Beating Down Heart Disease

The farther away from the equator you live, the higher your blood pressure get. What gives? Is it in the air? The water? The food? No, it’s in the sky – the sun, or lack thereof.

Because of vitamin D’s actions in the body, sun exposure has a dramatic effect on heart and circulatory disease. High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, is a very serious condition that is the main cause of stroke and heart attack. If you live in s sunny climate, you are less likely to have high blood pressure than if you live somewhere with less sunlight at certain times of the year. People tend to have healthier blood pressure during the summer than during the winter because there’s more sunlight available – and thus more vitamin D in the body. When exposed to the same amount of sunlight, people with fairer skin have levels of vitamin D (the darker your skin, the more melanin there is in it, and consequently the more difficult it is for you to produce vitamin D from the sun). There’s now specific evidence that people who live in sunnier climates have fewer heart attacks. Heart failure is also associated with vitamin D deficiency.

Hypertension: The Silent Killer

One in four adult Americans – fifty million in all – suffers from hypertension, the main sign of which is high blood pressure. More than half of Americans older than sixty have hypertension. It’s expected to affect 1.6 billion people worldwide by the year 2025. Despite its prevalence, high blood pressure is often ignored or undiagnosed because it has no symptoms. However, hypertension is a prime risk factor for heart disease and stroke, the first and third leading causes of death in this county. It’s a chief factor in our nation’s struggle with chronic disease, disability, and even death. Because it is an insidious and deadly disease, hypertension is sometimes called the silent killer.

We know that blood vessels have vitamin D receptors. The active form of vitamin D will enhance contraction of the heart muscle and improve vascular smooth-muscle function. We know that activated vitamin D alters inflammatory activity, which is a major factor in the development of atherosclerosis. And there is evidence that the active form of vitamin D regulates the major blood-pressure-regulating hormone rennin in your kidneys. The gathering evidence on vitamin D’s active role in regulating blood pressure has prompted numerous studies lately, as researchers continue to look for clues to conquering this silent killer.

Omega-3 Nutrient

It is a no-brainer that the omega-3 fats lower heart disease – researchers have known that for decades. Hundreds of studies, from prestigious groups like the National Institutes of Health and universities like Harvard and Tuffs, repeatedly and consistently show that when you add omega-3-rich foods or supplements to the diet

Blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels drop and the good cholesterol, called HDL, goes up;

The bad cholesterol, called LDL, changes in size so it is less harmful to arteries;

Your blood is less likely to form nasty blood clots that block arteries and lead to heart attack and stroke;

There is less inflammation in your arteries, so they are more resistant to the development of atherosclerosis, the underlying cause of heart disease; and

Even your blood pressure and heart rate drop.

Benefits are seen whether you take omega-3s in general or only the omega-3 DHA. These benefits are experienced by men and women with heart disease, by healthy people, by vegetarians and by people at any age from infancy to the elder years. The benefits to your heart also appear to be cumulative. The more you eat, the healthier your heart. Eat omega-3-rich foods once or twice a week and you lower heart disease risk by 30%, but include those foods every day and our risk drops by up to 83%.

For years, nutrition experts focused on this exciting heart disease connection. Then a few researchers started to ponder the effects omega-3 might have on the brain. They had noticed an interesting phenomenon: people with heart disease also had an unusually high rate of depression. Could there be a common factor underlying both problems? If DHA and other omega-3 fats could dramatically lower heart disease risk, what were the possibilities for brain tissue, which is so much more dependent on these fats? DHA was the omega-3 of choice for their studies, since both the brain and the retina of the eyes contain up to 30 times more DHA than any other omega-3. There had to be a connection between those high tissue levels and DHA somehow regulating mod, memory and brain health.

In the 1990s, the results of those studies started to rolling in. Study after study showed that people who are depressed and women with postpartum depression have much lower DHA levels in their blood, fat tissues and cerebrospinal fluids, up to 36% lower than happy people. It is now clear that DHA levels drop, so do levels of the feel-good brain chemical serotonin, leaving people grumpy, blue and downright depressed. Even the severity of depression is affected; as tissue levels of omega-3s drop, depression worsens. On the other hand, boost intake of DHA by including more DHA-rich foods or by taking supplements, and serotonin levels rise and mood improves in men, women and new moms. Studies show up to a 50% reduction in depression in people who are the toughest to treat and even an improvement in well-being for those battling everyday blues.

The time factor varies form person to person; some people report improvements in mood within days or even hours of eating daily omega-3-rich meals. And it doesn’t take huge amounts. Even a slight increase in blood levels, say a 1% to 5% increase, is enough to see the sneering wicked with turn into happy-go-lucky Pollyanna.

The mood-boosting benefits of DHA go far beyond just a few studies. DHA can change the mod of entire countries. Depression rates vary up to sixty-fold form one country to another. Those rates mirror rats for heart disease and also reflect omega-3 intake. For example, as people switch from their culture’s traditional diets that are adequate in omega-3s to Western-style diets almost devoid of omega-3s, the country’s rates of heart disease, depression and postpartum depression skyrocket.

Healthy Brew

Caffeine aside, coffee offers a few compelling health benefits for your body and mind that give java junkies reason to perk up. Coffee appears to lower the risk for heart disease and for dying from heart disease by up to 24%. The brew also helps lower the risk for certain cancers, such as colon, rectal and liver cancers. Something in coffee, other than caffeine, also lowers the risk for gout and diabetes and might protect against Parkinson’s disease. Coffee also might keep you mentally sharp into your senior years and extend your life.

Coffee a health drink? Coffee is an extract, and like other extracts, including wine, cocoa and tea, it is packed with antioxidants that protect cells’ genetic code for DNA from damage and promote cell survival. Coffee also might reduce inflammation associated with blood vessel damage. Of course, other studies have found that coffee might increase risks for pancreatic cancer and even might increase heart disease risk, so it is premature to recommend guzzling cup after cup every day. Also, how the coffee is made appears important to health, with filter drip being healthier than pressed coffee.

The Antistress Mineral

Magnesium gets no respect. Other nutrients, like calcium, folic acid or iron, are in the news all the time, and even vitamin D has been getting some press of late. But you never hear about magnesium. Big mistake.

This mineral helps in more than 300 processes in the body. In fact, every cell in your body needs this mineral. That might explain why it helps lower the risk for diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis and much more. Yet three out of four Americans don’t get enough.

Why Magnesium?

When it comes to mood, magnesium is a major player. Stress triggers the release of stress hormones that drain magnesium from the body. In turn, low magnesium levels raise stress hormones, escalating the stress response. Studies on animals show that low magnesium intake increases sensitivity to noise and crowding and escalates stress-included diseases, such as ulcers, while animals fed magnesium-rich diets cope better and are at lower risk for disease. Studies on people under pressure at work to meet ridiculously tight deadlines cope far better when their diets are rich in magnesium but are more likely to freak out if they aren’t.

Women who get crabby, depressed and downright difficult to live with the 10 to 14 days before their periods also need more magnesium. Magnesium levels drop during the last two weeks of the menstrual cycle, which might contribute to PMS symptoms, such as water retention, cramping, headaches and an oversensitive nervous system (feeling crabby, irritable and edgy?). Increasing intake of magnesium helps curb these symptoms – even to recommended levels is enough to see improvement for symptoms for some women.

How Much Do You Need?

You need about 320 to 500 milligrams of this feel-good nutrient every day. That doesn’t sound like much until you realize that most of the magnesium gold mines in the diet are foods many people don’t typically include in generous amounts, such as avocados, oysters, bananas and the super mood foods wheat germ, whole grains, cooked dried beans and peas and dark green leafy vegetables.

If you choose to supplement, look for the best absorbed forms, such as magnesium oxide, citrate or hydroxide. But don’t go overboard on this mineral! It is the active ingredient in Milk of Magnesia, which means that too much can loosen more than your muscles, leaving you in the bathroom rather than at the party.

Add Superfoods to Your Diet

Superfoods are natural foods that are nutritive powerhouses. They work to ensure your body gets what it needs to be healthy. Loaded with nutrients, superfoods can help you lower your cholesterol, reduce your risk of heart disease and cancer, stabilize your moods, and more importantly, boost your metabolism. According to nutritionist Elizabeth Somer, author of The Essential Guide to Vitamins and Minerals, a healthy diet incorporating a variety of the superfoods that will help you maintain your weight, fight disease, and liver longer. One thing these foods all have in common? “Every superfood is going to be a ‘real’ (unprocessed) food”, Somer points out, “You don’t find fortified potato chips in the superfood category”.