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Managing Your Heart Health: Key Lifestyle Choices

by Jaime Keiller

In this blog, you will learn how to support your heart health and gain an understanding of the connection between optimal nutrition, self-care and managing your cardiometabolic and heart health.‡

Having a Heart to Heart

We do a lot of juggling these days to keep ourselves and our families healthy and happy. Our work obligations command our attention, causing us to hyperextend our days. These day-to-day tasks and the stressors to perform well and meet deadlines may have an impact on our heart health. It’s time we have a good heart-to-heart and see what we can do to take control of better managing our heart health.

Current CDC data suggests that the majority of Americans may directly benefit from lifestyle changes in multiple health categories, including cardiovascular health.1 This may be a call for you to discover ways to better manage your intake and lifestyle to support your heart health and overall wellness.

 Here are a few ways that we can improve what we do and start to focus on promoting our heart health.

What to Know: 

  • Know Your Risks: Having regular visits with your healthcare practitioner or specialists, like your cardiologist or endocrinologist, allows you and your health team to support and manage your health plan. Setting goals and implementing the recommendations that your healthcare practitioner makes is priority for managing your heart health. 
  • Know Your Numbers: Sometimes we “hear” our labs or test results when delivered by our healthcare practitioner at a visit, but by the time we leave; we haven’t a clue on what was said. Setting up access to your health portal is so important. Here you can take a look at the diagnostic tests and see your test results. You can even call your healthcare practitioner to discuss what questions or concerns you may have. Looking at previous test results will also help you ‘follow’ along and give you a little insight to see if you are making progress with your heart health! 
  • Know Where to Look: Seek out credible resources. Though everyone is on their own heart health journey, we can all benefit from becoming familiar with the standard guidelines that are set by institutions like the American Heart Association (AHA) or the American Diabetes Association  to name a few. These organizations help us understand current recommendations, numbers and plans for improving our overall health. 
  • Know the plan: Managing your health is a partnership between you and your healthcare practitioner. If you have questions, ask. If you are uncertain, talk to your healthcare practitioner about what you want to know and make sure you understand. Understanding your health plan and taking an interest in following your regimen will empower you to continue to make healthy choices that best support your heart health. Discuss adding supplements to your regimen, like our O.N.E. Omega and Resveratrol EXTRA  to support cardiovascular health.‡ But keep in mind that heart health is influenced by many diet and lifestyle factors, so a comprehensive approach is recommended.‡ 

Recalibrate: Eat Well, Be Well  

Whether you are just starting on your journey or refocusing on ways that will lead to a heart healthy way of living, you may want to check in with yourself throughout the day. Building heart healthy habits take practice and repetition. 

One of the very first steps you can take involves an assessment of your intake. If you self-reflect and find yourself eating too many highly-processed foods or eating out of boredom or stress or note that your portions are oversized, then you may see this an opportunity to make some modifications. 

You may even want to talk to your healthcare practitioner about ways to help lessen appetite and curb excessive carbohydrate intake by supporting neurotransmitters involved in appetite and mood with CarbCrave Complex.‡

If you are looking for some heart heathy guidelines, then check out the DASH Eating Plan. This reasonable, non-restricted dietary approach encourages: 2

  • Eating plenty of vegetables, fruits and whole grains
  • Choosing fat-free or low-fat dairy products, fish, poultry, beans, nuts and vegetable oils
  • Limiting saturated and trans-fat intake, such as fatty meats and full-fat dairy products
  • Limiting drinks and foods that contain added sugars
  • Restricting sodium intake to less than 2,300 milligrams per day — ideally 1,500 mg daily
  • Increasing consumption of potassium, magnesium and calcium

Supplementing Your Diet

Minerals:
Ensure an adequate intake of potassium and magnesium, which play important roles in heart health.‡ 

Vitamins:
Vitamin K2 helps to maintain arterial blood flow and vascular elasticity by balancing calcium levels in the blood vessel wall.‡  EmulsiSorb K2/D3 liquid offers a combination of micellized vitamin K2 and Vitamin D3 produced in a unique emulsification process while enhancing bioavailability for optimal absorption. Vitamin K2 (menaquinone-7) promotes healthy vascular calcium balance and cardiovascular function.‡

Antioxidants:
Coenzyme Q, also known as ubiquinone or CoQ10, supports energy production in tissues with high energy demands such as the heart muscle.3   It also acts as an antioxidant, providing cellular protection from free radicals.4 ‡

Cardiometabolic Health 

Improving your body composition with diet and other lifestyle changes like physical activity and stress management is important for heart health.  To support healthy weight management,† consider Adipolean II .‡

  • Adipolean II is formulated with a clinically researched LOWAT® blend of Ayurvedic herbal extracts that are combined with Oligonol®, a lychee fruit and green tea complex containing polyphenols.
  • Research indicates that both LOWAT® and Oligonol® help maintain healthy adiponectin expression, offering support for healthy insulin function, glucose uptake and fat utilization.6‡
  • Also, research indicates that LOWAT® targets fat breakdown and helps maintain healthy weight management†, by promoting adiponectin and moderating production of ghrelin, a hormone associated with appetite.7‡

Another nutrient that supports energy metabolism, healthy blood flow and promotes healthy glucose and protein breakdown and utilization is Niacitol. Niacitol provides inositol nicotinate -- a form of no-flush niacin (vitamin B3) with a history of use in Europe to support cardiovascular health.8‡ 

Other options to discuss with your healthcare practitioner are berberine, resveratrol, chromium and alpha lipoic acid.  Metabolic Xtra provides all 4 of these bioactives.

  • Berberine supports the expression and function of insulin receptors at the cellular level. 9,10  
  • In a randomized, placebo-controlled trial involving 116 subjects, berberine provided statistically significant support for healthy glucose and lipid metabolism.11‡ 
  • Resveratrol has been shown to support cellular metabolism and glucose homeostasis.12,13‡
  • The trace mineral chromium plays an important role in glucose and lipid metabolism by supporting the function of key enzymes.14,15‡
  • Alpha lipoic acid provides support for healthy insulin receptor function and glucose metabolism.16,17‡

Remember:

  • Keep your stress at bay, take a walk or do some Pilates.
  • Be mindful of your dietary intake
  • Keep connected with your healthcare practitioner.
  • Discuss your heart health and options for maintaining health and wellness. Take your multivitamin up a notch with our PureLean Pure Pack, which provides all of the basic essential nutrients, plus additional support for healthy glucose metabolism, lipid utilization and weight management.†‡  
  • If healthy aging, cardiovascular health and healthy liver function are also on your list of top wellness objectives‡ check out our Ultra Pure Pack. ‡

 With great intentions-Purely for you.

  1. Chronic Diseases in America | CDC . Accessed January 3, 2023.
  2. Heart-Healthy Living - Choose Heart-Healthy Foods | NHLBI, NIH. Accessed January 4, 2023.
  3. Soja AM, et al. Mol Aspects Med. 1997;18 Suppl:S159-68
  4. Lee BJ, et al. Nutr J. 2013 Nov 6;12(1):142.
  5. Riva A, et al. Eur J Drug Metab Pharmacokinet. 2019; 44(2): 169–177
  6. Nishihara J, et al. J of Functional Foods. 2009. 1(4); 341-348. [Olignol Compendium]
  7. Nishihara J, et al. Department of Medical Management and Informatics. Japan. [Olignol Compendium]
  8. Ding Y, et al. Clin Nutr. 2015 Oct;34(5):838-44.
  9. Zhang H, et al. Metabolism. 2010 Feb;59(2):285-92.
  10. Yan-xia N, et al. Chin J Integr Med. 1995; 1(2); 91-95.
  11. Zhang Y, et al. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2008 Jul;93(7):2559-65.
  12. Timmers S, et al. Cell Metab. 2011 Nov 2;14(5):612-22.
  13. Crandall JP, et al. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2012 Dec;67(12):1307-12.
  14. Frauchiger MT, et al. J Am Coll Nutr. 2004 Aug;23(4):351-7.
  15. Rabinovitz H, et al. Int J Vitam Nutr Res. 2004 May;74(3):178-82.
  16. Jacob S, et al. Free Radic Biol Med. 1999 Aug;27(3-4):309-14.
  17. Ansar H, et al. Saudi Med J. 2011 Jun;32(6):584- 8

 

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