heart disease Archives - Center for Holistic Medicine

Before you reach for that cookie, consider this: studies have shown that eating too much sugar or simple carbohydrates can have devastating effects. Not only will the sugar likely lead to weight gain, but an unseen, internal chain of events can be triggered that could result in some of America’s most deadly diseases.

The surprising culprit behind many illnesses, especially heart disease, is inflammation.

It’s surprising because inflammation is a necessary function of our bodies. The immune system uses inflammation to fight pathogens and inflammation can be essential in defending us from disease.

Problems occur when inflammation becomes chronic. And though studies have not been able to conclusively pinpoint an exact cause and effect between chronic inflammation and chronic conditions, there are certain factors that are consistently present when looking at heart disease.

Diet is one of them. Too much sugar in the diet leads to insulin resistance, which in turn causes inflammation. And when the blood vessels leading to the heart are inflamed, heart disease develops.

Dr. Jerry Gore, founder of the Center for Holistic Medicine, says, “Simple sugars get into the bloodstream too fast, create too much insulin, which then creates insulin resistance, which then creates inflammation, which then creates all these diseases. Sugar is really the scourge of our society.”

Even if you don’t have a sweet tooth, you may be consuming more sugar than you think because many prepared foods contain hidden sugars. It’s been estimated that the average American eats a half pound of sugar a day!

How Sugar Leads to Inflammation

When blood sugar is high, the body produces more free radicals. Free radicals are especially damaging to the body because they disrupt healthy cells and set off an unnecessary immune response, which causes inflammation.
Excess sugar consumption leads to an over-production of Advanced Glycation End products (AGEs). These are formed when protein or fat combine with sugar in the bloodstream. Having too many of them causes inflammation.
Sugar is thought to contribute to gut permeability. When bacteria and toxins pass between the gut into the bloodstream, inflammation occurs.
Sugar has long been associated with elevating LDL cholesterol, the “bad” cholesterol that’s linked to higher levels of C-reactive protein, another cause of inflammation.

Perhaps one of the best ways to understand the connection between eating sugar and putting your heart at risk is to look at the role diabetes plays in heart disease.

The statistics are truly staggering:

Evidence shows that patients with diabetes have higher levels of low-grade inflammation in their arterial lining.
68 percent of people over 65 with diabetes die from some form of heart disease.
Adults with diabetes are two to four times more likely to die from heart disease than those without diabetes.

So what can you do to reduce your risk of both diabetes and heart disease? In addition to exercising, quitting smoking and lowering your blood pressure, one of the best things you can do is to cut out sugary snacks, drinks and simple sugars found in white bread and replace them with more complex carbohydrates such as whole grains and raw fruit, which have more fiber.

Katie Bogaard, a naturopathic practitioner at the Center for Holistic Medicine, says you can also reduce your insulin spikes by eating carbs along with extra fiber and proteins, which slows down your sugar absorption and reduces the risk of developing chronic inflammation.

“If you balance a smoothie with proteins, good fats, and extra fiber, that will give you a slower increase in your blood sugar, making you feel not only more balanced but more satiated until your next meal,” she says.

Learn more about the negative effects of sugar in our podcast, Healing Holistically.

February is American Heart Month, and it’s a great time to make a commitment to eating heart-healthy foods. Unfortunately, there are a lot of myths out there about what exactly you should eat to have a healthy heart.

Dr. Richard Bisceglie, a certified nutrition specialist at the Center for Holistic Medicine, says many people mistakenly believe that fats cause heart disease.

“It was thought for a few decades that high fat intake was the culprit for heart disease until prominent cardiologists came out to dispel that knowledge,” he says. “The truth is that the most important part of a heart-healthy diet is to restrict carb intake and increase healthy fats.”

Dr. Jerry Gore, founder of the Center for Holistic Medicine, agrees. Here are some of the basic guidelines Dr. Gore lays out in his book, Holistic Medicine, for how to eat to have a healthy heart.

Avoid the sugar roller coaster
You probably know that sugar is full of empty calories, but did you know that it is also bad for your heart? When we eat sugar or simple carbohydrates, our insulin levels spike and then crash. When we do this over the long haul, our body starts pumping more insulin into our blood on a regular basis, and these elevated insulin levels promote chronic inflammation, which leads to heart disease.To avoid this, it’s best to cut back on eating refined sugar and opting for whole grains instead of simple carbohydrates. Also, try to combine whole grains with good fats, protein and fiber, which will help lengthen the time it takes for your body to absorb the sugars and reduces the roller coaster affect.
Eat your beans
Did you know that legumes such as beans, peas, lentils, chickpeas, red beans, split beans, lima beans etc. are high in fiber, high in protein and can help regulate our cholesterol production and reduce heart disease? Plus, beans are one of the cheapest things you can buy at the store, making them good for your heart and your wallet.
Eat foods high in pectin
Turns out that eating an apple a day really is a good idea. Apples are loaded with the soluble fiber pectin, a carbohydrate chain that dissolves in water and helps to reduce cholesterol. “If you are trying to reduce your cholesterol naturally, the pectin in fruits and vegetables helps this goal by combining with the bile acids… in the gut and escorting them out of the body as fecal fats in our waste,” Dr. Gore explains. Other foods that contain pectin include citrus fruits, carrots and beans.
Get lots of omega-3 fatty acids
Not all fats are bad for your heart. In fact, foods that are high in omega-3 fatty acids – such as fish like salmon and tuna, as well as walnuts, soybeans, flaxseeds and eggs – have been shown to lower your triglyceride levels, lower your blood pressure, reduce blood clotting, suppress heart arrhythmias and decrease sudden cardiac death. If you can’t get enough fish in your diet, try taking a daily supplement of fish oil.
Go nuts for nuts!
Did you know that nuts, in moderation, can be very beneficial to your heart? According to Dr. Gore, “Nuts contain monounsaturated fatty acids and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids that help lower your LDL (the bad fat)…. Research has shown that a handful of mixed nuts eaten every day reduces all causes of mortality by 20 percent!”
Avoid polyunsaturated fats
Although some types of fats are actually good for you, there are certain fats that Dr. Gore says you should avoid, such as oils that have a high degree of unsaturation such as corn oil and other vegetable oils including safflower oil, soy oil, sunflower oil and canola oil. These types of fats are harmful because they get oxidized easily, making them unstable molecules that chemically hunger to become attached to other molecules. “Once ingested, they chemically invade other food molecules and damage whatever cells they can grab onto,” Dr. Gore says, which can lead to heart disease.
Eat lots of antioxidants
Speaking of oxidation, if you want to reduce the harmful effects of free radicals (the unstable molecules mentioned above), focus on adding more fruits and vegetables that are high in antioxidants into your diet. Some great choices are blueberries, blackberries, cherries, cranberries, grapes, broccoli and tomatoes.

Tag: heart disease

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