Health and Fitness
Three Steps to Improve Cardiovascular Health
Cardiovascular diseases cause one in every four deaths. But the risks can be significantly reduced with healthy lifestyle habits.
Significance of Cardiovascular Diseases
There are multiple conditions within the cardiovascular disease category. The most common ones are heart attack, stroke, heart failure, and arrhythmia.
Cardiovascular diseases are prevalent globally and widespread in the US.
For instance, according to CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), “one person dies every 36 seconds in the United States from cardiovascular disease. About 659,000 people in the United States die from heart disease yearly — that’s one in every four deaths.”
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH),
“Cardiovascular disease is the term for all types of diseases that affect the heart or blood vessels, including coronary heart disease (clogged arteries), which can cause heart attacks, stroke, congenital heart defects, and peripheral artery disease.”
American Heart Association defines atherosclerosis “as a condition that develops when a substance called plaque builds up in the walls of the arteries. This buildup narrows the arteries, making it harder for blood to flow through. If a blood clot forms, it can block the blood flow. This can cause a heart attack or stroke.”
Atherosclerosis is a key term for understanding the root causes of cardiovascular diseases. We need to find clever ways to prevent the formation of plaques building up in the walls of the arteries.
One of my sources of inspiration to write this piece is the remarkable words of a Nobel Laurette, Louis Ignarro, who said, “No More Heart Disease” and documented his experience and perspectives in a book in 2006. We learned a lot about these conditions. However, heart diseases are still skyrocketing as some of us ignore the prevention methods.
There are many ways to reduce risks and prevent heart diseases beyond this short article’s scope. My aim is to give you high-level perspectives and create awareness of risk factors.
However, one of the best ways to decrease the risk of cardiovascular diseases is by strengthening the heart by using moderate exercise, eating optimal nutrition, reducing stress, refraining from toxins such as cigarette smoke, and addressing chronic inflammation and infections.
In short, healthy lifestyle habits can help us strengthen our hearts and significantly reduce the risks of cardiovascular diseases.
Of course, there are genetic predispositions that we also need to consider. Hence, it is crucial to have regular check-ups and get screened with qualified healthcare professionals’ help.
If they see lifestyle and genetic risks, our family doctors can refer us to a cardiologist who can diagnose and treat cardiovascular diseases and conditions of our heart and blood vessels.
This article introduces three critical points to improve our cardiovascular health, mainly using lifestyle habits.
This article is, of course, not a piece of health advice, so we need to consult our healthcare professionals as cardiovascular diseases are complex and must be diagnosed and treated by qualified physicians and medical specialists.
So, I introduce these three broad factors that can significantly impact our cardiovascular health. As they are comprehensive in scope, I only focus on the key points at a high level. I link several other articles related to sub-points, so I won’t repeat them in this short article.
1 — Address Metabolic Syndrome Risk Factors
Metabolic syndrome is a subject close to my heart. Therefore, I write a lot about it to create awareness.
It is so common that over 35% of Americans experience metabolic syndrome. Unfortunately, around 47% of adults over 60 years of age have metabolic syndrome symptoms. It is not just a condition in the US but common in many more countries.
Metabolic syndrome is an umbrella term covering a cluster of risk factors. Metabolic syndrome is one of the critical root causes of cardiovascular diseases, as pointed out in numerous research papers.
“Metabolic syndrome is a significant cause of the obesity pandemic and a reason for several debilitating diseases such as type II diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and even cancers,” as I mentioned in this article.
The good news is that metabolic syndrome risks can be significantly reduced and even reversed at any age with healthy lifestyle habits.
Even better, they can be easily diagnosed by qualified healthcare professionals even with our observations.
For individuals, the key point is to observe the waistline as it is one of the indicators. Harmful belly fat (visceral adipose tissue) surrounding our internal organs like the liver, kidneys, and pancreas is a prominent risk factor for metabolic syndrome.
Diagnostic for healthcare professionals is to check elevated fasting glucose, high blood pressure, excessive triglycerides, and low HDL cholesterol levels. They need blood tests to determine these risk factors.
When I discuss metabolic syndrome, I always highlight the importance of insulin resistance.
When we examine the five indicators of metabolic syndrome, we will notice that each one of them is caused by insulin resistance. I characterize insulin resistance as the elephant in the room for valid reasons, like many caring thought leaders.
So my point is by addressing insulin resistance and shrinking our waistline, we can also reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome. But, more importantly, if we resolve metabolic syndrome issues, we can reduce the chances of cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, and some cancers.
As Dr. Paul Mason wisely pointed out, “good health is the absence of metabolic syndrome.”
2 — Reduce Chronic Inflammation
Acute inflammation is essential for recovery from injuries. However, when it turns to a chronic state, it causes many complications in our cardiovascular health. Chronic inflammation is one of the most significant risks for heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases.
As pointed out in this resource by John Hopkins Medicine,
“Inflammation may promote the growth of plaques, loosen plaque in your arteries, and trigger blood clots — the primary cause of heart attacks and strokes. You have a heart attack when a blood clot blocks an artery to the heart. If the blood clot blocks an artery to the brain, the result is a stroke”.
The key point is to reduce chronic inflammation and prevent its accumulation. There are some proven lifestyle changes to reduce chronic inflammation. Some key points are controlling blood sugar, eliminating inflammatory foods, losing fat, reducing stress, and undertaking moderate and regular physical workouts.
Stress and inflammation are tightly coupled. Reducing stress can diminish inflammation. And reducing inflammation can significantly reduce stress.
Now, let me touch on the significance of chronic stress for cardiovascular disease risks.
3 —Decrease Chronic Stress
Stress is inevitable and a significant problem globally.
For example, according to The American Institute of Stress, “more than 73% of people regularly experience physical and psychological stress symptoms.”
The purpose of the stress system in our bodies is to keep us safe from threats. It is essential to respond to our environment.
We need to understand that our survival system is hard-coded to generate stress hormones when it perceives a threat to our safety and survival. The body uses hormones to achieve this goal. One of the most crucial hormones is cortisol for stress management.
Ironically, perceptive threats can elevate this hormone noticeably.
Stress hormones are critical in the short term to energize us. They enable us to take essential actions for survival and well-being. Nevertheless, when stress hormones spike excessively, they can create imbalances in our biological and psychological systems. These imbalances pose life-threatening risks such as cardiovascular diseases.
Emotions play a critical role in our survival and well-being. They serve as messengers telling us what is going on in the body. While emotions are beneficial if they are not understood, acknowledged, and resolved, excessive negative emotions can be toxic for the body and mind. Destructive emotions adversely impact our physical and mental health.
When the body is in a fight, flight, or freeze mode, it deactivates critical functions such as digestion and sex drive.
In short, it is crucial to understand that emotional stress puts us in a neuro-chemically disadvantaged position and leads to building chronic stress if not treated properly.
Understanding chronic stress's root causes and symptoms are critical for cardiovascular health.
Some stress symptoms can be observed as irritability, loss of appetite, fatigue, anxiety, compulsive behavior, and even depression.
The root causes of stress can be physical, mental, and emotional. Each person responds to stress differently. For example, a stressful situation for a new employee cannot be stressful to an experienced CEO of a business organization. So stress is an individual matter and must be dealt with personal care and responsibility. The vital points to stress management are self-awareness and self-care.
As mentioned in my previous articles, chronic stress is the root cause of many diseases, including cardiovascular ones.
Key points to reduce chronic stress and prevent its accumulation are awareness, personal responsibility, healthy lifestyle changes, dealing with micro-stressors, and support from medical professionals.
Conclusions
Leveraging cognitive science, I mainly focus on the brain by highlighting the importance of healthy lifestyle habits for brain health.
Interestingly, any lifestyle factor that affects brain health so far also affects the heart.
So if we address the risks of mental health and neurological conditions, we also contribute to our heart health to a certain degree. As mentioned in previous articles, all organs and cells are connected in our bodies. And the wise saying which inspires me, homeostasis is what all health is about.
In addition to lifestyle and genetic factors, our sex and age also play a role in developing cardiovascular diseases.
For example, according to a significant review in BMJ Global Health, based on 30 years of data obtained from the World Health Organization Mortality Database, the researchers identified some age and sex-specific coronary heart disease patterns.
The paper points out that:
“Men generally develop cardiovascular disease at a younger age and have a higher risk of coronary heart disease than women. However, women, in contrast, are at a higher risk of stroke, which often occurs at an older age.” The good news, according to the paper, “cardiovascular disease and stroke mortality decreased substantially in most countries, in both sexes.”
While genetics, age, and sex pose some risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, including coronary heart disease, from my reviews, healthy lifestyle habits leading to reducing metabolic syndrome, chronic inflammation, and chronic stress play a significant role.
This means that we need to take responsibility for our health with support from qualified healthcare professionals who can screen our risks regularly.
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I envisioned humanity winning the battle against diseases in the 33rd century in a lucid dream. I hope my vision is realized one day so suffering ends on this planet.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
As a new reader, please check my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting my reviews, observations, and decades of experiments optimizing my hormones and neurotransmitters. I write about health as it matters. I believe health is all about homeostasis.
ALS, Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Heart Disease, Strokes, Obesity, Liver Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders, Homocysteine, Lungs Health, Pancreas Health, Kidneys Health, NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Brain Health, Dementia, Depression, Brain Atrophy, Neonatal Disorders, Skin Health, Dental Health, Bone Health, Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain, Brain Fog, Chronic Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Elevated Cortisol, Leptin Resistance, Anabolic Resistance, Cholesterol, High Triglycerides, Metabolic Disorders, Gastrointestinal Disorders, Thyroid Disorders, Anemia, Dysautonomia, cardiac output, and urinary track disorders.
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Disclaimer: My posts do not include professional or health advice. I only document my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives to provide information and create awareness.
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