During the month of February, our minds may be on Valentine’s Day romance, but we shouldn’t forget to give a little love to our hearts. Our hearts work tirelessly, without rest or pause, over the course of our lifetimes providing us with an average of 70 to 75 beats per minute, or more than 100 thousand beats a day.
When given regular exercise and a healthy diet rich in nutrients, a typical human heart will beat around 2.5 billion times by age 70. Unfortunately, statistics point out that too many hearts fall short of that milestone. As it’s American Heart Month, it’s time to spread awareness that one in every three deaths is from heart disease or stroke.
What’s more worrisome is that risk of heart disease may be underestimated, according to a new 50-year-long analysis performed by University of Texas Southwest Medical Center researchers. The researchers categorized for “high-risk” markers of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, overweight or obesity, history of smoking, and diabetes and found that the risk of death from heart disease for most adults remains high over a lifetime with:
- White men having 36 percent risk
- Black men having 33 percent risk
- Women (both black and white) having 27 percent risk
Previously, doctors have only flagged the presence of all or most of the risk factors as a cause for concern. The researchers, who published their findings in the New England Journal of Medicine,demonstrated that this approach is not adequate to predict development, at least in the long-term. They showed that people with just two or more risk factors increased their lifetime risk of developing heart disease by about 34 percent in men and 17 percent in women, compared to people with less than two risk factors.
Their findings may help explain why, according to the latest report (2) released by the American Heart Association (AHA) in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately one American dies of cardiovascular disease every 39 seconds, with nearly 33 percent of these deaths occurring before the age of 75, well before the predicted average lifespan for Americans of 78 years.
Once again, these statistics are presented alongside the baffling reality that heart disease is completely preventable. Every risk factor can be mitigated or eliminated by simply choosing a heart-healthy lifestyle.
Heart-Healthy Lifestyle
How to begin the journey of taking the strain off your heart? Regular exercise and quitting smoking are critical, and so is eating a diet rich in antioxidants and fiber, as well as maintaining a healthy weight. Excess weight, the kind carried around the middle in particular, can put major strain on the heart and contributes to risk factors such as high blood pressure, insulin resistance, high cholesterol, and high triglycerides.
For help doing away with risk factors, there’s Isagenix—the Cleansing and Fat Burning System with Ageless Essentials Daily Pack is nutritionally sound and is clinically shown to help people meet their weight-management goals. The system’s Shake Days help control calories and its Cleanse Days help trigger healthy fat burning and promote natural detoxification while resting the liver. In addition, the system maximizes nutrition, providing all-important antioxidant nutrients such as vitamin E and coQ10, while also including fish omega-3 fatty acids to keep the heart going strong into old age (3-4).*
Regular add-ons such as SlimCakes or FiberSnacks! are also excellent for supplementing a fruit-and-vegetable-rich diet for heart-healthy fiber, which is largely absent in the American diet.** IsaDelight Plus chocolates can also be included as delicious, guilt-free snacks that can curb cravings assisting with weight loss (5).
Regardless of how we take care of ourselves, every heartbeat should serve as a small reminder this month of the statistics given above, the role of the heart, and to make choices showing we appreciate what it does for us daily as long as we live.
If you are ready to start changing your life, go here. I recommend the 30 day system. I started with it and you will see a difference. http://latriceh.isagenix.com
References
1. Berry JD, Dyer A, Cai X et al. Lifetime risks of cardiovascular disease. N Engl J Med 2012;366:321-9.
2. Roger VL, Go AS, Lloyd-Jones DM et al. Executive Summary: Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics–2012 Update: A Report From the American Heart Association. Circulation 2012;125:188-97.
3. Shargorodsky M, Debby O, Matas Z, Zimlichman R. Effect of long-term treatment with antioxidants (vitamin C, vitamin E, coenzyme Q10 and selenium) on arterial compliance, humoral factors and inflammatory markers in patients with multiple cardiovascular risk factors. Nutr Metab (Lond) 2010;7:55.
4. Strom M, Halldorsson TI, Mortensen EL, Torp-Pedersen C, Olsen SF. Fish, n-3 fatty acids, and cardiovascular diseases in women of reproductive age: a prospective study in a large national cohort.Hypertension 2012;59:36-43.
5. Buitrago-Lopez A, Sanderson J, Johnson L et al. Chocolate consumption and cardiometabolic disorders: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ 2011;343:d4488.
*Supportive but not conclusive research shows that consumption of EPA and DHA omega-3 fatty acids may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. One serving of Ageless Essentials Daily Pack provides 1,200 milligrams of EPA and DHA omega-3 fatty acids. [See nutrition information for total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol content.]
**Diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease.
