10 Easy Steps to a Healthier
Heart
Even if you
follow just the first seven tips below (and don’t smoke, of
course), you’ll reduce the chance of having a heart attack
by as much as 90 percent compared to a typical person your
age!
#1) Walk 30 minutes a day every day, no matter what-and then
call someone.
Walking a half-hour a day decreases the
risk of having a heart attack by about 30 percent. I’ve
found if you succeed at walking daily, you can also succeed
at doing other things to improve health. If you skip, you’ll
start compromising health in other ways too. Calling someone
every day is crucial; that’s the real commitment. Find a
person who’s supportive and will not nag but will call if
you haven’t called her. And by the way, it usually is a
“her.” Men tend to be lousy at this!
#2) Know your blood pressure and do whatever it takes to get
it down to 115/75.
Your blood pressure number may be even more important
than your cholesterol. And you can lower it yourself. The
best way? Getting a little exercise and losing some belly
fat. Why belly fat? The omentum is what hangs over the
stomach. The fat that’s stored there feeds the kidney, liver
and other vital organs. Here’s the hypothesis: When you gain
weight, you add fat inside the relatively rigid “kidney
capsule.” This fat pushes on the kidney, so it says, “Hey, I
need more blood pressure to drive blood through because I’m
getting squeezed by the fat.” So it releases hormones that
cause increased blood pressure. When you lose a little of
that fat, even with just a few pounds of weight loss, your
blood pressure goes down really fast. Cutting back on salt
may help, but for some people reducing sugar and saturated
fat in the diet may help even more. Recently I coached a
patient whose blood pressure started at 160/100, but he
didn’t have any arterial disease. In seven weeks, he had his
blood pressure down to 115/75 with just weight loss, walking
and decreasing sugar and saturated fat in his diet. But if
your blood pressure is over 140/90 and you’re not going to
do these things reliably, then you should probably go on
blood pressure medication. New drugs can reduce blood
pressure without major side effects.
#3) Eat on ounce of nuts a day.
Nuts raise HDL good cholesterol and
decrease inflammation. But they have a heart benefit
independent of those too. We’re not sure why. Nuts have
healthy omega-3 fatty acids, healthy protein and some fiber.
And this tip is easy to do! Nuts that are raw, fresh and
unsalted have the most benefit. You can develop a taste for
them if you give them a chance. But if you want to roast,
say, (shelled) walnuts, put them in the oven at 350 degrees
for about 9 minutes. If you do it yourself, it won’t cause
any bad fats of dangerous chemical acrylamides to form.
#4) Learn your HDL number and do what you can to raise it to
50.
For women, some believe a high HDL is
more important than a lower LDL. We have no idea why, but
study after study shows that the higher the number, the
better (50 is fine). Easy ways you can increase it:
exercise; eat healthy fats, such as olive and canola oil and
nuts. Talk to your doctor about niacin, which raised HDL but
can have side effects. Ask, too, about pantothenic acid, or
vitamin B5, which may also help. While the main function
of statin drugs is to lower LDL, some also reaise HDL.
#5) Eat 10 tablespoons of tomato sauce a week.
This is one of my favorite tips. Tomato
sauce is loaded with blood-pressure slashing potassium.
We’re not talking about salty, fatty sauces, or serving with
a huge portion of pasta. Keep it simple and healthy, and get
a great benefit.
#6) Floss your teeth regularly.
Avoiding periodontal disease prevents
inflammation in the arteries, which helps you head off heart
disease. Most people don’t know that your oral health
affects all your arterial health, and that includes blood
flow to the heart and sexual organs, and maybe even wrinkles
on your skin.
#7) Eat no more than 20 grams of saturated fat a day and as
little tans fat as possible.
Saturated fat and trans fats lead to
inflammation in the arteries. A cinnamon roll may have 7
grams of saturated fat. A 4-ounce slice of roast pork
tenderloin has about 4 grams. Trans fats (partially
hydrogenated oils), found in many processed and baked foods,
are probably at least as bad as saturated fats, and maybe a
little worse.
#8) Read labels and throw out all food that has sugar in the
first five ingredients.
Don’t be fooled by foods that are low in
fat but high in sugar. The sugar causes inflammation. And if
you eat more sugar than you need, it gets morphed into
omentum fat, that dangerous fat around the belly. For a
while in the 1990s, many people used “low fat” salad
dressings that turned out to be loaded with calorie-laden
sugar. And those dressings didn’t contain any good fats like
olive oil, which are beneficial. Healthy fats are better
than empty sugar calories. (Because the sugar in fruit is in
a complex carbohydrate, it’s usually fine.)
#9) Have a glass of grape juice every day.
We’re not sure why; there may be an
anti-inflammatory effect. But the effects found in drinking
a glass of dark grape juice lead to less heart disease. It
is a consistent finding that people who consume grape juice
regularly have less heart disease.
#10)
Eat 9 servings of colorful fruits and vegetables a day.
That comes with a lot of fiber, and you shouldn’t
increase to that amount all at once or people won’t stay in
the same room with you! But you’ll adjust in 2 to 6 wekks.
Make sure you wash fresh produce carefully and thoroughly.
There are farmers’ markets all over the country now. If you
try fresh locally grown veggies prepared well, you’ll be
amazed at how good they taste.
Resources:
Michael F.
Roizen, MD. Taken from Reader’s Digest, February 2007
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