What It Really Means To Love And Look After Your Heart Health
The month of February is often associated with love, Valentine’s Day and everything heart-shaped and in this blog we're exploring what it really means to love and look after your heart health.
Our hearts do a tremendous job of keeping us alive with every single precious beat. Built within a remarkable circulatory system, it knows exactly when to beat faster and get us moving out of a situation or to slow down and aid us in recovery and repair.
It may not surprise you to learn that dietary and lifestyle factors can play a pivotal role in heart health. We often associate heart issues with the older generation however it could be suggested that the choices we make over time, even from an early age, may create a cumulative effect that determines the longevity of our heart muscle and supporting vessels.
Most advice on how to maintain a healthy body is somewhat repetitive and with good reason. We are all well versed in must eat more greens, drink less alcohol, don’t smoke, exercise and so on! But how much do we do to prevent illness?
One of the biggest risk factors for our blood vessels is Hyperglycaemia, i.e. when blood sugar levels are consistently too high. Sugar, aka ‘The devil itself’, can be a sticky substance, which is also true when it is in our bloodstream. The role of insulin is to regulate the amount of glucose in your blood at any given time. Did you know insulin is a hormone? It acts as a key to unlock our cells to allow the glucose in for energy production. A condition called Insulin Resistance may occur when cells become less responsive to insulin and sugar is left trapped in the bloodstream. This condition can lead to poor blood sugar regulation and Type 2 diabetes.
Poor dietary and lifestyle choices may also lead to an increase in inflammation within the body. This may present with symptoms such as weight gain, painful joints, skin conditions, mood disorders, chronic fatigue and much more. Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle, which can reduce the heart’s ability to pump blood. Inflammation may also promote the growth of plaques within our blood vessels, if these plaques loosen, they can be responsible for triggering blood clots, which are the primary causes of heart attacks and strokes.
Fear not! There is so much that you can do to improve the heart health of you and your family, which won’t cost the earth or be too difficult to implement. Whether you start walking more regularly, and eating less processed foods, all the positive changes you make may have a beneficial impact on your heart health. A simple way to check in is to ask yourself whether the choice you are about to make will have a positive or negative effect on your body. A wee reminder, would you put petrol in a diesel tank? Positive or negative outcome?!
By making more nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory food choices, not only could you reduce inflammation, but you may improve sleep patterns, regulate your energy and start feeling fabulous!
Ways to combat these symptoms and strive for vibrancy and vitality are to clean up your diet and lifestyle. Think of your blood vessels like drainpipes. If we repeatedly pour bad fats and undesirable foods down our throats, we build layer upon layer of junk in our pipes/blood vessels, causing atherosclerosis (narrowed and inflamed arteries), resulting in restricted blood flow and increased risk of a cardiovascular event.
Top Heart Health supporting tips:
- Manage stress levels. We all experience stress differently, some thrive and do their best work whilst under some level of stress, whilst others crumble into a blubbering mess. Whilst small doses may be useful, chronic, prolonged episodes of stress may have a detrimental effect on our wellbeing. If you experience disrupted sleep or feel unable to cope, it might be worth asking for help or saying no thanks to extra tasks.
- Taking regular breaks to check in with how you are truly feeling. It all comes down to our perception of the stressor. If we can take a step back, some deep breaths and prioritise our goals, we can invite more space into our minds to make sense of things from a rational, balanced perspective.
- Eat real food! If it has a list of ingredients, you should probably avoid! Especially if you cannot pronounce it-leave it alone!
- Do not be afraid of eating healthy fats. Our cell membranes need fats to support their membranes to let things in and out. Good fats include avocados, oily fish, nuts and seeds. PS tuna is not an oily fish. Think mackerel, sardines, anchovies, salmon and herring for example.
- Use Olive oil or coconut oil instead of vegetable, canola, rapeseed oils.
- Eat fresh fruits and vegetables, the more variety the better! Gut health thrives on diversity. Fruits and vegetables contain phytonutrients and antioxidants, these are useful in fighting against oxidative stress and might help fight the signs of ageing. Oxidation occurs when a substance comes into contact with oxygen-i.e. when you slice an apple open and it starts to go brown, this is oxidation.
- Electrolytes are often talked about by gym bunnies and for good reason. Sodium, potassium and magnesium are some of the minerals required by our cells to keep our electrical currents charging through the body. These electrical charges help with muscle contraction and relaxation and regulating our pH levels. We lose these throughout daily functions but more so via dehydration due to sweating, vomiting and diarrhoea. These can be replaced by eating a variety of real foods including bananas (potassium), leafy greens (potassium, magnesium & calcium)! Try to avoid popular sports drinks that may be loaded with artificial ingredients we don’t really need, including artificial sweeteners.
- Consider adopting a Mediterranean style diet which has been shown to reduce oxidative stress, lower blood pressure and improve blood vessel health. This way of eating focuses on a wide variety of colourful fresh fruit and vegetables, good quality oils and fats, lentils, tomatoes, oily fish and much more natural produce.
- Did you know there is a ‘gut-heart’ connection? By increasing sources of fibre we are encouraging a more robust gut microbiome, which can influence the reduction of inflammation and therefore prevent damage to arteries. Sources include beans, legumes, pulses, onions, leeks, garlic and much more.
- Finally, sleep. Are you getting enough sleep each night? Sleep deprivation has been correlated with high blood pressure, raised stress hormone levels and an increased risk of heart disease. If you have issues getting to sleep or staying asleep, seek help and guidance. Consider trying some breathing techniques to soothe a busy mind, take a relaxing bath with Epsom salts to aid relaxation of twitchy muscles, avoid using devices at least an hour or two before bed. Finally read that book on your nightstand!
I hope you have found this information on heart health useful or at least as a starting point for you to dig deeper into the wonders of supporting our own wellness through food, action and connection.
If you have any heart health issues that you would like to address but unsure where to start, please contact me to book a free discovery call.
Sally Munro
Registered Naturopathic Nutritional Therapist
hello@sallymunro.co.uk
www.sallymunro.co.uk
@salthewellnesswarrior