Cardiovascular Health

Helping to prevent congestive heart failure

by Michael T. Sapko M.D.,  Ph.D.

Cardiovascular health is absolutely critical to life and overall health and wellbeing. The cardiovascular system is responsible for transporting blood through blood vessels to every tissue in the body. Our organs need a constant supply of blood to deliver oxygen and nutrients so that they can function properly. Without a constant, rich, and steady blood supply an organ can become unhealthy and even fail.

Why is cardiovascular health important?

Well, for starters, the World Health Organization estimates that over 15 million people die each year of cardiovascular disease each year around the world. If this was being caused by a virus or bacteria, there would be worldwide panic. Should we not give nearly as much attention to a disease that is mostly preventable?

What are cardiovascular diseases?

A cardiovascular disease is any disease that affects the heart or blood vessels. Therefore coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, peripheral artery disease, rheumatic heart disease, congenital heart disease and congestive heart failure are all cardiovascular diseases. Cardiovascular disease can cause several serious events including heart attack and stroke (brain attack).

How do we keep our cardiovascular system healthy?

Well, it turns out that cardiovascular health is achieved and maintained by doing (or not doing) several different things. While that may seem like a lot of work, it also means that there are many ways to improve your life right now. Perhaps the easiest place to start is by identifying the things that lead to cardiovascular disease.

The things that interfere with cardiovascular health

Tobacco use

Smoking is wrong for so many reasons. When it comes to cardiovascular disease, tobacco use is introduces a hundreds of chemicals into the blood stream. In addition to their cancer causing action, these poisons are directly responsible for blood vessel and cardiovascular disease. Smoking increases blood pressure, decreases a person’s ability to exercise, and increases the tendency for the blood to clot. Increased blood pressure is the single biggest risk factor for stroke and blood clots are what cause heart attack and stroke. Exercise is critical to cardiovascular health (as we will discuss) and anything that makes exercise more difficult needs to be avoided. The toxins in tobacco contribute to atherosclerosis—the primary disease of blood vessels. Cigarette smoking lowers HDL (good cholesterol) and dramatically raises the risk of cardiovascular disease.

The US Surgeon General has declared cigarette smoking “the leading preventable cause of disease and deaths in the United States.” There are so many risk factors for cardiovascular disease that we cannot change, like our genetics that we should try to prevent all of those that we can.

For those that do not smoke, this concept is taken for granted and the act of smoking is reviled. For people that do smoke, however, the notion that smoking directly causes so many diseases falls on deaf ears. Public health initiatives have done an excellent job of getting the word out about smoking, no doubt. But why do smokers still smoke? Smoking cessation is hard. Nicotine is addictive and the act of smoking itself is associated with a good deal of psychological conditioning. Physicians and psychologists have developed several different (and successful) strategies for smoking cessation. If you smoke, you need to access one of those programs but, above all, you must want to quit.

Physical inactivity

An “independent risk factor” is a risk factor that, when everything else is the same, increases the risk of disease. Physical inactivity is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. For example, if you enrolled a large number of volunteers at random to exercise three to five times a week and the other half to just sit around, you would find after a certain period of time that cardiovascular health was better in the group that exercised. Because the group is so large and assigned at random, genetics, diet and other factors are averaged out between the two groups. This is not theoretical, but has been shown time and again in prospective, clinical studies¹. In fact, as little as 30 minutes of sustained cardiovascular activity can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Unhealthy diet

The things that we eat can cause cardiovascular disease and, alternatively the things that we eat can provide and sustain cardiovascular health. In general, foods that lead to the formation of LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglycerides cause cardiovascular disease. Also, foods that cause rapid and large fluctuations in blood sugar and insulin can eventually lead to type 2 diabetes mellitus. Type 2 diabetes can wreak havoc on the cardiovascular system.

Trans fats are particularly bad for the blood vessels. Trans fats are present in cakes and cookies and, while they are tasty, provide no critical nutritional value. In fact, They are so devoid of nutritional value and so directly lead to cardiovascular disease that many health organizations are advocating their removal from the diet altogether.

While we need a certain amount of saturated fats in our diet, most Westerners and ever increasing numbers of people from Eastern cultures get much more saturated fats than we need. These saturated fats are taken up by the liver and converted to LDL (bad) cholesterol.

High fructose corn syrup is in so many of the foods that we eat. It is much sweeter than sugar and is much cheaper than pure sugar. Most people know that sodas are flavored with high fructose corn syrup but they may not know that this sweetening agent is present in a tremendous number of foods that we eat. Many people have a general sense that high fructose corn syrup is not healthy but do not know exactly why. The corn growers of America have capitalized on this misunderstanding by launching a pro-corn syrup television advertisement campaign. One character asks the other why high fructose corn syrup is bad to eat and the other character cannot answer. The implication is that high fructose corn syrup is healthy because no one can answer why it is bad.

The truth is that research is conflicted on this subject and the true clinical studies that answer this question are yet to be done. However, if anyone asks you why high fructose corn syrup is bad for you, this is what you can tell them: High fructose corn syrup is a highly lipogenic nutrient² which means that it leads to the formation of triglycerides. It also has been linked to insulin resistance which is the first step towards type 2 diabetes. On another level, by eating high fructose corn syrup we train our palates to desire highly sweetened foods and increase cravings for these. We are no longer satisfied by slightly less sweet forms of sugar and seek out these calorie-dense, nutrient-poor food sources.

The role of salt in hypertension (high blood pressure) has been shown in over 50 randomized clinical trials³. The more sodium chloride that you eat, the higher your blood pressure will become. Most people get way too much sodium in their diets, mostly because there is a heavy reliance on processed and pre-packaged foods. Adding too much salt at the table contributes to the problem, too.

Being overweight

Carrying around excess weight can interfere with cardiovascular health, especially weight in the torso. When the heart must pump blood to all of the excess fat tissue in someone that is obese, it taxes the heart considerably. Blood pressure is increased throughout the body and the heart enlarges to compensate. Also, weight in the torso is not only the weight that you can pinch on your belly, but it is also a sign that there is deep fat, underneath the fascia of the torso. This fat cannot be sucked out through liposuction and its presence is directly linked to cardiovascular disease.

The things that promote cardiovascular health

Now that we have described the things that can create disease, several ways to promote cardiovascular health are immediately obvious. Still others, as we will mention, may not be apparent.

If you smoke, stop. You can undo some of the damage caused by cigarette smoking and the sooner you quit, the sooner the healing can begin. Take advantage of the various smoking cessation programs that are available. If you think you have tried everything and nothing works—you haven’t tried them all and if you have, you did not put forward the full effort required to quit. No one said it was easy, but it is by far the best decision you can make if cardiovascular health is important to you.

The most common reason cited that people do not exercise is that they do not have enough time. This is particularly difficult to imagine when, as mentioned previously, that as little of 30 minutes of brisk walking per day can improve cardiovascular health. Most people spend at least this much time watching television each day. You could be walking on a treadmill while you are watching TV. Everyone has 30 minutes a day to devote to cardiovascular health. The real issue is setting aside the time to do it. Again, if cardiovascular health is important to you, walking each day is really all that you need to do. Are you the type of person that likes a bit more exercise? Aerobic exercise several times a week can raise HDL (good) cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, improve glucose sensitivity (good for preventing type 2 diabetes) and promote weight loss. Being physically fit is one of your best ways to promote cardiovascular health.

Five foods to promote cardiovascular health

We all know there should avoid certain like those loaded with saturated and trans fats; however, many people do not realize that there are also several types of food that can actually enhance cardiovascular health. That is right. You can eat your way to good cholesterol (as long as you are focusing on the other healthy behaviors). If we want to keep our hearts and blood vessels healthy (and everyone should) then we need to know the levels of different types of cholesterol in the blood and keep each of them in a healthy range.

Scientists have identified certain foods that can raise HDL (good) cholesterol without raising LDL very much⁴. These good cholesterol foods, as they are sometimes called, are not necessarily exotic or hard to find, but they do require patients to read nutrition labels and to become educated consumers.

The first set of good cholesterol foods are actually fats themselves, but very specific forms of fat. It has been documented that populations that consume diets high in polyunsaturated fats and oils have relatively high HDL (good cholesterol) levels. Polyunsaturated fats are found in cold-water fish and certain shellfish and in some oils such as flaxseed, canola, walnut and soybean oils. When eaten in moderation, these fats and oils can tip the scales from LDL production to HDL production. However, these good cholesterol foods have their biggest affect on HDL cholesterol when triglycerides are kept low. Omega-3 fatty acids such as eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid work to reduce triglyceride levels and also help raise HDL. Thus omega-3 fatty acids can be considered good cholesterol foods. They are found in the fat from certain fish or in capsular form from oils derived from fatty fish.

Good cholesterol foods can be found in many places, if you read nutrition labels. For any given food, compare the types of fats. Avoid foods that are high in saturated fats when possible. If two manufacturers provide similar products but one has a higher percentage of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat than saturated fat, choose that product. Avoid trans fats completely because these are not good cholesterol foods.

Another good cholesterol food remains fairly controversial despite overwhelming evidence of its beneficial effect. Alcohol, when consumed in small amounts, is actually a good cholesterol food. People with low HDL can improve their good cholesterol levels by drinking one to two alcoholic beverages a day, of any type. However, it is very easy to turn alcohol from a good cholesterol food into a bad cholesterol food if one overindulges. Also, alcoholism can be a devastating disease so the use of alcohol, for any purpose, needs to be done with appropriate caution.

Get cardiovascular health checks regularly

You need a healthy cardiovascular system every day of your life. If you do not keep your cardiovascular system healthy, it has the chilling reputation of letting you know in a dramatic fashion, such as through a heart attack or stroke. Have your blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels checked regularly by a physician and keep these values within healthy limits. If you are particularly interested in your blood vessels, ask your physician (if it is appropriate for you) to send you for a “calcium score” test. This special CT scan uses X-rays to look for calcium deposition in the skin. The lower that your calcium score is, the lower the degree of atherosclerosis and the better your cardiovascular health.

Cardiovascular Health References

1. Bassuk SS, Manson JE (2003) Physical activity and the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Curr Atheroscler Rep 5(4):299-307.

2. Basciano H, Federico L, Adeli K. (2005) Fructose, insulin resistance, and metabolic dyslipidemia. Nutr Metab (Lond) 2(1):5.

3. Appel LJ, Brands MW, Daniels SR, Karanja N, Elmer PJ, Sacks FM; American Heart Association. (2006) Dietary approaches to prevent and treat hypertension: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Hypertension 47(2):296-308.

4. Kapur, NK, Dominique Ashen, D, and Blumenthal, RS (2008) High density lipoprotein cholesterol: an evolving target of therapy in the management of cardiovascular disease. Vascular Health and Risk Management 4(1):39–57.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Michael T. Spako is an M.D. who specializes in medical writing. I am pleased to have him as the principal writer for this congestive heart failure site, and look forward to his further contributions. Donald Urquhart, Psychologist, Editor.

If you want to come back to www.HeartFailureCongestive.com again, please add HeartFailureCongestive.com to your bookmarks or favorites now, otherwise you'll forget like everyone does! Please also remember,www.HeartFailureCongestive.com, like all our web sites, is an educational one. HeartFailureCongestive.com is NOT designed to diagnose nor treat but to offer understanding, ideas and options for you to discuss with your doctor. Our Privacy Policy can be found at www.cholesterolcholestrol.com/privacypolicy.htm Copyright © 2000-present Donald Urquhart. All Rights Reserved. Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners. Use of HeartFailureCongestive.com constitutes acceptance of our legal disclaimer.