Top Tips for Preventing Heart Disease

Heart disease is still the number one killer and the irony is there are several things you can do to help prevent heart disease without having to rely on expensive prescriptions.  While cancer is the disease people fear the most, we should be looking at some basic things we can do to help reduce our risks of developing heart disease.

Here is a list of several top tips to help you reduce your heart disease risks and help you live a longer and healthier life.

Eat More Fats

The first tip is surprising because in the past it was thought that this was the main cause of heart disease.  This tip is to eat more fats – yes, I said more fats, and this flies in the face of the mantra of years ago of eating a very low fat diet.  For decades it was thought that fats, especially saturated fats, were the cause of heart disease and people should avoid most fats.

Recent studies have shown that low fat diets were not helping against heart disease and we need fats in our diet – but we need healthy fats that our body uses to function more efficiently.  These healthy fats include monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, and some saturated fats like coconut oil.

Other healthy fats include olive oil, flaxseed oil, and oils from certain fish.  Including these fats will help reduce your risk of heart disease and certain cancers.

Recent studies have proven that people who incorporate certain fats in their diet have a reduced risk of developing heart disease.

Fats that should be used in moderation are animal fats.  Fats that should be completely avoided are trans fats, which scientists now believe were one of the main culprits of the rise in heart disease in the last 40 years.   These are the fats found in margarine and artificially processed oils.

So avoid trans fats and start consuming more healthy fats.

Take a Low Doses Aspirin Daily

This amazing pain reliever can help keep you from dying from a heart attack by preventing a blood clot from forming in your arteries.  Aspirin thins the blood and allows your blood to flow more freely and help avoid the risks of blood clots.

There are some precautions that should be taken, because aspirin can cause bleeding in the stomach, so you should see your doctor before starting adding a daily dose of aspirin to your regimen.

Aspirin is one of the cheapest ways to help you avoid a heart attack and it should be part of your heart health regimen.

Research has even shown that aspirin has the potential to possibly help prevent certain cancers, and help in cognitive function.

CoQ10 and Magnesium

You can also help prevent heart disease, or control it if you already have it, by adding the supplement coenzyme Q10, or CoQ10 to your regimen.  This amazing substance is found in all the cells in your body.  We need it for energy and it turns out, we need it for heart health.

More and more studies have come out showing how proper supplementation with CoQ10 can help your heart function more efficiently,   Many people who already have heart disease, including congestive heart failure, have seen great improvement in heart function by adding CoQ10 to their diet.  Studies have shown that this supplement can do just as much as many prescribed medications for heart disease.

CoQ10  is present in all of your cells and without it your cells would not be able to function optimally and you would not have the energy needed for any activities.  Research has shown just how important this supplement is for energy and heart health.

If you are over the age of 40 you definitely need to start supplementing with CoQ10 because the levels of this substance in your body dramatically decreases as we age.

Adding this supplement is especially important for people taking statin drugs, since these drugs reduce your levels of CoQ10.  Many doctors now prescribe CoQ10 for their patients taking statin drugs.

The dosage you need is at least 100 mg for typical adults, but the dosage should be much higher for people with heart problems or who are taking statin drugs.  This nutrient needs to be taken with fats for better absorption.

There are two types of CoQ10 – ubiquinol and ubiquinone.  Ubiquinone is the most common type of CoQ10 but also the least absorbable.  Ubiquinol is what ubiquinone turns into when it enters the body.  The problem with supplementation of ubiquinol is its instability in capsules.  There are major companies who now claim they have solved this problem and have it stabilized in pill form.

A good idea would be to take doses of both types to get more complete saturation of CoQ10.  This supplement has the studies to show it really can help with heart disease.

Magnesium has shown to be a vital mineral in heart health and surprisingly, a majority of people are deficient in this key mineral.  One of the signs of a magnesium deficiency is muscle spasms and since the heart is a big muscle, it is vital that you keep up your magnesium levels in your body.

You need about 400 to 500 mg a day and magnesium should be taken with calcium, since neither mineral functions well without the other.  There are many types of magnesium, but two of the better ones for optimal absorption are magnesium glycinate and magnesium oxide.

These are just a few ways to keep your heart healthy and avoid future heart problems.  And the price is right.