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.

Unexplained pain in any part of your chest, including around your trachea and esophagus need addressed. Unexplained pain in your neck, jaw, left shoulder and left arm should be checked out by your doctor. Any other symptoms…racing heart, shortness of breath and fatigue associated with this are also important. They could be warning you of a cardiovascular problem.

The other is to show you things that could help you make this problem less likely. Let’s go back to my husband’s problem. It turns out that a change I made in our diet a year before this may have saved his life. I weighed nearly 300 pounds. Our younger daughter asked me to change my diet, and as I’m Chief Cook and Bottle Washer, I changed *all* of our diets.

Gone were pork fat, butter and heavy whipping cream. Olive oil, Smart Balance and turkey burger became main staples. Salt, fat and cholesterol were cut dramatically.

This is important. And, it doesn’t have to mean you give up flavor, have to research weird and outlandish ingredients or really go very far out of your way to make good food. It may mean you’ll want me to actually write the 736 ways to describe the taste of birds, but even that doesn’t have to be a problem.

Here are a few tips:

Butter Substitute: While I do miss butter in baking, 99% of the time, I can work around it. For savory uses, I mostly use olive oil. The grade of oil you use will define how much flavor it imparts in the dish. You’ll have to experiment to find what you like when.

For lighter dishes, I use one of the trans fat free, Omega-3 added margarines. It’s not quite the same as butter in baking, but it’s not that off. When I want to make a thickening agent, you can do so two ways. You can use it to make a roux with no problem. If you want to use it later to thicken, mix equal parts of the margarine with flour.

I’ve given up looking for a bacon substitute. Turkey bacon does *not* count. They really need to work on that recipe, but I will tell you that turkey sausage (breakfast and Italian) tastes great…and some are pretty close to the real deal.

Heavy Whipping Cream: It’s not the same, but fat free half and half comes fairly close. If you want it to thicken the same way, you may have to use corn starch or another thickener, but it is a healthy alternative.

Cheese: It is possible to find reduced fat and fat free cheeses. I must point out that (thus far), I have yet to find a fat free cheese that melts well.

Meat: Ok, here the cardiologist and I disagree. I’ll tell you what I’ve found and what I do, but you will have to do your own research and make your own (educated…hopefully) decision.

We were told that we could never eat any beef or any pork again. Dark meat turkey and chicken were on the forbidden list. Better (if we ate animal products) would be seafoods. Well, there’s a bit more to it than that. Cardiologists don’t really study nutrition. It’s part of my field.

There are cuts of both beef and pork that are lower than untrimmed boneless skinless chicken breast. These parts are the leaner ones, usually located around the loin. If you want to make the chicken leaner, cut the fat (easily visible) off.

Herbal Remedies: Some of what I’ve done is food based, which I think is one of the best ways to do nutritional supplements. Some of it involves taking supplements…particularly if you are unwilling to take salmon oil.

Garlic is your friend. It’s best in your food, but you don’t lose all the benefits if you take the supplements. It will make your breath and your sweat smell like garlic. One side benefit is that it will encourage bugs to dine elsewhere. There have been some recent studies that offer mixed results, but I still say go for it.

Fish oil is another one. It really is better if you eat the fish, but the oils will work. The fishes most useful are cold water; salmon, halibut and trout all can offer the benefit. Can’t stand the fish burps? Try flax oil. Red yeast rice is another option, but be careful. This remedy is a statin and it has all the same side effects, precautions and interactions of a prescription statin.

For more information about home remedies, you can visit my site: http://healing-home-remedies.com. There are blogs and articles about many herbs and the conditions they may help. Subjects include stress, back pain, the flu, gout and cholesterol. You can also download my free report, the Top Ten Herbs. The report discusses the uses, side effects, precautions and interactions of popular herbs. My eBooks, also found on the site, contain information about foods and herbs that can help you deal with the problems life throws our way. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at: mary@healing-home-remedies.com.

Mary Bodel

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Living a fast pace life in the twenty first century has resulted to a lesser time to exercise and cooking healthy well-balanced meals. People have started to stimulate their bodies with caffeine and nicotine to cope up with a busy day ahead, and again need depressants like alcohol to slow down at the end of the day.

Sitting down to eat vegetables and fresh fruits have been replaced with stuffing themselves on the go with junk foods that are low in fiber and valuable polyunsaturated fat and instead fill in their diet with carbohydrates and saturated fat. People having this life style may more or less live longer on average than their ancestors, but most of them live their older years in chronic poor health, with medications to lower blood pressure and cholesterol to keep the blood from clotting. For short, they live their lives miserably with heart disease.

Given the prevalence of heart disease, there are many good reasons to take precaution and find ways to prevent heart disease.  Although years of research have been unable to exactly explain the cause of heart disease, risk factors have been identified that can help find ways to prevent heart disease.

Known risk factors for heart disease include high cholesterol, cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, chronic emotional stress, elevated homocysteine, inactive physical activity, and family history of heart disease.  Luckily, a lot of these risk factors can be modified and possibly eliminated through healthy ways to prevent heart disease.

Some ways to prevent heart disease are making some small changes in your diet, exercising regularly, taking a few nutritional supplements, and engaging in nurturing social activities. These ways to prevent heart disease can maximize your chances at living a long and healthy life.

Keeping the heart and blood vessels healthy is very important; you may want to include the following ten things every day as some of the ways to prevent heart disease:

1. Exercise

Exercise helps a lot for good blood circulation, simple exercises like breathing deeply for twenty minutes daily, or climbing the stairs instead of taking the elevator, or taking a walk during your lunch break, or riding a bike to work.

2. Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Replacing fried, greasy foods and refined carbohydrates with servings of colorful fresh fruits and vegetables will make you diet a healthy heart-friendly one.

3. Fiber

Add a tablespoon of fiber from oat bran, freshly ground flax seeds, or psyllium seed husks to your diet.

4. Garlic

Adding a freshly minced garlic clove to your meal or taking two garlic tablets that contain 6000 mcg of allicin daily, can do wonders to your health.

5. Deep Sea/Cold Water Fish

Eat a serving of mackerel, salmon, sardines, tuna, or take fish oil supplements that provides 1000 mg EPA and 500 mg DHA.

6. Fresh Citrus Juice

Drink a glass or two or take a 1000 mg Vitamin C supplement citrus bioflavoniods daily.

7. Red Wine

Drinking a small glass of red wine or a large glass of unsweetened purple grape juice is good for the heart, or take a 100 mg pinebark supplement or grapeseed extract.

8. Vitamin E

Add a 400 IU natural Vitamin E to your diet daily with 50mg Coenzyme Q10.

9. Vitamin B-Complex

Take Vitamin B-complex supplement that contains at least 800 mcg folic acid, 50 mcg B12, and 25mg B6.

10. Emotional Release

Share your feelings or take some quality time with you friend, family, or loved one.

These ways to prevent heart disease are simple and doable; all it takes is discipline and the right attitude towards having a healthy heart and a healthy you.