Entries from February 2010 ↓

I’ve been terrified a number of times. The tornado that took the roof off the house in 1969 made me cringe at every thunderstorm for decades. Being tossed by a fast moving horse made me think I was about to meet my Maker. Nothing has scared me as badly as hearing that my husband has coronary artery disease and needs immediate angioplasty.

The symptoms weren’t gradual. He was in the habit of hiking every weekend, and was doing so when the first symptom appeared. It felt almost like a sore throat. After several days feeling this, he went to the doctor.

Even then, nothing would have been done, except for the fact that his father died from his third heart attack at the young age of 58. "Just to be sure…" He has had angioplasty three times and currently has four stents in his heart. I’ve had to sit in the cardiac intensive care waiting room multiple times and it is *not* a place I like being.

There are a couple of reasons for this article. The first one is to warn you about symptoms that may require immediate attention. Heart problems don’t necessarily start with chest pain in the general area of your heart.

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Vitamin L stands for love and laughter and many of us just do not get enough. One of the main reasons love and laughter (Vitamin L) helps the cardiovascular system is because love and laughter reduce stress. When your body is under stress the hormones adrenaline and cortisol are released. If these hormones remain in the body at elevated levels over a period of time, the cardiovascular system is harmed. People who are under constant stress without social support or another form of connection are more likely to show early signs of atherosclerosis. Other risk factors for heart disease are also negatively affected by stress. Blood pressure levels go up and weight is gained,

Let us take a look at four ways you can increase the love, laughter and connection in your life.

Animals: Owning pets can help your health. While it is true that owning a pet can be extra work and perhaps worry at times, the rewards are huge. Owning a pet gives you something outside of yourself to care for and love. Pets often bring joy, laughter and even ward off a sense of loneliness.

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Women of all ages should be taking steps to avoid heart disease. The obvious issues are eating healthy, exercising and reducing stress. However, there are steps you can take as you age that will help you to be heart healthy.

• Twenties. In your twenties, you need to get rid of any nasty habits you may have acquired, such as smoking. Smoking just one cigarette per day can stiffen your arteries by up to 25 percent. And, smoking can erase the hormonal advantage you have from estrogen in your body. Another thing to consider is the taking of birth control pills. Birth control pills can raise your risk of blood clots. Finally, if you drink, you need to limit your drinking to one drink per day. If you drink more than that, it can raise your triglyceride level, increase your blood pressure and lead to weight gain.
• Thirties. If you have had a baby, you need to strive to get back to your pre-pregnancy weight within one to two years. Excess weight can lead to high blood pressure and high cholesterol as you age. You also need to try to control any stress you may have in your life, especially if you are juggling a career with family. You can do that by keeping connected to your family as well as friends, and allow yourself time to be social and have some fun. Continue reading →

We have heard the stories about a friend who visits his doctor and has a clean bill of health. Two days later he dies of a massive heart attack and you do not understand how or why this happened. Your friend was active, played handball regularly, he was thin, and he ate fish. His total cholesterol was a little high but his good cholesterol was very good. He was taking a low dose of medication to keep his blood pressure down for about a year and that was working. What happened?

Blood pressure and cholesterol levels are reliable gauges of how much at risk you are for heart disease. However, the amount of calcium in your coronary arteries and how it is affecting your blood flow may be an even better way of predicting who is most likely to have a heart attack unless they get on medication therapy.

The problem is that someone who is asymptomatic, in good shape, active and eats well is not sending any red flares that something is wrong. Without any symptoms such as shortness of breath or high blood pressure even with medication, there is no indication that he needs a heart scan, also known as Coronary Calcium Scans.

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Some "experts," doctors among them, have probably advised you to switch from butter to margarine. They claim that the saturated fats in butter will heighten your risk of heart disease, and that margarine is actually safer. Unfortunately, that’s a misconception we’ll discuss in this article.

Most people today blame heart disease, obesity, asthma, and other diseases on the rise on saturated fats and cholesterol. Unfortunately, these same people don’t know that the "cholesterol causes heart disease" theory has never actually been scientifically proven! It’s just that — a theory.

But did you know that decreasing your butter intake — and eating more margarine — has already been proven to do more harm than good? Last year, the Intelligence journal noted that the diets of children can affect their development greatly. And their most consistent finding was that kids who ate margarine had six points of IQ less than kids who ate butter.

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From : About.com:Heart Disease

Bill Clinton was hospitalized this afternoon after experiencing chest pains. Spokespersons for Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, where the 63-year-old former President Clinton was admitted, said he has received two stents in one of his coronary arteries. Mr. Clinton is known to have had coronary artery disease at least since 2004, when he had bypass surgery performed to four of his coronary arteries. At that time, it was noted that he did not have heart muscle damage. Whether he has sustained any permanent heart muscle damage with this latest episode has not been reported.

So what does this latest episode indicate? It is impossible to know for sure considering the sparse details released so far, but based on the symptom of chest pain, and his doctors’ very rapid insertion of stents as a result, it appears very likely that President Clinton has experienced a form of Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS).

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Nowadays people are too busy to spend some of their time to do some exercise to keep their health. Lots of people are having heart attack because the bad life style where they usually consume junk food in a large amount and also drink too much alcohol will make them get the heart attack. Not only that, they can easily overweight if they keep consuming the food which is contain fat and never try to burn the fat inside of their body.

To get healthy heart will be easy if you spare your time to do some exercises. Even though it is only for short time, but when you doing it regularly you will be able to keep your heart healthy. Doing fitness is maybe one of the exercises that you can do to avoid to get the heart attack. It is a really simple exercise that everyone can do it, you can do it at your home or you can do it at your favorite gym.

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The things that you do and what you eat will give effect at your health. When your life style make you consume lots of junk food and consuming lots of alcohol without have any time to do some exercises, you will get heart attack easily. But when you have a healthy life style, having enough exercise, you will have a healthy body.

Some fitness will be good for the health of your body. You can use your spare time to do some exercise to keep your body stay healthy.  It is better to do some exercises to stay healthy better than you will end up in the hospital and cannot do your activities. Control your healthy heart will be easy if you do exercise regularly and eat healthy food. Choose to consume the food that have enough nutritious and vitamins for your body. Fulfill all what your body need will make your heart healthy, not only that, it will give you more immunity to any disease.

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Most people understand the importance of dietary fiber in their diet. Much has been said about its importance in heart health, diabetes, cancer prevention, and even weight control.

What is less well understood is how different types of fiber effect the body. Some provide fecal bulk, some are absorbed more quickly into the blood stream than others, and thus raise blood sugar levels more quickly, and yet others provide benefits to the heart.

Thus, despite the apparent simplicity, fiber is a complex topic. And whilst all types of fiber are important, if you are looking at preventing or managing specific conditions, its not enough to just look at the total dietary fiber as written on food packaging.

Dietary fiber is broadly classified into soluble and insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber is fermented in the colon, and plays a role in slowing the absorption of glucose into the bloodstream. It also encourages the growth of the ‘friendly’ bacteria that help break down bile, and are involved in the creation of B vitamins like folic acid, niacin, and pyridoxine.

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I have many friends in the past few years that have decided to become vegetarians. I saw friend after friend jump onto the bandwagon that being a vegetarian had become, and I’ll admit that I almost jumped on the wagon myself without giving the choice much thought.

After nearly two months of research and some pretty serious self-evaluation, I decided to become a vegetarian. There is no part of me that is against people deciding that being a vegetarian is right for them. My only frustration is that too often people make that choice without taking even a moment to think about the reasons why or the consequences that being a vegetarian will have on their lives.

So, my advice to you is simple and probably obvious. You only have one life to live, one body to live in, and a few short years in which to experience all of life that you can. So do not make the decision to become a vegetarian lightly or without thought. I would hate to see anyone commit to such a decision out of ignorance and then deal with the consequences long afterward.

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