These are just ten (10) steps to a healthy heart and simple ways to reduce your chance of getting a heart attack by up to 90% according to Dr. Michael F. Roizen.

Step 1:
Walk 30 minutes a day every day, no matter what – and then call someone. Walking a half hour a day decreases the risk of having a heart attack by about 30 per cent. I’ve found if you succeed at walking daily, you can also succeed at doing other things to improve your health. If you skip, you’ll start compromising your health in other ways too. Calling someone every day is crucial; that is the real commitment. Find a person who is supportive and will not nag but will call if you haven’t called her. And by the way, it usually is a ”her.” Men tend to be lousy at this!

Step 2:
Know your blood pressure and do whatever it takes to get it down to 115/75. Your blood pressure number may be even more important than your cholesterol. And you can lower it yourself. The best way? Getting a little exercise and losing some belly fat. The momentum is what hangs over the stomach. The fat that is stored there feeds the kidney, liver and other vital organs. But when you gain weight, you add fat inside the relatively rigid ”kidney capsule.” This fat pushes on the kidney and more blood pressure is needed to drive blood through. So it releases hormones that cause increased blood pressure. When you lose a little of that fat, your blood pressure goes down really fast.

Cutting back on salt may help, but for some people reducing sugar and saturated fat in the diet may help even more. But if your blood pressure is over 140/90 and you’re not going to do these things reliably, then you should probably go on blood-pressure medication. New drugs can reduce blood pressure without major side effects.

Step 3:
Eat an ounce of nuts a day. Nuts raise high-density lipoprotein (HDL) good cholesterol and decrease inflammation. But they have a heart benefit independent of those too. We’re not sure why. Nuts have healthy omega-3 fatty acids, healthy protein and some fibre. And this tip is easy to do! Nuts that are raw, fresh and unsalted have the most benefit. You can develop a taste for them if you give them a chance. But if you want to roast, say, (shelled) walnuts, put them in the oven at 175 degrees Celsius for about nine minutes. If you do it yourself, it won’t cause any bad fats or dangerous chemical acrylamides to form.

Step 4:
Learn your HDL number and do what you can to raise it to 50. For women, some believe a high HDL is more important than a lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL). We have no idea why, but study after study shows that the higher the number, the better (50 is fine). Easy ways you can increase it: exercise; have one drink a day; eat healthy fats, such as olive & canola oil and nuts. Talk to your doctor about niacin, which raises HDL but can have side effects. Ask, too, about pantothenic acid, or vit. B5, which may also help. While the main function of statin drugs is to lower LDL, some also raise HDL.

Step 5:
Eat ten tablespoons of tomato sauce a week. This is one of my favorite tips. Tomato sauce is loaded with blood-pressure-slashing potassium. We’re not talking about salty, fatty sauces, or serving w/ a huge portion of pasta. Keep it simple and healthy, and get a great benefit.

Step 6:
Floss your teeth regularly. Avoiding periodontal disease prevents inflammation in the arteries, w/c helps you head off heart disease. Most people don’t know that your oral health affects all your arterial health, and that includes blood flow to the heart and sexual organs, and maybe even wrinkles on your skin.

Step 7:
Eat no more than 20 grams of saturated fat a day and as little trans fat as possible. Saturated fat & trans fats lead to inflammation in the arteries. One cinnamon roll may have seven grams of saturated fat. A 113-gram slice of roast pork tenderloin has about 4 grams. Trans fats (partially hydrogenated oils), found in many processed and baked foods, are probably at least as bad as saturated fats, and maybe a little worse.

Step 8:
Read labels and throw out all food that has sugar in the first five ingredients. Don’t be fooled by foods that are low in fat but high in sugar. The sugar causes inflammation. And if you eat more sugar than you need, it gets morphed into omentum fat, that dangerous fat around the belly. For a while in the 1990s, many people used ”low fat” salad dressings that turned out to be loaded with calorie-laden sugar. And they didn’t contain any good fats like olive oil, which are beneficial. Healthy fats are better than empty sugar calories. (Because the sugar in fruit is in the form of complex carbohydrate, it’s usually fine.)

Step 9:
Have a glass of wine or beer today. We’re not sure why; there may be an anti-inflammatory effect. But it’s a consistent finding that teetotallers have a higher risk of heart disease than people who drink a little, and people who drink a lot have little heart disease but tend to die of cancer. Seven drinks on Friday night is not the same as one every night! We know there are serious dangers to drinking, but still, any kind of alcohol in moderation is good for your arteries.

Step 10:
Eat nine servings of colourful fruits and vegetables a day. That comes with a lot of fibre, and you shouldn’t increase to that amount all at once or people won’t stay in the same room with you! But you’ll adjust in two to six weeks. Make sure you wash fresh produce carefully and thoroughly. If you try fresh locally grown veggies prepared well, you’ll be amazed at how good they taste.

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