Why most people need to protect themselves against heart attacks....

Today's Post: Tuesday, 5-10-2011

Not that many people make a special effort to protect themselves against heart attacks.

Yet most of them are at risk. And some are a very high risk and still don’t know it.

So, what questions do you need to ask or find answers for to know if you are at risk or not?

Here are just some of the key questions to ask. As you can see, some of them can help you cut your risk by just knowing to ask them and acting on the information.

1. Family history is a key area to look at. If your mom or dad or your grandparents or other people you are descended from or closely had or have heart disease, heart attacks, strokes, or diabetes or high blood pressure, watch out!

Either you may have heredity that predisposes you to heart disease too. Or you may have eaten as they did while you were growing up and have the early stages of heart disease because you did. Or you may still eat as they did and get the same kinds of results.

So, if you have such a family history, you should make a special effort to find out how to protect yourself and your heart.

2. Tobacco smoke’s worst health problem is that it both produces heart disease and triggers heart attacks. Virtually everyone who is exposed to it has heart and blood vessel harm from their exposure.

Were you exposed to second hand smoke at home when you were growing up? Have you been exposed to second hand smoke at work or when you go out for food or drinks?

Are you exposed to second hand smoke any of these ways now?

Are you a former smoker? Or do you still smoke?

If you answer any of these questions yes, you should make a special effort to find out how to protect yourself and your heart.

And, even if you answered no, completely avoiding exposure to tobacco smoke is an essential way to protect yourself against heart disease and heart attacks.

3. Are you so sedentary you virtually never exercise? If so, you are at high or very high risk of heart disease

Even a few short walks each week gives you 40% of the health benefits of an ideal program. Even a few 10 to 20 minute sessions each week of vigorous exercise you’ve built up to protect you from heart disease.

If you do such exercises at a minimum each week, you are less likely to get high blood sugar or type 2 diabetes which multiply your heart disease and heart attack risks.

Your triglycerides will go down and your HDL will go up because your blood will have less of the small particle LDL that causes heart disease. Even better, recent research found that the longer you have gotten such exercise, the better your protection is!

Your blood vessels will be more flexible and responsive and you’ll be less likely to have or be hurt by high blood pressure.

And, your blood circulation will be better and your breathing will be better and more effective.

The bad news is that if you fail to do such exercises, each of these areas are more likely to be in the high risk category.

So, if you aren’t doing any exercise now, you should make a special effort to find out how to protect yourself and your heart.

4. Do you eat packaged snacks and commercial desserts often? Do you always read labels on food? Do you eat foods at home made with shortening? If you do eat such foods and never look at the labels, the chances are excellent you are eating trans fats and other hydrogenated fats or oils.

Unfortunately, that stuff is heart attack starter. The safe amount to eat is absolutely none at all, zero. Research found that ingesting these hydrogenated oils causes your blood to have more of the small particle LDL that causes heart disease.

So, if you have been eating these things, STOP. Read labels every time. If it lists any trans fat content or any ingredient that is a hydrogenated or partly hydrogenated oil, do not allow yourself to eat it.

And, if you have been eating this stuff, you should make a special effort to find out how to protect yourself and your heart. Your blood vessels are likely damaged from what you’ve already eaten.

5. Do you eat a lot of sweets or drink soft drinks? Do you eat a lot of foods made from refined grains?

It’s been shown that eating these things or drinking them more than a couple of times a week lowers your HDL and increases your triglycerides. But, we now know that means that doing this causes your blood to have more of the small particle LDL that causes heart disease.

The average person today consumes over 7 Tablespoons a day of sugar or other sweeteners. This research shows that these “average” people are all at high risk for heart disease.

So if you are, to avoid heart disease and heart attacks, you need to eat vegetables, whole fruit, and some whole grains and virtually never eat foods made with refined grains. And, you need to eat sweet treats far less frequently and drink no soft drinks.

So, if you’ve eating and drinking as the average person has, you should make a special effort to find out how to protect yourself and your heart.

6. People evolved to eat a balance of omega 6 oils from grains and omega 3 oils from fish and some naturally fed animals.

Then use of oils high in omega 6 in foods such as corn oil, soy oil, and safflower and canola dramatically increased. People ate more refined grain foods with more omega 6. And the animals we eat for food began to be stuffed with grain including a lot of corn and soy instead of grass and what they naturally eat. So our meat and poultry began to be high in omega 6 too.

And most people began to eat less omega 3 foods.

But eating 12 to 20 times as much omega 6, the now common result, produces high and chronic inflammation. But such inflammation is a direct cause of blood vessel and heart disease.

Oops!

So, if you have been eating like that, to protect your heart you need to eliminate as much of these foods as you can.

Walnuts are the best and safest source of plant based omega 3. Sardines and wild caught salmon and other wild caught fish are the best direct source of animal based omega 3 oils. You can also take DHA and omega 3 supplements made from purified fish oil. Making sure to include those each week or daily will give you enough omega 3 oils.

Avoiding too much omega 6 is a good bit harder. But it is doable.

a) Extra virgin olive oil comes both in mild flavors and in olive tasting versions. Since it is neutral, its monosaturated oil is an omega 9, and it has very little omega 6 or saturated fat, it does NOT boost inflammation. Eating olive oil also lowers LDL but does so without doing that to the protective HDL.

Substitute it for corn oil, soy oil, etc. Because of these superfood characteristics, people who use olive oil have long been known to be in better health than other people.

b) Eat virtually no refined grain foods and avoid eating a large amount of even whole grain foods. Eat vegetables, and beans and lentils more instead.

c) Eat only the lowest fat versions of meat, poultry, or dairy foods as much as you can if the animals they are from were grain fed. This does protect your heart. But we now know that it does so more from protecting you from the excess omega 6 oils in such fat than it does from protecting you from the saturated fat!

d) Or, you can eat such foods from cattle fed only grass or poultry only pasture fed in areas not polluted in some way.

e) You can also eat less of such foods overall and eat more beans and lentils and nuts and wild caught fish for protein.

f) You can use anti-inflammatory spices like ginger or turmeric to further lower your inflammation. (And, you can also take curcumin supplements which they get from turmeric.)

If you have been eating the high omega 6 way, you will protect your heart to switch to the low omega 6 way of eating and you should make a special effort to find out how to protect yourself and your heart.

In this post, you already have seen some of the key ways to protect your heart. If you got any down checks on this list, to protect yourself you need to use all the information and learn to do more.