We know that treating our heart with care is crucial to life. When we are overweight or obese, we rare actively contributing to potentially inducing ailments such as high blood pressure, clogged arteries and heart attack, all of which are a serious risk to life.
Dr Jane , The Slimming Clinic’s Senior Doctor, explains more about why maintaining good heart health is so important and how we can achieve it.
Why is it important?
According to the British Heart Foundation’s latest figures there are over 2.3 million people living with coronary artery disease in the UK.
Cardiovascular disease has now become the biggest cause of death in the developed world. Despite advances in medical care we are not seeing a decline in cardiovascular complications. Heart disease, it’s deaths and complications are on the rise. Perhaps what is most alarming is that the highest proportion of these numbers come from avoidable circumstances. Yes, there are hereditary factors that can increase our risk of cardiovascular disease but in the main stay we are looking at a lifestyle condition!
Healthy eating is not exclusively for weight loss. Our diet has such a fundamental role to play in disease as both an instigator and potentially protective factor.
Therefore making a few small changes to your lifestyle can make a vast difference!
What causes Cardiovascular disease?
Cardiovascular disease is a result of many small changes coming together over time. Many of the things that you have heard of as being risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood pressure, or smoking, essentially set the stage for a series of events to occur that lead to the condition known as Heart Disease.
There are several pathological (disease causing) events that take place all of which we can influence by making changes to our diet and lifestyle.
Endothelial dysfunction
The endothelium is the thin layer of cells that line the inside of our blood vessels. It releases nitric oxide. This is a chemical that causes vasodilation (widening of blood vessels), reduces blood clotting, reduces inflammation and plaque formation and reduces oxidation of LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol). Problems arise when nitric oxide release or utilisation is impaired. The first and most obvious consequence is the reduced capacity for the vessels to widen leading to high blood pressure. Increased blood pressure means more risk of damage to our blood vessels and plaque formation.
Inflammation
Cardiovascular disease is essentially an inflammatory condition. Inflammation can cause endothelial dysfunction. One of the main causes of inflammation in the endothelium is the oxidation of LDL cholesterol. LDL cholesterol can become damaged by circulating free radicals (reactive oxygen molecules that cause damage) and be readily oxidised (damaged and chemically altered). The oxidised cholesterol can cause damage to the endothelium.
Other factors that can trigger inflammation are smoking, high insulin levels (caused by eating too many fast release carbohydrates for too long) and stress. But, probably the biggest factor of all for us in the western world, is the wrong types of fats in our diets. It is not necessarily saturated fat that is the villain. It is a polyunsaturated fatty acid called omega 6 which when consumed in large amounts and metabolised by the body forms a compound called prostaglandin that exacerbates inflammation.
Plaque formation
Plaques are the things that form in blood vessel walls during a process called atherosclerosis. The damaged endothelium causes an inflammatory process and circulating materials such as cholesterol and fats get trapped in the area of damage. The cholesterol becomes susceptible to oxidation which attracts white blood cells to infiltrate the area and causes a plaque.
Thrombus formations
Plaques can become unstable and rupture from increased blood pressure and inflammatory enzymes breaking down the plaque. When the atherosclerotic plaque ruptures, a blood clot quickly forms around the site of rupture. This blood clot which is formed from platelets, clotting factors and a fibrous mesh called fibrin is called a thrombus. This thrombus can grow large enough to block the vessel and the tissue that is supplied by that blood vessel will become oxygen deprived. In a heart attack, this occurs in a vessel that supplies blood to heart muscle. In a stoke, this happens in a vessel that supplies blood to the brain.
How can I maintain good Heart Health?
Omega fatty acids
Omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids are essential fatty acids that are vital to the body and must come from the diet as our body cannot make them itself. However, we only need a SMALL amount of omega 6, once we go over this finite amount, the body metabolises it in a different negative way forming a type of inflammatory prostaglandin. In the UK we consume almost 23x the amount of Omega 6 fatty acids than we require per day. Vegetable oils, sunflower oil, soy oil and spreads are all high in Omega 6 fatty acids. Using olive oil, which has no omega 6, or coconut oil to cook with are a healthier alternative.
Omega 3 fatty acids do the opposite. Omega 3 fatty acids encourage the body to produce more anti-inflammatory prostaglandins. Omega 3 fatty acids have also been shown to reduce triglycerides. These are fats in the blood that can arise from dietary fat intake and also from the consumption of very high GI (glycaemic index) foods. These fats are believed to be very susceptible to oxidative damage which can cause and aggravate endothelial inflammation and oxidise LDL cholesterol. Oily fish such as salmon, mackerel, trout and tuna are high in Omega 3 fatty acids and are advised to be consumed at least 3x per week.
Glycaemic response
Glycaemic response is the rate and extent to which a food raises our blood sugar. Different foods, because of their composition, will release their energy at different rates. Pure glucose (sugar) will send our blood sugar up very rapidly. When our blood sugar rises, our body secretes the hormone insulin which helps our body cells take up the sugar in our blood to be used as energy. If our cells are ‘full up’ of sugar but our blood sugar remains high, this excess blood sugar gets converted into triglycerides (blood fats).
The key is to keep our blood sugars stable, so we reduce the extended periods of high blood sugar which produce higher levels of insulin and increased triglycerides. We can do this by reducing our intake of high GI intake foods such as white bread, pasta, rice, cereals and potatoes. We can also increase our dietary fibre. Fibre not only has benefits for digestive health but soluble fibres such as beta-glucan (found in oats) forms a gel like substance in the digestive system reducing the absorption of cholesterol and sugar. The glucomannan in The Slimming Clinic GZ12 supplement has a similar effect in helping to slow the absorption of sugar and cholesterol from the digestive system.
So, although cardiovascular disease is on the rise, we can make lifestyle changes to help reduce and prevent its development. Reducing our consumption of processed food, refined food and fast food and increasing our consumption of vegetables, wholegrains (oats, brown rice, bulgar wheat, quinoa) as well as balancing our fatty acids by eating more oily fish and olive oil and less margarine and vegetable oils is a great place to start in maintaining good heart health.
What next?
If you are worried that your weight is contributing to poorer heart health or you’re concerned you’re at a greater risk of heart disease because of overweight or obesity, get in touch,
One of the best things about being on an online weight loss programme led by a GMC-registered doctor is that we will take care of all aspects of your health whilst you are on a weight loss diet with us.
We are able to see the whole picture of your health and not just simply give you the tools to lose weight, but also to improve your health and monitor your well-being.