Do You Suffer From Heart Disease? :: Health and Disease

> Health and Disease > Heart/Cardiovascular

Do You Suffer From Heart Disease?
by author Richard A. Dodd, BSc, ND

Cardiovascular disease is the number-one preventable cause of death in Canada today. A healthy diet of whole natural foods, regular exercise and good quality sleep can go a long way to reduce the stresses on our heart, arguably the body’s most important organ. Sometimes, however, prevention isn’t enough, in which case a diagnosis of blocked arteries or a recommendation for angioplasty or even bypass surgery–invasive and temporary solutions at best because they don’t treat the cause of the problem–would cause even the strongest amongst us to catch our breath.

What Causes Blocked Arteries?

Free radicals are highly reactive chemical components within the body that are capable of damaging healthy cells and are believed to contribute to cancer, heart disease and a host of other diseases; they form as a direct result of poor diet and environmental pollution. Over time, these free radicals can cause the inner wall of our arteries to harden. As a result, tiny micro-injuries–tiny nicks and cracks–develop. When this occurs, our body’s defence mechanisms kick in and rush to repair the damage by applying a "Band-Aid" or patch over the area. In order to ensure that blood flow is not impeded by this patch, a coating of cholesterol is then put over the patch. Cholesterol, being very slippery in nature, allows the blood to flow by the patch with a minimum of problems. However, over time, these patches can grow in size and number, eventually blocking the artery completely, not to mention raising cholesterol levels in the process.

Antioxidants for Arterial Cleansing

The human body is a magnificent piece of machinery and will, if given the proper balance of nutrients, expel most invaders and correct most health problems–including blocked arteries. If you are considering adding supplements to your heart health program, the secret is to use discretion in choosing the correct "arterial cleansing" formula–with a combination of nutrients and in sufficient quantities–that will clear blockages and rejuvenate the tissues. High quality "arterial cleansing" formulas should contain a high amount of betaine hydrochloride, a digestive enzyme and source of hydrochloric acid for the gut, which enhances the absorption of nutrients. Your choice should also contain glandular extracts specifically indicated for cardiovascular support. Look for labels that fully disclose all medicinal and non-medicinal ingredients.

Some reputable companies offer other heart-supportive supplements as well, including:

hawthorn herb for its general heart-strengthening effects
dant properties
essential fatty acids for protection and treatment
liquid tonics for circulation
plant-sourced digestive enzymes to help nutrient absorption.

In addition, symptoms of flora imbalance in the intestinal tract may cause gas and abdominal distension. This can cause the diaphragm to rise up and exert pressure on the heart, contributing to high blood pressure, chest pain or irregular heart rates. For this reason, supplementing with a high quality, non-dairy, superior strain acidophilus product, such as DDS acidophilus, will not only improve digestion and assimilation of nutrients, but will be beneficial for your overall heart health as well.

Recently I have been monitoring the conditions of patients suffering from angina, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and hypercysteinemia (high blood cysteine levels), to whom I have recommended using a line of heart healthy supplements. Patients’ conditions were monitored by photoplethysmography (PPG) testing, which measures arterial stiffness. Of these patients, the average rate of improvement in the arterial stiffness index was 8.7 percent per month. Imagine the significance of knowing that with an arterial cleansing formula, patients could reduce their arterial stiffness by almost nine per cent every month! After three to six months on this formula, patients who were at high risk for cardiovascular disease are now at low risk.

If you suffer from heart disease, the most effective and natural solution in the long run is to support the body’s own systems to heal itself. Luckily, in the world of natural medicine, there are myriad of substances designed to treat cardiovascular conditions.

Dr. Dodd has served as president of the Ontario Association of Naturopathic Doctors and as vice-president of the Canadian Naturopathic Association. Currently operating a clinic in Mississauga, Ont., he welcomes your questions and comments at info@inno-vite.com.

Source: alive #244, February 2003

Nine Tips for Whole-Hearted Health
Our hearts, in a tireless and endless effort, work to circulate blood throughout our body. But in return we tend to often neglect and abuse our hearts, with heart disease being the number one cause of death in Canada..

Exercise Your Heart Safely
The major killer in North America today is heart disease, even though it is preventable with proper nutrition and regular exercise.

Cancer
Cancer develops when cells in the body function abnormally and multiply uncontrollably--a process which eventually leads to tumor growth. A healthy body routinely detects and eliminates abnormal cells.

Supplements And Herbs For A Healthy Heart
Heart disease statistics could make one's blood run cold--clogged arteries, heart attacks and strokes are responsible for almost 40 per cent of North American deaths.

Catch of the Day Keeps Heart Failure Away
When women think of their health, they worry about breast cancer and osteoporosis--not heart disease. Heart disease is an issue for their grandfathers, fathers and husbands.

Prevent Heart Deterioration With Supplements
Ask yourself, "What is the one health challenge that most Canadians will face?" The answer is always heart disease. Heart disease is the most likely condition to shorten lifespan and affect quality of lif.

Age Arresters
Antioxidant is the magic word this century. Antioxidants trap molecules known as free radical.

Whole Foods for Heart Health
Be your own valentine! As you think of ways to please your sweetheart, think of your own heart too. How healthy is it? We have to take this question seriously, since heart problems just keep on increasing in our country. I have checked many sources to come up with these heart-friendly recipes.

Hard on the Heart
The idea that too much animal fat and a high cholesterol level are dangerous to our hearts and blood vessels is nothing but a myth, according to Swedi.

Your Venous System
The cardiovascular system consists of the heart, arteries and veins working in synchronicity. Taking good care of your heart is common sense. Plenty has been written on keeping arteries clear, but a system is only as strong as its weakest link. Most people don't give their venous system a second thought until it's too late..

Herbs for Your Heart
It's easy to forget about the heart, as it does its job automaticall.

Hearts Love Herbs
You can't think about heart herbs, especially during the month of February, without thinking of heartsease, the little three-coloured wild pansy (Viola tricolor).

Heart Problems?
Homeopathy has an excellent history of use in acute and chronic heart ailments. A man has his first heart attack. In the emergency department, the physician observes his overwhelming fear of impending death and gives him two pellets of homeopathic Aconitum under his tongue.

Angina
Bypass surgery is five to 10 times more likely to kill you than save you. Angina is more than just chest pain. The symptoms are similar to those of a heart attack, albeit less severe, and they usually end in one to 10 minutes.

Anti-Cancer Antioxidants
Imagine the cells in your body turning brown just like an apple does when exposed to the oxygen in the air.

Breathe Easy, Take Antioxidants
Antioxidant supplements may improve lung damage caused by ozone, reports James M. Samet, PhD of the US Environmental Protection Agency's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Lab in North Carolina.

Herbs for Longevity
We're all aging all the time. As we grow older, our metabolism--the body's chemical and physical changes from producing energy from food and oxygen in cells--becomes less efficient.

Understanding the Cardiovascular System
To understand your cardiovascular system, with its hardworking heart and complex support network of arteries, veins and capillaries, think of it as a delivery system of highways and roads that allow oxygen-rich blood to reach every cell of your body.

The Heart of the Matter
Hospital waiting rooms are lonely places. Unfortunately for many people, the firstintroduction to cardiac disease involves waiting for physicians and nurses to deliver news about loved ones.

Heart Happy
Your heart must be challenged on a regular basis. It is a muscle and, like any other muscle in the body, the more it is used, the stronger it becomes. And, also like other muscles, a stronger heart will also be more efficient at doing its job.

Gut Feelings
A bacterium called Helicobacter pylori is the chief culprit in gastritis, ulcers and stomach cancer. Antioxidant nutrients can protect you.

The New Antioxidants: Great Protectors

Before discussing the types of antioxidants, let me first give you an overview of what antioxidants are and how they help maintain good health.

Antioxidant Nutrition
Its vital role in reducing the risks of age-related diseases Our antioxidant needs become ever greater as we ag.

Seniors: Hooked on Drugs
About 75 -per -cent of seniors 65 and older living in private households take prescription or non-prescription drugs on a daily basis. For institutionalized seniors, this jumps to a whopping 96 -per -cent.

Heart Pains
Heart disease accounts for the death of more Canadians than any other disease with about 79,400 deaths annually. Yet, many Canadians do not understand, or perhaps refuse to believe, the potentially life-saving power of food.

To Catch a Thief
Oxygen - we can't live without it as the body needs a constant supply to produce cellular energ.

Feed Your Brain

"Eat your vegetables, she commanded her 10-year-old son.

Fitness For Every Age
Perhaps the most important factor in a fitness program as we age is having enough energy to maintain an active lifestyle. Due to the wear and tear of a lifetime of not taking care of ourselves, however, we may experience an "energy crisis..

Great Greens for Health, Heart, and Head
Eating an abundance of fruit and vegetables may reduce cancer incidence by up to 50 percen.

Grape Expectations
It is sobering news for women that they now not only suffer equal rates of heart disease as men, but are more likely to die from their heart attacks.

Heart on Track
In this month of cupid's arrows, the emotional health of our heart is under the spotlight. Amid the deluge of chocolates and flowers, however, it's important to remember to nurture the physical health of this most vulnerable organ..

Preventing Heart Disease
Has blood cholesterol been overemphasized as a risk factor for heart disease? Elevated blood cholesterol levels, particularly the bad form of cholesterol - low-density lipoprotein (LDL) - is definitely a risk factor, bu.

Shopping List for a Healthy Heart

Vitamin E (100 percent natural source mixed toco.

Warm Feet, Warm Heart

Striking out Stroke
You could call it a "brain attack. Stroke - the fourth leading cause of death in Canada - happens when the brain's oxygen supply is cut off, destroying vital nerve cells. Fifty thousand Canadians suffer from stroke each year, and about 16,000 of them die..

Bone Health
Our bones are alive and are constantly being renovated: old bone is dismantled, removed, and replaced with new bone. We continue to build bone mass until our early thirties and then our bodies simply work to retain existing bone.

Reduce Your Risk of Heart Disease Without Prescriptions
Cholesterol tests have been the standard for predicting heart disease for many years. However, a new risk factor - high levels of homocysteine - have gained increasing interest and research in recent years.

Antioxidants: Our Cancer Warriors

Free Radicals

Soy for the Heart

The Four Cornerstones to Heart Health

A New Start?
Ready to make a new start this year? Don't forget about your heart! A routine of healthy diet, stress reduction, and exercise will go a long way toward helping to improve your odds of avoiding heart disease. Many natural products, too, can help improve your heart health.

Move Over Has-Bean
Recently, while my friends and I were sharing a laugh over a cuppa java, I looked across the table at Amanda's cup and realized there was no ebony liquid in it. Instead, she was delicately sipping green tea. One of Amanda's jokes?

Healthy Heart Metabolism
Everyone knows that one of the main keys to healthy heart metabolism is regular exercise. Aside from the fact that exercise strengthens muscle tissue-and your heart is a muscle-exercise also enhances one of the body's main repair biochemicals, insulin-like growth factor-1, or IGF-1.

The Universal Antioxidant-ALA
Have you heard the buzz about alpha lipoic acid (ALA)? Once classified as a mere vitamin, this vitamin-like compound is more like a "universal antioxidant. More versatile than antioxidants such as vitamins C and E, it actually enhances the effectiveness of these and other antioxidants.

Loving Lycopene
Lycopene is a carotenoid can lower the risk of some of the most deadly cancers, including breast and prostate cancers. Lycopene can also protect your heart and eyes and can even help preserve your memory. All you need to do is consume just one serving a day. Here's how lycopene works.

What's your expiry date?
To know the date of your death well in advance would be a rare gift. Or would it?

The Copper Connection
Copper is at the core of normal body function. Without copper, we cannot form superoxide dismutase, the superpower of all antioxidants. Copper also helps our bodies create collagen, the protein that forms healthy joints and supple, young skin. And it has a role in helping our bodies store iron, a critical component of the formation of hemoglobin in red blood cells.

Allicin
Researchers are exploring the medicinal possibilities of garlic, especially its main constituent, allicin. Research suggests that garlic may have health benefits such as lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, protecting the heart and arteries, boosting immunity, increasing anti-allergy effects, and helping in cancer prevention and therapy.

Five Ways to Get your Fruits and Veggies

Supersize Dilemma

Herbs and spices: new weapons against cancer
The next time you're preparing dinner, try using a variety of spices to flavour the meal-they just might save your life.A growing body of research indicates that many spices can help prevent cancer.

Start young for better health

Encouragement goes a long way

Heart Displayed in Whole New Light

Poor Man's Juice Rich in Antioxidants

Chocolate Banishes the Winter Blues

Coronary Heart Disease
This month we look at preventing and treating heart disease. Nathan examines ounces of prevention, measured in grams of fat per serving, while Janice discovers the importance of familial connection, measured in speed of returned phone calls.

Top 10 Tips For a Healthy Heart
Can diet and lifestyle changes really help you fight family history of heart disease and prevent heart attacks, high blood pressure, and stroke? Medical research says yes.

Coenzyme Q10
One of the most important coenzymes discovered-CoQ10-has been compared to a spark plug in a car. Just as a car cannot function without that initial spark, the human body cannot function without CoQ10.

Heart to Health
Traditional merges with modern in this short list of herbs, nutritional supplements, and natural foods recommended by naturopathic and medical doctors, researchers, and, yes, even your dear old granny.

Superfood in a Nutshell
What nuts lack in size they more than make up for in nutrition.

Antioxidants
An antioxidant is a molecule that helps stop oxidative stress by scavenging free radicals-those molecules in the body that are unstable due to a missing electron. The free radical will try to stabilize itself by stealing an electron from one of the body's healthy cells, a process called oxidation.

Healthy Aging
Eat less, exercise more, get enough sleep, and avoid stress. Even after all this advice, our arsenal against aging isn't necessarily complete without longevity-boosting nutritional supplements.

Remember Rhodiola
A herb that was widely used by ancient Nordic seafarers is still being used by monks of the Himalayas. The therapeutic properties of this Arctic herb, rhodiola (Rhodiola rosea), have also been impressing modern researchers.

This Might Save Your Life
"I'm going to call an ambulance, I told my patient, a woman in her early 50s. She knew that something was wrong, but I knew she wasn't convinced that her symptoms were serious. Most women, and many men, aren't aware of the more subtle signs of a heart attack.