Your chance of dying of a cardiovascular (CV) problem is still #1 for men AND women. Women tend to be more afraid of cancer
but CV disease (CVD) is the biggest killer. Like I always say, sudden death maybe isn’t so bad for the person who is then dead but it certainly can take a toll on family and friends of the dead person. Maybe even worse would be the effects of limitations and disability from the effects of CV.
My goal for this blog is to move your motivation needle a notch or two toward working to take a little better care of yourself.
Keep in mind that the bulk of CV disease is generally preventable but it will take some effort on your part. Most people will work hard at something in their life if they have any degree of success. Healthy should be at least a hobby for everyone interested in some level of productivity and life satisfaction.
Non-Fatal Strokes
Do you know anyone who has had a stroke and didn’t die? If you do, you know what a bummer that is. Strokes account for the number 3 spot with respect to death but for anyone who understands what your life will be like if you don’t die, having a stroke should be pretty high in your concern list. I have too often seen the effects of non-fatal strokes. One person went from being a high functioning 85-year-old, taking care of and flying his own airplane to descending into zero life satisfaction state in a matter of minutes.
Lifestyle Changes for Heart Health
As I mentioned, the causes of stroke and heart disease are not mysterious. You will need to educate yourself and apply some will power to avoid being a statistic and a warning to others. So you will encounter two challenges. The first is knowing what is healthy for you and the second is actually making those changes.
It is thought that the risk of CVD can decrease by 80% if people maintain proper weight, follow a prudent diet, do not smoke, and participate in regular exercise and use supplements that make sense for your particular physiology.
Diet
Many dietary factors play into the formation of CVD. Barry Sears did a lot of writing about this topic in the ’90s and advocated a zone diet. He developed this system in order to keep himself alive as the men in his family tended to die suddenly before the age of 50 from heart disease. His research led him to adopt a 40-30-30 diet describing the percent of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins in each meal with the actual amount of total food also being controlled. Making the shift to a Zone diet will take some effort on your part.
Following this type of diet can really help to optimize your HDL and LDL and their ratios. I would encourage you to spend some quality time with a Sears Zone Diet book.
We have also seen some good evidence that intermittent fasting can be a help. I won’t get into too much detail about that here but it involves confining your eating to maybe 7 or 8 hours per day and doing a water fast the rest of the day. This takes some getting used to but research data is beginning to support what we see clinically for people headed in that direction.
Supplements
L-Arginine and L-Citrulline
Recent studies are showing evidence of the benefits in increasing nitric oxide via the addition of L-arginine and L-citrulline to your supplement program. For some taking a good L-arginine and L-citrulline formula like Pure Encapsulations Nitric Oxide Support can help make arteries more flexible and also help in cleaning out plaques. This is a great prevention tool and can increase blood supply to the heart as well. Erectile dysfunction is often caused by narrowing and hardening of the small arteries supplying the penis. This is a sign of heart disease in its own right. Erection medication works by stimulating nitric oxide production. Visit our blog to learn about how L-arginine and L-citrulline supplements are also beneficial for balanced nitric oxide levels.
If you have already had a heart attack or stroke, you won’t just jump into therapeutic doses of L-arginine. The body would need some time to adapt. Most of these people should begin with maybe 1/8 scoop a day and work up slowly to a full scoop and then two to four scoops a day of Nitric Oxide Support over about 3 months. Jumping right to two scoops a day can actually increase your risk of a fatal heart attack if you are in that post-heart attack phase.
Statin
Wouldn’t it be better to just take a pill? Most people think, yes as statin sales exceed $10 billion per year. That’s over $30 per year per man, woman, and child in the U.S. It seems that every day a new study comes out touting some additional benefit of statins such as helping with macular degeneration or for treating heart problems in young people for example.
Lots of debris is washing up on shore from those who have sailed off in that direction and we have witnessed some of this personally in family and friends. One dangerous issue is the rampant denial by medically trained professionals about the negative effects of statins. Usually, the patient or an observant family member is the one who connects the drug treatment with the dangerous effects.
Side Effects
Some commonly reported issues that arise include fatigue, dizziness, insomnia, chest pain, back pain, stomach pain, muscle pain, joint pain, arthritis, and urinary tract infections. Let’s not forget neuropathies from damage to the myelin sheath. The medical term is statin-induced sensory peripheral neuropathy and has been addressed in medical literature for several years.
So what happens if a person develops peripheral neuropathy that affects the soles of the feet? Now they find they can’t get out and walk so there goes an important exercise option that the body needs to help keep the heart and mind healthy. Of course, the doctor sends this person to a neurologist who probably prescribes Neurontin without talking about the sudden onset of the neuropathy a few weeks after beginning the statin. Maybe the person’s will power declines and their diet becomes worse.
Coenzyme Q-10 (CoQ-10)
Fatigue and muscle aches and pains are associated with interference with energy production pathways that include blocking of coenzyme Q-10 or CoQ-10. EVERYBODY taking statins should be supplementing with CoQ-10, probably 200 mg or more per day.
Also troubling are numerous reports of memory loss. If you think about it, a few key traits are really important to being a human being and memory is one of them. Also troubling is some of this memory decline can persist after the statins are discontinued unless you figure out a way to repair the damage.
Conclusion
If you are at risk for heart disease or stroke, you will either have to do some research yourself to see what dietary changes would be appropriate or find someone you trust to do that for you.
At OVitaminPro, we want you to be free of cardiovascular disease. We can offer supportive supplements for heart health like Karuna CoQ-10, BetterGenix Cholestgenix, Cardiovascular Research Tocotrienols, and Pure Encapsulations Nitric Oxide Support for example. Of course, these supplements play a supportive role in the lead roles of diet and exercise.
