Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “cholesterol”
You may have heard the buzz that fermented foods have benefits for your health. Fermented foods include things like yogurt, sauerkraut, and kimchi (a pickled vegetable dish from Korea) and beverages called kefir and kombucha. These products contain “good” bacteria called probiotics. Eating fermented products increases the good bacteria that naturally live in your intestines. This is called the gut …
If you’ve put on weight over the last year, you are not alone. Eating more, moving less, and coping with pandemic stress have taken a toll on our bodies and health. Almost a third of Americans reported exercising less than before the COVID crisis hit, according to a poll from the University of Southern California. You probably know how bad …
Confused if you should be taking a fish oil supplement? That’s not surprising. Sometimes headlines say the omega-3 fatty acids in them can lower heart risks. Others say the opposite. But the data in favor of fish oil has been growing. Two recent studies show a strong benefit – especially if you don’t like or can’t eat fish itself. The …
You expect to lose weight when you eat less. But what if eating a little less also lowered your blood pressure, improved your cholesterol, reduced inflammation in your body, and helped with blood sugar control? Looks like it does. That was the surprising finding of a recent study in the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. It followed 218 people ages 21 …
You might have heard that people who are depressed are more likely to have heart disease. People who have heart disease are also more likely to get the blues. Having both heart disease and depression is worse for your health than just having heart disease. A 2017 study found that people diagnosed with depression after they’d had a heart attack …
Here’s some good news about heart disease, the number one killer of Americans: the rate of heart attacks and strokes is dropping and has been for decades. That means you are less likely to develop these problems than in the past. But there’s bad news, too: heart attacks are striking more young people, particularly younger women. New research shows that …
A healthy diet is the first step toward a healthier heart. Eating lots of vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains, healthy fats like olive oil, and lean protein like fish and chicken, can’t be beat for preventing heart attacks and strokes. But how you prepare these foods also makes a big difference. A variety of herbs have been shown to give …
Heart-healthy diets include plenty of vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains like oatmeal, brown rice, and whole-grain bread and pasta. One thing these foods have in common is fiber. Fiber is good for your body in many ways and especially good for your heart. The results of a large review study just released by the World Health Organization (WHO) are …
The rich foods and sweet treats of the holidays can make it hard to keep a heart-healthy diet. But one small change in your eating habits could help: eating the day’s larger meals in the middle of the day. You probably know that what you eat and how much you eat is very important to your heart and your health. …
Exercise. Eat healthy. Stay slim. Lower your stress. This “to-do” list is great for a healthy heart, but it may not sound like fun. Thank goodness, there’s chocolate! Hundreds of studies have found that chocolate—specifically, dark chocolate— keeps the heart and blood vessels in good shape. Here are some of the ways this delicious treat helps the heart: It may …
You’ve probably heard of the heart-healthy Mediterranean Diet. And you may have heard of the DASH Diet, which is designed to lower blood pressure. But you may not have heard of the Portfolio Diet. All three eating patterns are based on plant foods and help the heart. But if lowering cholesterol is very important to you, the Portfolio Diet deserves …
When Bob Harper collapsed at the gym from a heart attack last year, according to a New York Times report, it was the ultimate head scratcher. Host and trainer on NBC’s hit show, “The Biggest Loser,” Harper, 52, was about as fit as they come. It is now known that Harper had high levels of a blood particle called lipoprotein …
September is National Cholesterol Education Month—a reminder to get a cholesterol check and learn ways to reduce high levels in order to prevent heart attacks and strokes. It’s also a good time to highlight a harmful lipid condition that often goes undiagnosed and unnoticed until disaster strikes. Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is an inherited disorder that leads to early and aggressive …
When it comes to our eating habits, it doesn’t get much grimmer than the Western diet. High in fat, red and processed meats, salt, and sugar and low in healthful plant foods, it’s the predominant eating pattern in the U.S.—and increasingly in other parts of the world—and solidly linked to heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and other chronic conditions. But recently …
For decades, the relationship between cholesterol and heart health seemed to be black and white: High levels of “bad” or “lousy” LDL cholesterol raised the risk for heart disease. High levels of “good” HDL or “healthy” cholesterol reduced it by removing cholesterol from artery walls. The belief has been so solid that doctors routinely prescribed drugs like niacin to help …
Everyone is at risk for heart disease, but some people have more risk factors than others. Since heart disease is the leading cause of death among adults in the U.S., it’s important for us all to know what our risk factors for heart disease are, and what we can do about them. There are two types of risk factors for …
Doug Dunning, MD thought he was healthy – until he suffered a heart attack on June 15, 2015, at age 56. He is now convinced that it might have been prevented with the right knowledge, testing, and optimal medical care. “This experience has changed how I practice medicine, making me a more attentive advocate for my patients’ cardiovascular wellness – and my …
Even if you’re not overweight, cutting calories could lower inflammation by nearly 50 percent, improve other major risk factors for heart attack and stroke, including blood pressure and cholesterol, and even add years to your life, suggests a new National Institute on Aging (NIA) study. The findings, which were published in Journal of Gerontology: Medical Science, “are quite intriguing,” said …
Yep! Despite years of being told that we should avoid eating eggs (both seen and unseen in the foods we eat) because of the high amount of cholesterol in the yolks, experts now say that the cholesterol in foods is NOT what causes the increased amount of cholesterol in blood that leads to heart disease. In the past several years, …
Survivors of heart attacks and other acute coronary events are up to 61 percent more likely to suffer repeat events if they have high fasting triglycerides, according to new research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC). The investigators examined outcomes in two studies of patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS): sudden blockage of blood flow …
It sounds too good to be true, but a variety of tasty treats – including nuts, berries, and even dark chocolate – help protect against cardiovascular disease, according to new research. Here is a look at some of the latest discoveries about which foods are the most beneficial. Peanuts may help prevent heart disease. Eating peanuts may protect against fatal cardiovascular …
Cholesterol is the most demonized, misunderstood and controversial substance in both our bodies and our diets. New and recent cholesterol guidelines, in particular, have sparked headlines and hot medical debate about its role in heart disease. The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) ignited fresh controversy this month by suggesting that cholesterol-rich foods–such as eggs, shellfish and liver–may not be a …
The 2013 American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology (AHA/ACC) cholesterol guidelines sparked headlines and hot medical debate around the world, says Marc Penn, MD, PhD, FACC, Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Cleveland HeartLab and Director of Research of Summa Cardiovascular Institute. “Nearly a year later, there’s still widespread confusion about what clinicians should do with such dramatically changed guidelines …
