This week’s focus is in highlighting heart health, after all
it’s the “week of love”. On my homepage, I discussed all the dreary facts of
heart disease in our country, which is still the number one cause of death. However,
the good news is we can implement lifestyle changes to protect our heart from
illness and live long, healthy, happy, and loving lives.
Here are some tips:
1) Choose plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits, lean
sources of protein, and healthy fats in your diet. Avoid processed foods and
sugars.
2) Practice mindfulness and meditation to reduce
stress. Stress affects heart health including increasing blood pressure and
systemic inflammation.
3) Exercise daily.
4) Think happy thoughts and get support to deal with
troubling emotions. Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) can be very helpful with
this.
5) Nourish healthy social connections, as isolation is the number
one risk factor of cardiovascular mortality.
6) Avoid alcohol and smoking which can stress the heart and
mind.
7) Consider the Naturopathic Lifestyle
A soon to be released study in the February issue of the
Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine demonstrated that individualized
naturopathic care in 246-high risk individuals enhanced usual care for those
with elevated cardiovascular risk in a workplace setting.
Furthermore, cost savings were estimated to be between $1187
and $1138 per individual in addition to the reductions seen in 10-year cardiovascular
disease and event risks.
So, there’s no need to fear that heart disease is inevitable.
There’s plenty of lifestyle choices you can make to empower yourself to a heart-happy
life.
References:
Porter, V. 7 Steps to a Healthy Heart. Chopra Newsletter: February 2014. chopra.com.
February 7, 2014.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Heart Disease Facts. cdc.gov.
Accessed February 10, 2014.
SFG. Sugar linked to fatal heart woes. Associated Press.
February 3, 2014.
Wetherby, C. Food Antioxidants May Help Hearts, Extend Lives.
Vital Choice Newsletter.February 3,
2014.
Tresserra-Rimbau, A. et al. on behalf of the PREDIMED Study
Investigators. Inverse association between habitual polyphenol intake and
incidence of cardiovascular events in the PREDIMED study. Nutrition, Metabolism
and Cardiovascular Diseases (abstract). Published online ahead of print, doi: 10.1016/j.numecd.2013.12.014
Kenwall, K. Individualized Naturopathic Care Reduces Presenteeism
and Improves Cost-Savings for Employers, Study Shows. AANP.org. January 31,
2014.
