lungs) through its paces with moderately strenuous exercise four or five times a week.
The heart healthy diet is low on animal fat and salt and high in fresh uncooked foods and fibre. But over the last 10 years or so we´ve found that there are several foods that are specifically cardio-protective. By cardio-protective I mean they help prevent atheroma either by normalising blood fat levels (eg cholesterol, triglycerides, lipoproteins - HDL & LDL) or by preventing blood fats from being dumped in the walls of arteries, thereby narrowing their diameter.
There is even one heart healthy food that prevents the body absorbing and utilising fats from the intestine. Oats are such a food. All that goo in porridge (soluble fibre) acts like glue which smothers
the fat globules and slows their passage across the intestinal wall. So if you want to keep your blood fat down start the day with a bowl of good old fashioned porridge.
Quite a lot of research has accumulated on the heart healthy effects of tea, this preventative property being due to antioxidant flavonoids.
Then there´s lycopene found only in tomatoes, especially the skins, and easier for the body to assimilate if the tomatoes are cooked. And of course, it´s good to know that red wine is charged with cardio-protective antioxidants which help prevent blood clots, so a couple of glasses a day will be beneficial.
Not all fats are bad. Indeed there are some fats which so powerfully protect the heart that they must be included in everyone´s diet.
We´ve known for some time that fish oils are good for us. The Eskimos suffer very little with heart disease and that´s thought to relate directly to their fish-rich diet - they eat virtually no red meat at all. Consequently their diet contains very little saturated fat, but is very high in unsaturated fat in the form of fish oils. The magic, life-giving ingredients in fish oilsare essential fatty acids, EFAs, and last year fish oil supplements were shown to prevent blood pressure increases in heart operation patients.
We hear a lot about Omega 3 and Omega 6 EFAs - the names referring to their chemical structure - because they help normalise blood cholesterol, and while most of us have enough Omega 6 in the diet
we tend to be a bit low on Omega 3 EFA, unless we eat fatty fish (mackerel, herring, salmon, tuna, sardines) once or twice a week. If you do not eat fish several times a week, cod liver oil is a good way to help keep your cholesterol in the heart healthy range.
And if you think your diet may be deficient in Omega 6 EFAs then an excellent natural source is Oil of Evening Primrose.
Garlic is now known to be almost the complete cardiac ´tonic´. Garlic has been the subject of hundreds of scientific studies with several dozen on its beneficial cholesterol-lowering effects. People who eat garlic regularly tend to have less heart disease. There are ingredients in cooked garlic that help lower elevated blood pressure too, and yet others that lessen the blood´s tendency to form clots.
As a bonus garlic is a promising ally in the fight against cancer, helping the body to neutralise powerful carcinogens. Researchers believe garlic does this with its active ingredient allicin which aids the body´s own immune cells in counteracting tumour growth. Population studies in China and Italy link garlic to less stomach cancer, and in the Iowa Women´s Health Study from the US to less colon cancer, and possibly to combating cancer of the breast, bladder and prostate.
We´ve always known that folic acid is crucial for healthy blood and nervous system but most recently folic acid has been shown to protect the heart by stabilising blood homocysteine levels. A high homocysteine is thought to be a risk factor for atheroma and therefore heart attack and stroke. Folic acid is found in all green, leafy vegetables - the greener the better - in beans, oranges, wheatgerm, wholegrains, brown rice and eggs - and folic acid supplements of course.
Article issued: 2 June 2005
Related FAQs
Search articles |
Printer friendly |
Email this page
|