Heart Health – The Natural Way

Volumes have been written about the heart. It is the symbol of love, the seat of life. You can be broken-hearted, kind-hearted, or hard-hearted. You can wear your heart on your sleeve, and you can think with your heart instead of your head. You can win hearts, steal hearts, and break hearts. You can have a heart of gold, or be a black-hearted villain! You can be somebody’s king of hearts, queen of hearts, or cry about your achy breaky heart. The wonderful heart is so very essential for our very life, and our state of health. So let’s do all we can to keep it healthy and beating as it should. To get straight to the ‘heart of the matter’ (okay, that’s just my silly little pun), let us examine exactly what the heart does, and how we can keep it healthy and strong. The muscles of your heart work continuously all through your life pumping blood into your body. Oxygen-poor blood flows from the body into the right ventricle of the heart. The right ventricle pumps the blood into the lungs, where the blood releases waste matter and picks up fresh oxygen. This clean blood then returns to the left ventricle of the heart, which then pumps the oxygen-rich blood all through the body. This cycle repeats itself continuously throughout your life. Good reason to keep heart disease at bay, right? What is heart disease? Heart disease, or cardiac disease is a general term used to describe a variety of different diseases of the heart. It is the leading cause of death today. The most common heart disease is Coronary Heart Disease, or Coronary Artery Disease. This is caused by plaque building up inside the coronary arteries, which slowly become blocked, and prevent blood from reaching the heart. Generally people suffering from CAD experience chest pains (angina), breathlessness, and gaseous discomfort. Sometimes though, a heart attack could be the first sign of Coronary Heart Disease, and could prove fatal.
Risk Factors Numerous factors, alone or together can put you at risk for Heart Disease. These include;rnGenetics that is a family history of heart Disease

Smoking

Prolonged stress

An inactive lifestyle

Diet rich in saturated fats

Other medical conditions such as Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, and High Blood Cholesterol

Gender (men are at higher risk for Heart Disease than pre-menopausal women. After menopause, the risk evens out

Many other factors contribute towards Heart Disease, but these can be avoided with a bit of care and effort. Read on, and see what you can do to help your heart. Here are a few ways you can help your Heart 1. Avoid dairy products: While milk and other dairy products were always considered good nourishing food, the pasteurisation process actually makes them bad for your heart. Pasteurising milk heats it over 50* C, which destroys the good enzymes that are plentiful in raw milk. Plus all the antibiotics and growth hormones that are fed to cattle are really really bad for your heart. 2. Avoid trans-fatty acids: Trans-fatty acids are complete villains to good health. Trans fats have an adverse effect on blood lipid levels, increasing bad cholesterol (LDL), and decreasing good cholesterol (HDL). Trans fats have been proven to increase the risk of Heart Disease. 3. Avoid chlorinated drinking water: Unfortunately this is easier said than done, since all drinking water is now chlorinated. Many scientific studies show that chlorine in the water contributes significantly to heart disease. 4. Avoid an acidic diet: An acidic diet causes acidic wastes in the blood, which creates an environment where bacteria, yeast, fungus and viruses thrive. The waste products of these microbes contribute significantly to heart disease. 5. Avoid Monosodium Glutamate (MSG): MSG is the chemical that adds flavour to food. It is extremely harmful when ingested in concentrated quantities. It is used widely in soups, noodles, tofu products, even many varieties of frozen food. The food industry camouflages it under various names, such as Yeast extract, Hydrolyzed vegetable Protein, Plant protein extract, etc. Apart from heart disease, MSG also causes depression, cancer and other health problems. 6. Avoid Aspartame: Like MSG, Aspartame is also an ‘excitotoxin’ and can cause heart disease, depression and cancer. 7. Stop smoking and limit your alcohol intake: Everybody knows the ugly effects of smoking on health. Drinking large amounts of alcohol can increase the triglycerides in the blood, high blood pressure, and heart failure. While you must have read that red wine helps keep the heart healthy, purple grape juice will do a much better job without the bad effects of alcohol. Okay, now we have seen what you should avoid; now let us see what you should do to keep your heart healthy 1. Eat your veggies! Researchers have very recently discovered that a particular gene which is the strongest marker for heart disease can actually be modified by eating huge servings of raw veggies and fruits. Amazing, isn’t it?rn2. Get sufficient quantities of Vitamin C, vitamin D and Vitamin E. Make sure these supplements are of good quality and from natural sources (not synthetic).rn3. Supplement with the amino acids L-Lysine, L-Proline, and L-Arginine.rn4. Add a coral calcium supplement.rn5. Take Co-enzyme Q10. rn6. Oral chelation therapy is extremely beneficial to persons at high risk for heart disease. rn7. Exercise, exercise, exercise, and get that blood flowing as it should. Did you know that there is truth to the saying ‘Laughter is the best medicine’? A ‘hearty’ laugh causes the linings of blood vessel walls to relax increasing blood flow for up to 45 minutes after the laughter? Easy, fun and amazing, right? Did you know that scientists engineered a beating heart from embryonic stem cells in a laboratory? What will they think of next? Did you know that the ancient Egyptians believed that the heart was the seat of intelligence and emotion, while the Chinese believed that the heart was the source of happiness? Whatever qualities you attribute to your heart, take care of it. You cannot live or love without it.