Your Heart- Keep it healthy – By Dr Harold Gunatillake
A fetus goes through many stages of development. One of the milestones is when the heart begins to beat.
Cardiac tissue starts to pulse at around 5–6 weeks of pregnancy, registering as a heartbeat on the ultrasound, though the heart has not developed yet. Your heart beats about 100,000 times daily and about 35 million times yearly. The human spirit will win more than 2.5 billion times annually.
It is a beautiful pump prepared to work for you efficiently, but unfortunately, certain lifestyles seem to cause damage and lead to early dysfunction.
Today, a discussion is how we can look after the health of your heart to work for you
efficiently for a lifetime.
Rhythmic movements of the heart depend on the oxygen and other nutrients fed through the coronary arteries.
It would be best to keep their patent as far as possible through life without getting clogged with plaques.
These plaques are formed as a part of the thickening of blood vessels called atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is the thickening or hardening of the arteries caused by a build-up of plaque in the inner lining of an artery. Risk factors may include high cholesterol and triglyceride levels, high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, obesity, physical activity, and eating saturated fats.
Eating sticky foods such as fried and cooked with oil, fast foods, and street foods have become the primary cause of atherosclerosis in modern life
Restaurants give you quickly cooked-through deep-fried and stir-frying foods, exceptionally palatable, which is the primary cause of obesity.
The American Heart Association recommends diets high in antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals and low in saturated fat and sodium to reduce CVD and T2D risk. These sticky, digested foods are the leading cause of plaque formation. These plaques build up in arteries-the bloood vessels that carry oxygen and nutrient-rich blood from your heart to your body’s tissues.
These plaques are a build-up of a fatty, waxy substance that forms deposits in the artery wall. These deposits can narrow the artery and reduce blood flow. This is called atherosclerosis or “hardening of the arteries.” Plaques can also rupture and create a blood clot at the rupture site as your body’s natural processes try to repair the “injury.” The blood clot can cut off blood flow through the artery and starve your body’s tissues of oxygen and nutrients. Therefore, a ruptured plaque can be severe: It is the most common cause of a heart attack or stroke. Plaque build-up in arteries is, unfortunately, a natural part of living. Even children and adolescents have early evidence of the process.
However, diet and other lifestyle factors play an essential role. High blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol and smoking can all worsen atherosclerosis. High blood pressure and the toxins in tobacco products damage the smooth inner lining of the artery, called the endothelium. These and other causes of inflammation of the artery lining contribute to cholesterol and other materials embedding in the artery wall to form plaques. Additionally, some people are predisposed to atherosclerosis. A genetic condition called familial hypercholesterolemia causes some people to have abnormally very high LDL cholesterol levels in the bloodstream.
The build-up of such plaques can be lessened through a heart-friendly diet and daily exercise. Here are some of the best foods that unclog arteries to eat to prevent or clean clogged arteries. Berries. Strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, blackberries, and raspberries are best. …
- Tomatoes. …
- Onions. …
- Citrus Fruits. …
- Cruciferous Vegetables. …
- Leafy Greens. …
- Beans. …
- Fish.
You can reduce plaque by losing weight, exercising more, or eating fewer foods high in saturated fat. In some cases, doctors may also prescribe medications to lower cholesterol.
What foods cause plaque buildup in the heart?
Foods to prevent plaque in the heart
The study, published Aug. 13 in Science, suggests that consuming food rich in saturated fat and choline – a nutrient found in red meat, eggs and dairy products – increases the number of metabolites that build plaques in the arteries.
Do eggs cause plaque in arteries?
For most people, an egg a day does not increase your risk of a heart attack, stroke, or cardiovascular disease.
In the past, it seemed logical to think eggs would be bad for your heart health. We knew that the cholesterol in eggs came from egg yolks, and we knew that high levels of cholesterol, especially LDL (bad) cholesterol, in the blood increased the risk of cardiovascular disease. So, avoiding cholesterol in the diet made sense.
Since then, however, research has shown that most of the cholesterol in our body is made by our liver-it doesn’t come from the cholesterol we eat. The liver is stimulated to produce cholesterol primarily by saturated and trans fat in our diet, not dietary cholesterol. But a large egg contains little saturated fat-about 1.5 grams (g). And research has confirmed that eggs also contain many healthy nutrients: lutein and zeaxanthin, which are suitable for the eyes;
choline, which is good for the brain and nerves; and various vitamins (A, B, and D). One large egg contains 270 international units (IU) of vitamin A and 41 IU of vitamin D. One large egg also has about 6 g of protein and 72 calories.
Incredibly Heart-Healthy Foods
Leafy green vegetables. Leafy green vegetables like spinach, kale, and collard greens are well known for their wealth of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. …
- Whole grains. …
- Berries. …
- Avocados. …
- Fatty fish and fish oil. …
- Walnuts. …
- Beans. …
- Dark chocolate.
Exercising daily will remove plaques. Sedentary people are more liable to get plaques.
I hope this video presentation was helpful. Stay safe, and Goodbye for now.
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