Baltimore Cardiologists - Woodholme Cardiovascular Associates
With locations throughout the Greater Baltimore, Maryland area, Woodholme Cardiovascular Associates, and our board-certified cardiologists provide comprehensive cardiovascular services.
Have you had your cholesterol checked lately? High blood cholesterol is one of the major risk factors for heart disease. Heart disease is the number one killer of women and men in the United States. Take the quiz below to test your knowledge of heart-healthy eating.
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Here’s a story from The New York Times that I thought you’d find interesting:
There are many treatment options for a problem that can be downright deadly.
For those who qualify, Woodholme Cardiovascular Associates now offers Home Sleep Study Monitoring!
Sleep Apnea Article – Click Here
Consume foods that are naturally high in fiber, especially soluble fiber. Soluble fiber is found in legumes, fruits and root vegetables, as well as oats, barley and flax. For every 1 or 2 grams of soluble fiber you consume daily, you will lower your LDL by 1%. Try to consume 10-25 grams of soluble fiber per day. Psyllium husk may help those who have trouble consuming enough; talk to your physician if this is the case.
Eat 6 to 8 small meals daily instead of 1 or 2 large ones.
Use only non-fat dairy products. Regular dairy products like whole milk, butter, cheese, cream cheese and ricotta cheese are very high in saturated fat. Cheese is the number one source of saturated fat in the American diet.
Accumulate 30 minutes of moderate physical activity on most days of the week to help raise HDL. Ideally, try to walk at least 2 to 3 miles per day at least 5 to six days a week. Start gradually and work up slowly.
Limit the amount of saturated fat you consume from red meat, restaurant meals, frozen foods and tropical oils. Ideally, you
should consume no more than 5% of your daily calories from saturated fat (around 10-11g for most people.)
This fat comes from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils often found in fried foods and processed foods like crackers, baked goods and desserts. Choose foods with 0g trans-fat on the label and be aware of foods that contain partially hydrogenated oils because they can contain up to .49g per serving and still claim 0g.
Limit your daily cholesterol intake to no more than 100mg. Cholesterol is found in high amounts in egg yolks, squid and animal organs like liver.
If you are overweight, lose weight. This will help lower your total cholesterol and raise your HDL. The best way to lose
weight and keep it off is to exercise and eat a diet that is high in fiber and low in fat and added sugar.
Limit your intake of sugar and fructose. This should lower triglycerides, aid weight loss and will help lower LDL.
Consider using foods that have added sterols. These include margarine, yogurt and orange juice. The National Cholesterol
Education Program’s Adult Treatment Panel III (ATPIII) says, “daily intakes of two to three grams per day of plant sterol/stanol esters will reduce LDL cholesterol by 6 to 15 percent.”
Base most of your meals on fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes, with a minimum of animal protein foods low in saturated fat, like non-fat dairy, fish and egg whites.
© Food and Health Communications
Woodholme encourages a healthy diet and proper nutrition as one aspect of maintaining heart health. The nutrition information and recipes are presented for informational purposes only and are not intended take the place of one-on-one advice from your doctor. Please follow your personal physician’s recommendations if any recipes, ingredients, or advice found here conflict with what your doctor
According to a new study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association a restful night’s sleep can have a direct impact on heart health in women. The study found that even mild sleep disturbances in otherwise healthy women can increase blood pressure and cause endothelial inflammation, an inflammation of the thin membrane that lines the inside of the heart and blood vessels.
323 women between the ages of 20 and 79 years of age were evaluated for their risk for sleep apnea and insomnia and then monitored for sleep disturbances using a wristwatch-like device that measured the amount and quality of their sleep. Those women who experienced mild sleep disturbances were significantly more like to have high blood pressure than those who did not.
“Our findings suggest that mild sleep problems could possibly initiate the vascular endothelial inflammation that’s a significant contributor to cardiovascular disease,” said lead study author Brooke Aggarwal, EdD, a behavioral scientist in the Department of Medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Particularly concerning, even women who slept eight or more hours a night and those who did not have other health issues such as sleep apnea showed inflammation linked to heart disease.
The study focused on women as previous research suggested that they are more susceptible to sleep problems and other data suggested a link to heart disease in women. According to Dr. Aggarwal, “studies have shown that sleep deprivation and milder sleep problems may have a disproportionate effect on cardiovascular health in women.”
The study is published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Cardiovascular disease is the largest cause of death and disability in people with diabetes. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), over 65% of people with diabetes die from heart disease or stroke. People with diabetes often focus primarily on managing blood glucose levels and forget about the importance of an overall healthy lifestyle to reduce the very real risk of heart disease.
People with diabetes can use the new American College of Cardiology (ACC) and AHA cardiovascular guidelines to improve their cardiovascular health in the following 4 ways:
Choose a healthful diet that emphasizes vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. Include low-fat dairy products, poultry, fish, legumes, nontropical vegetable oils, and nuts. Limit sweets, sugar-sweetened beverages and red meats. The DASH diet, MyPlate, and the AHA diet plan are examples of food plans that meet this goal.
Participate in moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise for at least 150 minutes per week. Even 10 minutes of exercise spread throughout the day can be effective. More exercise provides additional benefits, and it’s important to recognize that some physical activity is better than no physical
activity.
Measure fasting LDL and HDL cholesterol levels every year. Decrease blood levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol by reducing saturated fat intake to 5-6% of total calories.
Measure blood pressure at every medical office visit. The goal is to have systolic blood pressure of <140mmHG and diastolic blood pressure of <90mmHg. In addition to the diet and exercise recommendations, lifestyle modifications to lower blood pressure include:
By Lynn Grieger, RDN, CDE, CPT, CWC
© Food and Health Communications
Woodholme encourages a healthy diet and proper nutrition as one aspect of maintaining heart health. The nutrition information presented here is for informational purposes only and are not intended take the place of one-on-one advice from your doctor. Please follow your personal physician’s recommendations if any recipes, ingredients, or advice found here conflict with what your doctor
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