February 2012 - Heart Month
February 2012 - Heart Month
The Truth About Cholesterol
Almost everyone knows that fat is bad for you. For many years we have been trained and taught by the media, health professionals and even our friends and family that one of the most important things we can do to stay healthy and disease free is avoid saturated and trans fats. As we get older, often the first warning sign of cardiovascular disease that is discovered by our family doctors is elevated cholesterol. For a moment, let us imagine that fat was not the horrible enemy that we all are led to believe. How would this affect the way we approach our health and our diet?
The fact is that cholesterol is NOT the ultimate enemy that we have been led to believe is so detrimental to our cardiovascular health. Let us consider the fact that the French population eats more fat then any western (including Canada and the United States) country but their incidence of heart-related death is less than half of that in America. This would seem to suggest that dietary fat is not the main cause of heart disease. The question becomes what is it about the standard American diet (S.A.D. diet) that promotes heart disease? Experts now are starting to see that it is not the fat or cholesterol intake that is the main cause of heart disease but rather a diet that is high in refined sugar and low in antioxidant rich foods such as fruits and vegetables.
Even though the French people consume more fat then Americans they also have a diet rich in fresh foods and low is refined sugars and carbohydrates. Cholesterol in itself is not harmful to our cardiovascular system. On the contrary, it is essential to our natural production of hormones and vitamin D. It becomes harmful only once it becomes deposited and oxidized in blood vessel walls. A diet high in antioxidants from fruits and veggies prevents this key transformation. Knowing this fact, we can often do much more to prevent cardiovascular health by focusing on keeping our diet high in antioxidants and avoiding the damaging effects of high blood sugar by skipping those sweet snacks. In fact the real heart health enemy is not fat but rather sugar. Ironically, the foods often highest in sugar are those labeled “low fat” in our supermarkets. A high sugar intake has a direct connection with obesity and diabetes which both have a harmful effect on your cardiovascular system. This month, do your heart a favour and avoid sugar and refined carbs, increase you fresh fruits and vegetable intake and give fat a break, it has been wrongly accused for quite some time.
By Dr. Paul Hrkal, ND |
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Top 5 Heart Health Tips
The Heart is an amazing organ, it pumps to keep our body alive. It seems as Canadians we are paying a lot of attention to this key organ in the body. In our quest to maintain a healthy heart, here are five tips that will keep the heart strong.
1) Know your Numbers. Know your blood pressure and your cholesterol numbers, high blood pressure and cholesterol numbers increase the risk of heart attacks by 25 percent. Check your blood pressure at least once a week and cholesterol twice a year.
2) Stop smoking and drinking. Alcohol and cigarettes increase the risk of a heart attack and stroke. Alcohol is a know factor that can increase blood pressure in the body.
3) Exercise. Aerobic exercise helps improve muscle mass, more specifically it can strengthen the heart and decrease the risk of heart disease.
4) Heart Supplementation. There are amazing studies that demonstrate fish oil, phytosterols, coenzyme Q10 and soy isoflavones are all heart friendly.
5) Healthy diet. Foods high in antioxidants helps maintain healthy hearts. Antioxidants prevent blood vessel walls from hardening. Educating people on how to maintain a healthy heart is our priority. By delivering the right information, this allows people to make the best choices. Make a healthy heart your priority.
Dr Elias Markou, ND |
For The Heart
1) Start taking your bicycle out when running local errands
2) Take the stairs at work
3) Visit the CN Tower and challenge yourself by climbing the tower's steps to the top instead of using the elevator
4) Plant garlic in your garden - garlic keeps your heart healthy
5) Have a nice candlelit dinner in the next week, compliment it with a nice conversation with someone dear to you
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Interesting Heart Facts
1) Every day, the heart creates enough energy to drive a truck 20 miles. In a lifetime, that is equivalent to driving to the moon and back.
2) The heart pumps blood to almost all of the body’s 75 trillion cells. Only the corneas receive no blood supply.
3) The volume of blood pumped by the heart can vary over a wide range, from five to 30 liters per minute.
4) “Atrium” is Latin for “entrance hall,” and “ventricle” is Latin for “little belly.”
5) Grab a tennis ball and squeeze it tightly: that’s how hard the beating heart works to pump blood.
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