Just three things could save 94 million people from heart disease

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

These three things could save 94 million people from heart disease.
In a new study, researchers found that three public health interventions could save 94 million people from premature death caused by heart disease.
The three interventions are lowering blood pressure, cutting sodium intake, and reducing trans fat from the daily diet.
They suggest that the three interventions can have a huge health impact on heart health through 2040.
The research was led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
In the study, the team used global data from multiple studies and estimates from the World Health Organization to make their calculations.
They estimated that scaling up treatment of high blood pressure to 70% of the world’s population could extend the lives of 39.4 million people.
In addition, cutting sodium intake by 30% could stave off another 40 million deaths and could also help reduce high blood pressure, which a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke.
Eliminating trans fat could prevent 14.8 million early deaths.
The team also found that more than 50% of all delayed deaths, and 66% of deaths delayed before age 70, will be among men.
They suggest that many programs and policies would be necessary to reduce premature deaths from heart disease.
For example, one important strategy would be to increase the use of blood pressure drugs that are safe and affordable.
The team admits that scaling up the three health interventions would be a “huge challenge,” but they added that previous analyses have shown that the interventions are achievable and affordable.
They believe that these are realistic goals that have been shown to be attainable on a smaller population.
Now people need the commitment to scale up the programs to achieve them globally.
The lead author of the study is Goodarz Danaei, associate professor of global health at Harvard Chan School.
The study is published in Circulation.

7 great reasons you should concider eating avocado daily

Image courtesy of anat_tikker at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

You have probably heard about avocado being a superfood and how good it is for your health. This is true, avocados are very healthy. The next time you are ordering that burrito, don’t forget to add some extra guacamole. Here are seven reasons why you should consider eating this fruit every day.

1. Avocado Is Superfood

Avocados are extremely nutritious, this particular fruit is a very concentrated food, more like a nut than a fruit. Although avocados are high in calories, they are very high in most of the B vitamins except B12, being particularly good in folic acid. They also have some vitamin C, good amounts of vitamin A, and vitamin E. As you already know, avocados are rich in potassium. In addition, they have good amount of other minerals, including magnesium, iron, and manganese. For vegetarians who do not eat a lot of fatty foods, avocados may be a good source of needed oils.

2. Reduced Risk of Cancer

Avocados give our body numerous phytochemicals that may help prevent cancer. The fruit contains elements that have been known to decrease rates of oral cancer. Some research show that there is a potential that avocados can reduce risk of both breast and prostate cancers. Although, there is some research available on cancer preventive qualities of the fruit, future research is required to obtain more conclusive results.

3. Reduced Risk of Heart Diseases

As a matter of fact, heart disease is the number 1 killer in the United States. Heart disease is often linked to poor diet and lifestyle. Therefore, making right food choices is essential.

Avocados contain low level of saturated fat and high level of unsaturated fat, which has positive effect on our cardiovascular system. Unsaturated fat in your diet also may help to lower LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol), maintain HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol).

Furthermore, eating avocado can improve your insulin sensitivity. In addition to good fats, avocados also contain a great variety of nutrients, including antioxidants. This fruit may help prevent inflammation and oxidative stress in the blood vessels while improving blood flow.

4. Weight Loss Helper

Would you ever think that eating fat will help to lose fat? Recent studies show that avocados help to maintain healthy Body Mass Index (BMI). Avocado in meals helps to extend the feeling of fullness and reduce desire to overeat. Each fruit contains about 14g of fiber, which helps to reduce your waistline.

5. Skin and Eyes Protection

There are some nutrients (carotenoids and lutein) in avocados that can help to slow age-related ocular decline and prevent vision dysfunction. In addition, the same nutrients protect our skin from UV damage, making it smooth and healthy.

6. Blood Pressure Regulator

Since avocados are an excellent source of potassium (actually even better than bananas), they can be helpful in lowering high blood pressure. Potassium is important in the human body, along with sodium, it regulates the water balance and acid-balance in the blood and tissues. Thus, for most individuals with high blood pressure, increasing potassium intake is a much more reliable way to lower blood pressure than decreasing intake of sodium. Potassium is also important for normal growth and for building muscles.

7. Avocados Are Delicious And Very Versatile

Besides being so healthy and nutritious, avocados are also delicious and go well with different foods. They are commonly used in salads, dips such as guacamole, in sandwiches, stuffed with seafood, as spreads on your morning toast, or simply plain on its own. When choosing an avocado, aim for a heavy fruit with unbroken skin. The fruit should yield to gentle pressure without denting. If it dents, it is overripe. Leave unripe avocados on the kitchen counter for a few days and they will be ready to eat! Ripe avocados will keep for four-five days in the fridge. Unripe avocados will never ripen if you put them in the refrigerator. The flesh is the part eaten, the seed and skin should be discarded. Once cut, you can sprinkle the flesh with lime or lemon juice to prevent from turning dark. Enjoy!

Study links obesity, heart risk

Curtesy of Photostock/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A 30-year study finds the risk for heart disease rises the longer someone is obese.

Young adults who remain obese for two decades or more double their risk of developing a marker of heart disease in middle age, a study found.
Every year of obesity raises the risk of developing coronary artery calcification, a silent predictor of heart disease with mild to no symptoms, by two to four per cent, according to research in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The study is the first to show that how long a person is obese can independently contribute to heart risk, said Jared Reis, the lead study author and an epidemiologist at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which is based in Bethesda, Md.
In the new study, Reis' team used scans to track calcium buildup in the heart arteries in almost 3,300 adults 18 to 30 years old. When the study began in the mid-1980s, none of the participants were obese.
During the course of the study, however, more than 40 percent became obese and 41 percent developed abdominal obesity (excess belly fat). Those who became obese tended to stay obese for years, the researchers noted.
The investigators found that 27.5 percent of these long-term obese participants showed signs of heart disease, and the problem got worse the longer the individual had been obese.
More than 38 percent of those with more than 20 years spent obese had calcified arteries compared with only about a quarter of those who never put on that level of excess weight, the findings showed.
Among those with overall obesity, 6.5 percent had more dangerous "extensive" arterial calcification, as did 9 percent of those with obesity centered around the belly area. In contrast, only about 5 percent of those who were not obese had this extensive calcification, the researchers found.
Reis said the findings could have dire implications as Americans age.
"With the increased prevalence of obesity over the last 30 years, younger individuals are becoming more obese at a younger age than in previous generations," he noted. "This longer duration of obesity may have important implications on the future burden of subclinical heart disease and potentially rates of clinical heart disease in the United States."