02 August 2003
Keep your heart healthy
Did you know that every three months you get an entirely new bloodstream, every eleven months every cell in your body has renewed itself, so you have practically new body every eleventh months.
Every two years you get an entirely new bone structure, so in three years you are really born again.
But you have only one heart and you have to keep it healthy. Here is what you can do to keep your heart healthy:
- Consume less fat in your diet. Do not consume more than 40 grams of fat daily.
Take a look at hidden fats in your food.
- Stay away from sugar, refined flour products and carbs high in Glycemic Index (beer, baked potatoes, french fries, white bread etc....). Avoid deep fried, greasy, fatty foods.
- Consume fish and olive oil. A Diet Rich in Long-Chain Omega-3 Fatty Acids Helps Support
A Healthy Heart!
- Consume vitamins and antioxidants daily. They will protect you against radicals in your body.
- Cut down on stress: exercise (hire a personal trainer if you do not know how to do it), walk, meditate and listen to music
- Do not skimp on sleep, take naps
- Eat around 30 grams of fiber daily. Fiber increases the excretion of cholesterol.
- Drink wine in moderation. Researchers at Northwestern University Medical School have found that a chemical in red wine believed to help reduce risk for heart disease is a form of estrogen. The substance, resveratrol, is highly concentrated in the skin of grapes and is abundant in red wine.
Moderate consumption of red wine has been widely reported to reduce risk for cardiovascular disease. Some researchers have attributed this cardioprotective quality to the significant amounts of resveratrol naturally present in grape skin.
- Stay away from processed food like hot dogs, canned soups etc. The ideal diet is raw fruits, salads,vegetables,brown rice, beans, legumes, raw nuts and seeds, lean meat cuts.
- Consume Magnesium. "People need to know magnesium deficiency predisposes them to serious, even deadly, heart arrhythmias" -- irregular and abnormally fast heartbeats or atrial fibrillation -- says cardiac specialist Michael Brodsky at the College of Medicine of the University of California, Irvine. In a British study, taking magnesium daily for six weeks reduced arrhythmias between 25% and 50%.
In new U.S. Department of Agriculture tests, women skimping on magnesium developed irregular heartbeats within three months. Supplements corrected the abnormality.
"Diabetes is a magnesium deficiency state," says Jerry Nadler, M.D., of the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He finds 80% of diabetics have low intracellular magnesium. Indeed, research suggests low magnesium boosts your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by one-third. He says supplements can improve insulin activity and may cut diabetes' risk and complications. Some specialists tell diabetics to take 400mg magnesium daily.
- Consume garlic: garlic lowers blood pressure.
-garlic lowers LDL Cholesterol.
-garlic helps to reduce atherosclerotic buildup (plaque).
-garlic helps to regulate blood sugar
- Supplement with Lecithin: As it supports fat metabolism and has been shown to aid in bringing down high blood cholesterol levels, lecithin can be considered a food component that protects against heart attack and stroke.
W.S. Hartroff, M.D., Ph.D., reported in the American Journal of Public Health that the lack of choline was found to head infants toward high blood pressure. Furthermore, it has been found that a choline deficiency induced tendency to high blood pressure can not be reversed. Interestingly enough, human milk contains lecithin while cow’s milk does not.
Remember you are what you eat, drink, think, say and do!
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