Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, contributing to more than 22,000 deaths each day. While these statistics may seem alarming, what’s more shocking is that very few at-risk patients actually follow a heart-healthy diet as advised by the American Heart Association.
The Cardiovascular Factor
If you're like most people, you think that heart disease is a problem for others. But heart disease is the number one killer in the U.S. It is also a major cause of disability. There are many different forms of heart disease. The most common cause of heart disease is narrowing or blockage of the coronary arteries, the blood vessels that supply blood to the heart itself. This is called coronary artery diseaseand happens slowly over time. It's the major reason people have heart attacks.
The Cardiovascular System
This is the one of the best videos on the cardiovascular system ever produced. Beginning at conception, watch with awe as the heart forms inside the developing fetus. Watch how humans abuse this vital system that sustains life. Learn how easy it is to protect this life-sustaining system by making wise lifestyle choices.
Study: Diabetes makes heart attacks 50 percent more deadly
Study: Diabetes makes heart attacks 50 percent more deadly
Study: Omega 3 fish oil may help after a heart attack
New research suggests that taking Omega 3 fish oil may help improve heart function in patients who've suffered a heart attack. Dr. Mallika Marshall reports.
How Meal Times Impact Heart Health
When you eat might be as important as what you eat. A new review from the American Heart Association finds eating at certain times of the day can help lower the risk of heart attacks, strokes and diabetes. Cardiologist Dr. Tara Narula joins "CBS This Morning" to discuss the findings.
Dangers of Statin Drugs
Statins act to block the enzyme in your liver that is responsible for making cholesterol. The fact that statin drugs cause side effects is well established—there are now over 900 studies proving their adverse effects - including: Muscle problems, polyneuropathy (nerve damage in the hands and feet), and rhabdomyolysis (a serious degenerative muscle tissue condition) - Acidosis Immune depression- Pancreas or liver dysfunction, including a potential increase in liver enzymes- Anemia- Sexual dysfunction- Cataracts- Memory loss- Increased cancer risk.
Atherosclerosis
Atherosclerosis, hardening of the arteries is a process that often occurs with aging. As you grow older, plaque buildup narrows your arteries and makes them stiffer. These changes make it harder for blood to flow through them. This informative video will show you exactly how to stop this deadly disease from affecting you and your loved ones.
How to naturally lower your blood pressure in one day
In this video shares the top ways to lower blood pressure naturally. There are millions of people around the world who are struggling with high blood pressure. Here are top five remedies to lower blood pressure naturally in 24 hours.
The causes of high blood pressure
High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is the most common cardiovascular disease. Blood pressure refers to the force of blood pushing against artery walls as it courses through the body. Like air in a tire or water in a hose, blood fills arteries to a certain capacity. Just as too much air pressure can damage a tire or too much water pushing through a garden hose can damage the hose, high blood pressure can threaten healthy arteries and lead to life-threatening conditions such as heart disease and stroke. Hypertension is the leading cause of stroke and a major cause of heart attack. In the U.S. alone, more than 30% of American adults have high blood pressure.
Dr. Mercola discusses how to naturally lower High Blood Pressure
Internationally renowned natural health physician and Mercola.com founder Dr. Joseph Mercola discusses high blood pressure causes, symptoms and treatments.
The South Beach Diet
Dr. Agatston, the author of The South Beach Diet, discusses strategies for promoting healthy weight loss and fighting heart disease at the same time.
Dr. Dean Ornish teaches how to reverse heart disease
Dr. Dean Ornish was the first physician to offer documented proof that heart disease can be halted, or even reversed, simply by changing your lifestyle. Based on his internationally acclaimed scientific study, which has now been ongoing for years, Dr. Ornish's program has yielded amazing results. Participants reduced or discontinued medications; their chest pain diminished or disappeared; they felt more energetic, happy, and calm; they lost weight while eating more; and blockages in coronary arteries were actually reduced.
Gut bacteria and heart disease
Gut bacteria may play a role in the development of heart disease, a new study suggests. The results show, when gut bacteria feed on certain foods, such as beef, they produce a compound that may in turn increase heart disease risk, the researchers said. Participants in the study with high levels of the compound, called trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), in their blood were 2.5 times more likely to have a heart attack, stroke or to die over a three-year period compared with those with low levels of the compound. Even among people with no traditional risk factors for heart disease, high levels of TMAO were linked with an increased risk of these cardiovascular events.
Conquering heart disease with CoQ10
The diagnosis of congestive heart failure means that the heart is working inefficiently and pumping blood too weakly. Typical symptoms include shortness of breath with exertion, difficult breathing when lying flat, fluid accumulation in the lungs, and leg-ankle swelling. Congestive heart failure currently strikes five million Americans every year.Most victims are over 65, an age when cardiac muscle CoQ10 levels are sharply depleted (by as much as 72%) compared with people 45 years old. Normal aging causes a severe depletion of CoQ10 in tissues throughout the body, which helps explain why older people suffer more congestive heart failure. It is recommended that people over the age of 50 supplement at least 200 mg of CoQ10 daily in the form of Ubiquinol.
Body fat and heart health
The amount of body fat is one important measure of cardiovascular health. This short informative video discusses the relationship between body fat and heart health. To find your body fat index, go to https://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi .
What Causes a Beer Belly Medical Course
Doctor show - Find out what actually causes a beer belly
Arginine To Lower High Blood Pressure
Arginine is a natural and safe way of lowering high blood pressure. Arginine stimulates our bodies to release nitric oxide, which then dilates our blood vessels and lowers blood pressure. The discovery of this effect won the discoverers the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1998. Exercising shortly after taking arginine accentuates the BP lowering effect.
Best exercises for your heart
We all know that exercise is good for a healthy heart but is there a particular type that is best?
Heart-Health Winner: The Mediterranean Diet
By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Feb. 25 (HealthDay News) — Score another heart-health win for the Mediterranean diet.
Eating a diet rich in olive oil, nuts, fresh fruits and vegetables, along with red wine, helped those at high risk for cardiovascular problems avoid heart trouble better than those eating a low-fat diet, a new Spanish study has found. During a follow-up period of about five years, study participants on a Mediterranean diet that emphasized either olive oil or nuts had a 30 percent greater reduction in relative risk of a heart attack, stroke or death from cardiovascular disease, said study lead author Dr. Miguel Angel Martinez-Gonzalez. He is chairman of preventive medicine and public health at the Universidad de Navarra in Spain. “This is a moderate-to-high benefit,” he said. “The low-fat diet also helped, but to a lesser degree.”
The new findings are published online Feb. 25 in the New England Journal of Medicine. They will also be presented this week at the International Congress on Vegetarian Nutrition in Loma Linda, Calif. The findings echo those from previous research. Martinez-Gonzalez’s team evaluated nearly 7,500 men and women. They ranged in age from 55 to 80 when they enrolled in the study, which began in Spain in 2003. Fifty-seven percent of the participants were women. While the men and women had no history of heart attack or stroke or other cardiovascular problems at enrollment, they did have risk factors such as type 2 diabetes, smoking, high blood pressure or high cholesterol. The researchers assigned the men and women to one of three groups — a low-fat diet, a Mediterranean diet that focused on nuts or a Mediterranean diet that focused on olive oil. On average, the men and women were overweight or obese. In all three groups, the average body-mass index was 30 or close to it, which is defined as obese. The olive oil group consumed about a liter — roughly 34 ounces — of olive oil a week. The nuts group ate about one ounce of nuts a day, including walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds. Members of both groups also ate plenty of fruits and vegetables, as well as fish, and drank wine with meals. They could have white meat but were told to avoid red and processed meats. The low-fat group ate low-fat dairy, breads, potatoes, fruits and vegetables and lean fish. They were told to avoid oils, baked goods, nuts, red and processed meat and fatty fish.
At the end of the study, 288 cardiovascular events had occurred. While 109 of those events occurred in the low-fat group, 96 were in the group that ate a Mediterranean diet with olive oil, and 83 were in the Mediterranean diet-with-nuts group. When the researchers looked separately at stroke, heart attack and death, only the link between the Mediterranean diet and stroke was statistically significant. The researchers found a link between the diets and heart protection, but it did not prove cause and effect, they said.
So why does the Mediterranean diet seem to boost heart health? Martinez-Gonzalez said it’s probably the combination of good-quality fats — both monounsaturated like olive oil and polyunsaturated like vegetable oils — and the wide range of other nutrients.
The findings came as no surprise to two U.S. experts. “I think this is demonstrating again, conclusively, that this is the diet to go on to prevent heart disease,” said Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, director of women and heart disease at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, and a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women campaign. The 30 percent reduction in relative risk, she said, is ”significant.”
Alice Lichtenstein, the Stanley Gershoff Professor of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston, said the new findings are “confirming what we have been saying all along.” The findings are strong, she said, due to the number of people studied and the length of the follow-up. “Essentially, they confirmed what the current recommendations from the American Heart Association and the U.S. Dietary Guidelines are saying,” added Lichtenstein, who’s also a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association.
However, she said, ”the results of this study do not provide a license to start snacking on nuts or adding nuts to salads and yogurt without taking something out of the diet that has an equivalent number of calories. The same goes for olive oil.”
Steinbaum added: “Every time you use butter, just use olive oil instead. Instead of snacking on popcorn, have some nuts.”
The California Walnut Commission is a sponsor of the Congress. One study researcher is on the commission’s board. Another has received grants from the International Nut and Dried Fruit Council. The Spanish government funded the research.
