Archive for category Heart Health
10 Easy Steps to Improve Heart Health
Posted by in Heart Health on October 6, 2011
Sea Salt - swap table salt for sea salt – avoid foods with low quality salt already in, and control the amount you consume by seasoning with it only. Instead use more herbs & spices to flavour food.
Improve diet – its not about swapping butter for a margarine with a mind boggling list of unnatural, unrecognisable ingredients. Instead focus on wholesome natural ingredients – vegetables, almonds salmon, walnuts. Cut out refined carbohydrates and sugars.
Coconut oil - although technically classed as a saturated fat, coconut oil can actually protect against stroke and heart attacks. It actually increases HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol).
Countries like Sri Lanka, where coconut oil was a primary fat source, have lower incidences of heart disease. Populations where coconut oil was a key element of their diet also benefit from improved cholesterol readings, lower body fat deposition, higher survival rate, reduced tendency to form blood clots, fewer uncontrolled free radicals in cells, low levels of blood and liver cholesterol, higher antioxidant reserves in cells, and lower incidence of heart disease in population studies.
Exercise -Not only will regular exercise increase fat loss, help weight control & build muscle mass, but it helps lower blood pressure(a major risk factor for heart disease). It also improves circulation, preventing blood clots that can lead to heart attacks and stroke.
Exercise also increases HDL, transporting fat away from the arteries and to the liver for processing, whilst reducing LDL cholesterol that can form fatty deposits and contribute to heart disease.
Fish oils - Higher amounts of two kinds of omega-3, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), may benefit some people with established heart disease or high triglyceride levels and can have an anti-inflammatory effect for people with rheumatoid arthritis. In addition, DHA is being studied to see if it can slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
For heart disease prevention, near-maximum benefit comes from eating two 3-ounce servings of cold water fish a week. Read the rest of this entry »
Exercise for Heart Health
Posted by in Heart Health on October 6, 2011
Score another point for regular exercise. The heart… arguably the most vital organ in your body, is preserved in the elderly by lifelong, consistent exercise according to some surprising new research focusing on exercise for heart health. What’s even more impressive, the heart mass can match (or exceed) those of younger, healthy sedentary adults.
It appears that being active, regularly over a lifetime, works to preserve the youthful elasticity of the heart in old age. Every decade you spend on the couch decreases your heart muscle mass, but for those who get up and get moving – 6 to 7 times every week through their adult life – not only hold onto heart mass, but build it up as well. Lifelong exercisers ended up having a heart mass that was greater than healthy, but inactive, adults in the 25 to 34 age range.
The work included 121 healthy adults without any previously reported heart disease. Just about half (59) were sedentary participants who had been recruited out of a heart study that draws from a very large, multiethnic population in Dallas County. Just over half (62, all over 65) lifelong exercisers were recruited from a long running study that has documented the exercise habits of its participants over 25 years.
The researchers looked at how many aerobic exercise sessions (walking, jogging, cycling) were done each week, and did not focus on either the intensity of the workout, or its duration, though most sessions were longer than 20 minutes.
The participants were divided into four groups, the non exercisers, casual (2/3 times a week) exercisers, committed (4/5 times per week) exercisers and master athletes (6/7 times per week). Measurements of heart mass, obtained through MRIs showed that the sedentary subjects had less heart muscle mass as they got older, while the lifelong exercisers had expansion.
Just four to five sessions a week… lasting over 20 minutes… brought a benefit. Read the rest of this entry »