Preventing Heart Disease Part I

Currently, heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States for both males and females. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) may have a genetic component, especially if a family member (commonly a first line family member such as a mother or father) has a premature (before age 50-55) heart attack or stroke. Precursors for CVD include: diet, stress level, hypertension, quality of sleep, lifestyle, lack of exercise and dental hygiene including amalgam fillings (mercury capped teeth). Heart disease, even genetically related, can be less threatening, and in many cases, even preventable with proper diet, lifestyle reform and stress management.

I want to be sure to highlight the potentially number one cause of heart disease-we hear so much about "heart healthy" foods and how they can prevent the silent killer. Yet, an often disguised component to heart disease is that we as westerners live too much in our heads and not in our hearts. Simply put, we live too much in our head brain and not in our heart brain. We are constantly running from one thing to the next, everything is always go, go, go and there is never any down time for our hearts.

To truly lessen the degree of heart disease we quite literally need to start paying attention to our hearts. Stress and emotional instability further causes us to live more in our heads and by doing so we shut off our ability to listen to what are hearts are truly longing for. Eventually, we are forced to slow down when we have acquired heart disease, that is, when the heart has become so shut off from the rest of the body that it now becomes our pathology. However, if we can entrain our mind to our heart we will decrease mental chatter and will live less in our heads and more so in our hearts. This is also a major reason that individuals who are not overweight also have heart disease; above all, emotional stability far outweighs any other preventative method.

So, how does one go about living more in their heart? It can be as simple as taking ten minutes before rising and ten minutes before bed to sit quietly and meditate. Once you get in a steady routine, start increasing the time you spend sitting by 1-5 minutes per week. And just a fore warning to all you meditators out there, don't get frustrated when mental chatter surfaces during your practice. Everyone experiences mental chatter, with the exception to a holy man or an experienced monk. The goal of many meditative practices is to be able to recognize the mental chatter, not get frustrated with it but instead let it pass and refocus on the breath. A great beginning place for meditation is to focus on the breath. Aim for long, relaxed belly breaths with the tongue resting on the back of the front teeth. Another way to get more in tune with our hearts is to find a moving meditative practice such as yoga, qi gong or tai qi.

As far as diet is concerned, the anti-inflammatory diet, outlined in a previous posting, is a great way to prevent heart disease. Some foods that are specific to the heart include:

• Hawthorne berry- must be taken daily for at least a month to start having heart healthy effects; sold in bulk in the herb section and can be made into a tea with mint, also sold in pill form
• Pomegranate- best medicinal qualities are found in the whole fruit, many people drink the juice- however, the juice has far too much sugar and will not have the same preventative effects as the fruit
• Onions, garlic, leeks-all members of the allium family, high in antioxidants and have the special quality of thinning the blood; they decrease the instance of clot formation and decrease cholesterol levels as well
• Omega-3 fatty acids-also decrease clot formation, naturally thin the blood, important for brain function especially in the developing fetus and brain health for adults; Nordic Naturals sells the best quality fish oil specifically cod liver oil lemon flavor (lemon naturally preserves the oil) which should be refrigerated upon buying
• Celery-the number one food for preventing and curing high blood pressure
• Avoiding chlorinated water- this includes drinking, bathing and unfortunately swimming in chlorinated pools. Some facilities are starting to offer salt water pools and my last posting includes a very reputable drinking water filter they also offer a shower filter as well that filters out many chemicals including chlorine. Chlorine wrecks havoc on our arterial lining as well as many other systems in the body. We tend to make things too clean these days and by doing so we add chemicals that kill the germs but also are destructive to us as well
• Cayenne Pepper- Adding a small bit of this medicinal pepper to a few meals per week in the summer can be very beneficial to the heart. A friend of a friend of mine was at work and experienced a heart attack a few years back. He conveniently had a bottle of cayenne pepper on his desk and took the entire bottle. When he got to the hospital his blood work came back normal and he suffered zero damage
• Green leafy vegetables-sauteed kale, chard, spinach, arugula contains numerous phytonutrients that contribute to heart health