Tips for Healthy Heart & Cholesterol Reducing Foods

 

Cholesterol is a contributing factor for heart attack. Dietary cholesterol raises blood cholesterol and that high blood cholesterol levels increase your risk for heart disease.

Everyone should have their cholesterol checked regularly.it doesn't matter if you are young/old, female/male, or thin/overweight.

While there are many factors at play (such as family history, stress level, physical activity level, and age), your diet has a tremendous influence on the amount of cholesterol in your blood and more importantly, on your risk for life-threatening diseases.

Below foods help to a great extent in reducing cholestrol

Fruits and Vegetables:

• Blueberries, cranberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries
• Leafy Greens,Broccoli
• Apples, pears, bananas, carrots(raw), grapes, strawberries, citrus fruits
• Beans - kidney beans, Beans, lentils and peas, apples, pears, barley and prunes, Navy and kidney bean, garbanzos, black-eyed peas
• Eggplant(brinjal) and LadysFinger
• Avocados (Butter Fruit)
• Sesame,celery, lettuce, asparagus, spinach, tomatoes, ginger, squash and strawberries.
• Garlic
• Avocados
  
  

Pomegranate juice:

       Like many fruit juices, pomegranate juice contains antioxidants, especially polyphenols. However, pomegranate juice contains antioxidants at higher levels than do other fruit juices. Antioxidants are thought to provide several heart-protecting benefits, including reducing low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or "bad") cholesterol.

Fish and omega-3 fatty acids

       Consume fish varieties like Mackerel, Lake trout , Herring , Sardines, Albacore tuna , Salmon ,Halibut

Oil

• Vegetable oils - Using liquid vegetable oils such as canola, sunflower, safflower, and others in place of butter helps lower LDL.
• Olive oil
• Flaxseed and Flaxseed Oil 

Nuts

Walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, peanuts, pecans, some pine nuts, pistachio nuts. All nuts are high in calories, so a handful will do.

Fiber rich foods

Whole Grains, Oatmeal, oat bran, barley, brown rice

Other things that can help in the fight against cholesterol include drinking plenty of water, exercising as much as possible in a variety of different ways (so that you don't get bored), reducing stress levels and getting plenty of sleep, and keeping in regular contact with your doctor so you can be on top of the situation.

Tips for Healthy Heart

1. Monitor BP level once a year

2. Maintain sugar levels!

3. Check your cholestol levels every year.

4. Reduce intake of fats, sugar and salt.

5. Take more vegetables, fruits , grains, low fat milk

6. Avoid red meat – Goat, cow.

8. Avoid egg yolk. Have only white egg.

9. Use oils with omega 3 fatty acids like flaxseed, walnut, soyabean, gingely  oil.

10. Non veg, coconut oil has saturated fat. Avoid them.

11. Avoid junk food. Avoid smoking and alcohol.

12. Exercise.

  

Consume

• black beans
• salmon, tuna fish
• olive oil
• walnuts
• almonds
• tofu
• sweet potato
• orange
• carrot, beans
• barley
• oats , flax seed
• cherries , blueberries

Share

What killed Ranjan Das, SAP, CEO - Lesser Sleep and Heart Attacks

A month ago, many of us heard about the sad demise of Ranjan Das from Bandra, Mumbai. Ranjan, just 42 years of age, was the CEO of SAP-Indian Subcontinent, the youngest CEO of an MNC in India . He was very active in sports, was a fitness freak and a marathon runner.

Barring stress control, Ranjan Das did everything right: eating proper food, exercising (marathoning!), maintaining proper weight. But he missed getting proper and adequate sleep, minimum 7 hours.
If you are not getting enough sleep (7 hours), you are playing with fire, even if you have low stress.

 
http://connect.in.com/ranjan-das/play-video-boss-day-out-ranjan-das-of-sap-india-229111-807ecfcf1ad966036c289b3ba6c376f2530d7484.html
Here he himself admits that he would love to get more sleep (and that he was not proud of his ability to manage without sleep, contrary to what others extolled).

· Short sleep duration (<5 or 5-6 hours) increased risk for high BP by 350% to 500% compared to those who slept longer than 6 hours per night. Paper published in 2009.
As you know, high BP kills.

· Young people (25-49 years of age) are twice as likely to get high BP if they sleep less. Paper published in 2006.

· Individuals who slept less than 5 hours a night had a 3-fold increased risk of heart attacks . Paper published in 1999.
· Complete and partial lack of sleep increased the blood concentrations of High sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-cRP), the strongest predictor of heart attacks. Even after getting adequate sleep later, the levels stayed high!!

· Just one night of sleep loss increases very toxic substances in body such as Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Tumour Necrosis Factor-Alpha (TNF-alpha) and C-reactive protein (cRP). They increase risks of many medical conditions, including cancer, arthritis and heart disease . Paper published in 2004.

· Sleeping for <=5 hours per night leads to 39% increase in heart disease. Sleeping for <=6 hours per night leads to 18% increase in heart disease. Paper published in 2006.

Ranjan used to make do with 4-5 hours of sleep. This is an earlier interview of Ranjan on NDTV in the program 'Boss' Day Out':

Ideal Sleep 
Sleep is composed of two stages: REM (Rapid Eye Movement) and non-REM. The former helps in mental consolidation while the latter helps in physical repair and rebuilding . During the night, you alternate between REM and non-REM stages 4-5 times.

The earlier part of sleep is mostly non-REM. During that period, your pituitary gland releases growth hormones that repair your body. The latter part of sleep is more and more REM type.
For you to be mentally alert during the day, the latter part of sleep is more important. No wonder when you wake up with an alarm clock after 5-6 hours of sleep , you are mentally irritable throughout the day ( lack of REM sleep ). And if you have slept for less than 5 hours , your body is in a complete physical mess ( lack of non-REM sleep), you are tired throughout the day, moving like a zombie and your immunity is way down

Are you getting Adequate Sleep?

If you want to know if you are getting adequate sleep , take Epworth Sleepiness Test below.

Interpretation : Score of 0-9 is considered normal while 10 and above abnormal. Many a times, I have clocked 21 out the maximum possible 24, the only saving grace being the last situation, since I don’t like to drive (maybe, I should ask my driver to answer that line J )

The Real Reason

It was certainly a wake-up call for corporate India . However, it was even more disastrous for runners amongst us. Since Ranjan was an avid marathoner , the question came as to why an exceptionally active, athletic person succumb to heart attack at 42 years of age.

Finally, as long-distance runners, you need an hour of extra sleep to repair the running related damage.

 

How to Survive Heart Attack When Alone & Warning Signs of Heart Attack...

How to survive heart attack when alone?

A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let-up until help arrives, or until
the heart is felt to be beating normally again.

Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood
circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart
attack victims can get to a hospital. Tell as many other people as possible about this. It could save
their lives!!

What are the warning signs of a heart attack?

According to experts, the body is likely to send out one or more of these warning signals during a heart attack:

• Chest discomfort: Most heart attacks involve uncomfortable pressure, fullness, squeezing or pain in the center of the chest lasting more than a few minutes.
• Discomfort in other areas of the upper body: This includes sudden weakness in your arm/s, shoulder/s, neck, jaw or back. Pain may range from mild to intense.
• Shortness of breath: Gasping or shortness of breath that gets worse when lying flat. It often comes after chest discomfort, but it can also occur before chest discomfort.
• Anxiety: You may feel a sense of imminent doom or have a panic attack for no apparent reason. You may also suffer loss of speech, have trouble talking or understanding speech and experience blurring or loss of vision.
• Light-headedness: You may feel dizzy or like you're about to pass out.
• Sweating: You may suddenly break into a cold sweat.
• Other symptoms include nausea, vomiting, indigestion or unusual/unexplained fatigue.

What are the risk factors that increase chances of a heart attack?

The following conditions increase your chances of suffering a heart attack:

• High blood pressure
• High blood cholesterol
• Obesity
• Stress
• Being physically inactive
• Smoking
• Diabetes (high blood sugar)
• Atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)
• Having a parent with a history of coronary heart disease puts you at a higher heart attack risk, especially if your father had a heart attack before age 55 and/or mother had a heart attack before age 65.

5 bad food habits office-goers must change

5 bad food habits office-goers must change

1. Skipping breakfast

A lot of people leave home with just a cup of tea or coffee and then they wonder why they are always crabby, irritable and low on energy throughout the day.

Skipping this first, most important meal of the day is like starting a car without fuel. Your body is forced to call on its energy reserves and these do not last very long, making you irritable and snappy and lacking in concentration by the middle of the day.

What's more, you will end up eating a lot more servings or calorie-dense foods at lunch, which will cause your sugar levels to go up and then come crashing down, making you feel sluggish and tired.

Solution : A good breakfast does not have to be elaborate; a glass of skimmed milk with 2 handfuls of corn or wheat flakes and a fruit will suffice. For hot breakfast lovers, an egg, two slices of bread and a fruit or a bowl of oatmeal porridge accompanied by a fruit are enough.

காலை உணவு கண்டிப்பா எடுத்துக் கோங்க!

கனடாவிலுள்ள மெமோரியல் யுனிவர்சிட்டியில் நடத்தப்பட்ட ஆராய்ச்சியின் அடிப்படையில் காலை உணவு சாப்பிடுவதால் சுறுசுறுப்பாக வைக்கும் பிளேட்லெட்கள் உடைக்கப்படுவது தடுக்கப்படுவதாக தெரிய வந்துள்ளது. சாப்பிடுவதற்கு நேரம் இல்லை என காரணம் காட்டாமல் முடிந்தவரை பழங்களையாவது உட்கொள்ளுங்கள். சாதாரணமாக அன்னாசி பழமோ, திராட்சைப் பழங்களோ, ஆரஞ்சுப் பழச்சாறோ எடுத்துக் கொண்டால் ரத்தத்தில் கட்டிகள் வருவதும் தவிர்க்கப்பட்டு, மாரடைப்பு வருவதும் தவிர்க்கப்ப்டுகிறது. நல்லன எல்லாம் செய்யும் காலை உணவை ஒருபோதும் தவிர்க்காதீர்கள்!

2. Drinking too much tea/coffee

Sipping constantly can be a tough habit to break. But too much of either tea or coffee can do two things:

 - It may leave you feeling jittery, irritable, dehydrated, and even interrupt your sleep pattern at night so you do not get deep sleep or do not feel rested the next day.

 - If taken with your meals, tea and coffee inhibit the absorption of iron from your food. Your body throws out the nutrient as waste.

Solution : If you cannot cut down on the number of cups, cut down on the size of cups so you drink half the quantity. If you have a choice, opt for water.

3. Not drinking enough water

Most corporate offices are air-conditioned, so we do not really sweat and therefore, do not feel so thirsty. What's more when you are used to drinking water below your requirement, your body adapts and when you do start drinking a little more water, your body treats it as excess -- in fact, initially, the body actually throws it out causing you to run to the toilet every few minutes.

In the long run, not drinking enough water can cause constipation, indigestion, gas, increased hunger pangs, dehydration and can make your skin look dull too.

Solution : Keep a 1 litre bottle of water at your table and aim to finish it before the end of the day. It may take you two to three days to adapt to an increased dose but when you do, you will notice the positive benefits immediately -- better skin, better bowel movements and better control on your hunger pangs.

4. Eating at odd hours

While you cannot be expected to leave in the middle of a meeting because the clock says lunch time, it is definitely possible to try to have a somewhat regular meal timing for the majority of the days in the week.

Having a somewhat fixed meal time helps keep your metabolic rate up and can help prevent gas and acidity, which result from long gaps between meals.

Timely eating will also prevent you from overeating as once your body is used to getting energy at a particular hour, it will stop demanding food at odd hours.

Solution : Try to have a fixed time-frame in which you can have your meal peacefully and finish it in a matter of 15 to 20 minutes.

5. Weekend binging

Most of us put in endless hours during the week eating whatever is available, and then comes the weekend. We go on another binge that we feel we deserve. Hard drinks along with food add to the damage we cause to our health in the long run.

Solution : Try to take some time to relax at the end of each day and don't wait for the weekend to unwind. Take a relaxing massage, watch a movie or a play or read a good book. Eating is not the only way to pamper yourself!

-- The author is a certified personal trainer and nutritionist. She runs Size Wise, a training studio, and also conducts fitness workshops. Besides training with the International Sports Science Association, USA , she has a PG Diploma in nutrition and food technology and writes for a number of publications.

Reference:

http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2007/apr/13food.htm

Basic things which keep us healthy

Answer the phone by LEFT ear

Do not drink coffee TWICE a day

Do not take pills with COOL water

Do not have HUGE meals after 5pm

Reduce the amount of TEA you consume

Reduce the amount of OILY food you consume

Drink more WATER in the morning, less at night

Keep your distance from hand phone CHARGERS

Do not use headphones/earphone for LONG period of time

Best sleeping time is from 10pm at night to 6amin the morning

Do not lie down immediately after taking medicine before sleeping

When battery is down to the LAST grid/bar, do not answer the phone as the radiation is 1000 times