Reduce Heart Disease Risk with Resveratrol
Resveratrol is a plant substance – polyphenol – that fights certain diseases. In the plant world, plants must withstand fungus, extreme temperatures and insects. Plants produce antibiotics called phytoalexins. Resveratrol is a phytoalexin plants use to fight off disease and repair damage.
What are the functions of Resveratrol?
Many of the functions of resveratrol have a direct impact on heart disease and/or your risk of developing heart disease. Resveratrol functions include:
- Decreased platelet stickiness (means decreased platelet aggregation & clotting)
- Reduced LDL cholesterol oxidation
- Promotes phase II detoxification enzymes (increase removal of toxins from the body)
- Inhibition of COX-2 enzyme induction (can result in decreased inflammation)
- Anti-inflammatory
- Phytoestrogen (can reduce risk of some cancers)
- Antioxidant
- Role in Alzheimer’s disease prevention
Antioxidants are especially important as we strive to prevent heart disease. Antioxidants slow and prevent the oxidation of cells. For example, it is the oxidation of LDL cholesterol that begins the formation of plaque within artery walls. Oxidation causes stress and cell damage that reduces a cells ability to function properly, eventually leading to cell death. By consuming a diet high in antioxidants, such as resveratrol, you promote decreased oxidation and cell health.
What are sources of Resveratrol?
The Yale Heart Study Needs Study Participants
The Yale Heart Study is concerned with how people get medical care when they are having symptoms of a heart attack. They are asking people who have had a heart attack to share their experiences at their their website: http://heartstudy.yale.edu The goal of this study is to help people get care as quickly as possible when they are having heart attack symptoms.
The study is being conducted on the internet and takes about 30 minutes to an hour to complete depending on your experiences. Participation in this study is completely anonymous. The study has been approved by the Yale University Institutional Review Board and is funded by the National Institutes of Health. If you have any questions about this study please contact heart.study@yale.edu
If you know of someone who has had a heart attack, there is a place on the website for you to invite them to participate in the study.
Here’s the study address, again, is http://heartstudy.yale.edu
All the best,
Lisa Nelson RD
https://lisanelsonrd.com
Midlife Weight Loss Reduces Heart Disease Risk
You are at greater risk of heart disease if you were overweight as a teen, compared to those who gained weight later in life. However, it was never clarified if this was because overweight teens become overweight adults OR does being overweight during your teen years cause irreversible damage.
Good news has come out of recent research published in The Archives of Internal Medicine that indicates losing weight mid-life can reduce heart disease risk if you’ve been overweight since your teens.
This research was conducted by Harvard Medial School reviewing data on 19,000 Harvard alumni who entered their freshman year of school between 1916 and 1950. Follow up on these individuals occurred over 82 years and evaluated at habits, heart disease, body mass indexes.
Study results found the heaviest students were most likely to become overweight adults. Obese freshmen men had almost double the risk of dying from heart disease later in life compared to those of normal weight during their college years. Freshmen men who were overweight their freshmen year also had a substantially increased risk of dying from a heart disease.
The good news came when researchers factored in middle age and any change in weight at that time. Men who began college overweight or obese, but lost weight and were considered normal weight in middle age no longer had an increased risk of dying from heart disease.
Does Vitamin D Deficiency Increase Cardiovascular Risk?
Vitamin D deficiency is fairly common. Vitamin D is not actually a vitamin, but a hormone the body produces from sunlight.
According to a review of existing research there is evidence low vitamin D levels impact cardiovascular disease risk, specifically blood pressure, insulin resistance, and coronary artery disease. The review of around 75 mostly observational studies was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Whether or not taking supplemental vitamin D will reduce cardiovascular risks or how much is needed to be effective is still to be determined. We now need more randomized control research studies to examine the impact of high dose Vitamin D supplementation to weigh the pros against the cons.
Daily Vitamin D Recommendation
Heart Fat – Is the fat around your heart increasing your heart disease risk?
You are probably familiar with the fact that an ‘apple’ body shape puts you at greater risk for heart disease. A new study published August 16th in the online edition of the journal of Radiology has found the fat around your heart may be an even stronger predicator of heart disease risk.
What is heart fat?
Heart fat, or pericardial fat, is hidden behind the rib cage in a pericardial cavity. It appears that pericardial fat releases proinflammatory markers which promote irregular build-up of plaque along coronary artery walls. This plaque build-up leads to atherosclerosis which can result in a heart attack.
Pericardial fat volume is linked to being overweight or obese. The more excess fat you carry, the greater your risk of having high levels of pericardial fat.
The 183 participants of this study were from the community-based Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). All participants were symptom free, meaning they did not show or experience symptoms of heart disease, but the majority of participants were overweight.
How is heart fat linked to heart disease?
Walking for Heart Health Benefits
Do you understand the importance of being regularly active to promote heart health? However, you know this and still remain sedentary? Is this because the thought of exercise makes you think of a gym membership, spandex, and everyone watching you try to use equipment you have no idea how to work? Well, here’s an alternative.
Simply taking a daily walk has many benefits without the risk of embarrassment.
Benefits of Walking Daily
- Decreases risk of heart disease or stroke.
- Lowers LDL cholesterol
- Increases HDL cholesterol
- Reduces blood pressure
- Increases daily calories burned (weight management)
- Decreases risk of colon cancer and diabetes (may protect against breast cancer)
- Decreases joint swelling and pain from arthritis
- Improves mood
- Improves stress management
- More energy
- Improves self-esteem
- Improves sleep quality
How Long of a Walk
