Month: October 2009

10 baby steps to improve women’s heart health

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 4 Comments

baby steps sand

Did you know that up to 80% of heart disease is entirely preventable?  Most of us know the basics of that prevention – healthy diet, more exercise, not smoking – but when you start thinking of how many big changes that might mean, it can look like a pretty daunting lifestyle makeover all at once.

The first change should be a baby step. You’re more likely to succeed by making small changes, according to Dr. Catherine Champagne, professor of research at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University System.

“If you totally overhaul your diet or start an ambitious exercise program, you’re less likely to stick with it.”

Start small, go slow, and before you know it, those baby steps will start adding up to better cardiovascular health. Micro-improvements do more than chip away at a larger objective — they accomplish plenty on their own. Some of these are cumulative; do several and you’ll see an even bigger benefit.  Here are 10 baby steps to get you started:   Continue reading “10 baby steps to improve women’s heart health” →

My favourite recipes for heart-healthy slow cooker dinners

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 7 Comments

slow cooker soup

Can you feel it?  The days are getting shorter, the leaves tinged with red, nippy early morning walks with the gloves on!  Cold weather is here, and that means hot, bubbly dinners cooking away all day in the slow cooker. If you haven’t discovered slow cookers yet ( …where have you been?) here are some fabulous recipes from Heart Healthy Living. 

These recipes include Classic French Dip (low fat and low cholesterol lean beef served on whole wheat baguettes), Sesame Ginger Turkey (only 222 calories per serving) and Chili Bean Stuffed Peppers (a vegetarian dish with only six heart-healthy ingredients that takes about half an hour to prep plus a whole day of bubbling away in the slow cooker while you are busy not thinking about dinner).

Throw together a crisp salad – and maybe my heart-smart chocolate fudge brownies for dessert – and you have an easy, delicious and healthy meal.

Want more heart-smart hits? Check out my other favourite heart-healthy recipes for:

Do you have a favourite heart-healthy slow cooker recipe to share?  

Heart patients can avoid food poisoning by avoiding these foods entirely

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 5 Comments

ham plate

I used to be a happy person. But then I took a FOODSAFE course.  This certification course is recommended in my province for anybody who handles, prepares or serves food.  It’s very educational, but once you’ve watched those ominous “What Went Wrong?” course videos (about hapless party guests dropping like flies from eating tainted crême caramel), you can become just a wee bit paranoid about foodborne illnesses, often for the rest of your natural life.

That’s why the following basic list of foods to avoid is extremely important.

Food poisoning occurs when you eat food that contains harmful bacteria, parasites, or viruses. It can be severe and sometimes fatal. In fact, The American Society of Clinical Oncology website warns:

 “Foodborne illnesses can be particularly severe if a person has a weakened immune system from cancer treatment or chronic illness like heart disease, or is very old, very young, or pregnant.”

Food can become contaminated when someone infected with a virus (often a norovirus) or other ‘bug’ handles the food. Raw foods are a common cause of foodborne illness. Proper cooking can destroy bacteria, but they can grow even on cooked food if left out too long. Some bacteria, such as listeria, can grow even on foods stored in the refrigerator over time.

That’s what happened last summer when listeriosis killed 22 people of the 57 affected by eating tainted cold cuts produced at a Maple Leaf meat processing plant in Toronto. Continue reading “Heart patients can avoid food poisoning by avoiding these foods entirely” →

What other diagnosis doubles your risk of having a heart attack?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 3 Comments

arthritis.jennifer_mason

Jennifer Mason grew up wanting to be a musician. But while only in her mid-twenties and in the midst of completing her second musical degree, everything suddenly changed when the university student began to experience terrible  joint pain and debilitating fatigue. She was diagnosed with severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

RA is a disease that causes painful swelling of joints and can damage cartilage, bone, tendons, and ligaments. Until the use of MRI technology, no one knew that irreparable damage occurred in joints even before it showed up on x-rays. Jennifer’s flares came and went, worsening over time until both her hands and feet were severely deformed, ending her ability to play musical instruments.

As if this painful and debilitating condition is not bad enough all by itself, researchers now report that within the first 10 years of being diagnosed with RA, your risk of having a heart attack almost doubles compared to those who don’t have the diagnosis. Researchers are not sure why those with RA have a greater risk of heart attack. They do know that, just as in rheumatoid arthritis, inflammation is linked with heart disease and the risk of heart attack.

According to the American College of Rheumatology, the inflammation with RA may cause higher levels of inflammation throughout the rest of the body. This inflammation can trigger plaque in the coronary arteries to form blood clots. Over time, this plaque can build up, rupture, and block blood flow to the heart. This is called coronary artery disease, which increases the chance of heart attack, stroke, and sudden cardiac death. This sobering reality may be countered, however with the news that a heart-healthy lifestyle and certain medications may help protect the hearts of RA patients, no matter how long they’ve had the diagnosis.

Find out more about rheumatoid arthritis.

NEWS UPDATE: August 15, 2011 –  Arthritis Sufferers’ Increased Risk of Heart Disease Due to Disease-Related Inflammation  – A new five-year Swedish study* published in the journal Arthritis Research & Therapy showed that the risk of cardiovascular disease for people with RA is due to disease-related inflammation as well as the risk factors which affect the general population. Treatment of arthritis with disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) helped to reduce a patient’s risk of heart disease.

Dr Solveig Wållberg-Jonsson from University Hospital, Umeå, in Sweden said:

“Inflammation associated with rheumatoid arthritis increases patients’ risk of heart disease and other cardiovascular events. However, it is possible to reduce this risk in a two-pronged attack by treating both the inflammation and traditional risk factors for heart disease.”

* Lena Innala, Bozena Möller, Lotta Ljung, Staffan Magnusson, Torgny Smedby, Anna Södergren, Marie-Louise Öhman, Solbritt Rantapää-Dahlqvist and Solveig Wållberg-Jonsson. Cardiovascular events in early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are a result of inflammatory burden and traditional risk factors: a five year prospective study. Arthritis Research & Therapy, 2011