Cardiovascular disease is a global problem

This has been an interesting semester with learning the ins and outs of writing a blog.  At the beginning of the year, this blog was just an assignment but it ended up being so much more.  Exploring the different aspects of cardiovascular fitness and the ways it which it can be prevented helped deepen my understanding on the topic. I hope that by writing this blog you have also learned more about one of the most important organs in your body, your heart.

With that, I just found some interesting statistics from the World Health Organization on cardiovascular disease.

• Cardiovascular disease caused 16.7 million deaths world wide, accounting for 29.2% of deaths.
• Cardiovascular disease is the leading killer in developed countries
• There are no gender, socioeconomic or geographic limits to cardiovascular disease

This information and much more can be found by clicking here.

Do what you can to keep your heart healthy!  Thanks for reading!

A good resource for cardiovascular health in women is the Cardiovascular Research foundation.  Part of their efforts in promoting education in women is developing a website just for heart health for women.  The website contains so much information on signs and symptoms, tests, treatments and so much more. For more information on heart disease in women, click here!

According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine(NCCAM) they are “a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not generally considered part of conventional medicine.” These include but are not limited to things such as acupuncture, herbs and mega supplements. 

Some people swear by these types of medicines while many others are very skeptical and avoid them.  Two common medicines in this category include flaxseed and black tea.  There has been some research that shows that flaxseed may help decrease risk factors for heart disease but more research is still needed.  With black tea, there has been no conclusive evidence to support a benefit with cardiovascular health.

If you are interested in these types of treatments or are just curious for more information can be found here at the NCCAM website.

Changing what you eat can help keep your heart healthy

Every where we look these days, there seems to be something about having a healthy diet, or a heart healthy diet. But what exactly does this all mean? Reducing fat intake, especially of saturated fats in the main component.  Having healthier fats, such as in salmon and haddock can also be very beneficial.  Like myself, many people do not eat seafood/fish and need other ways to cut down on fats with chicken, steak and pork.  Instead of frying, a good alternative is grilling (especially in the summer time) or baking.  These reduce the amount of fat that is added to the meat as well as letting the fat drip off.

Other tips for a heart healthy diet include reducing salt intake, having veggies with herbs instead of butter and salt, and increasing fiber and whole grains.  For more information on a heart healthy diet, click here for the American Heart Association page Eat a Heart-Healthy Diet. There is also recipes and information to better understand the different kinds of fat in foods.

Keeping Healthy during Pregnancy

Part of writing this blog was to personally dig deeper into cardiovascular fitness for all groups of people.  During pregnancy, some women are afraid of exercising with a thought that it might harm the baby.  If you are active before your pregnancy, then you should still be able to work out during your pregnancy.  Although, you should still consult your physician or midwife about exercise, especially high intensity exercise during pregnancy.

The American Pregnancy Association gives some examples of beneficial exercises for pregnant women. These include: swimming, walking, jogging, bicycling and yoga. Types of exercises to avoid are horse back riding, skiing and water skiing.  These are mainly due to the higher risk of injury especially from falling.

For more information on this topic, you can go to the American Pregnancy Association website by clicking here.

Some ways to help prevent heart disease are:

• Eating a heart healthy diet
• Keeping a healthy weight
• Regular Exercise
• Quitting or not smoking
• Limiting alcohol consumption

Even just small steps can help.  Starting to take the stairs instead of the elevator helps reduce risk.  Trying to limit saturated fat intake by bringing a bagged lunch instead of going to a fast food restaurant not only helps your heart but also your wallet.

Medical related prevention methods include:

• Having your cholesterol checked on a regular basis
• Keeping an eye on your blood pressure
• If you have diabetes, keeping it under control
• Taking prescribed medications from your primary care physician (esp for high cholesterol, diabetes and high blood pressure)
• Ask your primary care provider any questions you may have!

All of this information can be found on the Center for Disease Control website by clicking here !

Keep your heart healthy!!

Veggies contain a certain amino acid called glutamic acid.  This building block of a protein has been shown to reduce blood pressure, which in turn is better for your heart health.  Not only are these proteins found in vegetables, they are also found in whole grains and beans as well.  Just by adding a few more veggies to your grocery cart, can improve your blood pressure.

Remember, blood pressure of over 120/80 is considered pre-hypertension and 140/90 is hypertension. Reducing our blood pressure helps keep our heart healthy.  To read the full article and explore the St. Elizabeth’s website you can click here.

Research has found that red wine seems to be the answer.  Red wine contains anti oxidants and resveratrol which are the likely protectors against heart disease.  When consumed in moderation, one glass per day for women and up to two glasses per day for men, red wine has been shown to decrease the risk for heart disease.

The positive health benefits in wine are met by some consequences.  Alcohol can increase the risk for some cancers even with moderate levels being consumed. This information was published in Environmental Nutrition, the newsletter for food, nutrition and health in December of 2009.

The full article, Raise your Glass to Wine’s Health Benefits, can be found here.

*If you are not a UNH student, you may have to subscribe for free to view the entire article.

Why are they so bad?

Knowledge of the health consequences of tobacco has increased dramatically over the past few decades. Smoking used to be widely accepted in our culture.  Since there has been an increase in education on the harms of tobacco, fewer people are starting to smoke.  Tobacco is the number one cause of preventable death in the United States and this is especially due to it causing lung cancer. Not only does tobacco cause cancers, it is also detrimental to the health of our hearts.  Smoking and other tobacco products can cause arteriosclerosis and increase the risks for coronary artery disease.  The more often someone smokes and the more that they smoke, increases the risks.

Although there is so much information on how much damage tobacco can due to our bodies, those that smoke continue to smoke.  They may want to quit and understand how bad it is, but can not find a way to quit.  Finding the right way to quit is very important as well as choosing not to smoke in the first place.  If everyone stopped smoking, our country would be a lot healthier.

The results of the study showed that non soluble fiber had a great impact on reducing risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease including being overweight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels.  Soluble fiber did not have as much of an impact.  The conclusion of the study states that fiber has a protective effect against cardiovascular disease. This is another great reason to eat a healthy diet!

If learn more use this link to read the full article!