Grace’s Blog

Keeping your heart healthy and strong can lower your risk for heart disease.  It is not that difficult if you follow some guidelines.

Losing weight is one.  Two thirds of Americans are overweight or obese.  Could losing weight really help the heart?  The answer is YES!

According to a recent study published in the American Journal of Physiology you can improve the way your heart functions by just losing 12% of your weight, either by diet and exercise or both.

You can have a more youthful heart by dropping some of those excess pounds if you are overweight.

As we age the arteries and heart muscles stiffen and the heart doesn’t relax like it did when we were younger.

The study showed that by losing weight, the participants gained the ability of the heart to relax more quickly, recovering some of the elasticity characteristics of a younger heart.

The heart actually became younger!

Besides exercising and losing weight, here are some other things you can do to have a healthier heart.

Eat more fiber.  A study done by Harvard University, showed that men who ate at least 25 grams of fiber a day had one-third less heart attacks then men eating 12 grams or less a day.

Eat beans.  They contain a lot of good fiber that helps prevent heart disease by lowering cholesterol.  Eating a cup of beans a day can lower cholesterol by 10- 20 percent.

Eating garlic can lower cholesterol and help decrease the risk of heart disease.

A Harvard report found that women eating 1 ounce of almonds daily had a 40 percent lower risk of fatal heart disease. 

Almonds contain vitamin E and research at England’s Cambridge University found that by taking 400 IU of vitamin E for 18 months slashed nonfatal heart attacks in cardiovascular patients by 77 percent.

Vitamin C keeps blood vessels dilated. Without vitamin C, blood vessels constrict, shutting down blood flow. 

Two thousand mg’s a day dramatically restored dilation of blood vessels in heart attack patients, a Boston University study found.

Low levels of B vitamins, especially folic acid, are a heart disease precursor. 

Make sure to get plenty in your diet.  B’s are fragile and are easily destroyed by heat. 

When supplementing, use a high quality B-Vitamin supplement containing at least 100% DV of all 8 B’s.

Eat fish, lots of fish. If eating fish is not your thing, supplement with a high quality Omega-3 supplement. 

Omega-3’s thin the blood, decrease clot formation, raise HDL cholesterol and control irregular heart beats.

Every cell in the body needs Coenzyme Q10 for energy.  A healthy heart needs lots of it.  If a person is on a cholesterol lowering drug, it could deplete this important enzyme. 

Of adults age 40 and older, as many as 42% could be classified as being at an increased risk for heart disease. 

One in every four men die of heart disease and stroke, and one of every 2.5 women die of heart disease and stroke.

Maintaining a healthy heart is critically important.

 Shaklee Independent Distributor

How important is your heart?  I think you would agree, it is extremely important.  Without it, you wouldn’t be here.

Most people know the importance of taking care of their heart, but doing so sometimes proves to be difficult.

Heart disease is one of the major killers of our time. It is affected by diet, genetics, lifestyle, smoking and a bunch of other factors.

Our hearts beat day in and day out without us taking much notice until something goes wrong.  Then it is usually an emergency.

One substance that is critical to the heart is CoEnzyme Q 10 or CoQ10.  It is responsible for producing energy in the cells.  That includes the cells of the heart and other organs.

If there ever was a need for energy, I think the heart would qualify.  In clinical studies, researchers found that CoQ10 promotes the heart’s ability to pump blood.

The body is a magnificent creature.  It is able to synthesize many of the essentials needed for a healthy life, including CoQ10 which is found in every cell in the body.

Unfortunately, CoQ10 peaks in the human body around 20 years of age and goes down from there.

There are also medications that decrease the body’s CoQ10.  Statin drugs, which are given to heart patients, decrease CoQ10. 

This doesn’t make much sense to me. On the one hand, Doctors want to help the heart patient and on the other prescribe a medication that depletes the nutrient the heart needs to stay strong.

Unless a patient knows this side effect and supplements appropriately, the heart will continue to get weaker.

Unfortunately, most supplemental CoQ10 is poorly absorbed by the body. Finding a high quality bioavailable supplement is essential.

It is estimated that about 60% of the population in their fifties and sixties are deficient in CoQ10.

Learn more about CoQ10 and the choice you can make to supplement.

Shaklee Dist.