Cardiovascular Health
Cardiovascular health depends on proper nutrition and lifestyle. As the most active and most important muscle in your body, the heart depends on a good, consistent, energy source. Over 50 million American suffer from heart and blood vessel disease, although many do not know it because it has no symptoms. Today more women die from heart disease than from breast cancer and uterine cancer combined. Cardiovascular disease is not an inevitable result of the aging process. Controllable factors that may contribute to cardiovascular disease include smoking, high blood pressure, excessive alcohol consumption, type-A personality, stress, obesity, sedentary lifestyle, and diabetes.
According to Christine Northrup, MD, a hormone balancing food plan is a good way to prevent heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis, and breast cancer:
- Eat at least three meals a day. Many women skip both breakfast and lunch, saving their food intake for dinner. The food you eat at night is more likely to be stored as excess fat. Dieting by skipping meals and fasting over time makes our bodies more metabolically efficient, so that it is possible to remain the same weight despite a very low metabolic diet.
- Focus on portion size not calories. Concentrate on eating the highest quality of food available, in smaller portions. Decrease grain and wheat products, make lunch the biggest meal of the day, and limit desserts. Increase exercise time to burn calories and move muscle.
- Eat some protein at each meal. Protein needs depend upon your size and activity level. In general, if you have a tendency toward weight gain around the midsection, your diet should consist of 40% protein, 35% low-glycemic index carbs, and 25% fat. A diet rich in protein increases specific enzymes which help to metabolize estrogen. This can be beneficial to women with estrogen dominance.
- Reduce the intake of high –glycemic-index carbohydrates, including alcohol. The glycemic index in food refers to the degree and speed a specific food will raise your blood sugar. White breads top the scale at a glycemic index of 100. Eliminating as many refined carbohydrates as possible including foods made with white flour, such as French bread, muffins, rolls, bagels, pretzels, and pasta. Reducing intake of alcohol in the form of wine, wine coolers, beer, and hard liquor will also lower glycemic index and help in weight loss. Hot flashes also diminish without alcohol stimulating the estrogen in the system. Sugar goes without saying is a high glycemic index food and foods such as cakes, cookies, ice cream should be limited or avoided. Excess blood sugar is stored as fat, not only on your hips and waist, but also in your arteries, brain and heart.
- Eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Choose colorful fruits and vegetable…they contain the most powerful antioxidants. These antioxidants in vegetables help balance hormone, protect the skin from sun damage, keep the skin and eyes healthy, maintain the lining of the blood vessels, and help prevent varicose veins. They also boost the immune system and help the body to resist cancer and other degenerative disease.
- Eat healthy fats. With the low fat craze in the 1980’s and 1990’s many people became deficient in essential fatty acids. We now understand the importance of essential fatty acids (EFA) on human growth and health. Good sources of Omega-3 fats include pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, flaxseed or flaxseed oil, cold-water fish, or fish oils supplements.
Supplements for healthy hearts:
- Coenzyme Q10 100mg / day
- Omega-3 EFA
- Vit C 1000mg 3 x a day
- Calcium 1,500- 2,000mg daily in divided doses after meals and bedtime
- Magnesium 750-1,000 mg daily in divided doses after meals and bedtime
- L-Carnitine 500 mg twice daily on empty stomach
- Vit B complex
