You want a rock-solid recipe for a healthy heart? All right, here you go, baby. Don’t say I never did nothin’ for ya. Learning from my good friend and world-renowned cardiologist, Dr. Joel Kahn—aka “America’s Holistic Heart Doc”—the equation for lifelong heart health looks a little something like this: stress reduction techniques + daily exercise + reducing your cholesterol + eating heart-healthy, plant-based foods + adding more joy and gratitude to your life = one top-notch ticker!
I’ve known for a long time that heart disease is a big issue. I’ve had acquaintances whose parents underwent bypass surgery, and I’ve occasionally seen social media posts from people trying to heal after open-heart surgery. But when I saw the entire scope of the issue and the sheer number of people dying from this disease, it really hit home: people are not taking good care of their most vital organ. The good thing is that we are seeing more and more practical solutions to healing the heart, from dietary choices to lifestyle modifications and mindfulness practices. The nuggets of wisdom in this post are more useful than ever, simply due to the number of people who suffer from heart disease:
- One-third of all people in the world are currently at risk of developing heart disease
- About 600,000 people die of heart disease in the U.S. every year—that’s one in every four deaths
- Coronary heart disease alone costs the U.S. $108.9 billion each year
Looking at this from a sheer numbers perspective—from the number of people dying to the hundreds of billions of dollars in health care costs—it’s clear that, as a society, we need to turn this equation around and start taking more responsibility for our health.
Along with poor nutrition, stress and anxiety can be extremely detrimental to your heart health. Studies have shown that high levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) are correlated to higher rates of heart disease. Reducing your levels of stress and anxiety through daily walks, regular exercise, meditation, deep breathing, lovemaking, or regular massage can lower your cortisol levels and, in turn, help to preserve your heart.
Is Oil-Free the Only Way to Go?
The oil-free, vegan diet craze has been all the rage for the past few years, and it’s easy to see why. When you reduce the total amount of saturated fat and cholesterol in your diet, you can significantly reduce your risk of heart disease. However, making a blanket statement that ALL oils and fats are dangerous for your heart is a bit extreme, in my opinion. Not all oils and fats are created equal. And I strongly believe that the quality of the oil you consume is just as important as the overall quantity. Partially hydrogenated, trans-fatty-acid-laden, genetically modified cooking oils have a drastically different effect on your body and heart health than raw, cold-pressed, organic, extra-virgin oils made from coconut, chia, flax, hemp, or olive. In moderate amounts, healthy fats are absolutely essential for nourishing your brain (which, as we learned, is mostly composed of fat) and regulating your hormone cascade.
I don’t recommend a completely oil-free or fat-free diet except for truly high-risk individuals who need to drastically cut their fat intake to stave off the acceleration of diseases. For those of us in good overall health with no current heart issues or history of heart disease, a mild to moderate intake of high-quality, unprocessed, organic, raw, plant-based oils and fats can be a tremendous way to supplement your healthy lifestyle and add essential nutrients such as omega fatty acids into your diet.
Now, if you want to quit cooking with oil completely, I suggest you use low-sodium, organic vegetable broth or filtered water as a substitute when sautéing. For salad dressings, you can use apple cider vinegar, citrus juices and spices, or even cannellini beans to add extra creaminess and body without the additional oil.
Protecting Your Heart with Plant-Based Diets
When you eat heart-healthy, plant-based, organic, whole foods, you nourish health-promoting bacteria in your digestive tract that emit by-products that lower inflammation, neutralize toxins, and nourish your cells and tissues. Conversely, when you consume heart-harming foods laden with chemicals, toxins, pesticides, sugars, processed salts, and animal protein, your bacteria emit poisons and toxins. One of these is called endotoxin, and the immune system treats it as a poison. When this toxin gets into your bloodstream, your level of inflammation goes up.
Certain foods are highly medicinal for your blood vessels. Healthy blood vessels are flexible and widen to accommodate increased blood flow. Organic, whole fruits and vegetables, such as pomegranates; grapes; green, leafy vegetables; beets; cacao; omega-rich oils; teas; and non-GMO, organic soy products all help your arteries to relax, driving down your blood pressure and making it easier for your heart to pump more blood. By consuming more of the right foods—raw, unprocessed, organic, plant-based foods—and minimizing or eliminating your consumption of highly processed, chemical-laden, high-fat animal products or artificial foods, you can protect your heart and greatly minimize your change of coronary disease.
The Harvard Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study found that people who eat more fresh fruits and vegetables have a lower risk of developing heart disease. People who ate eight or more servings were 30 percent less likely to have a heart attack or stroke than people who consumed one and a half servings or fewer. What’s more, the symptoms of heart disease can even be reversed with a plant-based diet and holistic lifestyle. As we learned in a previous chapter, Dr. Dean Ornish is a pioneer in the medical industry who successfully reversed atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease (CAD), and other chronic diseases in his patients. His approach features a plant-based diet, quitting smoking, moderate exercise, and stress-management techniques.
In short, the absolute best approach to creating and maintaining long-term heart health is through active and conscientious prevention. Through your dietary choices, you are creating a healthy internal bioterrain in which your heart can efficiently do its job by getting blood to vital organs, cells, and tissues. Combine this with healthy lifestyle practices, and you’ve got a powerful prescription for lifelong heart health!
Meditation Is Magical for Heart Health
Taking a few minutes to relax each day could help you exponentially lower your risk of heart disease. Daily meditation is a practice that often uses deep breathing, quiet contemplation, or sustained focus on something benign such as a color, phrase, or repetitive sound (known as a mantra) that helps you let go of stress, free yourself of anxiety, feel peaceful, and maintain a relaxed, clear state of mind. Think of it as a daily vacation from the stress in your life.
Stress is your body’s natural alarm system. It releases a powerful hormone called adrenaline that causes your breathing and heart rate to quicken and your blood pressure to rise. However, this primal “fight or flight” response and heavy adrenaline cascade flowing through your veins can take a massive toll on your body if it’s consistently repeated over time, as if there’s always a threat waiting around the next corner to annihilate you.
Instead of dealing with real predators like our ancestors did, the only monsters that cause us stress now are the ones created in our minds. What I’m saying is a bit esoteric, but follow me on this: there are no stressful events— it’s only our thoughts, fears, and judgments about those events that create acute stress responses in our bodies. To feel stressed-out about something is a choice based on our interpretation, judgment, and reaction to it. The proverbial saber-toothed tiger chasing us down in the wild has been replaced by money worries, family dramas, work stresses, and a multitude of other modern psychological maladies. The problem is that your body can’t tell the difference between a real physical threat and an image in your mind, so it continues to release the same stress hormones in response.
For people with cardiovascular disease, meditation provides a pathway to reduce their stress and focus on things they can do to be healthier. Meditation is a way to bring balance into your life. It can also help you to sleep better, which is a very important restorative part of physical health and heart vitality.
Recent studies have offered promising results regarding the impact of meditation in reducing blood pressure. A 2012 study showed African-American adults with heart disease who practiced Transcendental Meditation regularly were 48 percent less likely to have a heart attack or stroke or to die compared with African-Americans who attended a health education class more than five years earlier.
There are countless types of meditation, so it’s important to find an approach that you feel comfortable with. Try local yoga classes with gentle movements. Yoga not your thing? Check out a meditation workshop, pick up a few books about mindfulness, or download a meditation online (there are tons of free apps and videos online). I also recommend asking a family member or friend to do it with you so you can share the learning experience with someone.
Not all meditation is done sitting down with your legs crossed like many people believe. In addition to yoga, there’s tai chi, also called “moving meditation,” which incorporates gentle movements that require deep concentration and balance.
While meditation can offer a technique for lowering stress and your risk for heart disease, it’s not a replacement for other important lifestyle changes like eating a clean diet, lowering your sodium and sugar intake, or getting daily physical exercise.
The Healing Power of Forgiveness
In terms of a spiritual approach, the practice of forgiveness and “letting go” is a very powerful and effective way to let go of toxic, negative emotions that can cause stress and put extra strain on your heart. Practicing forgiveness toward yourself and others allows you to let go and release painful emotions such as anger, regret, shame, resentment, and grief—which in turn will allow you to accept things as they are and let more love into your life. This practice of radical forgiveness and emotional healing is a critical component in the pursuit of longevity. When you take full responsibility for your emotional state of well-being and choose to heal your heart, you gain a deep sense of self-worth, empowerment, and a feeling of lasting acceptance that “all is well.” Basically, you learn to stop sweating the small stuff, let the negativity go, and start to forgive. It’s a very powerful practice and a perfect complement to a heart-healthy diet.
Wherever You Go, Go with All Your Heart
Relatively simple in function, your heart’s primary purpose is to pump . . . 24 hours a day, 70 to 80 times a minute. With each beat, your heart pumps blood that delivers life-sustaining oxygen and nutrients to more than 300 trillion cells in your body. Your heart is the lil’ engine that keeps chugging along, keeping you alive every day. With that much work to do, it’s worth noting that ALL whole, plant-based foods are intrinsically cholesterol free, which gives you a great indication of the perfect sources of fuel for your ticker.
Beyond your diet, though, I think your lifestyle plays a huge role in your overall heart health. Of course, please eat a ton of nutrient-rich fruits and veggies—but also cultivate more deep love in your life, let go of lingering resentments, explore meditation or prayer, and remember to have more fun and let loose! Your heart is a very intuitive, receptive organ and will respond to all of the goodness you can cultivate in life. Come to think of it, I think the basic formula is even easier than the one I shared with you at the beginning of this post. Here’s the new, simplified formula for a healthy heart:
Happy Life = Healthy Heart.
