In many ways, heart disease or atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disorder and this issue is confirmed by recent investigations.(1) Development of cardiovascular diseases or heart diseases is complex and multi factorial. Atherosclerosis is the process of build up of waxy plaque( Plaque is made up of fat, cholesterol, calcium, and other substances found in the blood) in the artery wall, making the artery narrow and hard. Which affects the blood flow through blood vessels and puts you at risk of heart disease. Multiple factors can work parallel to put you in a risk of heart attack. Here we are discussing the major risk factors and taking control of which can help you to lower and reverse your risk of heart attack naturally.
You will also learn 3 min. exercise for health of your vascular system.
By following methods you can able to lower and reverse your risk of heart attack naturally:
Lower chronic stress
Often many people ignore stress or don’t know how chronic stress is killing them internally in today’s lifestyle. Having higher stresses level for a longer period and depression poses a major threat to human health including coronary heart disease or heart attack. Researcher warns that psychological factors including depression, anxiety and stress are independent factors for coronary heart disease which act as either risk factors or protective factors. They also suggest that due to increase number of coronary heart disease in recent years it is necessary to pay more attention to psychological factors and preventive actions.
Following few lines of mechanism I have picked up from a researched paper, little technical but give you idea about it.
Psychological stress experienced by people suffering from MDD (Major Depressive Disorder) can cause deregulation in the sympathetic nervous system (the sympathetic nervous system is part of the autonomic nervous system, which activates the fight or flight response) and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis which interact with hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and the adrenal gland. Such situation deregulates normal hormonal secretion. This results number of deleterious downstream effects, including the development of hypertension, enlargement of the walls of your heart’s main pumping chamber (left ventricle), coronary vascular constriction, endothelial or the inner lining of blood vessels dysfunction, platelet activation, and the production of pro inflammatory cytokines. The potential consequence of this is an elevated risk in irregular heartbeat and Myocardial Infarction or heart attack due to death of cells.(2)
Chronic psychological stress is associated with losing body’s ability to regulate inflammatory response.(3)
Some people may not feel emotional stress but some activities such as over working stress, lack of sleep, skipping meal, over exercising tax the body.
Stress can cause hormonal imbalance and make your adrenal gland to release of stress hormone Cortisol which creates flight or fight situation. If such situations become chronic it affects the immune system and prevent from healing.
Chronic stress can also lead to adrenal fatigue i.e. your adrenal gland exhausted and can’t produce hormones properly to run the body properly.(4)
Work load, multitasking, depression, anxiety are increasing day by day with technological advancement. But many are not realising how such stress level are putting them in higher risk including risk of heart disease. People can’t ignore work stress but obviously can take some measure to lower stress.
Practicing yoga, meditation, listening music etc help in reducing stress. Moderate exercise also helps to lower stress. You can also read eight surprising benefits of doing exercises. If you are in severe stage, you should discuss with an expert.
Limit exposure to toxins/pollutants
Yes, toxins are one top killer in today. Many people are not realizing what toxins, chemicals or pollutants can do to their body. We are living in toxic world. Toxin effects to the body can go beyond imagine.Toxins i.e. environmental chemicals, pollutants, heavy metal such as lead, mercury, aluminium or other compound, toxins from foods, chemicals that are foreigner to the body and can cause harmful reactions. Such reactions create inflammation inside the body. Toxins can cause inflammation, can damage your cells, tissues, organs & create oxidative stress leading to many health complications inside the body and cause premature aging, may cause DNA mutation.
Some drug including angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), Beta blockers, calcium channel blockers, cardiac glycosides and tricyclic antidepressants also can cause cardiovascular toxicity. (5)
By limiting your exposure to environmental toxin, food toxins, chemicals, you can lower your risk.
Lower High Blood pressure
High blood pressure forces heart to continuously work harder than necessary in order to pump blood, can damages inner lining of artery leading to Coronary artery disease, which further contributes to higher risk of heart attack, heart failure and sudden cardiac death. Damage artery is more prone to inflammation, oxidation and accumulation of fatty and other substances as a result. You should limit your salt & sodium, added sugar and sugary food, highly process food, processed and damage fats, refine carbohydrates, alcohol consumption. Include in diet fruits and vegetables, omega 3 fatty acid, whole food. Be physically active, maintain body weight and manage stress. You can read more about risk factors of high blood pressure and prevention here.
Quite smoking or second hand smoke
Smoking causes damage to artery by thickening wall and narrowing blood vessel. Further such condition may cause inflammation. Which can cause development of atherosclerosis and further leads to interruption of blood flow. You should avoid this unhealthy habit as early as possible.
Control high blood sugar
Minimize intake of added sugar or artificial sugar as much as possible. Added sugar is everywhere from cookies, soft drinks to Read the label before purchasing any process food. Sugar can cause insulin resistance and disturb body metabolism. Sugar can lead vascular complicacy along with some other problems. By controlling your sugar intake you may also able to control your weight. Read more about what sugar can do to your body and sugar alternatives. If you are a diabetic you should discuss with a healthcare provider. Avoid food in high glycemic index, cow milk and other allergen. We will come out later about reversing diabetes in a natural way in a separate article.
Improve cholesterol number
Excessive cholesterol running through your blood vessel is obviously not a desirable condition. However high or unbalanced cholesterol number is a symptom rather than a cause. Major part of your blood cholesterol made by the liver and there is no significant relation between dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol. Your liver makes cholesterol for numerous functions. You can read more details about cholesterol here. And atherosclerosis or plaque formation in artery is contributed by oxidized cholesterol not native cholesterol-research found. Read more how oxidation and free radical damage to your health here.
Apart from many other functions the body uses cholesterol to repair and heal the body. Your liver will produce more and more cholesterol if your body is under chronic inflammation, under continuous stress. You must know what chronic inflammation is and how to prevent it, if you love your body.
Some other factors which can lead to abnormal cholesterol level include unhealthy liver, abnormal thyroid gland.(6)
You should avoid food fueling inflammation and further causing oxidation inside the body. Reduce intake of trans-fat, hydrogenated oil, refined food, processed food, added sugar as far as possible, add food with Omega 3 fatty acid, mono monounsaturated fatty acids, high in fiber, whole food and be physically active. Control your exposure to toxins whatever be the way whether environmental or food source.
You can also read 10 best foods to lower high cholesterol naturally
Build a healthy eating habit
You should avoid or minimize intake of processed foods with chemical preservatives, refined food, food containing trans fat, processed sugar, hydrogenated oil, excessive sodium, food that contains gluten etc as much as possible. Such food can cause inflammation inside your body, raise blood pressure, leads to obesity and other health complication.
A balanced diet with considerable portion of fruits and vegetables containing vitamins, minerals, fibers, antioxidant and other nutrients will help to minimize risk factors and other health complicacies. Your diet list should include fruits & vegetables in cooked as well as raw form. Choose organic as far as possible specially when you eat raw. Food with antioxidant properties helps to prevent oxidation reaction inside the body and cell damage. You can read more about oxidation damage to cells and antioxidant foods here. High or overheat of food, oil can generate toxins and for that reason you should take control of overheating of food. I will come out with the factors for choosing your cooking oil in a different article. You should keep in mind that every food has its own functionality and should be used with limitation. Also avoid food which is allergic to you.
Quite or reduce alcohol consumption
Long term excessive consumption of alcohol can elevate risk of high blood pressure and heart attack. For that reason you should limit your alcohol consumption.
Do some Exercise and physical activeness
Exercise improves metabolic syndrome i.e. obesity, cholesterol, high blood pressure and blood sugar level. It also improves heart muscles, blood circulation along with oxygen uptake capacity, helps in loosing excessive weight. A good set of regular aerobic or cardio exercises reduce risk of heart attack and stroke and gives many benefits to your health and overall wellness. However if you any health complication you should discuss with a professional first.
Healthy endothelial cells i.e. cells of inner lining of blood vessels release nitric oxide for proper functioning of blood vessels. Nitric oxide plays a very important rule in health of blood vessel. It keeps moisten lining of blood vessel which improves health of blood vessels and circulation and prevent plaque formation or atherosclerosis. (7)You can check Dr. Mercola’s three minutes nitric oxide release workout here.
Bottom line
By application of above methods will definitely help you to lower and reverse your risk of heart attack naturally without medication and improve overall health. If you have family history, you can consult with a healthcare professional. Lifestyle changes helps to lower risk of heart attack in individual with family history. Be healthy and be happy, my friend. We will come soon with a separate article about foods and supplement which helps to lower and reverse risk of heart attack in a natural way.
Disclaimer: Information provided here are generalized information for informational and entertainment purpose only, not intended to provide one to one health consultation or replace practice of a qualified practitioner. Different people may have different health condition and may have different reaction to the same food. Hence it has been advised to consult with health care provider before application of any of above information Source and references:
1. Tuttolomondo A, Di Raimondo D, Pecoraro R, Arnao V, Pinto A, Licata G.: Atherosclerosis as an inflammatory disease, Curr Pharm Des. 2012;18(28):4266-88 2. Arup K. Dhar and David A. Barton, Depression and the Link with Cardiovascular Disease, Frontier in Psychiatry, March 2016 3. Sheldon Cohen, Denise Janicki-Deverts, William J. Doyle, Gregory E. Miller, Ellen Frank, Bruce S. Rabin, and Ronald B. Turner. Chronic stress, glucocorticoid receptor resistance, inflammation, and disease risk. PNAS, April 2, 2012 4. The Immune System Recovery Plan-Susan Blum 5. HK Ruben Thanacoody, W Stephen Waring: Toxins that affect the cardiovascular system, Clin Med (Lond).2008 Feb;8(1):92-5 6. www.liverdoctor.com: dont-worry-about-cholesterol-inflammation-is-your- biggest-problem/ 7. whoisollierelfe.com: How Nitric Oxide can prevent or reverse heart disease
