Med Health News

Tag: heart disease

  • 3 Ways to Be Kinder to Your Father’s Heart This Father’s Day

    3 Ways to Be Kinder to Your Father’s Heart This Father’s Day

    Father’s Day has come and you’re probably all geared up to spend the day with your loving dad. While making your dad happy today to show your appreciation for all that he’s done for you is great, you should also consider his health. Here’s what you should know about the number one disease that most dads in America should watch out for.

    We all love our dads, and Father’s Day is the one day out of the year officially dedicated to them! It’s when you show how much you love your father by spoiling him more than you usually do – like spending the whole day doing everything he loves and buying him something that would make him happy. But filling your dad’s heart with joy can be different from keeping his heart happy – and spending the day eating barbecued hot dogs and burgers while watching the game might make him happy, but it also taxes his heart physically.

    It’s equally important to be more mindful of your dad’s health on Father’s Day because you want him to be happy and live long. And the number one disease that kills most men is heart disease. You should help protect your dad’s heart by being aware of what’s bad for his heart and what you can do to protect it.

    You can start by planning a heart-healthy Father’s Day with these suggestions:

    1. Try Vegan Hot Dogs and Burgers

    Red meat, especially processed meat, has been linked with increasing your risk for heart disease. For one, they’re filled with bad cholesterol and saturated fat. But researchers have also found that red meat has a lot of L-carnitine, which your gut bacteria turn into trimethylamine-N-oxide (or TMAO) during your digestive processes. TMAO has been found to cause atherosclerosis in mice, and researchers found that people who eat unprocessed red meat have a higher risk of developing heart disease.

    But people who eat processed meats have an even higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease because of their nitrate and sodium content.

    How can you enjoy burgers and hot dogs with dear dad without harming his heart? They may sound gross, but try vegan burgers and hot dogs. They’re made from tofu, which is soy and it’s been found to help protect your heart.




    2. Do Laps With Dad During Game Breaks

    Inactivity has been found to increase your risk for heart disease. In fact, researchers found that every hour you spend sitting increases your chances of dying prematurely from heart disease or other lifestyle diseases. If your dad’s ideal day is watching the game, then there’s going to be a whole lot of sitting.

    But if you both run rally laps around the living room or outside during intermissions, you can help mitigate the effects of prolonged sitting. Running is also great exercise for the heart and helps improve cardiovascular function.

    3. Visit a Bathhouse

    Mix in a relaxing visit to a sauna or hot spring this Father’s Day. Hot springs and saunas are very therapeutic, and researchers found that regularly sauna bathing every week lowers your risk of heart disease by over 20 percent. It explains why heart disease is less statistically prevalent in Asia and Finland, where sauna bathing is a cultural norm.

    Remember to care for your dad’s health this Father’s Day so you can share more Father’s Days with him! Try these three tips to make this Father’s Day healthier for his heart, and hopefully you can incorporate them into his and your daily lives for better long-term heart-protective effects.

  • Why Doctors Want You to Eat Chocolate This Valentine’s Day

    Why Doctors Want You to Eat Chocolate This Valentine’s Day

    Valentine’s Day is hallmarked by the giving of chocolates to your romantic interest. Medical and scientific research reveal that gifting chocolates is not simply an act of affection. It turns out that regularly consuming chocolate prevents cardiovascular disease, promotes weight loss, and aids in meditation. Chocolate is no longer a junk food – to the contrary, it’s a holistic treat that supports the mind and body.

    Chocolate was first introduced into Europe soon after Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortés came upon the Maya and Aztecs and observed them preparing cacao drinks. Writings from 1556 contain a passage written by an anonymous Spanish conquistador describing how cacao seeds are ground into powder and mixed methodically to create a foaming liquid.

    The anonymous conquistador wrote,

    This [foaming] drink is the healthiest thing, and the greatest sustenance of anything you could drink in the world, because he who drinks a cup of this liquid, no matter how far he walks, can go a whole day without eating anything else.

    Of course the original Mayan and Aztec cacao drinks didn’t contain sugar and the tasty additives of modern-day chocolate products. Even so, what that conquistador wrote half a millennium ago is surprisingly true of cacao and today’s dark chocolate products according to scientific experts and physicians.

    Dark Chocolate Is Good for Your Heart

    Regularly consuming dark chocolate increases artery flexibility while also decreasing blood vessel leukocyte adhesion. Arterial stiffness and long-term buildup of white blood cells stuck to blood vessel walls are two significant factors in atherosclerosis.

    In fact an 11-year study revealed that people who regularly consume up to 3.5 ounces of chocolate daily experience a 5.4 percent decreased risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

    Furthermore according to Professor Larry Stevens of Northern Arizona University, dark chocolate is a vasodilator and regularly consuming it lowers blood pressure for the long term. According to findings by Louisiana State University, one explanation for this is that your gut bacteria convert cacao into compounds that protect blood vessel cells from stress and reduce inflammation.

    Chocolate Helps You Lose Weight

    Regularly munching on any kind of chocolate, regardless of cacao content, leads to weight loss. Research by Dr. Beatrice Golomb, an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego revealed that people who ate chocolate five times a week experienced weight loss without an increase in physical exercise. She states that a “5-foot tall woman weighing about 120 pounds… was likely to be about five pounds lighter if she was a frequent eater of chocolate.”

    According to Joshua Lambert of Penn State University, one factor contributing to chocolate’s weight loss effects is that some specific polyphenols found in cacao may inhibit pancreatic lipase, which is the enzyme responsible for digesting dietary fat. Thus, these polyphenols could be preventing the fat in commercial chocolate from being digested and absorbed into the body.

    Another contributing factor included in Louisiana State University’s findings is that your gut bacteria convert cacao’s fiber into short chain fatty acids, which make you feel full after you absorb them.

    Chocolate Helps You Meditate

    Chocolate Mindfulness meditation is an increasingly popular kind of meditation. It involves making you more aware of your senses by taking a piece of chocolate and deeply inhaling the chocolate’s aroma, staring at the chocolate and examining it deeply; and finally placing the chocolate into your mouth and trying to notice each one of its 300 flavors while playing with it with your tongue and allowing it to melt. Then you repeat the process until all the chocolate is consumed, and while doing so you’re gently keeping your mind focused on the chocolate, shepherding your focus back when it wanders away.

    Professor Stevens’ research sheds light on why this meditation technique is effective. He conducted a study involving 122 participants between 18 to 25 years old consuming confection containing 60 percent cacao. Brain activity was monitored via EEG and blood pressure was recorded.

    When we asked him via email, he responded that the 60 percent cacao group experienced an increase in alpha brain waves, which is one of the desired meditative states. The group also experienced an increase in beta brain waves. He stated that increasing alpha and beta waves should produce “a more alert, attentive, and calm state.” Being calm but attentive is key for meditation.

    However the participants experienced a short-term increase in blood pressure when consuming the 60 percent cacao. The 60 percent cacao confection still lowers blood pressure in the long-term, but the short-term increase in blood pressure might be troubling for some people, like those with hypertension.

    Thus, Professor Stevens introduced an amino acid naturally found in green tea, L-theanine, which lowers blood pressure, to the confection and administered it to another group of participants. This group experienced an immediate drop in blood pressure rather than the short-term increase experienced by the 60 percent cacao group.

    He reports in his email that this 60 percent cacao plus L-theanine group also experienced “a slight increase in alpha [waves] over that of the 60 percent cacao only [group].”

    He states that theoretically, a mixture containing L-theanine and 90 to 100 percent cacao should further increase the desired brain waves to produce a more powerful attentive and calm state. He’s looking forward to conducting future studies involving higher-content cacao and L-theanine.

    Thus, consuming a mixture of L-theanine and 60 or more percent cacao can aid in meditation by facilitating your transition into a calm but alert state.

    However, Professor Stevens also hopes that a high-content cacao chocolate bar containing L-theanine will become a mainstream healthy alternative to coffee due to its attention-increasing and blood pressure lowering properties. He states, “A lot of us in the afternoon get a little fuzzy… so we could have a higher cacao content chocolate bar and it would increase attention.”

    When you give your love chocolates this Valentine’s Day you’re protecting their hearts and waistlines, while enriching their mind. Conversely, if you’re receiving chocolates their health benefits should keep you from feeling guilty about enjoying them. It’s even better if you’re making your own gift chocolates because you can add L-theanine to them to add more blood pressure-lowering and mental therapeutic effects.

  • Hate Fish? No Problem, Eat a Cup of Walnuts Instead!

    Hate Fish? No Problem, Eat a Cup of Walnuts Instead!

    If you’re trying out a vegetarian diet to lose weight, you’re probably worried about meeting your daily protein requirements. Nut milks are a popular protein source for vegetarians. However, walnuts stand out amongst other nuts due to their omega-3 fatty acid content.

    Omega-3 fatty acids raise your good cholesterol and lower your bad cholesterol. They also decrease your risk for cardiovascular disease by 40 percent and lower your risk for cancer. These essential fats also prevent Alzheimer’s, arthritis, and retinal degeneration. For children, omega-3 fatty acids significantly support eye and brain development; 9-month-old infants experienced significant increases in problem-solving skills subsequent to being fed a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids.

    Seafood is the predominant dietary source for omega-3 fatty acids. Hence, vegetarians and people who hate eating fish are at risk of lacking their daily recommended dose of these essential fats. Fortunately, just one cup of walnuts bestows approximately 10 grams of omega-3 fatty acids, which is greater than the recommended daily dose.

    Aside from omega-3 fatty acids, walnuts also contain antioxidants and other nutrients. Its antioxidants include tellimagrandin, morin, and juglone, which have been shown to prevent liver damage and inhibit atherosclerosis. They bind well to lipoproteins, so they improve your body’s fat efficiency without causing weight gain, and also reduce any inflammation.

    Walnuts also contain ellagic acid, which has antibiotic and antiviral properties. Ellagic acid has been recognized by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to have anticarcinogenic properties as well. In fact, studies show that mice that have had their diets supplemented with walnuts experienced smaller, slower-growing prostrate tumors, with an overall 30 to 40 percent decrease in prostrate cancer. There’s also evidence that eating walnuts reduces breast cancer risk as well.

    Walnuts’ nutrients also have weight-loss properties. A study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that despite consuming a daily diet containing 2,000 calories, subjects experienced a drop in blood sugar levels and weight loss when walnuts were supplemented into their diet.




    Finally, eating walnuts improves your sexual and reproductive health. American guys who consumed typical Western diets experienced improved sperm vitality, motility, morphology, and overall quality when 75 grams of walnuts were added to their diet.

    When choosing walnuts at the store try to purchase organic and raw walnuts as opposed to irradiated or pasteurized. Also, 90 percent of walnuts’ aforementioned antioxidants are contained in the walnuts’ skin. Hence, despite the skin’s bitter taste, make sure to eat it!

    Eating a cup of walnuts each day can be hard on your teeth and less than enjoyable. But you can always blend your walnuts into a smooth nut milk.

    Vegetarians and people who hate seafood are at risk of not getting enough omega-3 fatty acids. In addition to being a great source of these essential fatty acids, walnuts promote weight loss and healthier sperm, and have anticarcinogenic and antibiotic properties as well. Don’t forget to consume the skin, or you’ll only be getting 10 percent of these benefits.