This month, being Valentine’s day month, I thought we could keep the love flowing all month, and delve into the heart of it all – Cardiovascular Health and our favourite nutrients to support heart health!
I know it’s punny and nerdy, but in all seriousness, Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in Australia and New Zealand and there is so much Naturopathy, nutritional medicine, diet, lifestyle and herbal medicine can do to prevent it.
So over the next month we will be delving into all things Cardiovascular health, We hope you’ll join us for some great tips to keep your heart and cardiovascular system happy and healthy!
What is the Cardiovascular system?
Your cardiovascular system is made up of your heart and blood vessels; including arteries and veins. Who all work together to pump blood around the body. Delivering essential nutrients, and oxygen to all your tissues and organs.
Signs your heart may need some extra love:
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- History of cardiovascular events in your personal medical history or your families.
- You are overweight
- You smoke
- You get breathless with light activity
- You feel fatigued
- Swelling in the extremities
- Angina
- You have a family history of Cardiovascular disease
And more…
Foundations For Good Heart Health
Eat a healthful balanced Diet
Diet is a major contributor to heart health and heart disease. The best diet is one your Naturopath makes up for you, based on your individual needs and health goals. However as a starting point, Eating a wholefoods diet with:
- A minimum of 3 cups of varied vegetables and a piece of fruit or two per day.
- A handful of nuts and seeds, and up to 2 tablespoons of ‘good fats’ from foods such as fish, nuts, seeds, avocado, and cold pressed extra virgin olive oil, or hemp and flax seed oil – which has not been heated.
- Include protein rich foods in each meal or snack, such as chicken, fish, tofu, tempeh, eggs or legumes.
- Drink a minimum of 8 glasses of water a day.
(In a follow up blog we will go into more detail on foods for cardiovascular health)
Enjoy daily movement and exercise
Regular exercise not only helps us to maintain a healthy weight, but it also supports a healthy stress response (when not done excessively) and boosts mental and overall health.
Find ways to be active for 30 minutes or more on most days, even better if you find something you enjoy!
Head to our previous blog here, to help you find an create a sustainable movement practice that you enjoy!
Relax and enjoy life!
Stress can have detrimental effects on every system of your body, especially your heart. Just think about how your blood pressure rises when you are stressed – even if you’re just stressed from rushing to get to the doctor on time.
If this is what small inconsequential stress can do in a matter of minutes, you can imagine that long term, unmanaged stress can have serious health outcomes.
Try to manage your stress by taking time each day to relax, do something you enjoy and maybe even find a relaxation or mindfulness activity you enjoy eg. yin yoga, a swing on the Oxychi Bodywave pro, meditation, Massage journaling, breathwork, etc…
Limit Alcohol consumption
When you drink alcohol it causes a temporary increase in heart rate and blood pressure. Therefore long term drinking can contribute to increased heart rate, high blood pressure and causing a weakening of the heart muscles and increased strain on the cardiovascular system as a whole.
Alcohol is also inflammatory in the body causing further oxidative stress on our very susceptible arteries, and veins. Veins and arteries need antioxidants to stay limber and elastic, allowing for expansion and contraction with the different blood pressures we experience.
Quit Smoking
All of us know it, but here it is again. Smoking increases your risk of CVD by double. By increasing the formation of plaque in the blood vessels, arteries become narrow and due to cigarettes also thickening the blood, they put you at higher chance of experiencing a clot and therefore heart attack or stroke.
If you need support with quitting smoking, Naturopathy and Acupuncture both have tools to help you with the transition, both physically and mentally. Book a consultation today.
Do you currently have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, get breathless with light activity, have a history of cardiovascular disease in your family, are overweight or smoke?
Book a
consultation with one of our Qualified Natural Health Care Practitioners to help you reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease today!
Supplements to support a Heart Health:
SPMs For Keeping Inflammation Down and Heart Health UP!
SPMs also known as specialized pro resolving mediators (we’ll stick to SPM for short), are potent inflammation resolving compounds.
As mentioned before, the cardiovascular system is incredibly prone to inflammation and therefore SPM helps the body to regain balance and prevent any worsening of existing inflammatory disease states.
Coenzyme Q10 Our Heart Health Hero
CoQ10 is used by naturopaths to support healthy cardiovascular function and reduce oxidative stress and inflammation (a major contributor to cardiovascular disease).
CoQ10 can also support energy levels, as it targets mitochondrial health, and especially indicated if you are currently taking a cholesterol lowering medication (as naturally occurring coQ10 is depleted by these medications)
Omega 3, Our Cholesterol Mediator
Omega 3’s are potent anti-inflammatory compounds, which also happen to improve cholesterol levels. By boosting HDL (our good cholesterol) and lowering LDL (our bad cholesterol). If you are a vegetarian there are now Algal oil omega 3 supplements!
Magnesium and Taurine, The unsuspecting Heart Health Duo
These nutrients work together to support the health of your heart, cardiovascular and nervous systems. Magnesium relaxes the wall of blood vessels, which can help to lower blood pressure. Taurine may assist with stress-induced high blood pressure.
Vitamin E, A Cardiovascular Antioxidant
Vitamin E is a strong antioxidant which also has been shown to help balance cholesterol levels, and slow the buildup of plaque in the arteries. Without the negative side effects of some cholesterol lowering treatments.
As always with any supplements (especially if you are on medications) please speak to one of our qualified practitioners before self prescribing.
Book a consultation with one of our Malvern Naturopaths today to see what supplements and dosages would be best suited to you.
