|Heart Health -- Summary (UPDATED)

I recently posted two collections of resources on healthy hearts:

• Excercise
• Diet

I also asked some people for their thoughts, and this is what they shared. First, a comedian, I mean, physician wrote:

So the heart is an incredibly important organ. Actually so important that without it working, the average person would die. This may be able to be proved in studies, the NIH is still considering funding for this kind of groundbreaking research.

As you have demonstrated, there are many voices giving recommendations on what is heart healthy. Very little can be proved or disproved. I do find it fairly compelling that a Mediterranean style of eating is associated with a lower risk of heart disease (nonstarchy veges, olives/olive oil, avacado, legumes, almonds, etc). 

I agree with exercise being important. The hardest issue for most people is just doing it. I recommend at least 30-35 minutes a day, if it can be done together for a sustained heart rate effect, all the better.

My reading of, The China Study, would lead me to suggest that animal-based proteins, such as in eggs, milk, cheese, or delicious meat, may be more problematic than the cholesterol content. This may especially be true for cancer promotion.

What you feed your heart is important, but of course ultimately the most important is Who lives in your "heart." A merry heart is good medicine. No matter how many years your heart beats on earth, your "heart" can be filled with His Spirit. 

Exercise--yes. Eat heart-healthy foods--yes. Sleep 7.5 hours a night--yes. Laugh--yes. Lose weight if needed--yes. Trust in God--yes.

 A family member shared:

I purchased an ebook on walking. They said there is not a lot of difference in health between walking 30 or 60 minutes, six days a week, but a huge difference between none and 30.... The best straight supplement for the heart, most say, is Co-Q10.... Also, turmeric and vitamin k-2 are both for helping the blood system. Turmeric prevents (among many other things) atheroschlerosis and k-2 takes the calcium from the blood vessels and redeposits it in the bones where it belongs.

A medically-trained individual recommended these two films:

• Neal Barnard, "Kickstart Your Health."
• Michael Greger, "Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death." [notice the differences between his findings and what I posted on the "eggs" page. this is a good example of the various findings that confuse non-scientists/non-nutritionists like me.]

A PA (physician's assistant) shared:

A good book is "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease" by Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr. MD. His ideas are slowly catching on, but many consider him possibly too extreme. I doubt it, but, maybe a little in my estimation.

And a compatriot recommended Dr. Joel Fuhrman.

I also value Michael Pollan's advice: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

And I've appreciated most of these (and hope to see the others soon) that cover personal, community and planetary health:

• Forks Over Knives
• Hungry for Change
• Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead
• May I Be Frank?
• Dirt!
• Fed Up!
• Food, Inc.
• Food Matters
• The Future of Food
• The Garden
• How to Save the World
• King Corn
• The Real Dirt on Farmer John 

I originally watched them with a general interest in health. Now I want to watch them again with a bit more urgency.

This TED Talk by Dan Buettner also has wisdom--How To Live To Be 100+. More on Blue Zones here.

BONUS:

• Portlandia: Pasta addiction (from the episode Winter in Portlandia)
• Portlandia: Shopping bags
• Portlandia: Chicken dinner