(From shine.com)

If you are a woman in her 20s or 30s, you may not have been all that concerned with the health of your heart. Statistics show that there is a serious lack of understanding among women about the dangers of heart disease and stroke. As we enter American Heart Month this February, however, there may be reason to start paying attention. Here’s why:

1. Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) is the #1 Killer Among Women: According to the results of a 2003 study, only 13 percent of women in America believe that heart disease and stroke are the greatest health threat to women. The reality is, however, that CVD is THE largest cause of female deaths in America. Specifically, in 2005, CVD claimed the lives of 454,613 females, while cancer of all forms claimed the lives of 268,890 women. Further, American women are 4 to 6 times more likely to die of heart disease than of breast cancer.

Change your life with morning exercise

2. CVD Can Affect Women of Every Age: Heart disease develops over time and can start as early as the teenage years. Girls, teenagers and young adults can make lifestyle-related choices that can increase heart disease risk or decrease risk. Lack of physical activity, smoking and poor nutritional choices can all play a role in the early development of heart disease. As a result, it is important to make good lifestyle choices at the earliest age possible.

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According to BlackDoctor.org, helping your heart is as simple as taking a walk down the block!

[From BlackDoctor.org]

Researchers found that long-distance walking on a daily basis may take off twice the weight and result in a decrease in fat mass than standard cardiac rehabilitation in overweight heart patients.

What’s more, in addition to losing fat mass and twice the weight, overweight coronary patients on a steady walking regimen apparently can improve their insulin sensitivity to a greater degree than people undergoing standard cardiac rehabilitation, says a new study in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

In the study, researchers at the University of Vermont randomized 74 overweight cardiac rehab patients whose average age was 64 to either a high-caloric expenditure exercise regimen, aimed at burning 3,000 to 3,500 calories a week by walking almost daily, or to standard therapy, burning 700 to 800 calories a week, exercising three times per week.

Shedding weight on a daily basis called for walking 45-60 minutes at a moderate pace — a lower speed than standard therapy — for five to six days per week.

The standard rehab called for walking, biking, or rowing for 25-40 minutes at a brisker pace, but only three times per week.

Five months into the study, the researchers compared the two groups and found that patients doing the daily walking had:

Significantly greater improvement in 10 heart risk factors, including insulin sensitivity.

A greater average reduction in weight, 18 pounds compared to 8 pounds in the standard rehab group. Walkers lost 13 pounds in body fat compared to 6 pounds for those in the standard group. And walkers’ waistlines shrunk by 2.7 inches, compared to 2 inches for the standard rehab group.

“Cardiac rehab has essentially remained the same since the 1970s because it has a mortality benefit,” says Philip A. Ades, MD, lead author of the study and a professor of medicine at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. “But it doesn’t burn many calories and things have changed. Eighty percent of our rehabilitation patients are now overweight and many of them are becoming diabetic. It’s a different time in terms of what we need to do in cardiac rehab.”

Being overweight increases the risk of heart attacks and is associated with diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol.

Standard rehab has benefits, but the high calorie-burning regimen increases benefits, Ades says, adding that the study’s message is “walk often and walk far.”

To read the rest of this article, click here.

It seems like we’re always so busy worrying about our weight, we don’t pay attention to our HEART! And since the beat of your heart really determines whether you’re alive or dead, it’s probably a good idea to pay attention to it, right? Here are 10 ways to serve it well.

[From CNN Health]

Simple food choices go a long way when it comes to your heart’s health. Focusing on fresh foods full of heart-healthy fats and antioxidants can decrease your risk of developing heart disease and cut your chances of a heart attack. These 10 foods will help keep your ticker in top shape.

Oatmeal
Start your day with a steaming bowl of oats, which are full of omega-3 fatty acids, folate, and potassium. This fiber-rich superfood can lower levels of LDL (or bad) cholesterol and help keep arteries clear.

Opt for coarse or steel-cut oats over instant varieties — the coarse and steel-cut contain more fiber — and top your bowl off with a banana for another four grams of fiber.

Salmon
Super-rich in omega-3 fatty acids, salmon can effectively reduce blood pressure and keep clotting at bay. Aim for two servings per week, which may reduce your risk of dying of a heart attack by up to one-third.

“Salmon contains the carotenoid astaxanthin, which is a very powerful antioxidant,” says cardiologist Stephen T. Sinatra, MD, the author of “Lower Your Blood Pressure In Eight Weeks.” But be sure to choose wild salmon over farm-raised fish, which can be packed with insecticides, pesticides, and heavy metals.

Not a fan of salmon? Other oily fish like mackerel, tuna, herring, and sardines will give your heart the same boost.

Avocado
Add a bit of avocado to a sandwich or spinach salad to increase the amount of heart-healthy fats in your diet. Packed with monounsaturated fat, avocados can help lower LDL levels while raising the amount of HDL cholesterol in your body.
“Avocados are awesome,” says Dr. Sinatra. “They allow for the absorption of other carotenoids — especially beta-carotene and lycopene — which are essential for heart health.”

Olive oil
Full of monounsaturated fats, olive oil lowers bad LDL cholesterol and reduces your risk of developing heart disease.

Results from the Seven Countries Study, which looked at cardiovascular disease incidences across the globe, showed that while men in Crete had a predisposition for high cholesterol levels, relatively few died of heart disease because their diet focused on heart-healthy fats found in olive oil. Look for extra-virgin or virgin varieties — they’re the least processed — and use them instead of butter when cooking.

Want to know what the newest heart-healthy snack is? Click here to find out!

Care about your heart, but still want to trim that waistline? Here are 14 ways to do it.

[From Daily Mail]

Starting the day on an egg could keep your blood pressure in check, research suggests.

Scientists have shown that eggs produce proteins that mimic the action of powerful blood pressure-lowering drugs.

The finding comes a few days after a study exploded the myth that they can increase the danger of heart attacks.

It now appears that eggs may be good for the heart, lowering blood pressure in the same way as Ace inhibitors, prescription-only pills taken by millions around the world.

The drugs lower blood pressure by stopping the hormone angiotensin narrowing the body’s blood vessels.

The researchers, from the University of Alberta in Canada, showed that when eggs come in contact with stomach enzymes they produce a protein that acts in the same way.

Fried eggs proved particularly successful at blocking angiotensin, lab-based tests showed, the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry reports.

But the researchers, whose study was funded by the poultry industry, said more work was needed to show the effects outside a lab and in the human body.

Earlier this month, British researchers proclaimed that, contrary to popular perception, it is healthy to go to work on an egg.

Researchers for the British Nutrition Foundation – part-funded by the poultry industry – concluded that the type of cholesterol found in eggs has minimal effect on raising heart disease risks.

It is saturated fat, rather than the cholesterol found in eggs, that is the main dietary culprit in raising cholesterol levels. Smoking, being overweight and lack of exercise also influence blood fat and cholesterol levels and heart disease risk.

To read the rest of the article, click here!

[From Black Voices]

Commercials for drugs like Cialis and Viagra are mainstays on television these days, but the condition they treat — erectile dysfunction — is hardly something that comes up in casual conversation. In fact, despite the mainstream popularity of the medications, erectile dysfunction, which is characterized by an inability to maintain an erection long enough to have sex, still causes great embarrassment and shame for men who suffer from it.

Things are no different in the black community, even though research has suggested that black men are up to 20 times more likely to have ED than whites. There might be less of a stigma surrounding the condition if more men knew what caused it, and, most importantly, what other health issues it can predict, Dr. Ridwan Shabsigh, urologist and author of ‘Sensational Sex In Seven Easy Steps,’ told Black Voices.

Studies have conclusively shown that ED is a very strong predictor of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, two diseases that disproportionately affect the black community.

“If we raise the awareness that ED is an early warning sign of cardiovascular disease,” Shabsigh said, “It would help remove the stigma and help improve men’s health.”

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Find out ways to get him in the mood here!

[From Daily Mail]

Anger really can kill, doctors have warned.

Feelings of rage can trigger potentially deadly irregular heart rhythms, research shows.

The finding, from a study of patients with cardiac problems, could explain other studies which have linked the anger sparked by world events – from the loss of a World Cup match to a war – with heart attacks.

‘When you put a whole population under a stress factor, sudden death will increase,’ said researcher Dr Rachel Lampert.

‘Our study starts to look at how does this really affect the electrical system of the heart.’

Dr Lampert, of Yale University in the U.S., studied 62 adults being treated for an irregular heartbeat – a common condition which raises the risk of heart attack.

She said: ‘We found in the lab setting that yes, anger did increase this electrical instability in these patients.’

To read the rest of this article, click here.

You can also avoid being angry by avoiding these!

Smoking isn’t the best for your health, to say the least, but if you’re with that person that is just too stubborn to quit, at least help keep them around for a little while longer with heart-healthy dark chocolate. Check out this article from BlackDoctor.org.

(BlackDoctor.org) — Just in time for the candy-clogged holidays, a new Swiss study finds a little dark chocolate each day could slow hardening of the arteries in smokers.

Chocolate is still no substitute for quitting smoking, of course, and the researchers add that the findings are not an excuse to binge on fattening sweets.

However, the results do “provide new important information about the potential beneficial effects of cocoa,” said study author Dr. Roberto Corti, from the University Hospital in Zurich.

His team assigned 20 male smokers to either eat about 1.5 ounces of white chocolate or dark, then evaluated the effects of each on blood flow and other parameters. Before the men ate the chocolate, they were instructed to abstain for a full day from other foods that are rich in the same antioxidants found in cocoa. Those foods include apples, other cocoa products and onions.

Then researchers then subjected the smokers to ultrasound scans and blood tests.

Two hours after the men finished eating the dark chocolate, the scans showed improved smoothness of the blood flow through the arteries — an effect that lasted eight hours, according to the report published in the January issue of Heart.

The dark chocolate also halved blood platelet activity, which in turn decreased the risk of blood clots. Antioxidant levels in the blood also rose among those who ate dark chocolate.

White chocolate did not have those effects, however.

A daily sweet chocolate snack is no substitute for stopping smoking, Corti stressed.

Another expert agreed. “In my view, dark chocolate can be included as part of an overall heart-healthy diet — for instance, adequately balancing its calories with a decrease in other desserts and snack foods,” said Jeffrey Blumberg, director of the Antioxidants Research Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, in Boston.

But he said that although dark chocolate contains high levels of flavonoid antioxidants, “it is not a health food, per se, because of its negative attributes — that is, fat and sugar. Further, I feel the only appropriate advice to smokers is to quit smoking.”

To finish this article, click here.

[From Daily Mail]

Making love could be one of the few pleasures in life that is genuinely good for you, say researchers.

Not only does a healthy sex life boost mood, but there is growing evidence to show it boosts your physical well-being, too – from increasing longevity to reducing the risk of erectile dysfunction and even heart attack.

Only last month, researchers at Nottingham University concluded that men who kept up a regular sex life in their 50s were also at lower risk of developing prostate cancer.

(Conversely, they found ‘too much’ sexual activity – more than 20 times a month – in the 20s and 30s could increase the risk.)

In fact, the research seems to suggest that men – particularly older men – benefit the most from healthy effects of sex. Feel-good hormones help explain some of the benefits, such as mood-boosting, but the explanation is not always obvious.

But one thing is clear, and this applies to both men and women: you need to be having sex regularly if you don’t want to lose the ability.

‘Use it or lose it’ was the advice given to older men by Finnish scientists recently.

They had followed 1,000 men aged between 55 and 75 for five years and found that those who had sex less than once a week at the start of the study were twice as likely to develop erectile dysfunction (see below) as those who had it at least once a week.

Those who had sex three or more times a week lowered their risk fourfold.

As women get older their oestrogen levels drop, says Dr Peter Bowen-Simpkins, consultant gynaecologist at the London Women’s Clinic and spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

This hormone is key to a woman’s sexual enjoyment – lower levels can make sex uncomfortable, he explains.

But American research found that menopausal women who had sex every week had oestrogen levels twice as high as their abstaining counterparts.

‘Regular sex increases the production of oestrogen,’ says Dr Bowen-Simkins. As long as other symptoms, such as dryness, are not a problem or have been treated, having more sex can decrease the risk of vaginal atrophy which can occur with age, he says.

So what else can a regular love life do for your health?

To find out, click here!

Walnuts! Can you believe it? Check out the article from BlackDoctor.org below.

A high-fat dinner followed by an unusual dessert suggests that walnuts might be even better for the arteries than olive oil, Spanish researchers report.

The dinner consisted of a salami and cheese sandwich on white bread, plus high-fat yogurt. The “dessert” consisted of five teaspoons of olive oil for half the diners and 40 grams of walnuts (about eight shelled nuts) for the other half.

Ultrasound examinations showed that the arteries of those eating the walnuts stayed more flexible and elastic after the fatty meal those of the folks who ate olive oil. The study’s 24 adult participants had varying levels of blood cholesterol, ranging from healthy to moderately high.

“This study shows the mechanism for the beneficial effects of walnuts,” contended study lead researcher Dr. Emilio Ros, director of the Lipid Clinic at Hospital Clinico in Barcelona.

Both olive oil and walnuts decrease the onset of inflammation and oxidation in the arteries after a high-fat meal, but walnuts preserve the blood vessels’ flexibility while olive oil does not, according to Ros. He attributed much of the beneficial effect to the alpha-linolenic acid found in walnuts. This nutrient is similar to the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish.

The study, which was funded in part by the California Walnut Board, was expected to be published in the Oct. 17 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Ros points out that authorities such as the American Heart Association recommend that Americans eat at least two fish servings a week, preferable oily fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3s increase blood levels of HDL cholesterol, the “good” kind that helps keep arteries clear.

The only problem with that recommendation, Ros said, is that fish isn’t as easy to buy and consume as walnuts. The alpha-linolenic acid in walnuts has the same chemical structure as omega-3 fatty acids, he noted, and “linolenic acid found in plant foods provide an inexhaustible supply, while fish are being depleted.”

Read the rest of this article here.

[From BlackDoctor.org]

Doctors studying what is probably the most intensive physical effort on earth have found that if the body is pushed hard enough, the heart will slow down.

The finding came as a bit of a surprise, because until recently, the conventional wisdom was that the heart never slowed down, according to lead investigator Dr. Euan A. Ashley, an assistant professor of cardiology at Stanford University.

“Your heart is going to beat two or three billion times in your lifetime,” Ashley said. “It was believed that in the absence of disease, it would not slow down. What we showed was that if you exercise for 19 or 20 hours at a time, your heart will tire a bit, about 10 percent.”

And the slowdown is greater in people who carry what’s been called the “fitness gene,” Ashley’s team reported in the August issue of the Journal of the American Cardiology. The gene is called “ACE” because it is linked to the angiotensin-converting enzyme, the target of ACE inhibitor heart medications.

For the study, Ashley and his colleagues set up shop at the finishing line of an ultra-endurance race called the “Adrenalin Rush,” held in the Scottish Highlands. The annual event is grueling even by “iron man” standards, with one or two competitors usually requiring hospitalization after every race.

As athletes crossed the line after 90 hours of biking, climbing, swimming, paddling and rope work, the researchers tested their hearts.

The athletes’ average heartbeat had slowed from what was measured before the race, by about 8 percent for athletes who did not carry the ACE fitness gene and 13 percent for those who did carry it.

The ACE gene has been associated with improved athletic performance, and Ashley said the association could explain the difference. “It could be that people with the fitness gene pushed themselves harder,” he said. “They were the ones pulling the others along.”

To read the rest of the article, click here.