A Few Healthy Heart Tips

Posted: March 8th, 2009 | Author: Dr. Bill | No Comments »

I’m still enjoying what native Floridians describe as “cool weather.” That would be when the temperature is in the 70′s. In Long Island, where I have spent a good portion of my life, that is a heat wave of monstrous proportions this time of year. Here when it is in the 70′s I am peeling things off, and this time in Long Island I am always putting things on.

I always find myself laughing at what my chef friend said to me many years ago, “If you like heat, get a job in a kitchen. If you really like heat, get a job in a really busy kitchen.”

Now I’m sure I could butcher as well as anyone he had working for him, and it wouldn’t have taken me long to learn how to use all the different knives and such, but I walked by the broiler one day, and I don’t know how those guys do it. That particular broiler ran at 900 degrees, which is how they get those marvelous steaks to you in a hurry. That was too hot for me.

Moving along to medicine, here are your healthy heart tips for the day.

1. You don’t have to be old to have a heart attack. By this I mean you don’t have to be 65 or older (though that is looking younger to me, every day), or considered senior, to have a heart attack. Heart attacks can and do strike at all ages, and the demographic is moving lower. The statistics for women are almost similar to men (heart disease is now the #1 cause of death in women, beating out breast cancer) and we lose 150,000 people a year, under age 65, to heart attacks.

2. What you eat is important. When foodies talk about eating the rainbow, they are on to something. Fresh fruit and vegetables come in all sorts of colors. The brighter the colors, the more more heart healthy anti-oxidants are present. You should eat a percentage of fresh fruits and vegetables raw. If you have a juicer, that works too.

3. For men, varying degrees of impotence (or “E.D.” as they call it today) past age 35 are often a sign of artery blockages, and should be checked out immediately. And don’t just settle for an annual physical. See a cardiologist, and get your heart tested. The earlier you start making changes the better off you’re going to be.

One of the greatest things you can do for your heart is to start taking pharmaceutical grade fish oil. There are even some signs that doctors here and there are starting to get the message.

The National Institute For Health and Clinical Excellence now advises doctors to provide fish oil for patients that have suffered heart attacks. The Institute believes that if doctors follow their advice, their patients will be at lower risk of suffering further heart attacks.

That’s good advice, but it’s after the fact, and what is called post heart attack treatment. Patients need to get on fish oil early, in order to help prevent cardiac events.

Enteric coated pharmaceutical grade fish oil can be taken by almost anyone at any age, and the benefits are numerous. A story in this morning’s newspaper told the story of a professional baseball player who is returning to play much earlier than expected. The reason? Fish oil healed his aching joints much faster than he expected.

In the Institute study I mentioned earlier, omega-3 fatty acids cut the incidence of recurring sudden death by heart attack 45%.

So my question is, why would you wait until a person has a heart attack to start recommending it?

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