“There is evidence that sugglest that low level vitamin D affect blood pressure, insulin resistance and coronay artery disease,” says the medical director of preventive cardiology at the John Oshsner Herat and Vascular Institute in New Orleans, Carl Lavie.
Lavie says the big question left now is how much vitamin D is effective for preventing or reversing the risks for heart disease.

JoAnn Manson,The chief of preventive medicine at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, JoAnn Manson agrees: “We need randomized clinical trials to know if the benefits of high doses of vitamin D outweigh the risks. There’s a long history of randomized trials overturning the dogma of observational studies.”

Manson launched the VITAL study last year using 20,000 men and women to see if taking a daily supplemnt of Vitamin D3 or omega-3 fatty acids helps reduce the risk of cancer, heart Disease and stroke. Half of the participants will take 2,000 IUs of Vitamin D3 a day the other half will take a placebo. The results should be available in 5 years.

Until these results from the VITAL study are known most clinicians will simply suggest taking supplements for low levels of vitamin D without knowing for sure whether or not it is crucial in the fight against heart disease. Better Safe than Sorry.

The recommended daily dose of Vitamin D is 600 IUs unless your over the age of 70 in which case the recommended dose is 800 IUs. Vitamin D rich foods include salmon, mushrooms, juices and cereals.

Dr Eisenberg of Standord University said men who are infertile have a higher risk of certain cancers so his team wanted to look for other signs that infertility might be playing a role in other diseases later in a man’s life.

The study, which was reported in the journal Human Reproduction, followed more than 130,000 men who were retired and over 50 for a 10 year period. The list was restricted to men who were either married or had been married so that they could compare males who had the desire and at least the opportunity to have kids. Men with current or history of diseases were excluded so that only healthy men were used in the outset of the study.

Over the course of the next 10 years, about 10 percent of the men died, and one out of every five of these deaths was from heart disease. From these deaths, it was found that men who were childless had about 17% higher risk of Heart Disease than those who had children.

The researchers note that the study does not mean being childless causes heart issues, but since infertility affects a man`s health at a much younger age, understanding this link could help doctors identify heart problems earlier, when there is more time to catch it and treat heart problems.

-Acai Berry. This is a dark fruit found in South America. It is very popular these days and is also known worldwide for it’s anti-oxidant properties (which a good against fighting disease).

-Superfood Shakes. You can buy organic fruits and vegetables from your neighborhood wholefoods store if you have one, take them home, blend them and enjoy. Do this daily if you are able to, or at least weekly.

-Ginseng. This was popularized in Asia for it’s disease fighting properties, as well as it’s potential ability for it to help people to lose weight faster.

-Garlic. This is known to help in lowering the heart’s cholesterol and lowering the blood pressure in some cases as well, which is good for the body.

Modern lifestyle may not be very conducive for exercise, but it is very essential for a healthy body and a healthy heart. Eating a healthy diet is also a great way to prevent heart diseases through little effort. Reducing the intake of fast food and cool drinks and increasing nutritious foods like cereals and leafy vegetables does a lot of good in the long run for the heart that will help to keep the heart active for a long time. Also, a balanced weight is essential for a good heart, so if you are overweight, then it is always good to work out those few extra pounds and maintain the optimum body weight for your height and age. Avoiding tobacco is another thing you can do for your heart, since tobacco is a very large contributor of heart diseases across the world.

There has been little by way of investigation of the long-term psychological effect on individuals who are led to mistrust an organ that is such an essential part of their body’s function. Often, the patient’s psychological state doesn’t really reflect their physical fitness or the severity of the physical symptoms they might still experience. Their subjective impression of what constitutes full recovery and physical fitness can be a strong determinant in their future health. Taking care of the physical body is not the only thing crucial to ones health, as there is usually more to be done. Having people that are there for you and act as a support system is a big help as well – as this can potentially lead to a much faster and enjoyable recovery.

Many psychologists specializing in cardiac rehabilitation see depression, anxiety, anger, frustration and even fear as a normal part of recovery. Patients should definitely spend at least an hour with a psychologist in the field for an assessment of what it will take to bring them to a state of not just objective, by-the-numbers but also personal, self-assessed well-being. Otherwise, unaddressed psychological problems can grown in negative behavior patterns that will persist until treated by professionals. Patients, having come to the cusp of death, are often drawn to considerations of their own mortality that can turn morbid. Their loss of trust in their own bodies and feelings of powerlessness can lead to their entering into the role of victim, and even of returning to the destructive patterns of behavior that put them in the hospital in the first place.

They will no longer be unaware of the risks of their behavior, say experts, and as such are likely to experience stress and guilt that can impact on their chances of recovery. Some things that you can do if you are facing problems with Heart Disease and you need an emotional lift are: go out and enjoy your family and friends as you can, exercise in fun activities that are fun and exciting but at the same time are safe and acceptable for your condition, try new things or get new hobbies that you have probably never thought you would be doing or be able to. People would be amazed at how having a positive attitude and brightening up their emotional state can directly impact their fight against heart disease.

Calcium channel blockers, which are used for high blood pressure and chest pains can help also. They work by relaxing blood vessels. Thrombolytic agents, which are used during a heart attack to break up clots in a coronary artery to restore blood flow. Diuretics, also called “water pills”, which reduce the amount of water in the body for high blood pressure. ACE inhibitors, which stop the enzyme that narrows blood vessels. Ace inhibitors are also used to control high blood pressure and for heart muscles that have been damaged. Digitalis, which is used to make contractions of the heart harder. This is useful when the heart’s pumping becomes weaker. Nitrates, which reduce chest pains and relaxes blood vessels. Blood cholesterol-lowering agents, which lower LDL cholesterol.

Though some of these medications may help with symptoms a person might experience, they can also be dangerous and have other adverse side effects that can cause physical harm to you if taken. In some cases, it can only worsen a condition, making you wonder whether taking medications or drugs worth it to suppress any symptom you may be experiencing. Luckily though, a plethora of natural and whole methods and treatments serve as an option, as opposed to traditional and mainstream medication. Finding out more about alternative and more natural and wholesome ways, techniques and methods of battling off heart disease are becoming increasingly more and more popular.

Still, most will resort to what they know. Once an individual goes to the doctor, they will more than likely be prescribe some sort of medication or drug intended to help with the signs that they have been having to suffer through. When taking these medicines, it is important that you follow the directions for taking them. If you absolutely must use them, make sure that you know all of possible outcomes from consuming medications. Report any side effects to your doctor since some of the side effects and also tell your doctor if your condition worsens by taking the medicine. Take your medicine regularly and avoid skipping doses. Avoid operating heavy machinery or driving when taking the medicine (especially for medicines that relax blood vessels) until you get a clear idea of how the medicine will affect you.

Regular exercise and fitness also go a long way in reducing the risk of heart diseases and maintaining a healthy body. In addition, smoking and drinking up the risk of heart diseases, so they should be kept at a minimum even during the youth. Mental stress also significantly increases the risk of heart disease. It is therefore essential that effective stress management is followed with people who are more prone to it. This is already showing an increase with the advent of the financial crisis and depression, wherein more and more people are getting more and more stressed which is clearly showing an increase in the occurrence of heart diseases throughout the world. So why is this a major problem for so many people? Not understanding how everything that we do can impact our heart. The heart is a somewhat complex organ and many things can offset it’s function. Increased blood pressure also contributes to higher risk related to heart diseases, so it should be kept under check at all points of time especially in the older people.

Remember that lifestyle is not a phase, it’s not a temporary thing – it’s a way of life. Also, never put any pressure on yourself at all to do anything – as this is one of the things that can cause people to quit faster than most anything else. One thing that we could try to really rev up making a difference in everything that we do, is to get other people involved and making healthy changes with themselves as well. This will not only help others, but it will assist you in reaching your goals even faster and more efficiently. A lifestyle is our way of living, how we do things, what we choose to do in our daily lives. How we choose to live it can usually directly effect it in ways that we sometimes can’t even begin to understand. Yet, this is more reason for us to be aware of the possibilities. The heart is literally our foundation for staying alive, therefore we should take care of it.

Learning more about it could also help to save a life, as becoming familiar with all of the signs and symptoms of heart disease is important as well – especially when it comes to recognizing early signs so the problem can be taken care of immediately and as soon as it is discovered that there is a problem going on inside of the body. Learning about heart disease can be a fun and educational experience and the resources on the subject of heart disease are in fact very plentiful. Some things you can do if you want to learn more are:

-Purchase some books, videos and other heart disease related products. You can go to a store in your area and check in the health section for books on health disease. If you have trouble finding something, just ask an employee for help.

-Visit a library. If you have a library in your area, you can go and find some heart disease books that are informative and give a full review on it.

-Go see a doctor. Make an appointment to go see a doctor and he should be able to answer almost any question that you may have.

The primary issue, when the heart’s rhythm is disrupted, is oxygen delivery via the bloodstream, which is essential to pretty much every system in the body. Without oxygen, your muscles, brain and internal organs simply cease to function. When you breathe air into your lungs, a series of chambers deliver it into the bloodstream, where the pumping of the heart must deliver it at a sufficient rate to the rest of the body. Lack of energy amongst the elderly may be largely attributed to weakening of the heart (heart rate decreases from a healthy 60 – 80 resting bpm in your twenties to only 40 in your seventies). If your heart stops functioning properly, say goodbye to the proper functioning of everything else – despite western civilization’s obsession with the brain, the heart might just as well be the resting place of the soul, and when it rests, so do you.

This is the reason for the use of domiciliary oxygen therapy is prescribed to patients with chronic heart failure. In fact, despite the focus on eliminating junk food and engaging in exercise as means of allaying heart problems, a recent study in Australia showed that in the case of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), the most common cause of chronic hypoxaemia on the continent, there were only two measures that reduced mortality rates: quitting smoking and supplementing oxygen intake.

The message remains clear – if you respect one part of your body, let it be your heart. Beating a spectacular one hundred thousand times a day, it’s the hardest working manual laborer on the planet. Give it the food it needs to survive, don’t pollute its world, and it will continue to turn the air that you breathe into nourishing food for all your body’s systems.