All About Heart Disease

It is not a secret that vitamins are essential for our overall health. To get the required amount of vitamins it is important to maintain a well-balanced diet. However, nutrients we consume from our daily diet may not be sufficient and our body may need additional supplementation to maintain its proper functioning. Supplements are not intended to treat diseases, but are of value to supply body with enough essential nutrients and vitamins to improve health when taken properly under doctor’s control.

Want to keep your heart healthy and reduce the risk for heart disease? Then supplement your body with these nutrients and pills that are good for your heart health.

Aspirin – an anti-inflammatory drug that helps thin the blood, making it more difficult for the body to form clots. One 80 mg aspirin tablet daily should be taken by anyone who is over 50 and has such risk factors as a family history of heart attack, high total cholesterol level, sedentary lifestyle, previous cardiac event or hypertension.

Omega-3 fatty acid is helpful in balancing blood lipids. Fish oil helps prevent heart attacks because it slows down the build-up of plaques in the arteries, promotes blood vessel dilation, reduces stiffness and improves vascular function. A serving of oily fish like mackerel, salmon and tuna or 1,000 mg in capsule form daily is helpful for people with high triglycerides and those at risk of heart disease.

Vitamin D is essential because it helps the body to properly absorb all the beneficial aspects of zinc, iron, calcium, magnesium and phosphate. Doctors recommend taking this supplement for treating high cholesterol and hypertension – issues that affect blood vessels and overall health. Dairy products, fish oils, beef liver, egg yolks, regular exposure to sunlight or 400 to 800 IU a day will help maintain consistent levels of this vitamin.

Coenzyme Q 10 helps the body generate energy via aerobic cellular respiration and is known to improve muscle function as well as increase heart contractility. It also fights free radicals, promotes arterial health and helps maintain healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels. 100-200 mg a day is especially beneficial for older individuals, patients with heart failure, hypercholesterolemia and those taking statins.

Niacin or vitamin B3 is naturally involved in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. It supports healthy cholesterol levels and is a potent vasodilator. It is effective at high doses, which must be taken under doctor’s supervision like any other vitamin supplement for heart, and is recommended when there is a genetic predisposition to heart disease, low HDL levels, atherosclerosis issues and previously suffered cardiac arrest.

What are the possible factors which could help reduce heart disease? Do you know? Most people do not have any idea that the common things we use in our daily life can also do heart disease prevention. Heart disease is one of the diseases which can endanger person’s life all of a sudden as a result of heart attack or heart failure. There are hundreds of reasons for a sudden heart failure in people no matter what age they are of.

Chocolate!

One of the most commonly used things is the delicious chocolate used by every other human being at least once in a month in one form or another. If people know about the importance of this important ingredient they would definitely increase its use to do heart problem prevention in their lives. Doctors recommend people to do chocolate consumption on daily basis in any form to prevent cardiac diseases. Dark Chocolate is significantly recommended since it contains large amount of nutrients which are good for a person’s health. It contains antioxidants which help reduce heart diseases. It has abundance of fiber, magnesium, iron and potassium which have the ability of heart disease prevention. Knowing about the heart disease prevention diet is very important these days, since the heart disease is widespread in almost every country of the world.

Chocolate maintains a good blood flow

One of the most important reasons of using chocolate for heart problem prevention is its ability to smooth en the blood flow in a person’s body. It not only smooth ens the blood flow but also lowers the blood pressure which becomes the main reason for the heart attack in most of the cases. Cocoa has bio active elements in it which accelerates yet smooth ens the blood flow in the arteries and ultimately results in lowering the blood pressure. The anti-oxidation elements in Cocoa restricts the cholesterol to get accumulated in the arteries which becomes another big reason of a heart attack. In this modern world, cocoa is considered as a medicine to ensure better cardiovascular health. It does not only have a magnificent taste but it has large healthy benefits for a human body. People should use the diet which reduces heart disease risk and contribute to heart disease prevention and treatment. People should follow heart disease prevention tips to avoid cardiovascular mishaps in their body.

Other ways to reduce

The smooth functioning of a human body is essential for a health life and this article will tell you about the heart disease prevention to some extent. The smooth blood circulation in the body is essential for a smooth functioning of heart which can only be made possible through using diet.

Reduce heart disease through intake of healthy foods

Over weight of body do not result to reduce heart problem but oppositely is complementary to cause it. Mostly people with more weight have to experience the heart disease which can become deathly if not taken care of properly at appropriate time through right heart prevention tips. In most of the cases, the doctors’ recommendations include the reduction of weight in the heart disease treatment. They pressurizes the patient to reduce his weight to help burn the calories and reduce the cholesterol level which is often the main reason of cardiovascular diseases.
• The patients with heart diseases should take healthy diet including rich amount of whole grains which is mostly present in brown rice and bread.
• Olive Oil should be made a significant ingredient of the food.
• He should eat sea food on regular basis instead of red meat which is not so healthy for any human body if consumed in abundance.
• There are many brands available which offers low fat or fat-free dairy products. To prevent the health disease one should make the low fat eatables an important food on regular basis.
• Sodium is not good since it increases the blood pressure. That’s why whatever that has rich sodium in it should be avoided.
• Fruits should be taken in abundance.
• Fried food should be avoided and preferably grilled or steamed food should be taken in heart prevention diet.

Exercise is best to have a healthy life!

Not only healthy foods but there are many exercises which a person can do to help. Doing exercise on daily basis, keeping your body fit and used to of a stressful activity can help a lot in dealing with the cardiac diseases and coping with them on a long term basis. What is heart made up of? It is made up of muscles which need to stretch and exercise all the time. When a person exercises, his heart starts pumping the blood all over the body and starts functioning with greater efficiency. This will keep the heart’s life to live longer. Exercise on regular basis is very important for a human body for burning calories and decreasing the amount of accumulated cholesterol. It is common to know that exercise keeps the heart flexible in pumping blood out and keeps the blood pressure normal. Doctors recommend that every person should exercise for at least 30 minutes daily to keep the body fit and healthy. Yoga and jogging at an appropriate rate of running is considered good for the heart disease prevention as well as treatment. The healthy heart burn off your stress and makes you sleep better which ultimately results in a healthy and fit life. These heart prevention tips should be adopted in his/ her life to live longer.

Many people are diagnosed each year with mitral valve prolapse, which indicates that one or both of the mitral valves aren’t opening and shutting correctly as blood is pumped from the top part of the heart to the bottom part where it then goes out to the rest of the body. This diagnosis infers that the valve is prolapsed due to a structural problem with the valve itself, requiring surgical correction or replacement to correct the problem.

People usually go to the doctor with symptoms like lightheadedness or fainting (syncope), racing heart when standing (tachycardia), gastrointestinal issues, general fatigue, low blood pressure, numbness, brain fog, etc., and when tests indicate that blood flow through the heart isn’t right, or it looks like the valves aren’t opening and shutting right, then the diagnosis is often mitral valve prolapse. Then for some reason, this diagnosis infers that there is something structurally wrong with the valve. What’s important to keep in mind about this diagnosis is that the dysfunction of the valve may not be a structural defect that requires surgery–it may actually be a dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system or dysautonomia that is actually behind the valve not operating properly.

As you might guess, mitral valve prolapse often has symptoms similar to dysautonomia symptoms. And when they can’t put their finger on exactly what is causing the valve dysfunction or the group of symptoms, they call it MVP syndrome–which is actually dysautonomia when you get down to the details. Fortunately, many forms of dysautonomia can be treated and effectively with a variety of natural treatment options including nutritional supplementation, exercise, maintaining proper water and electrolyte balance, and other things that don’t require surgery.

Granted, in some cases there is a structural defect or problem with the valve that does require surgery to correct. But if there’s any doubt at all about that, it can be more than worth your while to seek the opinion of an autonomic disorder specialist or dysautonomia doctor and at least let them run a few tests, and certainly before undergoing surgery. And the best places to do that is to Google something like dysautonomia doctor or dysautonomia treatment center. Even if there isn’t one locally where you are, it can be worth it to travel to a top-rated clinic and get some definitive answers before you start other treatment protocols. It is far better to be as clear as possible about what is going on and then begin treatment than to start treatments when you’re not sure.

If you have elevated cholesterol, high blood pressure and or belly fat you need to read this article. It will help you understand why taking medication is not the only answer or choice to reducing cholesterol. I will share with you a general understanding of how stress drives up cholesterol, blood pressure and belly fat.

Elevated cholesterol is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and a big concern for many. The first question to ask is where does cholesterol come from? The research shows, 15-30% of the total blood cholesterol comes from your diet depending on what you eat. Over the last 25 years or so there has been a huge public awareness campaign for people to stop eating cholesterol. So we see food packages with a “no cholesterol” label.

And here is a key finding… many have actually reduced their cholesterol intake yet they may still have elevated cholesterol in their blood. How is this happening?

Your body makes cholesterol in the liver and this may account for some 70-85% of the total cholesterol in you blood.

So even if you eat zero cholesterol your body would make all it needs in the liver.

A smart question to ask is why is my body making cholesterol? What is stimulating it to produce it and an even better question would be how can I slow it down? What is becoming very clear in the research is that one of the strongest stimuli on the liver to produce cholesterol is… insulin! Yes that’s the hormone involved in blood sugar management.

Insulin is a very powerful stimulus that tells the body to store energy and produce cholesterol. In the liver it turns on enzymes that produce cholesterol. Insulin also stimulates the liver to make more LDL the “bad” cholesterol.

Now you are probable asking, what makes my insulin levels go up? Great question. One of the biggest components is your diet and specifically your intake of the sugar spiking foods. We call these the High Glycemic foods. It can also be the excessive intake of carbohydrates which as a society we take in way to many.

Nutrient insufficiencies can also contribute to “insulin resistance”. This means the insulin receptors that help bring down blood sugar don’t work quite right so the body compensates and produces more insulin to get the job done, to drive the sugar into the cells.

There are also other factors at play that alter you physiology to increase insulin.

One very key player is lack of sleep. Reducing your sleep from 8 hours to just 6 hours a night for 7 days can greatly increase your insulin production. (It will also increase hormones that make you eat more as well reduce your satiety so you don’t feel full and keep eating.)

And finally the elevated stress hormone, which is called cortisol, also drives up insulin in turn driving up cholesterol production. Cortisol elevates blood sugar and insulin reduces it thus they work in opposition. Chronic stress drives up insulin, which in turn drives up cholesterol production. It is also interesting to note that lack of sleep also greatly drives up cortisol levels and feeds forward this cycle. Cortisol also directly acts directly on the liver to increase cholesterol production.

The story doesn’t stop here. It has been know for a long time that elevated blood pressure is part of the “ticking time bomb” of cardiovascular disease. Often many have elevated cholesterol and elevated blood pressure and maybe even belly fat at the same time. Insulin also working through multiple mechanisms contributes to “vascular inflammation” which is what drives up blood pressure (BP). And chronic stress also causes elevated blood pressure directly.

Earlier it was stated that insulin promotes storage of fat. It does this everywhere on the body including the belly area. The fat tissue around you organs is unique in that it has high levels of cortisol receptors. What this means to you is…

when you are chronically stressed, the fat cell are continually getting the signal to “store fat”.

The external “symptom” is that you gain belly fat. It is a sign that your physiology is out of balance and has been for a while. Simply cutting calories is not the answer to reducing belly fat.

It is vital to understand that belly fat sits in you not on you. It sits deep within your abdominal area around your organs where it causes damage. It is the most dangerous type of fat.

There is a condition called Metabolic Syndrome which to simplify we could say is kind of like “pre-diabetes”. Some of the “symptoms” include elevated blood pressure and or cholesterol, and or elevated LDL and low HDL and belly fat. Can you see how these pieces of the puzzle work together to give or take away your health?

Elevated cholesterol is not your problem.

Your out of balance physiology which is driving up cholesterol production is. And that’s most likely due to your lifestyle. You have complete control over these factors! As a matter of fact the major governing bodies that recommend treatment to doctors recommend diet and lifestyle before medications!

Now, you could use medications (statin drugs) to bring down your cholesterol. And they can do that but they do have some negative effect associated with them namely muscle pain and fatigue. Or you could work “upstream” and take actions which give you direct control and which directly target the root cause of your elevated cholesterol (and other risk factors!). What’s your choice?

Some key solutions include: Improving the amount of your sleep to the recommended eight hours per night, focus on reducing stress in all the different areas of your life (workplace, home life, life purpose, mission, direction, reducing sources of inflammation, financial stress, etc) that is the key area of my writings. See website Stress Reduction Stress Relief to get more free training videos.

And also key is reducing your intake of high glycemic carbohydrates, reducing intake of “liquid candy” and boosting your diet with key nutrients to overcome any shortfalls (multi vitamin-mineral).

Increasing both soluble and insoluble fibers will help to stabilize blood sugar, reduce insulin as well as bind cholesterol before it enters your blood which all bring cholesterol down.

I can also strongly recommend and encourage you to move more. Can you move more for fun, joy purpose and socialization? Of course you can. Exercise helps tire one out so we sleep better, it works better than any medication to improve insulin resistance and lower insulin levels, it help “burn” stress and fat and it gives our bodies muscle tone which is sexy! NICE. We did it as kids and we can do it as adults.

I hope this article serves you well and shows you how stress drives up your cholesterol, BP and belly fat. I also hope it empowers you to take control of your health.

Heart diseases are attenuating the people and among the leading cause of death across the world. The symptoms of a heart attack are not universal to everyone, and certain risk factors make some people more likely to have cardiac diseases. And if we talk about the risk factors associated with it, they are categorised as modifiable and non-modifiable. Risk elements that can be controlled like weight and other habits are modifiable, while risk factors like genetic disorders that can’t be controlled are non-modifiable. So it is quite clear that by choosing healthy habits and lifestyle you can mitigate the heart diseases and can have a healthy heart.

A healthy lifestyle can help you in a great way to control your blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar level and stress, which will allow you to prevent heart attack and also dwindle the chances of developing the heart diseases. And it is quite easy to have a healthy lifestyle and can be achieved by adopting some healthy habits like a regular workout, eating healthy food, maintaining body weight consistently, cessation of smoking and usage of other forms of tobacco and restrained use of alcohol.

A regular exercise or workout session primarily contributes towards maintaining a healthy body weight and can keep control over cholesterol and blood pressure. Simple activities like walking your dog for 30 minutes every day, performing some garden work or even cleaning your house are counted as exercise as it will allow you to balance your caloric intake. It should not be intense rather these mild activities if developed as a habit can largely contribute towards achieving a better heart condition.

Your diet can largely contribute towards preventing cardiac diseases. Choosing a healthy meal and snacks option will allow you to avert the heart diseases and its complications. Eating foods that are low in saturated fat and cholesterol can aid in preventing high cholesterol and limited use of salt or sodium in your diet can keep control over your blood pressure level. Your diet should have plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits as they are rich in fibre and can prevent any heart-related problems in an excellent way.

Cigarette smoking and use of any other form of tobacco mainly contributes towards the development of heart pain and other cardiovascular diseases. So for a healthy heart, it is always advisable to quit smoking and use of tobacco. Further excessive consumption of alcohol is also dangerous for your heart as it causes high blood pressure and it should be avoided. People who don’t smoke or have limited alcohol consumption have minimal chances of developing coronary ailments.

Stress leads to loss of sleep, headaches, pain and can even exhaust your body. It affects everyone in one or different ways and chronic stress makes the working of heart difficult. And those who are experiencing stress for over an extended period are more likely to develop heart problems. There are many healthy habits like yoga, regular exercise, having enough sleep, letting off worries by spending time with family and friends that can reduce the stress to a great extent and keep your heart healthy.

Diagnosis of a heart problem has always been frightening, but your healthy lifestyle habits can mostly prevent the chances of developing cardiac diseases. Your healthy habits can better be looked as your strategy to overcome any heart problem.

In order to understand how stem cells are useful to us, we first need to understand what these cells are. Stem Cells start in the embryo as immature biological cells, then become specialized to create bone, muscle, skin, the heart, the brain, and over 250 other types of specialized cells. This is why they are of such value to scientists doing both basic research in the lab and medical research in the clinic. They have the potential to regenerate tissue and cells that have been lost because of disease or injury.

Stem cell therapy has been used to cure a number of health conditions such as heart diseases, neurodegenerative ailments, and diabetes, with bone-marrow transplant being the most commonly used for this type of therapy. There are many ways in which this cell therapy can be conducted, however, stem cells derived from the umbilical cord blood are the safest to use for treatment. Moreover, these cells from young individuals possess superior naivety and plasticity than those from adults.

Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) is the most commonly found abnormality at birth, where the structure and function of the heart is not normal. In 2014, this congenital anomaly affected more than 1% of live born infants and accounted for more than 2.5 million affected children per year worldwide. CHD now occurs in approximately 7-8 out of 1000 live births, a slight improvement. Recent estimations reveal that up to 80% of newborns and infants with CHD are likely to reach adulthood, which can result in a high likelihood for complications later in life.

The cause of congenital heart disease is usually a combination of genetic and environmental factors. While some congenital heart diseases can be treated with medicine alone, others need to be treated with one or more heart surgeries.

In 2006, research at the Boston Children’s Hospital revealed that the heart has its own source of stem cells. These cells can form two major types of heart cells: myocardial cells (the muscles that, together, contract to make the heart beat) and smooth muscle cells (the lining of the heart’s blood vessels). This finding by Stuart Orkin, MD, and Sean Wu, MD, PhD, gave researchers a better insight in to how the heart forms, and also gave fillip to the concept of treating diseased or defective heart tissue with heart stem cells.

In January 2013, a study led by Bernhard Kuhn at the Boston Children’s Hospital found for the first time that young humans (infants, children and adolescents) are capable of generating new heart muscle cells. These findings gave rise to the possibility that scientists could stimulate production of new cells to repair injured hearts.

A team of researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital reported in PNAS Early Edition (July 2013 issue) that they were able to create blood vessels in laboratory mice using human stem cells. The authors explained that using stem cells to repair or regenerate blood vessels could eventually help treat human patients with cardiovascular and vascular diseases.

Stem cell based strategies to cure heart failure in adults have been investigated with promising results; however, stem cell therapy strategies for the pediatric population with heart failure are in its infancy. Further clinical trial studies will be needed to understand the cell biology in order to optimize their regenerative potential.

When it comes to cardiovascular disease or CVD, there are two types of risk factors – those you can control and those you cannot. Knowing the different risk factors, both controllable and uncontrollable can help you take proper steps to stay healthy and keep problems at bay.

Factors You Can Control

Hypertension

Hypertension or high blood pressure is the leading cause of premature death due to cardiovascular disease. The high pressure overworks and weakens the heart muscles, resulting in cardiovascular problems. Those who have hypertension are also more likely to develop other complications.

Diabetes

Diabetes or high blood sugar increases the risk of cardiovascular problems about 2 to 3 times. The higher the sugar levels, the higher the risk. Unfortunately, diabetes is often diagnosed too late, resulting in serious complications such as strokes, blindness, amputations and CVD.

Sedentary Lifestyle

Leading a sedentary lifestyle is the 4th leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Insufficient physical activity can put you at higher risk for hypertension, diabetes and obesity, all of which are precursors for CVD. Engaging in at least 30 minutes of moderate intensity activity 3-4 times a week can lower your risk significantly.

Obesity

People who are overweight usually also have high blood sugar, high blood pressure and glucose intolerance. All of these conditions put considerable pressure on the arteries and heart muscles, resulting in cardiovascular disease.

High Cholesterol

Statistics indicate that high cholesterol is responsible for about 1/3rd ischaemic heart disease globally. When your cholesterol level is high, fatty deposits form within the blood vessels. These fatty deposits narrow the diameter of the blood vessels, obstructing the free flow of blood to the heart. This insufficient blood flow weakens and damages the cardiovascular muscles increasing the risk of stroke.

Using Tobacco

Smoking or ingesting tobacco hardens the arteries and obstructs blood flow to the heart. As much as 10 % of all related problems are related to tobacco use, especially smoking. Some studies have shown that the risk reduces significantly within 2 years of abstaining from tobacco use.

Unhealthy Diet

What you eat plays a huge role in leading to cardiovascular disease or protecting you from it. Consuming too much salt, processed foods or saturated fats and not enough vegetables, fruit and fish are detrimental to the health of your heart. A healthy diet consisting mainly of vegetables, fruit and fish reduces the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity, which in turn reduces the risk of related disease.

Uncontrollable Risk Factors

Age, gender and family history are the three uncontrollable risk factors for CVD. While the factors themselves cannot be controlled, going for regular checkups is necessary so that proper precautionary measures can be put in place.