Cardiovascular disease (CVD), is an umbrella term that includes heart, stroke and blood vessel diseases, and is one of Australia’s largest health problems.
It accounts for one in four of all deaths,
claiming the life of one person every 12 minutes, according to the Heart Foundation. Many factors can increase the risk of developing heart disease, including being overweight or obese, lack of physical activity, and smoking. But there’s an important factor you may not be aware of – gut health.
Research is increasingly showing connections between the gut microbiome and cardiovascular disease. A growing body of research suggests that the wrong balance of gut bacteria can cause harm beyond your gut, playing a role in inflammatory conditions such as arthritis, obesity, and depression. It also appears to affect your blood vessels. In fact, inflammatory processes related to gut bacteria have been tied to a higher risk of heart failure, atherosclerosis (plaque build-up in arteries), and major cardiovascular events like heart attack and stroke, notes a review of studies published in March 2020 in the journal Microbiome.
While the research is ongoing,
the good news is that you can take steps to improve your gut microbiome and support your cardiovascular system, by modifying your diet and adopting healthy lifestyle measures. Here are few suggestions:
Get Moving
Just 40 minutes three or four times a week (or 25 minutes of harder exercise, like jogging) can lower blood pressure, cholesterol, and body weight. You don’t have to do it all at once. Even 10 minutes at a time is great for your heart. Take the dog or meet a friend at the park. If you’re new to working out or just getting back into it, start slow.
It’s not just a single daily workout that lowers your odds of heart disease, it’s how active you are all day long. Even if you have an exercise routine, being a couch potato the rest of the day can still be harmful to your health. Gardening, playing with your kids, walking to the bus, and even cleaning house are great ways to stay up and moving.
Eat More Fruits and Veggies
The nutrients and fibre in fruits and veggies make them heart-healthy. Getting enough daily fibre is associated with lower blood pressure and reduced inflammation. But they also have antioxidants, which may help protect your cells from damage that can lead to heart disease. Try to work different colours of produce into your diet. You can also add them to foods you already enjoy, like loading pizza with veggies or adding fruit to a bowl of cereal. High fibre foods also contain naturally occurring plant sterols which can help lower cholesterol. Soluble fibre found in foods like oats, chickpeas, bananas, and berries have shown to improve glycaemic control and lower cholesterol levels.
Blueberries are power-packed with exceptional antioxidants – anthocyanidins (found in red/purple fruits and vegetables). Anthocyanidins are highly active phytonutrients that are transported in the bloodstream where they act on blood vessels and collagen to reinforce and preserve it. They support blood vessel integrity around the body, not only the collagen in skin. This action has linked anthocyanidins to a reduction in cardiovascular disease (by protecting the vessels around the heart).
Include Healthy Fats
Aim for a healthy balance of fats by including fish, coconut yogurt, nuts, seeds, and lean protein options into your diet. In a Mediterranean Diet, olive oil is the primary source of added fat and fish is an important protein. Omega-3 fats from salmon and walnuts, and monounsaturated fatty acids from olive oil, almonds, and avocado. The Portfolio Diet shows that eating five servings of nuts a week is associated with a decrease in cholesterol levels and coronary heart disease events.
Calm your Mind
Find ways to calm your mind and ease stress – it can lower your heart rate and blood pressure and make you less anxious, which is all good for your heart. Make time for healthy ways to relax and cut stress, like yoga, meditation, listening to music, or a hobby you enjoy.
Sleep at Least 8 Hours a Night
Your body needs long periods of deep rest. During that time, your heart rate and blood pressure drop low for a while, which is key for heart health. If you always sleep less than 8 hours, your body may start to make excess stress neurotransmitters – cortisol.
Often in patients who present with sleep issues, there is an imbalance between the levels of two important hormones in the body – cortisol and melatonin. Cortisol is our stress hormone, that should be produced in higher amounts at the start of the day and gradually reduce towards the end of the day as the body prepares for rest. Melatonin is our sleep hormone, and therefore should be produced the most throughout the night while we are sleeping.
Possible causes for a disturbance in the production of these two hormones include chronic stress, shift work, high caffeine consumption, and exposure to bright lights at night time (laptops, phones, etc.). Testing the levels of cortisol throughout various parts of the day and the level of melatonin can help us determine whether this is the cause of sleeping issues.
Less sleep is also linked to increased inflammation and high blood sugar, which can be bad for your heart.
Look after your Gut
Your gut health is fundamental to your overall health and wellbeing!
An unhealthy gut causes negative health effects through inflammation. Seventy percent of the body’s immune system are housed in gut-associated tissue. When your gut becomes inflamed, chemicals produced by unhealthy gut bacteria can enter your bloodstream and cause an inflammatory reaction in your body. To get anywhere, these pro-inflammatory substances must travel through your blood vessels. When inflammation affects blood vessels, the vessels lose their elasticity. The cells of the vessels don’t function well, and that sets the stage for the development of plaque and atherosclerosis.
If your gut is functioning poorly it can lead to abdominal discomfort such as bloating, reflux, nausea, constipation and diarrhoea, excessive wind, pains and cramps, mood swings, brain fog and low energy. An unhappy gut will affect your health well beyond your digestive system. It can cause nutrient deficiencies, affect your cardiovascular and immune systems, disrupt your hormones, have an impact on your weight, contribute to inflammation and allergies, plus affect your nervous system and moods.
At the clinic, I use functional pathology testing to figure out what is going on in the gut. Comprehensive Stool Testing evaluates beneficial bacteria levels, intestinal immune function, overall intestinal health, and inflammation markers. It detects the presence of pathogenic microorganisms such as yeast, parasites, and bacteria that contribute to chronic illness and neurological dysfunction.
Visit the link below to download the Good Gut Guide, my top 10 gut health strategies including which foods to eat to optimise your gut function and microbiome.
Maintain a Healthy Weight
Extra pounds raise your odds of high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes, all linked to heart disease. Exercise and the right amount of healthy foods are the best ways to keep a healthy weight. Talk to your naturopath about how to take control of your weight and heart health.
Want to know more?
Get in touch today to make an appointment with our experienced naturopath Cassandra at Sustainable Health and Wellness Clinic.
