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by Rico Caveglia

You Gotta Have Heart

The 20^th century saw a massive increase in the number of people suffering and dying from heart disease. Heart disease kills more people than everything else combined. It is currently estimated that approximately 60 million Americans have some form of heart disease, which will cause about one million deaths this year.

The amazing thing is, most of this suffering and death can easily be prevented. Even the medical establishment agrees; heart disease is primarily a lifestyle disease. A lifestyle lacking in good nutrition, proper exercise, relaxation and fulfillment leads to degenerative diseases.

Most everyone is aware of the vital functions our hearts perform on a continuous basis. The heart pumps oxygen and nutrient rich blood throughout our entire body to nourish all of our 60 trillion cells. It will beat approximately 100 thousand times per day and push 2 ounces of blood through 60 thousand miles of arteries, arterioles, veins, venules and capillaries in about one minute. Yes, the heart is truly a remarkable organ, worthy of our appreciation and attention. However almost everyone seems unaware that they are responsible for the health of their heart!

Causes

Many people associate heart problems with the onset of middle age and some even think it’s inevitable by retirement age. We do not have to experience heart problems or declining health as we age. The fact is the vast majority of health problems, including heart disease are due to poor lifestyle habits. In some cases the heart may be defective at birth or sustain damage as a result of an infectious illness. Heart disease primarily is due to the gradual deterioration and blockage of the coronary arteries. This condition has many contributors such as: homocysteine buildup, diabetes, free radical damage, high blood pressure, smoking, toxic chemicals in our environment and food, eating rancid and heated oils, excessive alcohol consumption, the lack of proper exercise, rest, relaxation and diet.

The body repairs damaged arteries by covering the lesions with fibrous placque made up of blood cells, fats and cholesterol. As this placque builds up, it can become calcified, leading to narrowing and hardening of the arteries.

Homocysteine

Research scientists now believe the compound homocysteine is a major cause of blood vessel damage. Homocysteine is a byproduct of normal protein metabolism. If your body is functioning properly and has all the required nutrients, particularly the B complex vitamins with folic acid and B-6, it can change homocysteine back into methionine without any arterial damage.

High Blood Pressure

Approximately 50 million Americans have high blood pressure, which puts them at risk for several potentially fatal and debilitating conditions, including heart attack, cancer, kidney failure and blindness.

Blood pressure is recorded in millimeters of mercury. The top number or systolic pressure measures the pressure of blood at the point where the heart contracts and forces blood into the arteries. The bottom number or diastolic pressure is the pressure when the heart is relaxed between beats. Normal systolic blood pressure is between 110-140. Normal diastolic blood pressure is between 60-90. A higher number of either is said to be high blood pressure.

Cholesterol is a waxy fatty substance that is primarily produced by the body and is essential for a number of important functions. Cholesterol is a contributing factor, but is not the true cause of heart disease. If you have damaged arteries, an excess of cholesterol along with other fats can build up at a lesion and create blockages. Due to all the current mis-information, I want to alert you to the four most common myths about cholesterol.

Myth #4. The lower your cholesterol, the better

Low cholesterol levels (less than 150) are associated with suppressed immune function, depression and increased deaths due to cancer. Over 240 is considered high, however if you are following the guidelines in this report do not concern yourself with your cholesterol level unless it remains around 300 and you have a history of heart disease.

Beware of Oxycholesterols, which are a form of damaged cholesterol found in many convenience foods. When the cholesterol in animal foods is exposed to the oxygen in the air during food processing, dangerous cholesterol oxides are formed. Animal studies showed rapid advancement of arteriosclerosis after the animals were fed foods containing oxycholesterol. Avoid foods containing powdered milk, powdered eggs, or powdered cheeses also avoid most instant foods and frozen entrees.

Triglycerides

Triglycerides are a type of fat in the blood stream that is linked to excessive carbohydrate and alcohol consumption. High levels are a risk factor for both stroke and heart attack as they play a role in blood clotting. Below 150 is desirable. Reduce the risks by balancing protein and complex carbohydrates and by eliminating products containing white flour and refined sugars.

Fibrinogens

These are proteins in the blood that are converted to fibrin, which is needed for blood clotting. High levels of fibrinogens make the blood stickier and may contribute to plaque build up in the blood vessels. This generally occurs from a lack of absorbable vitamin C in the body.

According to Dr. James F. Balch M.D, a typical treatment for high blood pressure is to prescribe diuretics. However they tend to lower magnesium levels and raise cholesterol levels.  Low magnesium levels directly weaken your heart and, of course, high levels of cholesterol can contribute to narrowing of the arteries. So then doctors prescribe cholesterol-lowering drugs, but they reduce the body’s stores of Co-Enzyme Q-10, a necessary nutrient for both the heart and circulatory health. In addition, blood-thinning medication is quite commonly thrown into the mix, but they tend to affect the binding of calcium, which makes your arteries lose their elasticity. Now you have a weakened heart, poor circulation, brittle arteries and low levels of important nutrients, which leads to congestive heart failure as well as atherolscerosis. Not to mention the other common side effects of most medications such as dizziness, nausea, low energy, low sex drive and on and on.  The point here is that prescription drugs almost always have side effects, sometimes serious. Since there are many effective natural alternatives available as well as the lifestyle changes recommended in this report, it seems prudent to give them a try. Drugs and surgery are only an alternative when all else fails. Talk to your doctor about your options. If he or she isn’t interested we suggest looking for a new, more enlightened one who is aware of alternative and integrated medicine.

Diagnosis and Treatment

Diagnosing is where modern medicine shines; it has many ingenious and sophisticated methods for diagnosing heart and circulatory ailments. They range from taking pulses, measuring blood pressure, blood tests, electrocardiograms, acoustic cardiograms and exercise stress tests to invasive and possibly dangerous body scans  (too much radiation), cardiac catherization and coronary angiography.

Treatments are expensive, dangerous and of questionable value. They include drugs, angiogram ($10,000), balloon angioplasty ($15,000), pacemakers ($25,000+), by-pass surgery ($50,000+), valve replacement and transplants. It is also important to be aware that these procedures do not heal the body. They only suppress the symptoms, usually temporarily; they do not treat the cause or help the body back into balance. It is like mending a leaking water pipe when the entire line needs replacing. If you continue to impose high levels of stress upon yourself from lack of love, fulfillment or nutritious food and exercise, the deterioration of your cardiovascular system will continue.

Ratio of total cholesterol to HDL below 4.0, Lipoprotein A below 20.

Homocysteine  ?   Triglycerides below 150, C- reactive protein

The Bottom Line

Heart disease is a lifestyle disease. Without proper attitude, nutrition and exercise, cardiovascular disease and an early death will likely be your fate.  Following the recommendations in this report will give you the best possible opportunity to avoid heart disease and to live a long healthy life.

Your Healthy Heart Program

Dr. Dean Ornish’s Open Your Heart Program has proven that heart disease is a lifestyle disease and can be reversed with proper diet and exercise.  For over 10 years his program of stress reduction, vegetarian diet and moderate exercise has been highly successful in lowering blood pressure, cholesterol and in clearing arteries.

Now, with our breakthrough product, the Heart Studies Formula, it is possible to achieve these results in a much shorter time, by consuming concentrated super nutrients. If you add the following recommendations for stress reduction, diet and exercise, you can obtain very significant results in just 90 days.

The Emotional Component

A cardiologist in Boston once asked his entire ward of patients “Why did you have a heart attack?” To his surprise, 90% of his patients began expressing the emotional stress they were experiencing, such as marital and family problems, unfulfilling careers and unhappy lives. This corresponds to the Book of Metaphysical Causes of Diseases, which lists longstanding serious emotional upsets, lack of joy, rejection of life and belief in strain and pressure as causes of heart problems. Many medical studies have shown the hostility factor to be directly related to increased risk for heart disease.

We now also know that popular sayings such as heartfelt, heartbroken, and coming from the heart can be taken literally. Science has discovered that brain communicator cells are also found in our hearts. The heart is not just a muscle, but also a bundle of thinking, feeling and communicating cells.  So there is conclusive evidence that what you think and feel about your life has a big influence on your health, particularly the health of your heart.

Today’s fast paced, high tech society creates many stresses, both internal and external. We must remember that all stress is a matter of perception. A traffic accident or an argument with the boss might make one person upset and angry for days while another lets it go in minutes. There will always be unpleasant things to deal with in life, such as accidents, rejection, illnesses, financial concerns, etc. There are also many tools and resources for dealing with stressors, such as exercise, yoga, meditation, bio -feedback, counselors, and church groups. These are all effective and worth pursuing, but I think if we are to truly remain peaceful and joyful in this world, we must get to the root causes that allow everyday occurrences to negatively affect our lives.

The real reason some people let outside stresses affect them, is because they are unhappy with their unfulfilling lives. This is due to a lack of awareness as to what is truly important in their life.  We tend to look outside ourselves for recognition and to measure our self-worth.  We judge ourselves based on our experiences, forgetting that we are not our experiences; experiences are just lessons.  If we base our self-esteem and happiness on how much money we make or how popular we are, we will always come up short of our expectations. True fulfillment and happiness comes when we put our priorities towards being the best person we can be and by using our special talents to serve others.

Ask yourself what is really important in your life? Consider the following: peace of mind, self-love, self-respect, high levels of health and energy, living life purposefully, building loving relationships, appreciating and enjoying the natural world. Try practicing the following concepts: Acceptance… accept life as it is, knowing there is a reason for and a lesson in every experience. No expectations…having set ideas on what must be in order for you to be happy can be a needless source of anxiety, fear and disappointment. No judgments…judging causes stress and prevents us from being in the present. Non-Attachment…clinging to the past or to material things creates insecurity. Trust… believe and trust in yourself, you are not less than the universe, you are part of it. Gratitude… be grateful for all that happens, it is part of the balance of nature. Practicing these principles will surely eliminate much of the stress and dis-ease from your life. 

It is important to know that any continuous stress is harmful whether you perceive it as bad or good. If you are constantly working long hours to scramble up the corporate ladder, if you are exercising hard everyday to win a race or if you are over-indulging in anything, even sex, it will wear your body down. Strive for balance in your life. Don’t worry be happy, is the best advice one can get.

The Nutritional Component

Why is nutrition so important? Because your body, including your heart, is built from the raw ingredients that you feed it. Therefore your heart can only be as healthy as the raw materials you feed it.

It is very interesting to note that when you examine the different recommended diets and nutritional programs for most health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer and obesity, they are all basically the same. This tells us that the lack of proper nutrition is the root cause of all diseases. In order to function properly and stay healthy, the body needs approximately 100 nutrients everyday. Continual lack of nutrients causes the body to become increasingly stressed and we begin to experience symptoms. If we ignore these symptoms or cover them up with drugs, our body eventually breaks down and a serious illness occurs. Therefore we can conclude, if we want to stay healthy and avoid a serious illness such as heart disease, we need a balanced, comprehensive, nutritional program.

Nutrition is one of the most confusing subjects. We are inundated daily with information and mis-information about what certain foods, diets and supplements can do for us. Take the weight loss industry for example. The American consumer spends around 50 billion dollars annually on weight loss products. We call it the 5 P phenomenon: pills, powders, packaged food and preposterous promises! Obviously if these potions worked, we would be a nation of slim, healthy people. However obesity is on the rise. It is now estimated that over 60% of Americans are overweight, with 30% considered obese. Obesity is a major risk factor for heart disease. Why is there all this confusion and misleading information? Because unfortunately, our economic system is driven by profit, not compassion.

The answer is actually quite simple, trust your mother. Mother Nature that is. The food that we are meant to eat is the food that is grown in nature, what I call real food. Real food is organic vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, whole grains and some hormone free, healthy animal products. Therefore, if we all would eliminate eating most man made processed foods and ate primarily real food, most of our lifestyle diseases would disappear.  We need to avoid white flour products, any food containing partially hydrogenated oils, refined sugars, and processed meats containing nitrates and nitrites. Eat as much raw food as possible. Cooking destroys many of the nutrients and enzymes needed for proper digestion.

I strongly recommend consulting with a nutritionally oriented doctor, naturopath, or nutritionist to get educated and to work up an eating plan to suit your individual needs. Nothing would be more beneficial for your heart and for your overall health. It is a good investment that will pay dividends all of your life. You can also read my book Real Food Real Fast. It is easy to read and understand, and offers good sound, nutritional information on the what, where, when and how to eat. It also offers a system for preparing nutritious and delicious meals in 12 minutes or less.

The following are some guideline for healthy eating;

The Top 10 Foods for a Healthy Heart

1.      Carrots…high in beta carotene and fiber

2.      Black and green tea…high in flavonoids, reduces oxidation of cholesterol

3.      Garlic…lowers blood pressure and cholesterol

4.      Salmon…rich in omega-3 oils. Lower triglycerides and cholesterol

5.      Broccoli…rich in antioxidants and fiber

6.      Nuts…rich in essential fatty acids and Vitamin E

7.      Onions…raises HDL cholesterol

8.      Lima beans…good source of folic acid, fiber and potassium

9.      Oat bran…soluble fiber cleans arteries by removing excess cholesterol

10.    Soy foods…vegetable protein

Eating Tips

1.      Eat a diet containing approximately 30% calories from protein, 20% from fat and 50% from carbohydrates

2.      Eat 50% of your calories raw

3.      Eat lean protein from vegetable sources such as soy products, nuts, seeds, whole grains, rice, beans, corn, chlorella and spirulina. Protein from animal sources should primarily come from fish, and some hormone free, organically raised poultry.

4.      Fat should come from fish, avacados, nuts, seeds and olive oil.

5.      Carbohydrates from vegetables (raw & steamed) fruits, whole grains

6.      Consume oils raw; do not heat.

7.      Eat several light meals per day.

8.      Do not eat three hours before sleep

9.      Drink 2-3 qts. of purified water everyday

10.    Eat slowly and chew food well

Nutritional Supplements

Unless you have your own organic garden and have time to prepare all of your meals, it is very difficult to get all the nutrients you need on a daily basis. Whole food supplementation is an important part of a healthy diet.

Important nutrients for cardiovascular health include: Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Beta carotenes, Co-Enzyme Q-10, Magnesium, Calcium, Selenium, L-Carnitine, Pycnogenol, Vitamins B-6, B-12, Folic acid, Lecithin, Omega 3 fatty acids.  These nutrients and much more are found in our Heart Studies Formula and in our daily multiple formula Iridesa.

The Exercise Component

Did you ever ask yourself why you have a body? The answer is so you can move your brain from place to place and do what you need to do.  We also have a body so we can enjoy the physical experience of moving and doing things like dancing, swimming, walking, playing sports, having sex etc. The only undesirable aspect of aging is that you allow your body to become weak and stiff from lack of exercise. If you do not want to be limited as to where you can go or to what you can do, you had best build and maintain a fit strong body. Everyone does not have be super fit or be a competitive athlete, but everyone needs to be able to physically accomplish whatever is important to them. The key is to match your fitness level with your desired lifestyle.

Fitness is a key component of good health. Our bodies require a certain amount of daily exercise to function optimally and to maintain strength and flexibility. Your heart is a muscle that works hard for you all of your life. Consistent aerobic exercise will strengthen the heart muscle allowing it to pump the same amount of blood with fewer beats. This is the training effect. This is why a fit individual has a lower pulse rate than an unfit person and can sustain aerobic activity longer without becoming fatigued.

How much exercise is enough?

It does depend on your desired level of fitness. However, for basic heart health your body requires some form of moderate aerobic exercise daily. There are many reasons why I recommend daily aerobic activity. The most important reason is to establish exercise as a way of life. Exercise should be a daily priority just like brushing your teeth. If you want healthy, clean teeth you brush daily. If you want a healthy heart and all the other many benefits, exercise daily. Walking is the best all around aerobic exercise. It is easy to do anytime, any place and only requires a good pair of supportive shoes.  Establish the habit of fitness walking daily. Begin with whatever you are capable of and work up to 30-60 minutes. Once you have acquired a certain level of fitness, you should vary your walks by going faster, farther or up hills on different days. If you enjoy other forms of aerobic activity such as, swimming, jogging, bicycling, dancing and rebounding, definitely include them in your program. The best way to get started on the right track is to consult with an experienced personal fitness trainer It will be time and money well spent. A good trainer can develop a safe, effective and fun program that suits your individual needs. It would also be very helpful to read my new report and e-book Real Fit Real Fast.

Healing

If you have been diagnosed with any type of heart problem, please remember only you (your body) can heal yourself. Medical interventions, drugs and surgery, only temporarily alleviate the symptoms. The cause and damage remains. True healing can only take place when you begin to change your beliefs, thoughts and actions. Meditation, visualization and prayer also have been proven to speed up the healing process. Please read my book Ageless Living for a complete guide on how to develop a total mind/body health and longevity program.

Conclusion

We all share the desire to experience a productive, fulfilling and joyful life. In order to be as successful as we can be, at everything in life, we need to have a high level of energy, stay healthy and avoid serious diseases. If you would like to improve both the quality and quantity of your life, the single most important thing you can do is to protect and rejuvenate your heart. If you have already been diagnosed with a heart problem or feel you have been neglecting your health and are at risk, you should begin implementing the healthy heart recommendations immediately. Each of us is responsible for our own health and our own life. Being responsible is being powerful. I urge you to live powerfully and create the healthy life you desire and deserve. It is my sincere belief and hope that the information presented in this guide will be of great assistance to you in that quest.