How To Have A Healthy Heart

As I am not a Medical Doctor, I link to a Medical Doctor.

I am linking to a great post written by a cardiologist, Dr. William Davis, about the new trend of adding sterols to edible products. (I am no longer going to refer to these things as food. They are now to be referred to as food-type products.)

The gist of the article is this:

"The FDA approved a cholesterol-reducing indication for sterols , the American Heart Association recommends 200 mg per day as part of its Therapeutic Lifestyle Change diet, and WebMD gushes about the LDL-reducing benefits of sterols added to foods."

"The food industry has vigorously pursued the sterol-as-heart-healthy strategy, based on studies conclusively demonstrating LDL-reducing effects. But do sterols that gain entry into the blood increase atherosclerosis regardless of LDL reduction? That's the huge unanswered question."

Again and again, the advent of the microscope shows itself as a blessing and a curse. Technology is yet again taking one minuscule component (sterols) of a perfect whole (walnuts, lentils, brown rice) and marketing it as a nutritional be-all and end-all miracle.

In nature, the quantity of sterols and stanols found as a micronutrient in the food source are minimal. A person would have to eat 50 pounds of produce daily to get the FDA (excuse my smirk) recommended .8 grams of plant sterols. No human I know would or could eat that much produce in a day. Doesn't that tell us something? They are not meant to be consumed in large, isolated quantities.

The minute we start isolating nutrients (sterols) to treat one thing (LDL), we run into trouble (The case against sterols, studies documenting its coronary disease- and valve disease-promoting effects, is building).

As stated in the last paragraph of his post:
"In my view, sterols should not have been approved without more extensive safety data. Just as Vioxx's potential for increasing heart attack did not become apparent until after FDA approval and widespread use, I fear the same may be ahead for sterols: dissemination throughout the processed food supply, people using large, unnatural quantities from multiple products, eventually . . . increased heart attacks, strokes, aortic valve disease."

Please take a minute to read the post by Dr. Davis, if you have not already done so.

I have said it before...we are all unwitting participants in medical experiments on a daily basis. Become analytical and take personal responsibility for your own health. Do not become complacent and gullible in the face of MARKETING! There are no quick fixes, and our body is a complete unit, NEVER to be reduced to individual parts and pieces!

Want to keep your heart healthy? Follow this list:

• Eat whole, unprocessed, home- cooked food. Eat vegetables, people! Eat dark green leafy things with abandon! If you have trouble digesting plants, steam them lightly, take high quality probiotics twice daily at a dose of 50 billion bacteria for two months. Experiment with pancreazyme or digestive enzymes. There are mixed opinions about the efficacy of digestive enzymes, but I have seen them work for people.
  
• Do not use a microwave. Microwaves heat by force, stimulating the water molecules inside the cells first, whereas ambient heat from a stove warms gently from the outside to the inside. Would you rather get warm from someone boiling water within your cells or by laying in a warm beam of sunlight?
  
• Exercise daily doing something you like! Get out there and play!
  
• Have healthy relationships. If you aren't, deal with it. Seek spiritual support and guidance.
• LOVE. Give and receive love every day. MANAGE YOUR EMOTIONS!
  
• Do not eat poison. Margarine, synthetic sugar, alcohol, cigarette smoke are DONT'S. If you are dealing with addictions, deal with them. I speak from experience, having been a smoker for 7 years. Haven't smoked for 8 years now, and never will again (except when second hand is forced upon me).
• Drink water. I am not talking "8 cups a day" here. Yes, there is water in tea and coffee. What I am talking about is to give your body, your blood, clean and pure water everyday. Just because we can live in an environment with constant white-noise, does that mean we should never escape to the mountains every so often to give ourselves some peace and quiet?
  

Heart health has three components, and we as a society only focus on the two that can be qualified, quantified, licensed, and certified: Exercise and Diet. The third component affecting Heart Health are EMOTIONS, most specifically Love. Anger, hate, resentment, criticism, jealousy, impropriety, rage, stubbornness, selfishness...all these emotions damage the integrity and well- being of the heart.

The Heart Trifecta:

1. Love/ Emotions
2. Diet/ Nutrition
3. Exercise/ Play

We must overcome this aversion we have to work, discomfort, and growth.