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Our current thinking about how to treat and prevent heart disease is, at best, misguided and, at worst, harmful. We believe we are treating the causes of heart disease by lowering cholesterol, lowering blood pressure and lowering blood sugar with medication. However, preventing heart disease has very little to do with simply lowering cholesterol with statin drugs. But the real question is what causes high cholesterol, high blood pressure and high blood sugar in the first place.[i] It is certainly not a medication deficiency!
If you say your genes are responsible, you are mostly wrong. It is the environment working on your genes that determines your risk. In other words, it is the way you eat, how much you exercise, how you deal with stress and the effects of environmental toxins[ii] that are the underlying causes of high cholesterol, high blood pressure and high blood sugar. That is what determines your risk of heart disease, not a lack of medication.
The research clearly shows that changing how we live is a much more powerful intervention for preventing heart disease than any medication. The “EPIC” study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine studied 23,000 people’s adherence to 4 simple behaviors (not smoking, exercising 3.5 hours a week, eating a healthy diet (fruits, vegetables, beans, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and limited amounts of meat) and maintaining a healthy weight (BMI <30)). In those adhering to these behaviors, 93 percent of diabetes, 81 percent of heart attacks, 50 percent of strokes and 36 percent of all cancers were prevented.[iii]
And the INTERHEART study, published in The Lancet in 2004, followed 30,000 people and found that changing lifestyle could prevent at least 90 percent of all heart disease.[iv]
These studies are among a large evidence base documenting how lifestyle intervention is often more effective in reducing cardiovascular disease, hypertension, heart failure, stroke, cancer, diabetes and death from all causes than almost any other medical intervention.[v] It is because lifestyle doesn’t only reduce risk factors such as high blood pressure, blood sugar or cholesterol. Our lifestyle and environment influence the fundamental causes and biological mechanisms leading to disease: changes in gene expression, which modulate inflammation, oxidative stress and metabolic dysfunction. Those are the real reasons we are sick.
The good news is that fixing the problem at its root creates creates resistance to most chronic disease. And, it makes you feel more alive, healthy and has no side effects.
Disregarding the underlying causes and treating only risk factors is somewhat like mopping up the floor around an overflowing sink instead of turning off the faucet, which is why medications usually have to be taken for a lifetime. When the underlying lifestyle causes are addressed, patients are often able to stop taking medication and avoid surgery (under their doctor’s supervision, of course).
Now I am going to tell you how to lower your heart disease risk as well as your cholesterol using a comprehensive dietary and lifestyle approach.
Dietary Recommendations to Help Prevent Cardiovascular Disease
The first step in preventing heart disease is to eat a healthy diet. Increase your consumption of whole foods rich in phytonutrients, plant molecules that give your body the nutrients it needs. Here are some practical tips:
- To avoid the blood sugar imbalances that increase your risk for heart disease, eat protein with every meal, even at breakfast. This will help you to avoid sudden increases in your blood sugar.
- Use lean animal protein like fish, turkey, chicken, lean cuts of lamb and even vegetable protein such as nuts, beans, and tofu.
- Combine protein, fat and carbohydrates in every meal. Never eat carbohydrates alone.
- For the same reasons, avoid white flour and sugar.
- Eat high-fiber foods, ideally at least 50 grams per day. Beans, whole grains, vegetables, nuts, seeds and fruit all contain beneficial fiber.
- Avoid all processed junk food, including sodas, juices and diet drinks, which impact sugar and lipid metabolism. Liquid sugar calories are the biggest contributors to obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
- Increase omega-3 fatty acids by eating cold-water wild salmon, sardines, herring, flaxseeds and even seaweed.
- Reduce saturated fat and use more grass-fed or organic beef or animal products, which contain less saturated fat.
- Eliminate all hydrogenated fat, which is found in margarine, shortening and processed oils, as well as many baked goods and processed foods.
- Instead use healthy oils, such as olive (especially extra virgin olive oil), cold pressed sesame and other nut oils.
- Avoid or reduce alcohol, which can increase triglycerides and fat in the liver and create blood sugar imbalances.
- Don’t allow yourself to get hungry. Graze -- don’t gorge -- by eating every three to four hours to keep your insulin and blood sugar normal.
- Try not to eat three hours before bed.
- Have a good protein breakfast every day. You can start with a protein shake or eggs. Some suppliers offer omega-3 eggs, which are ideal.
- Include flaxseeds by using two to four tablespoons of ground flaxseeds every day in your food. This can lower cholesterol by 18 percent. Flax is tasty in shakes or sprinkled on salads or whole grain cereal.
- Drink green tea, which can help lower cholesterol.
- Use soy foods such as soymilk, edamame, soy nuts, tempeh and tofu, which can help lower cholesterol by 10 percent.
Supplements Can Help Reduce Your Risk
Supplements are important. Along with a healthy diet and exercise program, they can dramatically affect your risk of cardiovascular disease. Combining these together can have the greatest impact on your cholesterol.
Here are the supplements I have found most useful in my practice to lower cholesterol and even prevent and reverse heart disease:
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Everyone must take a good multivitamin and mineral, as well as a purified fish oil supplement that contains 1,000 to 2,000 grams a day of EPA/DHA. More may be necessary for those with low HDL and high triglycerides.[vii]
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Red rice yeast (two 600-mg capsules twice a day), which is another powerful cholesterol-lowering herbal formula.[viii]
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Plant sterols (beta-sitosterol and others) can help lower cholesterol. Take two grams a day.
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Try policosanol (10 mg to 20 mg twice a day), which is from sugarcane wax and can help lower cholesterol.[ix]
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A soy protein isolate shake can be helpful in lowering cholesterol by about 10 percent.
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Fiber supplements such as WellbetX PGX (Konjac fiber or gluccomanan) -- four before each meal with a glass of water -- can both lower cholesterol and balance blood sugar metabolism.[x]
There are other suggestions and therapies, but these will work for most people. Working with a doctor specializing in nutritional therapy can help sort out questions or difficulties that arise.
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