Heart disease claims a life every year about 1 million Americans, making it the main cause of death for both men and women. Coronary artery disease (CAD)is the most common form of heart disease which can lead to a heart attack.
Only this year, 920,000 Americans will have a heart attack, and they will be close to them without any warning signs.
The heart attack occurs when blood flow to the heart is blocked.
This is often the result of a plaque build-up inside your arteries (atherosclerosis), which can break and create a blood clot that blocks blood flow.
If the blockade is not thrown out quickly, a part of the heart muscle will begin to die and replace it with scar tissue, which can cause serious problems in the future.
For example, the previous infarct (especially if the large area of your heart is damaged) is a risk factor for sudden cardiac action, 2 which is caused by abnormal heart rhythms and can be fatal.
5 Changes in lifestyle can prevent 80 percent of heart attacks
It is remarkable that heart attacks are so common and cause so much pain (emotional and physical) and disability when they can almost always be prevented. You are probably already aware that your lifestyle plays a role in the risk of heart disease (and heart attacks), but you may not have experienced the heart …
If you need some motivation, think about a new study conducted at the Karolinska Institute. It has been found that engaging in five healthy lifestyle habits can prevent nearly 80 percent of the first heart attack in men. Even researchers were surprised at how powerful a healthy lifestyle could be, noting: 3
“It’s not surprising that healthy lifestyle choices will lead to a reduction in heart attack … What’s surprising is the risk of a drastic fall in these factors.”
However, this is not the first time that a drastic reduction in risk is detected. The 2004 INTERHEART study, focusing on heart disease risk factors in over 50 countries around the world, found that 90% of cases of heart disease can be completely prevented by changing dietary and life factors.4
Unfortunately, most people do not use habits in life to their advantage. A prominent study included men aged 45 to 79 years … and only 1% of them engaged in all five “low-risk” behaviors that could prevent a heart attack. So, what are five healthy lifestyle habits?
Healthy diet
Be physically active (walking/cycling ≥40 min/day and exercise ≥1 h / week)
A healthy obstruction of the waist (waist circumference <95 cm or 37.4 inches)
Moderate alcohol consumption (10 to 30 g / day)
No smoking
What is a healthy diet for the heart?
Most habits in a healthy heartbeat are explained to themselves, but the term “healthy diet” is ambiguous … and when it comes to heart health, it’s probably not what you think. Contrary to popular belief, refined carbohydrates, sugar, and processed food are real enemies – not saturated fats that are found in foods such as butter, grease or eggs.
Part of the confusion on fat revolves around the impact on LDL cholesterol, often called “bad” cholesterol. According to a conventional view, high LDL is correlated with heart disease, and saturated fats tend to raise LDL. However, now we understand that there are two types of LDL cholesterol particles:
Small, thick LDL cholesterol
Large “fluffy” LDL cholesterol
This other is not “bad”. Studies have confirmed that large LDL particles do not contribute to heart disease. Small, thick LDL particles, however, contribute to the formation of plaque in your arteries, and trans fats increase the small, thick LDL. Saturated fats, on the other hand, increase large, fluffy-and benign-LDL.
More importantly, the study also showed that small and thick LDL particles increase the amount of refined sugar and carbohydrates, such as bread, bagel, and soda. Together, trans fats and refined carbohydrates far more damage than saturated fats can ever.
Unfortunately, when the cholesterol hypothesis took over, the food industry switched to foods with low-fat content, replacing healthy saturated fats such as butter and grease with harmful trans fats (vegetables, margarine, etc.), and a lot of refined sugar and processed fructose.
An increasing degree of obesity and heart disease clearly illustrates the consequences of this wrong approach. I recently spoke to Dr. Fred Kummer about this topic. If you missed it, I recommend you take a moment to listen to it.
A true healthy way of healthy eating
If you want to protect your heart, you need to avoid trans fat by eliminating all processed foods (which would include most foods for restaurants). You also have to deal with your resistance to insulin and leptin, which is a consequence of consuming a diet that is too big for sugars and grains.
To reduce the risk of heart disease, you must follow the following suggestions, which are explained in detail in the diet plan.
1. Avoid sugar, processed fructose, and grains. This effectively means that you must avoid most of the processed foods
2. Eat a healthy diet of whole foods, ideally organic, and replace grain carbs
• Large quantities of vegetables
• Low to moderate amounts of high-quality proteins (think that they are organically erected, – empty animals)
Would you eat more fruit for your heart?
A study presented this year at the ESC Congress in Barcelona, Spain found that people who ate fruit daily had a 40% lower risk of heart disease and a 32% lower risk of death than for any reason than those who did not. Furthermore, the more the fruit they eat, the lower the risk of heart disease.5 Fruit can be an excellent source of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and other phytochemicals, many of which have anti-inflammatory effects of the heart. For example, a study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) 6 that simply eats an apple daily could help prevent deaths related to cardiovascular disease in those over 50 of a similar degree, such as using a daily statin.7
However, I warn that I eat too many fruits, especially sweet fruits that are common today. Many of the most useful phytonutrients found in the fruits actually have a bitter, acidic or astringent taste and are found in the skin and seeds. In order to satisfy the modern palace, farmers have chosen selective cultivation of sweet varieties over time, which makes fruit far less nutritious than it used to be. However, carefully selected fruits – such as organic apple, blueberries or cherries – can certainly be helpful when eating moderately. Fruit contains different levels of fructose and you would want to avoid excessive fructose consumption to protect your heart. My recommendations on fruit (and fructose consumption) are as follows:
If you are resistant to insulin or leptin (have obesity, diabetes, hypertension, or high cholesterol), which includes about 80 percent of Americans, then it would be advisable to limit your fruit intake. As a general rule, I recommend restricting fructose intake up to a maximum of 15 grams of fructose per day from ALL sources, including whole fruit. Here you can find fructose in common fruits.
If you are not insulin-leptin-resistant (normal weight is without diabetes, hypertension or high cholesterol) and you regularly engage in a strenuous physical activity or manual work, then it is more likely that higher fructose intake will cause health problems. In this case, you probably can eat more fruit without thinking.
However, if you are in category two above, you may benefit from further improvements. Fruits will continue to increase blood sugar and many experts believe that it will increase your protein glycosylation. So, my approach is to consume fruit usually after training, because your body will use sugar as a fuel, and do not raise blood sugar.
Additionally, if you are an endurance athlete, you are likely to escape eating a fairly large amount of fruit because your body will use most of the glucose during exercise and will not be stored as grease. (He said that I still believe that athletes would be well advised to think of adapting fat rather than relying on fast sugars).
If it’s still not sure how strict it is to be, check the levels of uric acid and use it as a guide.
Diabetes increases the risk of heart disease
Metformin, a drug that makes your tissue more sensitive to insulin, is one of the most common medicines for diabetes on the market. However, new studies have shown that metformin is associated with an increased risk of low levels of hormone stimulation of the thyroid gland (TSH) among subjects of hypothyroidism. 8 If TSH levels have become too low, this can lead to serious damage, including heart problems such as atrial fibrillation, which can lead to congestive heart failure.9 Divided studies have also shown that the treatment of type 2 diabetes with reducing drugs Glucose, in fact, show the potential to increase the risk of death from cardiac and all other causes. The researchers observed: 10
Warning on beta-blockers and scientifically bad behavior
Beta-blockers are the most commonly used drugs in the treatment of high blood pressure and congestive heart failure. They work primarily by blocking norepinephrine and epinephrine (adrenaline) neurotransmitters from binding to beta receptors, which dilate blood vessels, which reduces heart attack and blood pressure.
