Actually, all of these statements are true. Your heart is a highly muscular organ—and a good thing too, since its job is to pump blood constantly. In one year alone, it beats more than thirty-five million times! And this is just an average; when you’re exercising or under stress, it may beat as much as twice as fast.
This organ is, quite literally, the “heart” of your cardiovascular system—the intricate transportation network that distributes blood to every inch of your body. Blood carries oxygen and nutrients to your tissues, and it flushes away the toxic waste products of metabolism (the chemical reactions that make our bodies function). It also helps to regulate body temperature.
When atherosclerosis impairs the coronary arteries (the vessels that supply blood to the heart), the result is called coronary artery disease. The term “coronary” (from the Latin corona, meaning crown) describes the crownlike way these arteries encircle the heart.
In the next few pages, we will discuss two serious manifestations of coronary artery disease: angina and heart attack.
ANGINA (CHEST PAIN)
The following is a list of symptoms associated with angina.
• Chest pain or discomfort, usually beneath the breastbone, sometimes spreading to the throat, arm, or elbow
• Feeling of suffocating or choking
• Tight, heavy feeling in the chest
• Shortness of breath
• Brief fainting spells, episodes of sudden coughing, or pounding heartbeats during exertion
If any of these sound familiar, you may have angina. Angina usually occurs because atherosclerosis has narrowed one or more of the coronary arteries that nourish the heart with blood. When the heart muscle doesn’t get enough blood and oxygen, it protests by firing pain messages to your brain.
Many angina attacks are triggered by physical activity, heavy lifting, cold weather, eating, or emotional stress. During these times your heart pumps harder, and it needs more blood and oxygen to fuel the extra workload. If you have gradually fallen into sedentary ways, you may not realize that your heart is receiving less oxygen. Angina may be your first clue that atherosclerosis has narrowed your coronary arteries.
If you think you’re having an angina attack, here’s what to do:
• Stop whatever you’re doing; sit down if possible.
• Breathe deeply to bring more oxygen to your heart.
• If you don’t feel better in a few minutes, or if you feel worse, have someone drive you to a hospital immediately. Don’t try to drive yourself; this could be a heart attack.
• Even if the discomfort goes away, call your health care provider.
While angina is uncomfortable, it is usually temporary and fades in ten to fifteen minutes without injuring the heart permanently. But don’t ignore it—it could be a warning sign of coronary artery disease. Consult your health care provider immediately.
Traditional Treatments
Healthy habits can make all the difference in treating and preventing angina. Note the factors that trigger your episodes, and try to avoid or minimize them. Even if you’ve already experienced symptoms, modifying your lifestyle now can ward off future episodes—and stop an angina attack from escalating into a heart attack.
Nutrition. Nutrition, good or bad, plays a huge role in the development of atherosclerosis and angina. When it comes to preventing and treating cardiovascular conditions, food can be our best friend—or our worst enemy.
What makes a diet heart-friendly? Many practitioners recommend following these guidelines from the U.S. Department of Agriculture:
• Carbohydrates (whole grains, breads, cereals, rice, pasta). Six to eleven servings daily
• Vegetables. Three to five servings daily
• Fruit. Two to four servings daily
• Protein (meat, fish, beans, nuts, eggs). Two to three servings daily
• Dairy products (milk, yogurt, cheese). Two to three servings daily
• Fats and sweets. Sorry, but use sparingly
As you can see, this approach emphasizes grains, vegetables, and fruit, rather than fat and sugar. Compare this to the typical American diet, which is light on fresh produce but heavy on fat: most of us consume 37 percent or more of our daily calories in fat. (Remember that fat is present in most processed, breaded, and fried foods).
All fats are not created equal. We can classify them as saturated or unsaturated. It’s important to understand the difference, since one (saturated) is much harder on our cardiovascular health than the other. Food labels often specify the relative percentages of each. (Since cholesterol is only one type of fat, a product could be labeled “cholesterol-free” but still contain fat.)
Saturated fats are the ones to avoid, because they may raise blood cholesterol levels by 5 to 10 percent. Saturated fats tend to be solid at room temperature. They usually come from animals, although they’re also found in some plant products. Some examples of foods containing saturated fats: beef, lamb, pork, veal, whole milk, butter, margarine, cheese, cocoa butter, coconut oil, palm oil.
Unsaturated fats come from fish, poultry, and plants. Unsaturated fats are usually liquid at room temperature; they may actually lower blood levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. Some examples: vegetable oils like corn, soybean, sesame, and sunflower oils.
Some unsaturated fats are called polyunsaturated because of their chemical structure. Some polyunsaturated fats, such as omega-3 fatty acids, may actually be good for us (see “The Fish Connection” below). Other unsaturated fats (called monounsaturated) may also be beneficial; they appear to lower LDL while raising HDL (“good”) cholesterol. Monounsaturated fats are found in olive oil and canola oil.
The American Cancer Society recommends that no more than 30 percent of all our daily calories should come from fat: 10 percent or less from saturated fats, the rest from unsaturated. Some practitioners go even further. Cardiologist Dean Ornish, director of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in California, prescribes for his patients a strict diet with less than 10 percent of calories from fat.
The Fish Connection As early as the 1950s, researchers noticed that the Inuit (Eskimo) population in Greenland had low rates of angina, heart attack, and high blood pressure. They also noticed that the Inuit ate a lot of sea-animal meat: fish, seal, whale, and walrus. Their diet was low in carbohydrates, but rich in protein and fat.
In particular, it was rich in a specific type of polyunsaturated fat called omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids make up 13 percent of the Inuit diet, compared to less than 1 percent of the typical European or American regimen.
Why are omega-3 fatty acids good for the heart? One reason may be that they compete with another type of fatty acid, omega-6, to control the biochemical reactions in our bodies. Omega-6 fatty acids (found in corn, safflower, and sunflower oils) are relatively common in the American diet; many of us consume roughly ten grams of omega-6 for every single gram of omega-3. An oversupply of omega-6 fatty acids can encourage the development of atherosclerosis, blood clots, and irregular heartbeats.
Omega-3 fatty acids, on the other hand, decrease blood’s tendency to clot, and they also reduce the amount of fat circulating in the blood. When people add omega-3 to their diet, their cholesterol levels start to fall. In one study, people with high cholesterol averaged a 27-percent drop in total blood cholesterol levels after eating a fish-oil-based diet for four weeks. Those with extremely high cholesterol (over 800 in some cases) averaged an even bigger drop of 45 percent.
Many nutritionists advise us to eat as much omega-3 as we do omega-6. While we may not feel like munching on seal, whale, or walrus, we can certainly feast on fish. Especially good sources of omega-3 fatty acids are salmon, mackerel, sardines, whitefish, bluefish, and anchovies. While omega-3s are most plentiful in fish, they can also be found in some plants: walnuts, soybeans, spinach, mustard greens, purslane, flaxseed, linseed oil, and rapeseed (used to make canola oil).
Get Moving All practitioners, both traditional and alternative, agree that exercise is a big help in dealing with coronary artery disease. It strengthens your cardiovascular system and promotes healthy blood flow. A word to the wise: If you don’t exercise currently, consult your health care provider before starting.
What kind of exercise is best? The answer is simple: whatever you enjoy doing and will do on a regular basis. The key word here is regular. Exercise doesn’t have to be strenuous, but it’s most effective if done at least three times a week. If you can do it more often, great.
Remember the phrase “No pain, no gain”? Forget it. Exercise doesn’t have to hurt—in fact, it shouldn’t hurt. Pay attention to your body; if you feel pain or discomfort of any kind, or if you feel short of breath, stop and consult your health care provider.
There are three different types of exercise: stretching, aerobic, and strength training. As you can guess from the name, stretching exercises involve slow, gradual stretching of your body’s major muscle groups. We all get a little stiff as we get older. Regular stretching keeps joints and limbs flexible.
Always stretch before and after doing aerobic or strength exercises, even if you’re just taking a walk. Beforehand, stretching warms, lengthens, and prepares your muscles for exertion; afterward, gentle stretching stops muscles from tightening up. Don’t bounce or hold your breath; relax slowly into the stretch and hold it for at least five seconds. Remember to take it easy. If it hurts, you’re trying too hard.
Aerobic (endurance) exercise involves performing an activity that consistently raises the heart rate. “Aerobic” means “requiring oxygen.” Many health professionals recommend raising the heart rate to 60 to 85 percent of your maximum possible rate. (To calculate your maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220. For instance, if you’re 50: 220 50 = 170; 60 percent of 170 = 102 heart beats per minute).
Keeping your heart rate in this “target zone” for at least twenty minutes, three times a week or more, strengthens the cardiovascular system by causing the body to burn extra oxygen and calories. If you don’t feel up to twenty-minute sessions, start with ten minutes once or twice a day.
Good aerobic exercises include walking, jogging, swimming and water aerobics, and bicycling. If you hate to exercise alone, try classes in aerobics, martial arts, folk dancing, or square dancing.
Strength training involves exercises that strengthen specific muscles, usually by working them against some type of resistance. Two common ways to do this are with free weights (dumbbells and barbells) and weight machines. You can also walk or do calisthenics with small weights fastened to your ankles and wrists.
Many people associate strength training with bodybuilding, but bodybuilders have to train long and hard to achieve those bulging biceps. If done two or three times a week, strength training is a good way to tone and strengthen muscles without bulking up. (Note: Lifting heavy weights can raise blood pressure temporarily. If you have high blood pressure, consult your health care provider first.)
Free weights are relatively small, inexpensive, and easier to use than weight machines. However, most fitness trainers recommend using free weights with a training partner, because beginners could drop them or be thrown off balance. Weight machines are generally safer because the machine supports the lifter and the movement; but good ones are expensive and take up a lot of room. Before spending your hard-earned money, try out both types at a gym.
Stop Smoking Cigarette smoke contains more than four thousand chemicals, including arsenic, DDT, carbon monoxide, tar, and formaldehyde. These chemicals damage artery walls and raise blood pressure, contributing directly to the development of coronary artery disease. If you find it difficult to stop completely, at least try to cut back.
Strategies for kicking the tobacco habit: Most important, make sure you really want to. Quitting because someone else wants you to won’t work; quitting because you want to will. Visualize yourself as a nonsmoker and tell yourself there’s no more going outside to smoke, no more tobacco odor on your breath and clothing. Write down all your reasons for quitting, and refer to this list whenever the urge to light up hits you.
Set a stop date, but be realistic; don’t choose a high-stress time or a weekend when you’re surrounded by smokers.
Ask relatives and friends to help by not smoking around you. Better still, ask someone to quit with you.
Stock up on healthy snacks. There will be times when you’ll want to keep hands and mouth occupied; better to fill them with low-fat munchies like popcorn, carrots, celery, or sugarless gum.
Consult your health care provider for advice. While most health care providers recommend going “cold turkey,” you may find it easier to taper off by using nicotine gum or patches. (These are not substitutes for cigarettes; they are aids to help you quit. You should stop using them three to six months after your last cigarette). Natural therapies that have been used in smoking cessation programs include chlorophyll, L-glutamine (an amino acid), acupuncture, hypnosis, and biofeedback.
Maintain a Healthy Weight Overweight people are more likely than others to develop atherosclerosis and related problems. This is especially true if you are 20 percent or more over your ideal weight. If you are overweight, try to shed a few pounds. Even a ten-pound weight loss can lower your cardiovascular risk dramatically.
As a first step, pay attention to what you eat and drink. Look for eating patterns that make it harder to keep pounds off. Do you snack before going to bed? If so, your body doesn’t have time to work off those calories. Do you drink a lot of alcohol or soft drinks? These beverages are packed with sugar.
Crash diets and liquid diets rarely work. Your body reacts to severely restricted calorie intake by slowing down its calorie-burning rate. This is why some people lose weight on crash diets, only to gain it all back when they start eating normally again. Any diet that causes you to lose two pounds or more a week could be bad for your health.
An effective weight loss program involves eating well and building new eating habits that will help you keep weight off in the future. Regular exercise is also a must, because it helps you burn calories more efficiently. Consult your health care provider for advice.
Get a Handle on Stress What can you do about stress? First, figure out the cause, then change it if possible. If you hate your job, consider a career change. If certain people raise your hackles, avoid them, or at least see them in groups so you don’t have to deal with them one-on-one. If your stress stems from a health problem, exploring traditional and alternative treatment options can give a sense of control and help you relax.
Some other suggestions:
• Research shows that people enjoy better health if they have at least one person in whom they can confide. Tell a friend or family member how you feel. Ask for help with improving your situation.
• Many people benefit from support groups. Whether your stress results from a physical problem, lifestyle concern, or emotional issue, chances are there’s a support group for people just like you. There are also support groups to help family members and friends.
• Get some exercise. Regular exercise helps your mood as well as your body.
• Consider counseling. Options include psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and religious advisors. If you’re not sure where to start, get a referral from a local support group or religious organization.
Watch Your Blood Pressure High blood pressure, left untreated, makes coronary artery disease worse. For more information, see chapter 3.
Watch Your Blood Sugar (Glucose) Uncontrolled high blood sugar is hard on organs and arteries. This is true even if it’s not high enough to make you diabetic.
Take Aspirin As early as 1950, health professionals noticed that people who took aspirin regularly had a lower rate of heart attacks. This is because aspirin interferes with the clotting action of platelets (small disk-shaped blood cells that are an important ingredient in blood clots). Blocking the platelets slows down the formation of clots.
For this reason, your health care provider may recommend taking aspirin on a regular basis. Even small doses can affect platelets; the equivalent of a baby aspirin (81 mg) every other day may be enough. People with serious angina who take aspirin cut their risk of heart attack by up to 50 percent. Since aspirin can irritate the stomach, take it with meals or a large glass of water.
Consider Medications (If Lifestyle Changes Don’t Help) If the above strategies don’t help, your health care provider may prescribe medications. Options include cholesterol-lowering drugs and angina drugs like beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, and nitrates.
• Cholesterol-lowering medications work by either reducing the body’s production of cholesterol or reducing the absorption of cholesterol from food. These drugs can have side effects, though; by affecting your ability to absorb nutrients, they make it harder to get adequate nutrition.
Some people hope that if they take cholesterol-lowering drugs, they can eat whatever they want. Unfortunately, there’s no free lunch; even if you take them, it’s important to eat a healthy diet. As a general rule, try the lifestyle habits listed above for at least six months before deciding whether to start medications.
• Beta-blockers (beta-adrenergic blockers) “block” nerve impulses from acting on certain sites in body cells called beta-receptors. As a result, they slow down the heart rate and reduce the force of heart-muscle contractions, easing the pain of angina.
• Calcium channel blockers (calcium antagonists) prevent the movement of calcium molecules across muscles, thus making the muscles relax. This lowers blood pressure and increases blood flow to the heart. Since some studies have found mixed results with calcium channel blockers, consult your health care provider.
• Nitrates dilate blood vessels, allowing more blood to flow to the heart.
For Women: Consider Estrogen Hormone Therapy Estrogen hormones are essential for healthy functioning of the female reproductive system. During and after menopause, a woman’s production of estrogens decreases. Estrogens have a protective effect on the cardiovascular system, and falling levels explain why older women have almost the same rate of heart disease as their male contemporaries.
Some health care providers recommend that postmenopausal women take estrogen supplements to reduce their cardiovascular risk. Some supplements consist of estrogen only; some combine estrogen with other hormones for fewer side effects. While many women benefit from estrogen therapy, it may create other health problems, including certain cancers. Discuss the pros and cons with your practitioner.
Surgery Options include coronary angioplasty (“balloon angioplasty”) and bypass surgery.
• Coronary angioplasty can widen arteries that have been blocked or narrowed by atherosclerotic deposits. The surgeon inserts a thin tube (called a catheter) into an artery in the arm or leg, and gently guides it to the blocked area. A second catheter is passed through the first; the tip of this catheter has a small balloon. The balloon is inflated so that it presses against the fatty deposits, flattening them against the artery wall and widening the internal diameter of the artery. The balloon is then deflated, and both catheters are withdrawn. Angioplasty is often highly effective.
• Bypass surgery literally “bypasses” a narrowed or blocked artery. The surgeon leaves the old artery in place, but grafts another one nearby to take over its job of carrying blood. The graft is taken from a blood vessel in another part of the body, usually the leg or chest. Bypass surgery is very successful; people may have one, two, three, or more such grafts implanted with good results.
Alternative Treatments
Alternative practitioners also advocate healthy lifestyle habits as a good way to approach atherosclerosis and angina; recommending, for instance, that patients lose weight, exercise regularly, and kick the tobacco habit. Other alternative strategies include nutritional therapy, dietary control of insulin levels, antioxidants and nutritional supplements, soy protein, tocotrienols, stress reduction techniques, and herbal remedies.
Nutritional Therapy All health care providers, whether traditional or alternative, would agree that good nutrition plays a crucial role in preventing and treating cardiovascular conditions. And probably all of them would add that the typical American diet is woefully deficient in this regard. Throughout this book, we will discuss a number of ways to strengthen your cardiovascular system through good nutrition.
Human beings require an adequate supply of about forty essential substances. We take in one, oxygen, from the air. Good nutrition means obtaining the others—including water, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients—from what we eat and drink.
Vitamins are organic compounds that are necessary for normal functioning; at least fourteen of them are considered essential for life. Our bodies cannot manufacture most vitamins, so we must obtain them from our diet or from supplements. No single food contains all the necessary vitamins, so it is important to eat a variety of foods and supplements to get enough.
Minerals are inorganic substances, basic components—found in soil and groundwater—that are absorbed by plants and then eaten by human beings. We carry more than sixty minerals in our bodies, at least twenty-two of which are essential for life.
Control Insulin Levels by Reducing Carbohydrates Recent research shows that high levels of insulin, a hormone that helps our tissues absorb and store nutrients, may be a factor in cardiovascular conditions.
Why are high insulin levels dangerous? To answer this question, we need to look at the relationship between insulin and another crucial hormone, glucagon. Insulin and glucagon are both produced by the pancreas, a long thin gland located behind the stomach. Together, they help our bodies metabolize and use glucose, a simple form of sugar, as an energy source.
After we eat certain foods, extra molecules of fat and glucose start floating through the bloodstream. This signals the pancreas to produce insulin; rising levels of insulin stimulate body tissues to absorb the bounty. Fat cells add the fat and glucose to existing stores of body fat. Muscle cells soak them up to power their operations. Excess glucose ends up in the liver, where it is stored as a starch called glycogen. As blood levels of free-floating glucose fall, the pancreas cuts back on insulin production.
If glucose levels fall too low, however, the pancreas secretes glucagon. Glucagon stimulates the liver to break down the stored glycogen and release it back into the blood as glucose; it also stimulates the fat cells to release fat molecules. Once in the bloodstream, the glucose and fat become usable fuel the body can burn.
Every minute of our lives, insulin and glucagon are working together to manage blood glucose levels. Ideally, this constant give-and-take maintains a level that is high enough to give us energy but low enough to be healthy.
Unfortunately, many of us don’t live ideally. For one thing, we live in a time and nation of plenty, where for most people food is abundant and always available. If we want to, we can eat practically nonstop, and sometimes it’s tempting to do just that. Frequent eating means frequent increases in blood glucose. It also means that the pancreas keeps producing insulin to meet the demand.
Furthermore, much of what we eat is loaded with carbohydrates and fat—substances that spur blood glucose to sky-high levels. Gamely, the pancreas continues to pump out insulin to help us store the excess calories. Some of us even pump more than we need: a Stanford University study found that up to 25 percent of the American population (about sixty million people) show an exaggerated insulin response to carbohydrates.
Over time, high insulin levels stimulate the body to produce extra cholesterol. They also stimulate the growth of cells that line artery walls, causing arteries to stiffen and narrow. The heart must pump harder to push blood through them, which raises blood pressure.
Not surprisingly, high insulin levels are associated with angina, heart attacks, and other cardiovascular problems. To make things worse, many of the medications prescribed for cardiovascular conditions raise insulin levels still higher.
Exercising and maintaining a normal weight can help keep insulin within normal limits. Some practitioners, such as biotechnologist Barry Sears and physicians Michael and Mary Eades, believe that we can lower insulin levels through our diet. According to this theory, the high-carbohydrate diet (rich in grains, pasta, cereals, etc.) recommended by traditional health care providers may actually increase the risk of heart disease, because it triggers the secretion of extra insulin. Instead, the most heart-healthy diet may be one that’s lighter on carbohydrates and heavier on protein; protein has much less impact on insulin production.
These practitioners recommend spreading protein, fat, and carbohydrate intake evenly throughout the day. Plan on three meals, plus additional snacks as necessary to avoid getting too hungry. (If you’re hungry, you’ll be tempted to snack on unhealthy stuff.) Eat unsaturated and monounsaturated fats (olive oil, avocados, canola oil, some nuts); limit your intake of saturated fats (fatty red meat, egg yolk, organ meats).
Choose carbohydrates that enter the bloodstream slowly, because they won’t make insulin spike upward as quickly. The rate at which a carbohydrate enters the bloodstream is known as its “glycemic index”: the lower the index, the slower the rate of entry. Foods with a high glycemic index include instant rice, puffed-rice cakes, white bread, corn, bananas, raisins, apricots, and corn chips. Low-index carbohydrates include soybeans, peanuts, cherries, grapefruit, apples, pears, lentils, and chickpeas (garbanzo beans).
Antioxidants Versus Free Radicals Free radicals are oxygen molecules that have lost an electron, leaving them with an extra (unpaired) electron. The extra electrons make the molecules unstable, causing them to combine easily with other molecules in our cells and oxidize them (increase their oxygen content). Oxidation triggers chemical chain reactions that create still more free radicals.
Actually, free radicals are essential to life; they are an important weapon in the immune system’s arsenal for fighting bacteria, for example. However, when our bodies accumulate too many of these unstable molecules, they create problems. Uncontrolled oxidation can damage cells; many researchers believe it plays a role in the aging process and the development of health problems. After all, you can see the result of oxidation every time you look at a rusty piece of metal. Many researchers believe it has a similar “rusting” effect on our cells.
• Vitamin C helps the body break down fats and convert cholesterol to bile acids, and makes the blood less sticky. It also raises HDL (the “good” cholesterol) levels and lowers the death rate from heart attacks. Nobel prizewinner Linus Pauling believed that a deficiency of vitamin C weakens artery walls, allowing atherosclerosis to develop.
• Vitamin E increases HDL levels and makes blood less sticky. Numerous research studies document vitamin E’s heart-healthy impact. A Harvard Medical School study monitoring nurses’ diet and vitamin use found that those who took vitamin E had a 35-percent lower risk of heart disease. British researchers found that vitamin E supplements, taken daily, reduced heart attack risk by 75 percent. In a University of Minnesota experiment, older women who ate foods containing at least 10 IU of vitamin E each day were 62 percent less likely to die from coronary artery disease.
Tocotrienols, a form of vitamin E, may be especially good for us. (You can read more about tocotrienols below.)
• Mixed carotenoids (precursors of vitamin A) work by the same Harvard study cited above, nurses who took beta-carotene (one of the carotenoids) had a 22-percent lower risk of heart disease. Research indicates that mixed carotenoids in general, not just beta-carotene, seem to have this beneficial effect, perhaps due to their antioxidants.
• Selenium decreases blood stickiness and helps other antioxidants function. People who have low blood levels of selenium tend to have atherosclerosis.
• Zinc makes blood flow more smoothly and helps other antioxidants function better. (Note: Doses above 50 mg per day are less effective and may lower HDL levels.)
Other Nutritional Supplements Consult your health care provider about other nutritional supplements that can help fight atherosclerosis and angina. For instance:
• L-carnitine, an amino acid, plays an important role in helping the heart muscle obtain oxygen. Raising levels of L-carnitine in heart tissue can reduce the discomfort of angina, improve circulation, and regulate irregular heart beats.
• Coenzyme Q-10 (CoQ-10) helps body cells produce energy and carries energy through the tissues; lowers levels of blood fats while raising HDL. Many people with heart disease have low levels of Coenzyme
Q-10. It has been used to treat angina, irregular heart rate, and heart muscle problems.
• Vitamin B3 (niacin) may lower blood fat levels while increasing HDL.
• Vitamin B6 helps bring more oxygen to the heart muscle, and helps arteries resist atherosclerosis.
• Vitamin B12 is associated, at low levels, with high amounts of a free radical called homocysteine.
• Folic acid helps our bodies break down homocysteine.
• Magnesium helps regulate the functioning of nerves and muscles and maintain a normal heart beat.
• Calcium lowers blood levels of fats, makes blood less sticky, and lowers blood pressure. Calcium cooperates with magnesium to regulate nerves and muscles: calcium causes muscles to contract and nerves to “fire” impulses, while magnesium makes them relax.
• Chromium helps maintain healthy blood sugar levels. It seems to slow down, and possibly reverse, the process of atherosclerosis.
• Omega-3 fatty acids lower blood fat levels and make blood less sticky. These oils come from cold-water fish (Scandinavian salmon, orange roughy, albacore tuna) and flaxseed oil. The oil should be cold-pressed to preserve the fatty acids, and should not be rancid to avoid generating free radicals. Refrigerate flaxseed oil.
• L-cysteine scavenges free radicals.
• Choline lowers blood fat levels and increases HDL.
• Lecithin has benefits similar to those of choline.
• Chondroitin sulfate binds to LDL molecules and prevents them from attaching to artery walls.
• Tocotrienols, a form of vitamin E, decrease the liver’s production of cholesterol and lower the amount of cholesterol circulating in the blood. They are also effective antioxidants that combat free radicals called peroxyl radicals. Research shows that after entering the bloodstream, tocotrienols attach to cholesterol molecules, where they react with peroxyl radicals to slow down the oxidation process. Good sources of tocotrienols include rice, oats, high-protein barley, and palm oil (palmvitee). One study monitored a group of people with high cholesterol levels who took palmvitee capsules of 200 mg daily. After four weeks, their total cholesterol had fallen by an average of 15 percent, and their LDL cholesterol by 8 percent.
Soy Protein The U.S. leads the world in growing soybeans, but not in eating them. Indeed, until recently in this country we’ve fed soybeans to cattle or used soy only as a “filler” in meat products. We ship much of our soybean crop to Asia, where it is a dietary staple.
These days, however, the humble soybean is getting a lot more respect. A number of studies show that a diet rich in soy products is associated with lower rates of cardiovascular disease, as well as of certain cancers.
As early as thirty years ago, an American researcher fed soy protein to prisoners and reported on the subsequent drop in their cholesterol levels. Unfortunately, his pioneering research was largely ignored by the medical community of his day. In a more recent study, people who ate at least 17 to 25 grams of soy protein daily experienced a 9.3-percent drop in total cholesterol, and a 12.9-percent drop in LDL cholesterol. Interestingly, soy had no effect on HDL levels—a positive finding, since most low-fat regimens tend to lower both “good” and “bad” cholesterol.
Two key components of soy protein, genistein and daidzein, seem to be responsible for its heart-healthy effects. Research shows that genistein and daidzein are antioxidants that affect the chemical composition of LDL molecules, making it harder for them to stick to blood-vessel walls. They may also help to block the body’s absorption of cholesterol, inhibit the formation of blood clots, and keep atherosclerotic blood vessels open. Soy seems to be most beneficial for people with high cholesterol readings of 240 or above.
Cardiologists in Italy have long prescribed soy protein to treat children and adults with a family tendency toward high cholesterol. Italy’s National Health Service even funds these treatments for families considered high-risk.
Practitioners caution that soy protein is not magic; it won’t turn a bad diet into a good one. Nor will it compensate for smoking, lack of exercise, and other less-than-healthy habits.
