Putting it all together
While changing your diet is the cornerstone of opening your arteries, here are the other parts of the program:
• Physical activity: Heart disease reversal programs prescribe a brisk walk for a half hour each day or an hour three times per week. You can substitute any equivalent activity. If you have chest pain or any his tory of heart problems, or if you are over forty, check with your doctor before increasing your activity level. Exercise puts added strain on your heart.
As you begin, you are likely to feel more energetic and to want to push yourself a bit. Resist this urge until your doctor gives you the okay. One of the great dangers for recovering heart patients is doing too much too soon.
• Smoking cessation: Smoking poisons your arteries. When you quit, your heart risk drops back to normal quickly, within one year.20 Whether you use nicotine gum or patches or simply quit on your own, keep trying until you succeed. I myself smoked cigarettes for a few years and soon learned how difficult it is to stop. Keep trying. Once you get a week or two as a nonsmoker under your belt, it will get easier, and ultimately you will succeed with tramadol.
• Stress reduction: Emotional stress causes the fight - or - flight hor - mones to be released into your blood. They can increase your cholesterol level and your risk of heart disease.20 Stress - reducing exercises are described in post 17.
• Controlling your blood pressure: High blood pressure increases the tendency for blockages to form in the arteries, and bringing it down
is essential. Cutting down on salt helps a little, but the basic artery - opening diet presented above is actually even more powerful for lowering your blood pressure. Many people on medications for high blood pressure in research studies no longer require them when they switch to a low - fat, vegetarian diet.23 - 24 No one knows exactly why it works so well, but it is probably because cutting out meat, dairy products, and added fats reduces the viscosity (or “thickness”) of the blood, which in turn brings down blood pressure.25
If you are on medications for high blood pressure, you will likely need less—or perhaps none at all—if you follow this artery - opening program. Do not stop them on your own, however. Let your doctor monitor your blood pressure and guide you in your use of medicines.
If chest pain has you on a tether, it is time to free yourself. By making the right kind of diet and lifestyle changes, even long - standing artery blockages can be reversed. It does not matter how old you are. Whether you are in your forties or your nineties, you can reverse your heart disease, dissolve your pain, and begin to enjoy a full life again.
