Heart Health

 “ The heart is an organ of fire” ~ The English Patient

The heart has long been associated with our emotional body and has been linked to feelings of love, life, and vitality. It is the source of all life for us, a river coursing through the internal landscape of our being, feeding every cell, cleaning and nourishing the entire system. A large muscular organ, it tracks our time on earth, beating steadily every day of our life whether we’re awake or asleep. And when it stops beating, life ends. A healthy heart like a healthy mind is essential to vibrant well being. It’s common sense. In order for us to feel vibrant our blood, our personal river of life, must flow swiftly and undisturbed through its waterways, the vernacular system of the body, feeding, cleaning and nourishing the entire system. Even more sensible is the fact that diet and lifestyle have a dramatic effect on the health of one’s heart. But interestingly, throughout most of the 20th century, the medical profession has denied the link between diet and the heart disease, preferring instead heroic rather than preventive measures. By-pass surgery, angioplasty, and the newest form of surgical procedure, laser endarterectomy, are the popular forms of ‘prevention’ rather than the simple and often more effective measures offered by nature. Though undoubtedly each of these medical procedures has saved countless lives, many lives have been lost as well.

Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in the U.S. with over a million deaths a year attributed to various cardiovascular diseases. Yet most of these deaths are preventable. Given the importance of diet and lifestyle on the health of the heart, its insane that they are not emphasized as an essential aspect of every heart patients health program. In fact, studies show that that people live longer with fewer complications by following standard medical treatment and incorporating dietary and lifestyle changes than by having by-pass surgery and/or angioplasty.

There are many factors and many types of heart disease. Elevated cholesterol levels, arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), and hypertension are among the most commonly known causes of cardiovascular problems. I think broken hearts, loneliness, and depression play a bigger factor than we suppose. How can we deny the importance of the emotional body, or our sense of feeling and our ability to heartfully relate to the world around us as essential for heart health or a potential cause of heart disease? Both men and women are often isolated from their feelings, spending their days away from family and friends, working in situations that are less than life supporting. People often live far from family and childhood friends, often in communities that are not emotionally gratifying or heart supporting. Like my friend, James Green, author of The Male Herbal (Crossing Press), I believe that heartbreak is the underlying cause of most heart disease. Perhaps not the classic type of heart break one experiences in high school when your first sweetie and you break up, but the loneliness of spirit so many people experience today.

We need community to have a healthy heart. We need one another. The sense of friends and family nourish the heart and make the heart full. We also need wholesome food and exercise and work that is satisfying and life supporting. For centuries people lived with strong functioning hearts. Cardiovascular disease was hardly considered a problem until the 20th century and the advent of out modern day lifestyle. Sometimes it must seem that all I do is berate this time I find myself living in. Actually, I’m thrilled and delighted to be alive in these exciting times. I enjoy many of the modern conveniences and though there are many I chose not to indulge in, I don’t imagine it was much easier or better in previous centuries. But I do wonder why we’ve discarded what were obviously healthy practices that ensured a healthy human species in favor of dietary and lifestyle changes that are having such a negative impact on the human population. Often, the answer is as simple as returning to the health practices of our ancestors.

What to do to ensure a healthy happy heart;

1. Exercise is paramount. A sedentary life style almost equates to heart problems. The human body was meant to move, every day in so many ways. Exercise should be a normal part of every day. ‘Too busy to exercise’ is an oxymoron. Being busy should be movement, exercise. Even when working at a desk job, be aware of your body position. Take frequent stretch breaks, get up and move. They are important to functioning well at the job. I try to live each day in a state of ‘hyperactivity’! Actually, not true, but I do remind myself frequently to stretch, move my limbs, walk around, and get out and walk.. How can we be too busy for a daily walk to commune with nature? The heart gets lonely.

In every city and town across the country there are exercise programs for the elderly. Offered at the local YMCA, senior citizen centers, hospitals and health spas, these programs are often free for people over 60. Also available are yoga classes specifically for the elderly. Next to time outdoors, there may be no better form of exercise for calming the heart and strengthening the body.

2. Eat for the Heart.

Instead of eating your heart out, eat for your heart. The heart is the most important muscle in our body, constantly in motion, constantly pumping the lifeblood through our entire systems. It only makes sense that it functions best when ensured of proper nutrients. A healthy heart is dependent on a healthy diet. Since our ancestors appear to have strong functioning hearts and heart disease was rare before the 20th century, it is wise to look back to see what they ate and how they lived. What effects did their diet have on their hearts? Saturated fats, high sugar consumption, and cholesterol forming foods were generally not part of their diets while unsaturated fats, whole grains, nuts, fresh fruits and vegetables were the mainstays of our ancestors food sources. Its interesting that experts in the field of cardiovascular health all agree that a low fat diet, comprised primarily of the above mentioned foods, foods that comprised the diets of most of our ancestors, provide the foundation for a healthy heart.

Recommended foods for a healthy heart then are the basic food groups that sustained our ancestors.

* Whole grains provide dietary fiber, essential fatty acids and heart friendly nutrients

* Fresh fruits & vegetables. An eight-year study of almost 40,000 men found that those who ate five or more servings of fruit and vegetables each day had a 39% lower risk of stroke than those who didn’t (Prescription for Nutritional Healing by Phyllis and James Balch)

* High fiber food such as whole grains, fresh vegetables & fruit. Though all these are great sources of fiber, studies have shown that fiber from cereal grain such as oat bran tends to be the most beneficial.

* Unsaturated oils (the primary oils used by our ancestors)

* Daily intake of garlic and onions. It’s amazing how many cultures prize the alliums, especially these two fine smelling members of the family, including them in their cultural dishes. The entire allium family, but most especially garlic and onion are rich in compounds that lower cholesterol.

* Include weekly servings of shitake mushrooms. A small serving of 3 – 4 mushrooms twice a week can lower cholesterol by 12%. * Included foods rich in essential fatty acids (EFA). Many herbs contain high amounts of EFA’s; evening primrose, borage seeds, black current seeds, bilberry, elderberry, blue berry. Foods that contain high amounts of EFA’s include olive oil, most nuts, and fish and fish oils.

* Drink more than adequate amounts of fresh pure water. It is the best natural diuretic for a healthy heart. This may be the hardest part of the ‘prescription’ for a healthy heart, as our water sources are less than ideal.. 2 quarts of water is bare minimum and that should be doubled. Most people are lucky if they drink one or two glasses a day. But something as simple as drinking five or more glasses a water a day can reduce the risk of heart disease by up to 50 percent as one study recently showed.

• Seaweeds provide high concentrations of trace minerals, natural salt,

Foods to avoid include:

Saturated oils (found in almost all baked goods including breads, crackers, cookies, and candy)

Fried foots are highly toxic to the liver and heart. This includes onion rings, fresh fries, potato chips, and so many of the other snack foods stacking our super market shelves.

High sugar foods (sugar is found in almost all commercially prepared foods)

Excess salt (though salt is an essential element and is needed by our systems, it is needed in small amounts only. We get all the salt we need from natural sources; sea vegetables, vegetables, and herbs all contain natural salts. Virtually everyone who eats commercially prepared food or eats frequently in restaurants is consuming more salt than is needed in their diet. Salt, like sugar, is added to almost all prepared food. Excess salt contributes to hardening of the arteries.)

Avoid commercially prepared lunchmeat, hot dogs, sausage and other forms of processed meat. This food is toxic to the heart muscle. Processed meat should be required to wear a warning sign; ‘Eat me! I’m bad for you’.

Sodas are high in just about everything that’s causes stress on the heart muscle; salt, stimulants, sugar, and preservative.

Avoid stimulants. Stress and anxiety are one of the major causes of hypertension, high blood pressure, and rapid heart beat. Anxiety puts added stress on an often over burdened heart. Strong stimulants will always exasperate the condition.

It seems so simple and makes such sense that in order to reverse the epidemic heart diseases evidenced in this country, we need to make some obvious shifts in the way our nation eats. Do we need any greater evidence that our SAD diet (the Standard American Diet) is not adequate to support the functions of a healthy body than a country dying of heartache? Yet, it seems we’re intent on fowling the heart. A stroll through a modern super market is a heart attack in the making. Something is tragically wrong when the very food we’re producing is contributing to the ill health of a nation.

4. Important herbs for the heart.

Use often as tea, capsules, and when necessary in tinctures.

Ginkgo (Ginkgo Biloba) ~ improves circulation, lowers blood pressure, dilates peripheral blood vessels, increases peripheral blood flow, and has proven helpful in vascular insufficiency. Ginkgo inhibits platelet activity (PAF), the substance that causes blood to become sticky and clot. Though generally helpful, its best to discontinue ginkgo use three weeks before surgery and don’t use it for three weeks following surgery.

Hawthorn (Crataegus laevigata, C. monogyna, and related species) ~ the most important cardiac tonic we know of in Western herbology. Can be used beneficially for most heart conditions, is non-toxic, can be used safely with heart medication, and quite possibly may prove t for the heart. Throughout the Middle Ages, it was known as a symbol of hope. Clinical studies in Germany confirmed it use in lowering blood pressure and improving heartbeat rate. “It is superior to any of the well known and tried remedies at present in use for treatment of heart disease, because it seems to cure while other remedies are only palliative at best” Dr. Ellingwood, a prominent late 19th century physician.

Linden (Tilia species) ~ is a relaxing herb used to reduce hypertension and lower blood pressure.

Look at what hawthorn does to protect the heart....it's like milk thistle for the heart, “milk thistle binds to the liver cells and protects them.” It detoxes the liver and strengthens the liver!

Well, hawthorn does the same for the heart. It prevents any future damage from occurring, and if something does happen, then there is less damage to the heart. It's highly documented and works great. The old herbalists from England knew this, and it has always been the most popular heart herb throughout Europe. It was really Dr. Christopher who got it going in this country decades ago.

Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca) ~ used for all heart conditions caused by stress and anxiety. It is especially useful for tachycardia and rapid heart beat.

Prickly Ash (Zanthoxylum americanum) ~ Used for circulatory problems and acts as a cardiac stimulant much like cayenne, though slower in action and without the ‘fire’.

Passion Flower (Passiflora incarnata) ~ Highly regarded for its nervine relaxing properties, passionflower is a specific medication for hypertension, high blood pressure, and to treat tachycardia.

Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) ~ Cardiac relaxant. Used for hypertension, irregular and rapid heartbeat, valerian has the ability to strengthen and tonify the heart.

Oats (Avena Fatua, A. Sativa) ~ relaxing, tonic herb that is especially useful for hypertension, rapid heart beat, stress and anxiety.

Garlic (Allium sativum) ~ An over all great tonic for the elderly. Improves circulation, regulates blood sugar levels, reduces high blood pressure and fat levels in the blood, and helps fight infections. Called the ‘poor man’s penicillin’, garlic was a major source medicine for bacterial and viral infections and is still used as a successful remedy for all manner of infections, colds, and flues. It is especially useful for lowering high cholesterol levels and blood pressure Though studies report varying degrees of success using garlic for lowering high cholesterol levels, those people who use the whole herb seem to report the greatest amount of success.

Cayenne (Capsicum frutescens and related species) ~ one of our most important circulatory tonics, has an especial tonic effect on the heart muscle.

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) ~ Helps lower blood pressure by dilating the peripheral blood vessels. Its diaphoretic action also helps relive pressure on the heart.

Siberian Ginseng (Eleutherococcus senticosus) ~ Between 1960 – 1970, over thirty-five clinical studies were conducted on S. Ginseng to determine its effect on arteriosclerosis, hypertension, hypotension, and other health problems. This is an important herb for the heart and has long been recognized as an herbal remedy for hypertension, stress, and over work.

Arjuna

Guggul

Herb Warning

There are several other herbs that are indicated for the heart including foxglove, ephreda, and lily of the valley, but they are rich in alkaloids that can be harmful when used inappropriately. However, in England and other European countries, lily of the valley is frequently prescribed for cardiovascular problems including heart failure. Night Blooming Ceres is also widely prescribed for heart conditions, however, it is in sore demise in its natural habitat due to habitat destruction and over harvesting by over zealous wildcrafters. Wild sources should not be used and, unfortunately, there is little or no wide scale cultivation of this important medicine plant.

Hawthorne Berry Syrup recipe has been shared in here before

“When touched by the beauty of a spring meadow in bloom or the profound sense of presence felt in a grove of redwood trees, the heart figuratively takes flight and the spirit is healed. But nature brings physical healing as well, offering nourishment and strength to a troubled heart” David Hoffman from Healthy Heart (Storey Publications).

5. Supplements that support a healthy heart

CO-Enzyme Q-10: CO Q10 is found in every organ system of the body and is especially concentrated in the heart muscle because of its high energy requirements. It is found in diminishing amounts in our organs as we age and low levels of Co Q10 have been linked to a number of age related disorders, including heart disease. Congestive heart failure and other cardiovascular imbalances have been linked to deficiencies of CoQ10. The severity of heart failure often correlates to the severity of deficiencies of this important nutrient. Co Q 10 is fairly common in our food and can be found in meat, especially organ meats, eggs, fish, and nuts. Recommended daily doses are from 50 to 300 mg’s per day. Unfortunately Co Q 10 is expensive and often supplements are less than quality products.

Omega 3 Fatty Acids

Antioxidants protect the heart muscle against roaming free radicals and strengthen and tone the heart

Spirulina is heart protective and a rich source of essential nutrients.

Vitamin E is a potent antioxidant, strengthens the heart muscle and improves circulation.

Lecithin acts as a fat emulsifier and is especially useful in hardening of the arteries and lowering cholesterol. It’s available as a liquid, granules, and in capsule form.

AND look up Paulings Advice...key word Linus Pauling Heart protocol