heart disease

Our heart, although only about the size of our fist, is one of the strongest muscles in our body. It pumps blood that is rich in both oxygen and nutrients, to our body's tissue and organs through a system of blood vessels, namely the arteries and veins. Arteries are blood vessels that carry deoxygenated blood away from the heart, while veins carry oxygenated blood back into the heart.

Heart Disease basically involves any disorder that affects the heart's ability to function normally. It is the second leading cause of death in Singapore each year (after cancer), in fact, approximately one in every four deaths is caused by heart disease.

Heart Diseases not only affect the heart, but also the blood vessels. There are many different forms of heart disease, such as heart attacks, heart failure, endocarditis etc. They are caused either because of the abnormal functioning of the heart valves and electrical rhythm of the heart or by infection or toxins that weaken the heart's pumping function.

Heart diseases are fatal and can cause dead, this site intends to allow the common user, you, to find out more about heart disease, so that you will have the knowledge to protect yourself.

Many Dietary Factors can be associated with the risk of one getting a heart disease. One of the more important factors is cholesterol. Cholesterol is a soft and waxy substance that is manufactured in the liver and builds up in the arteries, causing the arteries to harden and narrow, putting a strain on the heart to keep it from pumping enough blood to circulate the whole body. Since our body produces cholesterol, there is no need for us to consume more cholesterol, which we do when we consume products from animals. Eggs are extremely high in cholesterol.

Another dietary factor is fat. There are two types of fat found in food, namely saturated fat and unsaturated fat. Saturated fat is found mainly in animal products such as meat, lard and dairy food. Coconut has a very high level of saturated fat. Unsaturated fat is found in vegetable oils, margarine, nuts and sunflower seeds. A diet high in saturated far causes cholesterol to build up as mentioned above. Although too much fat is not good, it does improve the flavour of food, and our body needs some fat as a source of energy, and therefore we cannot forgo eating any fat.

Another factor that is associated with increase heart disease risk is salt. Salt, also known as sodium chloride, helps regulate blood pressure out of many other functions. If there is too much sodium in our body, hypertension, or high blood pressure would occur, increasing the risk of heart disease.

On the other hand, there are dietary factors that protect against heart disease. Soluble fibre, such as fruits vegetables and oats, binds the bile acids and reduce the cholesterol level, and some fruits and vegetables the production of cholesterol.

Also, soy-products reduce the level of bad cholesterol and raise the level of good cholesterol. They do this as they contain LDL and HDL, the low-density lipoprotein ¡®helping¡¯ the bad cholesterol, and the high-density lipoprotein ¡®helping¡¯ the good cholesterol.

Another dietary factor that protects against heart disease is fish, which contains omega-3 fatty acids, which helps to reduce the formation of blood clots, minimising the chance of blood vessels being blocked. It also helps to smoothen blood flow.

Fruits and vegetables, by far the best dietary factors in protecting against heart disease, contain vitamins A and C and flavonoids, helping to trap free radicals before they damage the blood vessels. They also are rich in potassium which helps to restrict the amount of sodium and maintain normal blood pressure

In The Singaporeans National Nutrition Survey ,it was noticed that half of Singaporean adults did not consume adequate carbohydrates daily. About 85% did not meet the recommended serving of fruits and vegetables, and the same percentage also exceeded the recommended level of sodium intake. Ironically, it was found that they did not add extra salt to their food. In the fat and saturated fat area, many people exceeded the recommended amount of saturated fat by far, because of cooking oils and coconut milk. The mean intake of cholesterol also exceeded the recommended daily average by almost 40%.

A diet that is not excessive in energy, fat and salt, yet provides adequate nutrients and dietary fibre helps to reduce the risk of heart disease.

Singaporeans should eat more carbohydrates, but not too much, and refrain from having their carbohydrates fried when they did have it. Also, more vegetables and fruits can be eaten each day, as 5 servings is the stipulated amount. As eggs contain very high cholesterol, one could restrict oneself to eating fewer eggs.

When eating out, one could ask the waiter or hawker to put less salt, and more vegetables on their food, and also minimize the amount of oil used. When at the supermarket, try and buy only the items with the ¡®Healthier Choice¡¯ (Figure 3) sign on it, as they have been proven and experimented to help protect and prevent the controllable aspects of diseases, including heart disease

Eat up, dark chocolate may help your heart

JUNE 4, 2004

THERE may be a sweet way to protect your heart: Eat dark chocolate.

Professor Mary B. Engler and her colleagues at the University of California in San Francisco fed a small 45g bar of dark chocolate to each of 22 volunteers daily for two weeks. Half received bars containing dark chocolate's typically high levels of flavonoids, half 'placebo' bars with just trace amounts of flavonoids.

Dark chocolate is rich in flavonoids, chemicals derived from a variety of plants that have powerful antioxidant properties. These chemicals decrease the harmful oxidation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, inhibit aggregation of blood platelets and decrease the body's inflammatory response.

Those in the high-flavonoid group showed a significant relaxation of blood vessels compared with tests done before chocolate consumption. Researchers also found extremely high levels of epicatechin, a flavonoid-rich substance, in the bloodstreams of these volunteers.

'Dark chocolate... provides better blood flow through the vessels, which is good for the heart,' said Prof Engler, a physiological nursing lecturer at the university's school of nursing. She suspects the elevated blood levels of epicatechin trigger the release of active substances that increase blood flow in the arteries.

The study, which adds to a growing body of evidence for the health benefits of dark chocolate, appears in a recent edition of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.

Other studies conducted on the health benefits of chocolate suggest that milk chocolate does not have the same heart-protecting effect.

It has long been known that certain fruits and vegetables are rich in flavonoids and antioxidants. But newer techniques to measure flavonoid content in products suggest dark chocolate contains more flavonoids than any other food tested so far, including such flavonoid-rich foods as green and black tea, red wine and blueberries, Prof Engler said. -- Los Angeles Times, Washington Post

Broiled Fish, Not Fried, Curbs Irregular Heartbeat

JULY 19, 2004

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Eating fish that is broiled or baked seems to reduce the risk of developing an irregular rhythm of the heart's upper chambers, called atrial fibrillation, new research suggests.

However, eating fried fish or fish sandwiches doesn't cut it

Elderly people with atrial fibrillation are known to be at heightened risk for having a stroke caused by blood clots, and are often treated with blood-thinners like Coumadin or aspirin.

"The results suggest that regular intake of tuna or other broiled or baked fish may be a simple and important deterrent to atrial fibrillation among older men and women," Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, said in a statement.

The findings, which appear in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation, are based on a study of 4815 older adults who responded to dietary questionnaires in 1989 and 1990 and then were followed for 12 years to assess the incidence of atrial fibrillation.

Consumption of broiled or baked fish correlated with blood levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acid, whereas intake of fried fish or fish sandwiches did not, the researchers note.

During follow-up, 980 subjects were diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, Mozaffarian's team reports.

They found that people who ate broiled or baked fish at least once per week were 30 percent less likely to develop atrial fibrillation than those who ate fish less than once per month.

This benefit was largely unchanged after taking into account any history of heart attack or heart failure.

The reasons for this association -- such as reduced blood pressure, improved heart function, or a direct effect on irregular heartbeats -- need to be looked into more closely, the investigators say.