A Healthy Heart Loves Chiropractic and Key Foods
By Sandy Schroeder
We all try to give our health a boost, sometimes a little, or a lot. But focusing on the heart is never a bad idea. Wherever you are in your health profile, in weight, cholesterol numbers, blood pressure, and stress impacts, putting the heart first just makes sense. The earlier the better.
How to Do It
Starting with a whole person, strong body, quick mind focus, with the assistance of your local chiropractor, The Joint Chiropractic, should give your heart efforts a definite boost.
Your chiropractor will seek to help you relieve pain and achieve peak spinal health with a spinal adjustment. Then he or she will review your medical history and ask about your daily schedule.
In the process, the chiropractor will obtain an overall picture of you and can help you shape such heart boosters as a daily exercise plan, stress relieving tactics like deep breathing, yoga or tai chi, and a healthier diet.
When it comes to diet, the Harvard medical community lends a hand, recommending you make key food choices to reduce your cholesterol and lower your risk of heart disease.
Key Cholesterol Cutting Foods
Some foods use soluble fiber to capture cholesterol and take it out of the body before it flows into the bloodstream. Others supply polyunsaturated fats that directly lower bad, LDL cholesterol. Plus, plant sterols and stanols actively keep the body from absorbing cholesterol, according to healthharvard.edu. Following are some notable foods to help you out.
Oats – A bowl of hot oats or Cheerios will start your day with one to two grams of soluble fiber to lower cholesterol. Top it off with berries or bananas for another half-gram of fiber.
Beans – Fiber-rich beans are full of soluble fiber that keep you full longer, lower cholesterol and help you lose weight. Cannoli, garbanzo (often enjoyed as hummus), kidney, navy, lima and green beans are just a few of the tasty choices. Start looking for some great bean recipes in chili, soups, dips, and salads to enjoy the process.
Nuts - If you eat two ounces of nuts daily you can lower bad cholesterol about five percent. Enjoy the choices in walnuts, peanuts, almonds and macadamia nuts. Eat them by the handful. Sprinkle them over salads, and try them with bananas on whole wheat toast as a nut butter.
Sterols and Stanols in fortified foods – These talented workers are extracted from plants and blended into foods such as butter-like margarines to absorb cholesterol from food. They are also available as supplements. Two grams daily can lower bad cholesterol about 10 percent.
Fatty Fish – Choosing to have fish two to three times a week lowers cholesterol with omega-3 fats to reduce triglycerides in the bloodstream and protect the heart from abnormal heart rhythms. Enjoy gourmet salmon recipes, pickled herring or other fresh fish dishes.
An aunt of mine suffered a heart attack in her sixties. But that did not stop her. She adopted a diet with these key cholesterol-cutting foods and started walking five miles a day. She lived into her nineties and enjoyed every minute.
Start your heart health tune up at The Joint Chiropractic now. The Joint makes it easy with a private, affordable care program that eliminates insurance and flexible weekday, weekend and evening hours. Walk-in visits are welcome. See you there.