Metabolic Health
Here’s How to Lower the Risks of Heart Disease and Strokes in Five Steps.
Healthy lifestyle habits can enhance our heart health as well as brain health.
Importance of Cardiovascular Diseases
One person dies every 36 seconds in the United States from cardiovascular disease, according to CDC.
Around 659,000 people in the US die from heart disease each year. And globally, 17.9 million die from cardiovascular diseases, according to the World Health Organization.
Heart disease (clogged arteries), heart attacks, stroke, congenital heart defects, and peripheral artery disease are classified as cardiovascular diseases as documented by NIH.
One of the critical patterns of cardiovascular disease is atherosclerosis. Therefore, it is considered a root cause of these diseases.
Atherosclerosis refers to the process of plaque building up in the walls of the arteries. Increased plaque narrows the arteries. As a result, it makes blood flow harder, causing stroke or heart attack.
Purpose of the Story
This story is not about treating heart disease or stroke. Instead, it is about reducing the risks of these diseases with healthy lifestyle habits.
As cardiovascular diseases are complex and comprehensive, including many factors, I only focus on key points at a high level.
My review of the literature indicates that healthy lifestyle habits can strengthen our hearts and significantly reduce the risks of heart diseases and strokes.
In addition, these healthy lifestyle habits can contribute to our metabolic and mental health.
I capture the risk factors under five broad headings.
1 — Prevent Stress Accumulation and Lower Chronic Stress.
I start with stress, as it is the root cause of many ailments. Unfortunately, minor stressors can accumulate and might lead to a chronic state if they are not addressed.
Healthy lifestyle habits can prevent the accumulation of stress and lower chronic stress.
We cannot survive and grow without stress. It is essential. However, how we deal with stress is critical. For example, expressing our emotions is a way of managing our stress.
The body uses various hormones to manage stress. The major one is the cortisol hormone.
The more stress we have, the more cortisol is created. When cortisol is released, we feel good and work harder.
However, when cortisol levels get elevated, this hormone can disrupt other metabolic hormones like insulin, causing visceral fat gain.
Thus we need to get our cortisol levels checked. If the levels are too high, we need corrective actions guided by qualified healthcare professionals such as endocrinologists.
Even though lifestyle habits can contribute to reducing stress, some of us might need medication or therapies to address chronic stress.
By improving our sleep, eating more nutrient-dense foods, exercising, recovering fully after each workout, resting, and having fun, we can deal with stress more effectively.
One key point is dealing with micro-stressors timely.
2 — Reduce Chronic Inflammation.
After stress, my focus is on inflammation as they are tightly coupled.
For example, reducing stress can decrease inflammation. Likewise, reducing inflammation can lower stress.
Like stress, our bodies also need inflammation in an adequate amount to heal from infections and injuries. This essential process is called acute inflammation.
However, the problem arises when acute inflammation accumulates and becomes chronic.
An excessive amount of inflammation might promote the growth of plagues. In addition, it can loosen plaque in the arteries and trigger blood clots, as documented in this source.
When a blood clot blocks an artery to the heart, we have a heart attack. However, if the blood clot clogs an artery to the brain, we experience a stroke.
Healthy lifestyle habits can contribute to decreasing chronic inflammation.
The critical points are controlling blood sugar, making the body more insulin sensitive, reducing visceral fat, personalized workout, customized nutrition cutting inflammatory food, and getting enough restorative sleep.
Despite good habits, some of us might need anti-inflammatory medication.
Thus getting our inflammation markers checked and obtaining a corrective plan from qualified healthcare professionals is essential.
3 — Lower Metabolic Syndrome Risks
Metabolic syndrome is a generic term covering a cluster of risk factors.
Metabolic syndrome is a significant cause of obesity and a reason for several debilitating diseases such as type II diabetes, fatty liver disease, cardiovascular diseases, and even cancers, as I mentioned in this article.
I highlight the importance of dealing with metabolic syndrome frequently as it is a critical root cause of cardiovascular diseases and numerous other metabolic disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases.
In addition, metabolic syndrome is widespread globally. For example, over 35% of Americans experience metabolic syndrome. Around 47% of adults over 60 have metabolic syndrome symptoms.
Qualified healthcare professionals can diagnose metabolic syndrome with checkups. For example, they check elevated fasting glucose, high blood pressure, excessive triglycerides, and low HDL cholesterol levels.
In addition, they check our waistline. Excessive visceral fat is an indicator of this syndrome. Belly fat surrounding our internal organs like the liver, kidneys, and pancreas can increase the risks of metabolic syndrome.
These indicators also reflect the existence of insulin resistance.
So if we can make our bodies more insulin sensitive with healthy lifestyle habits, we can reduce the metabolic syndrome risks. I provided three tips to make our bodies more insulin sensitive.
4 — Increase Nitric Oxide
Nitric oxide is a signaling molecule and a vasodilator that helps control blood flow to various body parts, including the cardiovascular system. The body produces it from amino acids like arginine.
The importance of nitric oxide for heart health was understood after Dr. Louis Ignarro’s research was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the introduction of nitric oxide.
Dr. Ignarro’s research reveals that nitric oxide might lower cholesterol by facilitating the actions of statin drugs. The premise of his research is to keep the vascular network clean and elastic through enhanced nitric oxide productivity.
He even wrote a book titled “NO More Heart Disease: How Nitric Oxide Can Prevent — Even Reverse — Heart Disease and Strokes,” explaining his protocol in a language understandable by the public.
After reading his book in 2006, I started using arginine and citrulline. These two amino acids significantly increased my energy levels and improved my heart health.
I stopped using arginine as it caused some side effects as my current diet is abundant in this amino acid. However, I still use citrulline malate for various other health reasons, which I plan to share in another post.
In addition, as reported in a paper published in the journal of Clinical Biochemistry and Nutrition, “aerobic exercise can increase nitric oxide generation, reduce blood pressure, and induce antioxidant enzymes via SIRT3.”
5 — Manage Cholesterol Wisely
I left to this end as it is a controversial topic. I firmly believe that cholesterol management is critical for heart disease. However, we must clarify a misconception as cholesterol research was muddy and confused the public for many years.
Fortunately, the new generation of scientists debunked the old hypothesis and added more clarity on managing cholesterol appropriately within the cardiovascular health context.
My understanding from the new research is that high cholesterol does not directly cause heart disease but can make a weak heart worse combined with other risk factors such as inflammation.
Eating cholesterol does not equate to having a high blood cholesterol level in the bloodstream. It was hard to believe as I was scared of high cholesterol in my younger years, as warned by my family doctor.
For example, when I was not eating any cholesterol, including food like saturated fats in high carb diets, my bad cholesterol was very high and concerned my physician.
However, my cholesterol levels normalized when I consumed more cholesterol-including foods, especially egg yolks and beef liver.
As cholesterol is essential for every cell in the body, the body creates it in abundance when we don’t get it from the food.
Based on the literature review and discussion with oncologists, cholesterol risk seems negligible if our heart is healthy and we have no threatening inflammation.
Therefore, cholesterol does not seem to be a significant risk factor for healthy individuals like inflammation and metabolic syndrome that weaken the heart.
However, cholesterol is a major risk if the heart is weak. Thus, medical doctors prescribe cholesterol-lowering medication to these types of patients.
I explained my findings and experience with the cholesterol paradox in an article titled Cholesterol Paradox and How It Impacted My Health Positively.
Getting our cholesterol checked is extra important when we have metabolic syndrome risks, and chronic inflammation as these three factors together seem to make a ripple effect on heart disease and strokes.
We also need to pay attention to the sugar paradox for heart health.
Conclusions and Takeaways
These five items covered in the story are closely related to our lifestyle. Our choices make a real difference in reducing heart disease and stroke risks.
By focusing on fundamentals like restorative sleep, nutrient-dense food, refraining from junk foods with empty calories, performing regular exercises, especially moderate cardio, recovering after exercising by resting, and reducing our stress by having fun, we can significantly reduce risks.
Recently some cardiologists are also considering time-restricted eating to reduce the risks of cardiovascular diseases. The reason behind this approach is fasting can make the body more insulin sensitive and initiate autophagy. Therefore, I made one meal a day eating regimen a lifestyle choice.
Using some supplements might help improve cardiovascular help. I specifically mentioned nitric oxide-producing amino acids like arginine and citrulline in this article. There may be other supplements too.
Before starting these supplements, it is critical to obtain advice and support from qualified healthcare professionals as they might have side effects and interfere with some medications.
In addition, as recommended by a cardiologist friend, I started using CoQ10 after 55 years of age as a preventative measure. I documented my reviews and experience in an article titled Why I Take 100 Mg CoQ10 [Ubiquinol] Daily.
From my literature reviews, apart from genetic defects, the most significant risk factors for cardiovascular diseases are inflammation, metabolic syndrome, fatty liver disease, insulin resistance, and type II diabetes, weakening heart and brain arteries.
While blocked arteries of the heart cause heart disease, blocked arteries of the brain cause stroke. So heart and brain health are closely related.
In addition to genetics, heart disease and stroke also are related to our sex. For example, as mentioned in this paper:
“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.”
By improving our heart health, we can also enhance brain health. In addition, our brain health can contribute to mental health by preventing neurodegenerative diseases. Thus I believe that metabolic and mental health are interrelated.
To raise awareness, I compiled the risks of major diseases with healthy lifestyle habits in a recent article titled Reduce the Risks of Major Diseases with Healthy Lifestyle Habits.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.
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.
I also wrote about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:
Lutein/Zeaxanthin, Phosphatidylserine, Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, zinc, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, and other nutrients.
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.
As part of my creative non-fiction writing goals, I’d like to share a few stories that might warm our hearts with a bit of humor into weighty topics.
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