How to Prevent Heart Disease
ByWhat is Heart Disease?
The heart is a pump for blood. Blood carries the nutrients we need to our cells and hauls waste products away for elimination mainly through the liver and kidneys. The heart starts beating in our chest while we are in the uterus and if we live to age 75 our heart will beat about 2.7 BILLION times. It is tough and
Woman's Circulation
resilient but it can be injured. Sometimes because of an accident, poisoning whether accidental or self-inflicted like too much alcohol, genetics and other reasons outside our control, it doesn’t beat that long or that well. The heart disease that killed over 430 thousand U.S. women in 2006 and continues to do so each year is not well understood.
Heart disease causes inflammation of the lining of the circulatory system. After a certain point that is poorly understood right now, the body begins to loose that battle and resorts to plan B. It uses small dense particles of cholesterol to shore up the inflamed weakened lining of the arteries. This is usually a slow process but it eventually closes some of those arteries. The inflammation itself causes other problems in other organs but none so insidious as in the arterial lining.
When the inflammation reaches a certain point, the body begins to calcify these cholesterol deposits. This creates hard plaques and circulation troubles. When plaques rupture inside arteries, clots cut off blood flow to brain, heart muscle, skeletal muscle as in peripheral vascular disease or intestines. This causes pain, sometimes death of some of the muscle and maybe death of the person.
What is a risk factor?
It is a measurable fact that taken together with your total risk factors, indicates the level of risk for a certain health problem. RISK FACTORS are not DISEASES. They do not predict you will have heart disease, they indicate a level of risk, a percentage chance that a disease, in this case heart disease, will occur.
What risk factors can I control?
Risk factors over which you have no control are:
- your sex
- your age
- your family history
- your own history of heart attack, stroke or TIA previously.
Risk factors you do control are:
- Use of tobacco products
- Your level of activity
- Your cholesterol particle size
- Your blood pressure
- Your weight
- Your control of your blood sugar
- Your Triglyceride level
- Your response to Stress
- Good Dental Health
What do we really know about preventing heart disease?
We know a lot about heart disease but our knowledge isn’t perfect. We like gadgets, operations, pills and the latest thing when the oldest thing really matters.
We know when we are fit, trim and eating a healthy diet we are less likely to have any disease. We are less likely to respond negatively to stress when we exercise regularly. What is it that we can do that will reduce our response to disease onset within our body?
Don’t eat too much, eat as much local food as possible and avoid processed food. Pay attention to your body and keep some records. Be aware of how much you eat and its affect on your energy, weight and thinking. Be proactive but not obsessive.
Have a large group of friends, read instead of watch TV and screen out the negative junk in movies, TV shows and the news. Get enough sleep. Your body is made to do work long and slow. Investigate various kinds of activity that mimic work if you don’t have land to work or activities that are fun. I favor for myself Nordic Walking, Swing dancing, the “Shovel Glove” workouts you can find on YouTube.com and some light weight lifting along with lifting my Grandfather’s Blacksmith Anvil I inherited. What are your favorites?
As far as eating and supplements go – grass fed beef has an omega 6 to 3 ratio of 4-1. This is similar to ideal in our own muscles. Grain fed beef have a ratio of 16 or 20 to 1. This is a cause of inflammation. I supplement with a krill oil capsule (500mg) daily to boost my omega 3 fatty acids which help brain, joints, reduce triglycerides, raise HDL cholesterol and help decrease inflammation. Put a live bacteria back into your gut with a probiotic supplement ( I use Jarrow products). I don’t take it daily but will share a bottle of 100 and we each take 3 at bedtime for a couple of weeks a couple of times a year. I take vitamin D3 made from sheep wool lanolin about 1000IU most days of the year since I am inside most days.
Don’t forget to laugh a lot and be a source of laughter.
I can’t say you should do these things. I do them because my research has indicated that they are beneficial. Talk to your doctor, chiropractor, naturopath etc… Consider their motivation for giving you great advice.
I hope you will come back, become a subscriber , leave comments and tell your friends about us. So, I have a motive. Some people want to tell you something and others just like to be right. What do you think mine is?
Tell me your thoughts. Ask me a question. What have I missed? Where do you think I am wrong? If you think it is the meat thing and want me to be a vegetarian like you I am for it. I just want the animal to eat them first and I will eat the animal.
Bruce Bair
OK, you have read it. Now tell me what you think. Leave a comment below. You have to enter an email address that is valid to not be considered spam. I am not going to use it unless you ask me to respond. I never give them away. Just use your first name and a website isn’t necessary unless you have one. Then your name becomes a link to it. If you have never commented here before, I have to approve it the first time. Don’t be afraid to speak your mind, especially if you love us and want to tell us how great we are. You might also like this post on
Cholesterol or this one on Heart Attacks in Women
I’m not too sure what you have missed, Bruce as I know very little on this subject.
As a worker from home, I know I have to be active and I am. I exercise 5 to 7 times a week and the benefits of doing so are great.
I just need a little more discipline on the food intake!
Andrew
Andrew, To thy own self be true! Just don’t fool yourself. That is why you need a good medical
practitioner to look you over and tell you what they think.
Hi Bruce, turns out the heart and life itself depend on each other completely. One without the other would be like one hand clapping. To think both entirely depend on each other, yet at the beginning there’s but one. The ol’ chicken ‘n egg mystery. I think it’s great how you cover the whole spectrum of heart disease, and how you engage and involve the reader by asking directly for opinions and feedback.
Thanks Beat, in the words of Mr Spock – Live long and prosper!
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Hi Bruce,
Man you have covered about everything. I have the high cholesterol problem. Got that from my father. I to take fish oil for that and Nicino. Seems to be working. Tried the perscribtions stuff, but had trouble with that making my legs weak.
I’m just not one for medication and if I can do things the nature way, that is the way I go.
Thanks for all the info and keep it up.
Debbie
Debbie,High cholesterol is relative. There are studies that show women with higher
cholesterol live longer if they are over 60. Really, what we know now is that
the size of your cholesterol particle is more important the the total. If you
have lots of tiny HDL particles it isn’t good.
Nice, Bruce.
I like your take on being a vegetarian. Tasty meat wrapped veggies… yum.
And the point about laughter is priceless. It seems the power of laughter is often mentioned, but seldom applied. Too bad.
I’m curious. Where can you find grass fed beef (is it typically labeled as such)?
keep smiling,
Benjamin
Ben, You can buy grass fed beef at local markets like whole foods or the fresh market or
at your local farmers market.
Bruce, I exercise and eat almost well. (it’s that dang sugar) and laugh and have fun, but I notice that some older people or friends of my parents who do even better than I on this front still have heart attacks and strokes. Still, I’ll do what I can to give my heart the best shot. thanks for the reminders!
Michelle, Life ain’t perfect and we don’t understand it all that well.
You do what you can and then life takes its course. I wish
I had a full proof system, but I don’t, just the best advice for
now. You really have to listen more to that voice inside, it
knows what you need to do!
Hi Bruce -
This amazed me.
“The heart starts beating in our chest while we are in the uterus and if we live to age 75 our heart will beat about 2.7 BILLION times. It is tough and resilient but it can be injured.”
My family lives to their middle 90′s. My Uncle Cecil lived until 100 and was still doing his own tax returns and
had a big drink of bourbon before lunch and another before dinner.
He also smoked unfiltered Camels.
He died while putting on his socks while sitting on his bed after a shower. The doctor said his heart just was tired of beating. Wonder how many beats he had.
Since I don’t do all the things you suggested, I am counting on my DNA.
How much does that measure in?
Corinne,
Genetics and your attitude count for a lot.
You are full of life and that counts for a lot.
I don’t know what to think about Uncle Cecil
or my Grandfather also. I think they would have
been winners in Las Vegas too, but most of us
aren’t.
Pretty amazing what the heart can do, and the abuses we deal out to it. After nearly 2 years of laziness I’ve recently started exercising 5 times a week and feel a world of difference. I hope that includes my heart thanking me!
Hey Joel,
Congrats on the new habit.
You will reap rewards and the thanks
of your body – just listen to it.
In recent years (?since passing 50) I’m more aware of my health and the fact I’m overweight. I take a fair amount of exercise, but I think watching what you eat is crucial – we forget how much rubbish we consume! Valuable post
Thanks David! Most of us need tweaks, not make overs.
It is our habits not the out of the ordinary things we do
that create our life and our “health”.
Bruce,
You look so handsome in your bio photo! Very nice!
It seems like this information about heart disease can’t be repeated enough. Each person decides in their own way and in their own time about how they want to care for their heart. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve arranged my life around taking better care of my health. It works for me to keep things as simple as possible. Besides food and sleep, I manage the people around me too. I stay away from people who constantly complain.
Thanks for the compliment Cheryl.
I agree with you completely. Toxic people
can ruin your state of mind and that can
be worse than any food or lack of exercise.
I really believe your attitude is everything.
My patients often ask me why I never get
sick. I tell them I don’t intend to.
2.7 BILLION times???
I think I REALLY gotta take better care of my heart.
Thanks for the info.
You are welcome Raymond!
Hi Bruce,
Thanks a lot for again reminding us to watch and take care of our health and the whole system especially when it comes to the most powerful beating muscle which is the heart. Thankfully, I’ve had the mindset of “How can you be considered successful enough if you’re getting weak?” Thus, I always say to myself that the more I want to be successful, the more I want to take care of it and watch it as I age.
My favorite sets of workout is hitting the gym to lift some weights as well and also cycling. I workout for at least 1 hours and at most 2 hours as I get up in the morning pretty early around 6 to 7. I’d be glad if we could lift weights together too and be my gym buddy!
Have a great day!
Tyrone