Scottish Institute of Reflexology

HEALTHY DIET, HEALTHY HEART

It is a sobering fact to think that you and I have a fifty per cent chance of dying from heart disease (1). This disease, which is now endemic, and is more life threatening than AIDS, is almost taken for granted.  How many people do you know who are suffering from hypertension and take prescribed statins or betablockers but do nothing to alter their lifestyle or diet? The disease often then follows the path of prescription medicines being taken for angina attacks until actual blockages in the arteries result in a cerebro-vascular accident or coronary thrombosis. Heart bypass surgery is now considered routine in western countries even allowing for the risk involved and the fact that it is only a temporary measure which may need to be repeated within ten years.

Much research has been done to discover the causes of cardiovascular disease, some giving conflicting results. Remember how we all ate low fat spreads for a while, thinking that they were better for us that the animal fat contained in butter? Now, of course, it is recognised that a little unadulterated butter is better than poisoning our bodies with man made hydrogenated fat. There are, however, some simple guidelines, using tried and tested research, which can prevent and even reverse heart disease (2):

Sheila Peaston M.S.I.R.

1 The Optimum Nutrition Bible by Patrick Holford
2 Ornish D, Brown SE Scherwitz LW, et al. “Can lifestyle changes reverse coronary heart disease? Lancet 1990
Foods that Fight Pain by Neal Barnard M.D.

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