February is Heart Month!

It’s always the right time to give your ticker a little TLC. From hemp hearts to happiness, this month I’ll be giving you some weekly tips on the best ways to keep your cardiovascular system healthy. 

I would say at least half of my patients over 40 are on at least one medication for a cardiovascular-related health concern: blood pressure and cholesterol are the biggest ones. There are some great herbs and supplements with lots of research behind them that can help these meds to work best and support the rest of the cardio system, but we won’t discuss those here since it’s quite individualized. Plus, if you’re on meds, talk to a licensed ND who will make sure there’s no contraindications.

Beyond meds and supplements, what else can be done? LOTS! First, review your risk factors for heart disease to see where you can make some best-bang-for-your-buck changes. Here’s the biggest, changeable factors according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation:

• High blood pressure. High pressure on the walls of your arteries can prevent blood from flowing smoothly. This can increase your risk of damage to the arteries which can result in a blood clot and subsequent stroke.
• High cholesterol. This causes a problem when it gets oxidized and gets stuck in the walls of the arteries (called atherosclerosis) which can eventually cause a heart attack.
• Diabetes or impaired blood sugar regulation. High blood sugar can damage nerves and blood vessels, and also feeds the pathway in your liver which keeps your body making cholesterol at a fast pace. 
• Obesity or being overweight, particularly around the middle. Central obesity in particular drastically increases your risk for heart disease and diabetes. Not cool. Weight loss is one of the first-line treatments to reduce your risk by a whole lot! See how your weight measures up here. *Note: if you’re an athlete, the BMI isn’t the best measure of your risk. 
• Excessive alcohol. A couple of drinks here and there is not a bad thing. Ladies, keep it to 10 drinks per week, and gentlemen keep it to 15 per week. Not all in one night - binge drinking is consistently shown to not be a healthy idea. We’re talking about 2 drinks per day maximum. As I’m writing this, a study popped up in my email about exceeding 2 drinks per day doubles your risk for stroke. How’s that for serendipitous timing! Also, never, ever, ever drink and drive, and do not drink if you’re preggers. Just to clarify…
• Couch potatoness (aka physical inactivity). Your heart needs exercise! It’s a pump and is happiest when it’s pumping efficiently! 20-30 minutes each day of physical activity decreases your bad cholesterol, increases your good cholesterol, decreases overall blood pressure, decreases stress, increases happiness, decreases weight… need I go on? 
• Smoking. Increases your risk factors for everything from blood clots to cholesterol plugs to cancer to wrinkles. Everything!
• Stress. Oh this is a doozy because it’s so much easier said than done to ‘stress less’. We’ll chat about strategies for this a bit later. It’s a big topic.

If you’re not sure how these all add up for your individual risk, they here's the HSF's handy dandy calculator for you. How easy is that to take control of your health?!

There certainly are some things that we can’t do much about: genetics and health history are two of them but they certainly aren’t a guarantee. If you have a strong family history of heart disease, there’s lots you can do to change your fate. 


Stay tuned: up next week, we'll go over the best foods for your heart. Hint: they're (unfortunately) not cinnamon hearts. 

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