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Anti-inflammatory Foods for Your Heart
I'm not implying that a paper cut could be responsible for someone's heart attack; however, trauma inside the body, like cholesterol slipping into artery walls and oxidizing or decaying there, could trigger an inflammatory response. The immune system sends out immune cells that are intended to remove the oxidized cholesterol deposits, but instead they cause a hard fatty plaque to form in the artery. This plaque formation is called atherosclerosis. Sometimes, inflammation does not get "turned off" after it has been activated, resulting in a condition called chronic inflammation. This constant inflammation can set off a cascade of effects that can encourage the progression of an illness into a heart attack or a stroke, as in the case of atherosclerosis. Inflammation can be aggravated by a whole host of factors, many of which are within our control. If you want to lower your risk of chronic inflammation, you should quit smoking, lose any excess weight, exercise, and eat an anti-inflammatory diet. If you still smoke, you need to quit since each cigarette is an oxidative attack on your body and oxidation elicits an inflammatory response from your immune system. Both smoking and high blood pressure damage blood vessel walls and set the stage for an inflammatory reaction. If you're carrying extra weight, you need to lose it since losing excess weight has been shown to reduce harmful inflammation inside the body, as well as reduce the blood chemical called C-reactive protein (CRP) that is a primary marker of inflammation. CRP is a chemical produced in the liver and released into the bloodstream in response to inflammation. Just like LDL and HDL cholesterol are implicated in heart disease, CRP is emerging as an important predictor of heart attacks, strokes, and other signs of heart disease like hypertension. Inflammation Fighters
Exercise is another factor that helps lower CRP levels, which indicates that it may help reduce inflammation. How exercise helps is not yet understood, but we do know that physically fit people have lower CRP levels than unfit people. There are many specific dietary factors that can encourage inflammation, as well as those that can help prevent it. If you're interested in preventing many of the diseases associated with aging, then you should consider removing certain foods from your diet, starting with unhealthy fats. You may have heard of a group of hormones called prostaglandins that are responsible for regulating inflammation. Some prostaglandins turn on inflammation, while others turn it off. Since prostaglandins are made from the fats we eat, the type of fats in our diet influence the type of prostaglandins we make. If we eat a lot of unhealthy fats, we may produce more of the hormones that turn on inflammation, and vice versa. Dietary fats that encourage inflammation include hydrogenated and partially-hydrogenated oils found in margarine, energy bars and protein bars with coatings, many commercial cakes, cookies, crackers, breads, and fried foods. Polyunsaturated vegetable oils that are high in omega-6 fats also help produce these undesirable hormones. High omega-6 foods include corn oil, cottonseed oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, soybean oil, and peanut oil, as well as meat and poultry fat. Once these foods are removed, they need to be replaced by foods that will encourage the production of anti-inflammatory prostaglandins. Organic olive oil should be your main cooking oil, since it is high in monounsaturated fats and low in omega-6 fats. Fatty fish, nuts, fruits, and vegetables are the best sources of anti-inflammatory nutrients. See the Inflammation Fighters chart above for specific foods that help fight inflammation. Since antioxidants help prevent the free radicals that provoke inflammation, foods high in phytonutrients and vitamins C and E should be emphasized. Fruits and vegetables are abundant suppliers of these nutrients, especially if they are deeply colored. See the Major Antioxidants chart below for some foods that are potent antioxidants. Major Antioxidants
Eating a healthy diet with an emphasis on foods high in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory phytonutrients may help keep your heart healthy and prevent diabetes, arthritis, certain cancers, and Alzheimer's disease. You should try to emphasize the foods listed in the charts, but continue to keep in mind that fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are always healthy. If you think you want to have your CRP tested, talk to your doctor, but understand that if you already know you are at high risk for heart disease then the test will not be helpful. You may also want to consult your doctor about taking a low dose of aspirin daily to help further reduce inflammation and protect against heart attacks. Even if you aren't ready to make all of these changes, you should do something for your heart this February. My advice to you is to choose at least one risk factor to remove and one antioxidant or anti-inflammatory to add in recognition of a happy heart month.
Fat for Your Eyes
Specifically, eating sufficient quantities of omega-3 fatty acids and keeping omega-6 fatty acids to a minimum helped to significantly lower study subjects' risk of developing dry eye. In their healthy state, the surface of our eyes has a protective coating called tear film that helps keep the eye moist underneath. When there is a dietary imbalance of the ratio of healthy fats (omega-3) to unhealthy fats (omega-6), the tear film becomes inflamed and weak, resulting in dry eye. For a healthy set of eyes, as well as brain and heart, try to emphasize healthy fat sources of omega-3s in your diet from foods like walnuts, ground flax seeds, salmon, sardines, and herring and try to eliminate foods high in omega-6 fats, like partially hydrogenated oils, margarine, safflower oil, sunflower oil, corn oil, and soy oil.
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ave you ever noticed how, when you scrape your arm or bump your knee, the injured area turns red and warm and maybe swells a little? That's what doctors call an inflammatory response. It's your immune system's way of healing and protecting your body from infection-a very beneficial process. However, there is an emerging theory in medicine today that does not view all instances of inflammation as healthy. In fact, many researchers and medical experts believe that the initiation of many chronic diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, certain cancers, and Alzheimer's, can be traced back to inflammation in the body.
he dry, itchy, sand-in-your-eye feeling known as "dry eye" affects over 59 million Americans and is their top complaint at the eye doctor. Recently, researchers in the Harvard Women's Health Study have discovered a dietary link to this irritating condition: a lack of healthy fats in the diet.