Guest column

0
576

A Treat for Your Heart

By Dr. Tracy Darling

By Dr. Tracy Darling
By Dr. Tracy Darling

February is heart health awareness month and heart disease remains the top killer of men and women in this country. I’m a local physician and a member of our beloved community and I want to help you reduce your risk of dying from this disease.

Heart disease is 90 percent preventable. Here are simple steps you can do to reduce your risk:

Quit smoking.

Proper nutrition. Eating organic greens and beets improves vitamin and mineral levels and nitric oxide production, which relaxes arteries. Avoiding refined carbohydrates and sugars reduces inflammation, improves cholesterol profiles, and helps lose the belly fat that increases heart risk. Eating lean protein and avoiding animal fats also reduces inflammation. Beneficial oils like uncooked olive oil, coconut oil, and raw nuts (especially walnuts) and seeds are a great substitute for junk snacks. Skip the juice and soda, and drink more water.

Exercise. You may cringe at the idea of going to the gym, but our bodies need to move and many of us sit most of the day. Weight training, walking, yoga, Pilates, or even stretching on a daily basis goes a long way to improve our heart health. Local health clubs and other fitness studios have a wide variety of ways to move, and have fun doing it.

Supplementation. We simply cannot get all the nutrients we need in our food anymore. Our bodies are trying to survive a high-pace lifestyle, stress, and environmental toxins that have increased exponentially in recent decades. Vitamin D, antioxidants, phytonutrients (the good chemicals we get in plant foods), and minerals are a few of the nutrients that are missing in most of our diets.

Get tested for nutritional deficiencies. Nutrient testing through a “functional medicine” lab, where your cells can be grown in culture to see what they are “hungry” for, is a great way to know what you are missing. Vitamin D testing can be done through any lab, and can lower inflammation and blood pressure, as well as diabetes, depression, and cancer risk.

Advanced lipid testing. Also available through many labs, a lipid test can tell you more than a basic cholesterol profile. Lowering your cholesterol may not reduce your heart risk at all if you have the wrong “size” LDL particles, or if it is “oxidized,” and this is not measured through simple cholesterol tests.

Check blood pressure regularly. Many of us run high during times when we are not in the doctor’s office, especially at night, while we sleep. Ask your doctor about 24 hour blood pressure monitoring.

Did you know?

Low melatonin levels can cause a dangerous rise in blood pressure, increasing heart risk.

Acid-reflux drugs, called “proton pump inhibitors” can increase heart attack and stroke risk by a 35 percent.

Certain blood pressure medications actually increase heart risk, while others lower it.

Even if you are thin, if your muscle mass is too low, you will have more inflammation, increasing heart risk.

Olive oil and olive leaf extract act chemically similarly to a popular blood pressure lowering drug.

Aged garlic, seaweed, pycnogenol, quercetin, celery, probiotics, hawthorn berry, pomegranate, sesame, vitamins C and D, Coenzyme Q10, lipoic acid, and vitamin B6 lower blood pressure and heart disease risk

Sleep apnea is the top cause of correctable high blood pressure.

A test called ApoB/ApoA1 ratio, a test rarely done by most doctors, is the top predictor of heart attack.

If you eat eggs poached or soft boiled, the nutrients in the yolk are beneficial, but fried or scrambled eggs cause oxidative damage.

The herb Berberine can lower cholesterol and blood pressure, improve diabetes, and kill parasites in the body.

Curcumin, a turmeric extract, can improve inflammation, diabetes, and slow aging.

Pesticides on crops increase obesity and other disease. Eat organic and local if possible.

A simple urine test called microalbumin can tell you if your artery lining (the “endothelium”) has been damaged.

Magnesium can lower blood pressure and help heart arrhythmias.

Using commercial mouthwash kills beneficial bacteria in the mouth and reduces nitric oxide production, raising heart risk.

Lean, organic beef can lower inflammation, where fatty beef raises risk.

Dr. Tracy Darling’s focuses her practice on finding and correcting the root cause of illness, and preventing chronic disease. She graduated from Indiana University School of Medicine, and practiced emergency medicine and family practice with her father in Indiana before returning to her hometown in 2012. Her two college-age children are beginning their studies in medicine. Contact her at [email protected]

 

Share this:

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here