2 ways to slash your risk of heart attacks....

Today's post: Friday, 4-3-2009

Statistically there’s an excellent chance you have one or both of two unusually common risks for heart attack and heart disease.

The really good news is that one is easy and cheap to fix. And the other, though it takes more effort, is not only fixable & doable – it has multiple benefits that make it well worth doing.

First, here’s the bad news on how many people in the United States have these two risks.

1. A recent study found 75% of people here have low blood levels of vitamin D.

(People spend much less time outside or wear sun screen & try to cover up when they do. So their bodies make far less vitamin D than even was true 100 years ago. In addition, it has only recently been realized that for people today the real minimum daily requirement for vitamin D3 from supplements is closer to 2,000 iu a day with the optimum closer to 3,000 iu a day. So even people who take multivitamins with 400 iu do NOT get enough to have desirable blood levels of vitamin D. Plus many people don’t even get that much because they don’t take a multivitamin.)

In addition to the other benefits we are now learning of getting enough vitamin D, doing so helps prevent heart attacks in two ways.

But the bad news is that means that the 75 % with low blood levels of vitamin D are at risk for heart attacks and heart disease because they are missing that protection.

2. A recent study found that 17.9 % of people have triglyceride levels of 200 or more, which is quite high. And, 33.1 % of people have triglyceride levels between 150 & 199 which is moderately high. That means that 51 % of us have high triglyceride levels.

But research reported to me by a researcher at Stanford has found that high triglyceride levels, particularly when combined with low HDL levels are an accurate indicator of the amount of the dangerous small particle LDL that builds up in your blood vessels and, over time, causes heart disease, high blood pressure, and circulatory problems – hear attacks.

So 51 % of us have high triglyceride levels and too much small particle LDL in our blood.

But here’s the good news.

I. By taking 2,000 or 3,000 iu a day of vitamin D3, we now know that your blood is much less likely to clot when it shouldn’t. (A recent study in Sweden found this.) And, that means you are far less likely to have deep vein thrombosis on long airplane flights. But even better, even if you have some cardiovascular disease, you are far less likely to have a sudden blood clot cause a heart attack.

And, because getting enough vitamin D3 enables your body to process calcium properly, any arterial plaque you do get will be less calcified. And, since such arterial deposits of calcium predict future heart attacks so well, that means that you are dramatically less likely to have a heart attack. Lastly, since your blood vessels are less calcified, they’ll remain flexible and responsive and you’ll have less risk of high blood pressure which will lower your heart attack risk further.

So, since vitamin D3 is quite inexpensive, you can easily take 2,000 or 3,000 iu a day of vitamin D3. (100 capsules of 1,000 iu of vitamin D3 costs about $5 to $7. So the cost is less than $7 a month to take that much vitamin D. Carlson is the brand I’ve found in most stores of vitamin D3.)

II. Lowering high triglyceride levels is a bit more challenging. But it is doable. And almost every way to do it has other health benefits that make them well worth doing.

Best of all, since many of these methods raise HDL in addition to lowering your triglyceride level, they do extremely well at lowering small particle LDL which is how doing them prevents cardiovascular disease and prevents it from getting worse and how doing these things prevents heart attacks.

A. A high glycemic carbohydrate diet increases your triglyceride levels. So, to lower your triglyceride level, learn to mostly stop eating them. As a side benefit, you’ll be far less fat and dramatically less likely to get type 2 diabetes.

Two of the simplest ways to lower high triglyceride levels are not only quite doable, they will save you money. But, they do take some getting used to if you need to do them. Don’t drink soft drinks; & stop eating almost all high glycemic foods.

First, Don’t drink soft drinks. Don’t drink regular soft drinks. They don’t make you less hungry but DO pump calories into you and your fat cells and slam your blood sugar up when you drink them. Drink tea, coffee, or water instead. Don’t drink diet soft drinks since they cause you to be far MORE hungry for exactly the kind of sugary, high glycemic foods you should stop eating. Oops!

Second, Stop eating refined grain foods or foods made from them. That one is a bit of a challenge. But by eating some whole grain foods and more vegetables instead you’ll still be fed but your triglyceride level will drop and you’ll get far more nutrition.

Another way to cut back on high glycemic foods is to avoid eating anything sweetened with high fructose corn syrup &, even if you still eat foods with sugar, eat them much less often.

B. Completely stop eating any food labeled as having any trans fats. If the label says it has even 1 gram per serving, make a special point of never eating that food again. And, since 0 can mean .49 grams per serving, and you might otherwise eat 5 servings, never buy or eat any food with any kind of hydrogenated oil listed as an ingredient even if is listed as having 0 trans fats.

Trans fats that you ingest are like eating heart attack starter pills.

They directly deposit small particle LDL into your artery walls. And since that small particle LDL shows up as high triglycerides, if you stop eating this stuff, your triglyceride levels will drop.

But you have to be very careful of any packaged food. Partially hydrogenated oils are still in a huge number of these foods from microwaved popcorn to bread to even ice cream and candy bars. (Note that NOT eating foods made with refined grains will help you avoid many of these foods.)

C. Take DHA & purified fish oil daily and eat a serving of wild caught fish that is high in omega 3 oil at least twice a week. You’ll think better. You’ll be less irritable. You will be far less likely to get cancer and aggressive cancer. And your CRP inflammation will go down without the need to take statin drugs to get that result.

Similarly, take in less omega 6 oils. Use extra virgin olive oil and discontinue using soy, corn, and safflower oil. And, eat far less canola oil if you still use it. Stop eating refined grain foods as they are high in omega 6 fats. And cut way back on meat from grain feed animals or stop eating it because such meat is too high in omega 6 oils and has excess saturated fat.

Doing both of these will sharply lower your triglyceride levels.

D. Get regular exercise most days even if it’s only 5 to 15 minutes. And do strength training, interval cardio, and walking every week if you can.

Because this directly transforms your LDL from the small particle kind to larger particles that roll across the surface of you blood vessels instead of gluing themselves into it, your risk of heart attack will drop sharply. That will show up on your blood test as an increase in HDL and a lowering of your triglyceride level.

But you will also be stronger and more capable. You’ll have more wind and be more fit. You’ll be less fat. Your sex life will improve. You’ll think better and be more likely to avoid senior moments and get any kind of dementia. And you’ll be far less likely to get type 2 diabetes.

You may not be able to do all these things or only do some of them some of the time. But if you start with two or three things that you CAN do & gradually add more, your triglyceride levels will drop -- & so will your risk of heart attack.