Newsletters: January - February 2008

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Heart-Healthy Living & Loving

Natural Times-January/February 2008

By Sandy Beck

Ahhh...Valentine's Day. One entire day each year dedicated to love and romance. One of the ways I show my husband that I love him, with all my heart, is by doing my best to keep us happy and healthy.

It's no coincidence that February is American Heart Month. According to the American Heart Association, the leading cause of premature death and disability is coronary heart disease. Fortunately, high-risk factors associated with this disease-high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, tobacco and secondhand smoke-are all within our control.

To get to the heart of the matter, I talked to Dr. John Ness, a local family doctor appreciated for his whole-person, patient-centered approach to health and wellness. Following are his "heart-healthy" recommendations.

It's good to exercise only on the days that we eat.
"When we move our bodies it stimulates our heart, circulation and lungs. We may be a little overly obsessed with the idea that we have to have vigorous aerobic exercise. Especially middle-aged and older people benefit from stretching, yoga, Tai Chi and Pilates. Slow and gentle is still beneficial."

Let your food be your heart medicine.
"Generally, the lower we eat on the food chain, the healthier for our heart. Having more of the Omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFAs) or oils in our diet is healthy for our heart. Foods that are particularly rich in these oils are sardines, eel, salmon, cod, herring and the other fatty fish.

"Vegetable sources of these are flaxseed oil or fresh flaxseed meal, raw sunflower seeds, walnuts and almonds, also primrose oil and sesame oil.

"Having a complexity of these vegetable sources, not just flaxseed oil, might more closely approximate the fish oil. Udo's Choice Oil Blend is an excellent blended mix of Omega-3, 6 and 9 essential fatty acids from vegetable sources." (Information about essential fats and Udo's Choice Oil Blend can be found at www.udoerasmus.com.)

Ness continues saying, "Most food choices we make for Valentine's Day might not be so good for the heart. Dark chocolate (an antioxidant that may also lower blood pressure) may be the exception.

"If we were to poll the cardiologists, they might say, 'Red wine is good for our heart,' but other organ specialists (liver, kidney) would disagree; it's a mixed review. Grape juice is just as rich in antioxidants as red wine and better for the other organs. So are blueberries, blackberries and cherries. The darker the better."

Maintain your humor and a light spirit. Sing and laugh.
"Especially concerning our heart, there is a mind/body connection. One of my heroes is Dr. Dean Ornish, a cardiologist who is widely published in medical journals," Ness says. "He believes that changes in diet and lifestyle not only can prevent but also reverse heart disease."

I found out more about Dr. Ornish's and his ideas in a Healthy Heart Cyber Conference at www.webmd.com. Dr. Ornish says, "Although diet's important, it's only one part of my program. Emotional stress plays an important role in just about all illnesses, both directly and indirectly. For example, emotional stress makes arteries constrict and blood clot faster, which, in turn, may cause a heart attack."

To manage stress, Dr. Ornish also recommends regular exercise, yoga stretching, breathing and meditation.

"Many of us overeat or eat unhealthy food to fill an emptiness or when we're 'heart sick,' says Ornish. He then suggests that we ask ourselves this: "When I eat without being hungry, what empty place is the food filling? And how can I nourish myself and feel whole in other ways?"

So, my dearest, on Valentine's Day, we will have a candlelight dinner of wild salmon on a bed of brown and wild rice and broccoli lightly sautŽed with sesame oil and fresh garlic. We'll toast to one another with a glass of organic Orleans Hill Cote Zero Merlot (I'll take that chance), meditate on one small piece of the richest, darkest, most luscious chocolate, then . . . get a little exercise.