Cardiovascular Health: The Heart of The Matter

Your heart is, well… pretty dang important. There’s a reason human poets, musicians, artists, and philosophers have equated the human heart with your essence, your self, your true desires, and your passions. Without your heart, your brain, lungs, liver, and other vital organs simply don’t function. The average heart pumps around 2,000 gallons of blood throughout the body every day! And over a 70-year lifespan, your heart will beat an amazing 2.5 billion times or more. But there’s more to heart health than just boning up on your 80’s hits about the heart of rock & roll or heartbreak. Here are some tips for ensuring your heart stays healthy for a couple billion more heartbeats.

GET REGULAR AEROBIC/RESISTANCE EXERCISE, AND MAINTAIN A HEALTHY WEIGHT

Sure, sure. We all know this. But multiple studies show that both aerobic exercise and resistance/strength training are beneficial to cardiovascular health. Ideally, you should be participating in both types of exercise regularly. They have benefits on their own, but there’s also the associated benefit of lowering excess body fat, which can help alleviate the onset and/or effects of diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and heart disease.

Johns Hopkins points out that, in addition to aerobic and resistance training, stretching/flexibility should be added as a priority since this activity encourages and improves participation in the other beneficial, heart-healthy exercises.

STOP SMOKING IMMEDIATELY FOR HEART HEALTH

Today it would probably be difficult to find an American who truly believed smoking doesn’t have a serious impact on your health. However, if you smoke, the single-most impactful change you can make for your cardiovascular health is to stop smoking immediately. Even if you’ve smoked your whole life, the health benefits of quitting are still available to you.

One 15-year international study showed that “smokers who quit smoking before age 40 can expect to live almost as long as those who never smoked. Those who quit at any age return close to never-smoker survival 10 years after quitting, and about half that benefit occurs within just three years.”

Researchers found that quitting smoking reduced the risk of dying from vascular/heart disease and cancer, in particular. Former smokers also reduced their risk of death from respiratory disease. You probably already know all of this. But if you’re reading this and you’re still a smoker, it’s not too late. Quit now and your heart will thank you for it!

EAT HEART HEALTHY FOODS

This is a topic that’s surprisingly controversial and has engendered passionate debate over the years. As far as heart-healthy foods, currently, the USA’s Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion recommends:

• Lower consumption of saturated fats
• Lower consumption of sodium
• Higher consumption of fiber
• Low- or non-fat dairy products
• Lean proteins (at least 93% lean)
• Whole grains
• Vegetable oil (canola, corn, olive, peanut, safflower, soybean, or sunflower) instead of butter for cooking

Healthline ADDS SUCH HEART-HEALTHY THINGS AS:

• Berries
• Leafy green vegetables
• Fatty fish and fish oils
• Avocados
• Walnuts
• Dark chocolate
• Almonds
• Chia, flax, and hemp seeds
• Tomatoes
• Garlic
• Green tea

As for saturated fats, American researchers have waffled a couple of times over the decades. As noted above, the American government’s position remains that eating saturated fats is bad for the heart. However, in 2014 WebMD reported “A recent review of 72 studies found no link between saturated fat and heart disease. The review also showed that monounsaturated fats like those in olive oil, nuts, and avocados don’t protect against heart disease. This isn’t the first study to question the idea that saturated fats are bad for your heart. Five years ago, another research review also found no link between saturated fat and heart disease.”

Their overall conclusion? “The best way to prevent heart disease may be to eat more whole, unprocessed foods. So eat fish, beans, fruits, vegetables, brown rice, nuts, seeds, vegetable oils and olive oils, and even some animal products like yogurt and high-quality meat and cheese.” We can get onboard with that. 

AVOID REFINED SUGARS

Basically, sugar is bad, mmmmkay? Some health authorities compare it to a drug, including Amsterdam’s head of health services, who says, “This may seem exaggerated and far-fetched, but sugar is the most dangerous drug of this time and can still be easily acquired everywhere.” And remember… that dude’s from Amsterdam. The American Heart Association recommends that to maintain heart health, men should limit their daily intake of added sugars to no more than 9 teaspoons (36 grams) which is around 150 calories. For perspective, a single 12-ounce can of regular soda contains around 10 teaspoons of sugars (usually high-fructose corn syrup in America) and zero nutrition. So, the AHA isn’t messing around. One small Coke puts you over the daily limit for sugar.

The AHA also says, “Replacing sugary foods and drinks with sugar-free options containing NNSs [Non-Nutritive Sweeteners] is one way to limit calories and achieve or maintain a healthy weight. Also, when used to replace food and drinks with added sugars, it can help people with diabetes manage blood glucose levels. For example, swapping a full-calorie soda with diet soda is one way of not increasing blood glucose levels while satisfying a sweet tooth. We don’t know for sure if using NNSs in food and drinks makes people actually eat or drink fewer calories every day. But reducing the amount of added sugar in your diet? That we know for sure is a good thing.”

The paradox of low- or no-calorie sweeteners for heart health

However, non-nutritive sweeteners can also come with their own potential issues. Saccharin was all the rage in the 1970s but was banned in 1981 after studies showed it produced bladder tumors in rats. These conclusions were tempered over the years as researchers admitted “humans would need to drink the equivalent of 800 twelve-ounce diet sodas with saccharin daily to reach the carcinogenic doses that induced rat bladder cancer.” Furthermore, the NIH’s National Cancer Institute now says “mechanistic studies (studies that examine how a substance works in the body) have shown that the ways in which saccharin causes cancer in rats do not apply in humans, and in 2000 it was removed from the list [of substance reasonably anticipated to be… human carcinogens].”

As recently as June 2024, a European Heart Journal study linked the artificial sweetener Xylitol (found in sugar-free candies and even toothpaste) to an increased risk of heart disease. The study observed 3,000 American and European subjects, nearly all of whom had at least a few risk factors for heart disease. Time says, “The researchers measured levels of xylitol in participants’ blood after an overnight fast, and found that those with the highest levels had a two-fold greater risk of having a heart attack, stroke, or dying over three years compared to those with the lowest levels.” Further studies are obviously needed here.

Aspartame is another widely used NNS, and is somewhat controversial as well. WebMD says, “Studies suggest that if you regularly eat or drink a lot of aspartame over a long period, it could harm your kidneys. Scientists also think aspartame [may] cause toxic liver disease.” The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies aspartame as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” based on limited evidence. However, both American and World Health Organization authorities essentially conclude that, based on current evidence, aspartame safety is not a major concern at the doses which are commonly used, but that more and better studies are needed. The US Food and Drug administration has stated, “Scientific evidence has continued to support the FDA’s determination that aspartame is safe for the general population when used under the approved conditions of use.”

Most experts agree that consumption of both refined sugars and artificial sweeteners should be limited, and an ideal diet consists of whole foods rich in nutrients, vitamins, minerals, vegetables, fiber, healthy fats, and a balance of complex carbohydrates and healthy proteins.

And remember that diet isn’t the only reason why people get or don’t get heart disease. Your genes and lifestyle factors (like smoking, exercise, and stress levels) also play a large part.

So there you have it, the heart of the matter. It may not be easy to achieve all of these heart-healthy goals at once, but the important thing is to get started!