Avoid and Reverse
Heart Diseases and Stroke

CVD have been studied by many doctors and other health practitioners. Despite modern medicine, technology, and countless studies, why do these diseases still continue to shorten the lives of many people today?

Healthy diet, nutrition, and lifestyle are major contributors to reduce risk of CVD. These are things within your control.

You have simple solutions to a complex set of diseases.

Get what you need to know right here.

Prevent, reduce, and maybe even reverse the conditions and effects of cardiovascular diseases!

Know the CVD Diseases

• Heart diseases are also called coronary heart diseases (CHD). CHD includes coronary artery disease (CAD), high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, heart failure, and heart attack.
• Atherosclerosis is the build-up of plaque at the blood vessel walls. Plaque is a semi-hardened accumulation of fats, cholesterol, calcium, fibrous tissue, and other substances in the blood. Arteriosclerosis is atherosclerosis of the artery. Arteries can eventually harden and narrow, affecting flow of oxygen-rich blood to various parts of your body.
• Myocardial infarction (MI), acute MI (AMI), or heart attack is the interruption of blood supply to part of the heart causing some cells to die. This is due to atherosclerosis.
• Stroke happens when blood flow to part of the brain is interrupted by blockage (ischemic stroke) or bursting (hemorrhagic stroke) of blood vessel in the brain. It is the counterpart of the heart attack in the brain. This is why some call stroke a “brain attack”. This is due to atherosclerosis.
• PAD is a form of atherosclerosis, which impairs blood circulation to the legs. This may also affect blood flow to head, arms, kidneys, and stomach. Severe cases may lead to leg ulcers and gangrene.

  Info bits: According to the US National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), you have 6 to 7 times greater risk to coronary artery disease (CAD), heart attack, transient ischemic attack (“mini-stroke”), and stroke if you have PAD.

• Hypertension or high blood pressure is a serious condition. You have this when your systolic blood pressure is above 140 mmHg and/or when your diastolic blood pressure is above 90 mmHg. Systolic blood pressure is the maximum pressure in the arteries when the heart contracts. Diastolic blood pressure is the minimum pressure in the arteries between the heart contractions.

  Hypertension can damage your eyes and even cause blindness. It can damage your kidneys and result to kidney failure.

  It is often called a “silent killer” because many people have it but do not know it. These people remain untreated, develop complications, and may even die. The causes are overweight / obesity, high-salt diet, smoking, heavy alcohol consumption, and sedentary lifestyle.

• Arrhythmia is a disorder in your heart rate or rhythm. Everyone has his/her normal heart beat rhythm. Your heart normally beats between 60 and 80 times per minute while at rest. If you are diagnosed with arrhythmia, it is an abnormal heart rhythm for you. Your heart may beat too slowly (called bradycardia) like 60 beats per minute. Your heart may beat too quickly (called tachycardia) like 100 beats per minute. Your heart may beat with an irregular pattern (called fibrillation). This may be caused by a heart attack, blood chemistry imbalance, abnormal hormone levels, or by substances or medications.
• Metabolic syndrome (also known as insulin resistance syndrome) is when you have high blood sugar together with hypertension, high levels of triglyceride and uric acid, low levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL or good cholesterol). This presents a high risk of cardiovascular disease with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Metabolic syndrome may co-exist with excess insulin level in the blood even before blood glucose abnormality is detected.

Detection

Here are some tests to detect cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and associated risks.

• Resting electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG)
• Signal-averaged electrocardiogram (SAECG)
• Chest X-ray
• Holter monitor (ambulatory electrocardiogram)
• Echocardiogram
• Exercise stress test
• Computed tomography (CT) scan
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
• Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA)
• MUGA scan
• Thallium stress test
• Technetium stress test
• Pharmacologic stress test
• PET test
• Stress echocardiography
• Transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE)
• Cardiac catheterization ("cath")
• Coronary angiography or coronary arteriography
• Coronary angioplasty or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI)

Get a check-up every year even though you do not experience any of the symptoms. Do not wait to get sick for you to have a check-up. Use your initial test results as your baseline. Compare them with succeeding test results and relate them to your diet and lifestyle.

Medications

• Angina – Beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers (CCBs), nitrates (nitroglycerin)
• Cholesterol - Cholesterol absorption inhibitors (ezetimibe), fibrates, niacin, resins, statins
• Congestive heart failure - ACE inhibitors, beta-blockers, digoxin, diuretics, spironolactone
• Heart disease and stroke – Anticoagulants, anti-platelets (acetylsalicylic acid or ASA, clopidogrel, dipyridamole, ticlopidine), blood thinners (warfarin, heparin, Aspirin)
• High blood pressure - ACE inhibitors, Angiotensin Receptor Antagonists (ARBs), Beta-blockers, Calcium Channel Blockers (CCBs), diuretics
• Irregular heart rhythms - Antiarrhythmics

Talk to your doctor or health practitioners about taking medications. Check for side effects of drugs you are taking. For example, ACE inhibitors can cause your body to retain potassium, which can be dangerous to you if have a heart problem.

Consult your doctor if you are taking omega-3 supplements together with medications. DHA+EPA omega-3 has blood-thinning, cholesterol-lowering, and anti-inflammatory properties. They may also reduce or erode plaque deposits by increasing plaque stability, thus reducing or preventing cardiovascular events (like heart attack).

Are you willing to take medications that give instant results but have side effects, perhaps only treat the symptoms, and create new health problems? Or do you prefer solutions that treat root causes and do not create new health problems?

Emergency and Hospital treatment

If you experience a heart attack or stroke, a doctor may use TPA (Tissue Plasminogen Activator) to treat you within the first 3 hours after the incident. (Some studies show it can be used even up to or 4 ½ hours after the incident.) This is to break the blood clot until the blood can flow again.

Here are some possible surgical interventions.

• Angioplasty – to mechanically widen a narrowed or blocked blood vessel, typically, due to atherosclerosis
• Stents – placed to widen a blood vessel and avoid blockage
• Coronary artery bypass (or coronary artery bypass graft, CABG)
• Carotid artery surgery - to restore proper blood flow in the brain

Those who had a stroke may need to undergo therapy to recover normal movement/motor and/or speech abilities.

I do hope you will not experience this in your lifetime!

Prevention and Possible Solutions

Here are the most common preventive, risk-reducing, and lifelong health-giving solutions to these conditions.

- Attain a healthy weight level
- Get proper nutrition through a healthy diet
- Don’t smoke and avoid smokers when they smoke
- Don’t drink alcohol
- Have a healthy lifestyle especially with regular exercise
- Keep your blood sugar and blood lipids (HDL, LDL, total cholesterol, and triglycerides) within healthy levels.

Healthy fats

Your body produces saturated fatty acids (SFAs), monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), and cholesterol. These are not dietary essentials. You really do not need to eat foods that have them, especially the unhealthy kinds.

Replace saturated fats with polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) to reduce total-to-HDL cholesterol ratio and your risk to cardiovascular diseases (CVD). You do not get the same benefit from replacing SFAs with carbohydrates. However, some oils contain lauric acid, which is a healthy SFA. These can lower your total-to-HDL cholesterol ratio. Note that the total-to-HDL cholesterol ratio is a stronger predictor than LDL and HDL figures in relation to risk of coronary heart disease (CHD).

If you have controlled your consumption of dairy fat and meat, you can eat egg yolk, although moderation (like 3 to 4 eggs per week) remains prudent.

Consume food and food supplements rich in DHA+EPA omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 can prevent blot clots and arrhythmias, inhibit development of atherosclerosis, lower triglycerides, and reduce risk of death from CVD. Omega-3 also stimulates endothelial-derived nitric oxide, which is essential to your cardiovascular health.

Consume at least 500 mg of DHA+EPA omega-3 daily as recommended by the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids (ISSFAL). Their studies show that daily consumption of 650 mg of DHA+EPA omega-3 is associated with about 40% decrease of CHD mortality.

If you have coronary heart disease (CHD), consume 900 mg of DHA+EPA omega-3 daily as recommended by American Heart Association.

Herbalifeline (deep-sea fish) and Tri-Shield (krill)
DHA+EPA Omega-3 Essential Oils

Fish and fish oils (DHA+EPA omega-3)

Fish is rich in protein and omega-3. You can reduce your risk of CHD-caused death by about 50% when you eat 40 to 60 grams of fish per day. You protect yourself from coronary heart disease (CHD) and ischemic stroke.

The risk here is the mercury content in some fish. And many commercially available fish are farmed and do not really have plenty of omega-3 because the fish are fed with. You are much better off using high-quality DHA+EPA omega-3 supplements.

Potassium

Consume 4.5 to 6 grams per day of potassium, together with regular frequent consumption of fruits and vegetables, to lower blood pressure, blunt the effects of salt / sodium, and reduce risk of stroke, cardiac arrhythmias, and other cardiovascular diseases plus kidney stones and bone loss.

So far, there has been no evidence of chronic excess intakes of potassium in apparently healthy individuals and thus there is no established upper limit. But if you have a kidney problem, you may have difficulty releasing excess potassium. With very poor kidney function, high potassium levels can affect the heart rhythm.

Eat about the same amount of sodium to keep a potassium-sodium ratio close to 1.

Good sources of potassium are those which are low in sodium. These are soya flour, black treacle, ready-to-eat apricots, wheat bran, tomato puree, sultanas, raisins, wheat germ, figs, currants, boiled soya beans, boiled plantain, and banana.

Sodium or salt

Reduce and control sodium or salt consumption to less than 5 grams per day to help reduce blood pressure. This should take into account total sodium intake from all dietary sources. Avoid or minimize other forms of sodium consumption such as through food additives or preservatives, such as monosodium glutamate (MSG).

Info bits: A World Health Organization (WHO) study reveals that a daily reduction in intake of sodium by 70 to 80 mmol (or 1.61 to 1.84 grams) was associated with a lowering of blood pressure both in hypertensive and normotensive (i.e., having normal blood pressure) individuals, with systolic and diastolic blood pressure reductions of 4.8/1.9mmHg in the former and 2.5/1.1mmHg in the latter.

Fruits and vegetables

Eat at least 400 to 500 grams per day of fruits and vegetables to gain significant protection from cardiovascular diseases (CVD) (like heart disease, stroke, and hypertension). You will get beneficial phytonutrients, potassium and fibre.

You get the best benefits by eating plenty of cruciferous vegetables such as bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and cauliflower, watercress, green leafy vegetables, citrus fruits, berries, vitamin C-rich fruits and vegetables.

Nuts

Eat a combined variety of nuts – particularly walnuts, almonds, legume peanuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, and pistachio nuts – to decrease risk of coronary heart disease (CHD).

Nuts are high in unsaturated fats and low in saturated fats. This contributes to cholesterol lowering by altering the fat composition of your diet as a whole. Nuts are also a rich in dietary fibre and protein. Be aware that the high-fat content of nuts makes them high in calories. So moderate your consumption within your target calorie.

Soy

25 grams of soy protein a day, as part of a diet low in saturated fats and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease.

Eat an average of 47 grams per day of isolated soy. You can gain 9% decrease in total cholesterol and 13% decrease in LDL, assuming you are free of coronary heart disease.

You can benefit more if you have high cholesterol levels. Some people with total cholesterol of 0.335 mg/dL experienced 19% reduction in total and 24% reduction in LDL cholesterol. Such a decrease can potentially reduce the risk for coronary artery disease (CAD) by 20–40%.

Isolated soy contains protein and isoflavones, which reduce total and LDL cholesterol without affecting triglycerides or HDL cholesterol levels.

These figures came from studies under the World Health Organization (WHO).

Fiber

Eat soluble fibers to reduce your total and LDL cholesterol by 5 to 10%.

Eat insoluble fiber to decrease your cardiovascular risk and slower progression of cardiovascular disease, if you are a high-risk individual.

Know more about soluble and insoluble fibers and their sources.

Milk and dairy products

Reduce your intake of high-fat high-cholesterol milk and dairy foods for cardiovascular protection.

Drink non-fat or skim milk instead to benefit from its protein and essential minerals like potassium, magnesium and calcium.

Lifestyle

Avoid stress and anxiety. When you are stressed, your body produces more cortisol hormone. High level of cortisol leads to increase in abdominal fat (or visceral fat) and loss of muscle tissues. What you need is to reduce abdominal fats and build muscle tissues! Cortisol increases blood pressure and blood sugar – both of which are related to cardiovascular disease and diabetes. It also weakens the immune system.

Alcohol

Avoid or minimize alcohol consumption. Long-term heavy consumption increases your risk of stroke and coronary heart disease (CHD). Should you be in an occasion where you must drink, limit yourself with about 2 drinks for that day.

You may benefit from drinking one to two drinks of alcohol per day. The optimal intake, for cardiovascular protection, depends on age, gender, presence of other risk factors or associated diseases and on the intake of folic acid. But alcohol is converted into body fats after absorption. So it is best not to drink alcohol at all.

Anti-oxidants and micronutrients

Eat food and food supplements rich in vitamins B6, C, and E, beta carotene, and folate to increase protection against coronary heart disease, atherosclerosis, and related vascular disorders. Folate helps improve health of blood vessels.

Water

Drink water to prevent hypertension, kidney stones, and constipation. Drinking water help metabolize your body fats and prevents you from being dehydrated, which can lead to false cravings or hunger.

Green Tea

Drink green tea. These are rich in anti-oxidants. Green tea catechins and black tea theaflavins lower LDL cholesterol. Green tea reduces lipid absorption in the digestive tract and promotes their excretion from your body. Tea minimizes damage and speeds recovery after a heart attack.

Note: Because green tea reduces lipid absorption, it is beneficial for you to drink it hours before/after you take your fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K and healthy omega-3.

Drinking 5 or more cups of green tea per day significantly lowers risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and other health-related causes of death. Women experienced 31% lower risk of dying from CVD and 62% lower risk of dying from stroke. Men experienced 22% lower risk of dying from CVD and 42% lower risk of dying from stroke.

Achieve a healthy weight.

Info bits: Johns Hopkins research consistently shows that overweight people who drop pounds also drop millimeters of mercury (Hg). On average, for every 2.2 pounds lost, blood pressure dropped by about 1/1 mm Hg. For example, people who lost about 11 pounds had their blood pressure drop by 4.4/3.6 mm Hg. This basically shows an improvement in blood pressure.

Smoking

Stop smoking to significantly decrease your risks to various deadly chronic diseases including cardiovascular diseases. Avoid smokers when they smoke. Don’t be a second-hand smoker.

Exercise

Remember, your heart is a muscle. Regularly exercise to strengthen your heart, improve cardiovascular health, and reduce risk of various deadly chronic diseases. This also reduces your body fats and stress levels.

Healthy blood glucose (blood sugar) and blood fat (lipid) levels

Get annual blood tests for your blood sugar and blood lipids. These are your target values.

Info bits: According to World Heart Federation:

• If you control your blood glucose you can reduce your risk of a cardiovascular disease event by 42% and the risk of heart attack, stroke, or death from cardiovascular disease by 57%.
• If you control your blood lipids you can reduce cardiovascular disease complications by 20% to 50%.

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