Dr. Oz's Healthy Heart Challenge

If you don’t smoke, you can take one item off your healthy heart to-do list and skip to day 2. If you do smoke, here’s your chance to take control.

Cigarette smoking is the single most preventable cause of premature death in the US and that’s primarily because it boosts your risk for cardiovascular disease. Smoking cigarettes raises blood pressure, increases the tendency for blood to clot, decreases good cholesterol, and makes it harder for you to get the vital exercise your heart needs. All of this makes cigarette smoking one of the greatest causes of coronary heart disease.

If you smoke, the number 1 thing you can do for your heart is STOP. We’re not asking you to go cold turkey. We’ve got a gradual, effective plan to help you give up your smokes for good. Start today.

Ignorance may be bliss, but when it comes to your heart, it could be deadly.

Call your doctor today for an appointment to get the 411 on your ticker.

Blood pressure

As your heart pumps blood through the body, the blood exerts pressure on the walls of your arteries. When that pressure is high (called hypertension), it prematurely ages your arteries. Over time your artery walls weaken, making your heart work harder and leaving you at greater risk for ruptures in arterial walls and blood clots. The single most effective way to stop that aging process is to keep your blood pressure at a healthy level.

Normal 120 (or lower) systolic (the pressure exerted as your heart beats) over 80 (or lower) diastolic (the pressure between beats when your heart is resting)

Prehypertension 120 – 139 systolic, 80 – 89 diastolic

Hypertension 140+ systolic, 100+ diastolic

Cholesterol – a soft, malleable substance found in all our cells – is not in and of itself bad. It plays a number of important roles in our bodies, but when the wrong kind builds up in our arteries, it can put us at serious risk.

High-density lipoproteins (HDL, also known as “good” cholesterol) actually help to remove cholesterol from your arteries to your liver, so the higher the number, the better. Low-density lipoproteins (LDL or “bad” cholesterol) do the opposite – staying put, building up, and narrowing the passageways through which your blood must pass. That’s what puts you at risk for a heart attack.

HDL

Healthy range for women: above 50

Healthy range for men: above 40

LDL

Best less than 100

Good 100 to 129

Borderline high 130 to 159

High 160 to 189

Very high 190

Often referred to as your BMI, your body mass index is a measure of your weight relative to your height. Your doctor can tell you your BMI or you can calculate it here.

Because more fat around your midsection directly increases your risk of a heart attack, your BMI is an indicator of your heart disease risk, as well as your risk for other diseases such as diabetes.

Underweight  < 18.5

Normal 18.5 – 24.9

Overweight 25 – 29.9

Obese 30 – 39.9

Extreme obesity Above 40

The Good News on Your Numbers

No matter what they are, every one of them can be improved with diet, exercise, and a few easy lifestyle changes. Ready to get started?

Your goal is to workout 30 minutes a day

Just 30 minutes of walking 3 times a week can drop your blood pressure by 5 points in only 12 weeks. So start out with that goal and build from there. There are no excuses! If it’s raining outside, head to the mall or walk around your home. If it’s freezing cold, bundle up – just get up and get moving!

Setting aside blood pressure for a moment, you’ll be surprised how quickly this small change affects how you feel overall. You will have more energy, feel more in tune with your body, and your mood will improve.

Bonus: Committing to exercise will give you the resolve to make, and stick to, other important changes.

We know there are going to be days when you can’t fit 30 minutes in. When this happens, do what you can. Research shows that even walking a few extra minutes each day lowers LDL and raises HDL.

Remember, you’re working up to walking 30 minutes every day!

First Targets: Saturated Fats and Trans Fat.
Saturated fat, found primarily in animal products such as red meat, cheese, butter, and other whole-fat dairy products, packs a doubly unhealthy punch. It increases your levels of bad cholesterol and often comes with dietary cholesterol, pushing your levels ever higher. You can also find it in baked, fried, and processed foods (watch out for palm and coconut oil). Trans fats are created in an industrial process that helps vegetable oils take solid form. They lower good cholesterol and raise bad cholesterol, making them the worst fats of all, and they are hiding in many processed and packaged foods.

Take ‘em out: Make the switch to skim milk from whole or reduced-fat. If you must have cheese, opt for reduced-fat versions, but try replacing it with fat-free cottage cheese instead. Choose healthy nut butters such as almond for your toast, or, if you must have that buttery taste switch to cholesterol-fighting spreads that contain plant stenols and spread them thinly.

Keep an eye on ‘em: Read nutrition labels carefully. You should eliminate trans fats from your diet and limit saturated fat to 20 grams (or less) per day.

Walk 30 minutes

Continue bad fats elimination

With all the extra room in your refrigerator and pantry from the bad-fat purge, you can now bring in 2 crucial types of heart-healthy foods: Good-for-you fats and fiber.

Mono- and polyunsaturated fats, when enjoyed in moderation, actually help lower cholesterol and decrease your risk for heart disease. They should make up about 25% of your day’s calories.

Good sources include: salmon, flax seed oil, walnuts (go for one palmful a day), sunflower seeds, olive oil, and avocados.

Fiber takes 2 forms – soluble and insoluble. Soluble fiber helps lower cholesterol levels and insoluble fiber has been shown to decrease your risk for heart disease. Plus, it fills you up, which helps you eat fewer calories overall.

Soluble fiber sources oatmeal, beans, peas, barley, and citrus fruits

Insoluble fiber sources whole-wheat bread, wheat bran, brown rice, barley, cabbage, beets, carrots, Brussels sprouts, turnips, artichokes, and cauliflower

Why not try: Give yourself a good-fat, high-fiber, cholesterol-lowering boost every morning. Start your day with a bowl of steel-cut oatmeal, mixed with a handful of walnuts and a small amount of sweetener such as agave nectar.

Walk 30 minutes

Welcome the good fats and fiber into your home

Enjoy oatmeal with walnuts for breakfast

Salt may be a popular seasoning, but it is not the spice of life. Consuming too much sodium increases blood pressure for many people and leaves you more prone to heart attack and stroke. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most Americans should consume less than 1500mg of salt daily including those who are over 40, are African American, or already have high blood pressure. Others should stay under 2400mg.

Hunt for hidden salt. Sure, it helps to reach for the shaker less often, but 50% of the salt we consume comes from prepared and processed foods. So, take a moment to survey your pantry and kick all packaged items with high sodium content to the curb.

Stock up on low-sodium options the next time you shop. Buy fresh fruits and vegetables when possible. When choosing salted or canned varieties, look for “no salt added.” Select cereals and other packaged products that say “sodium free,” “unsalted,”  “very low,” “low” or “reduced” sodium.

Walk 30 minutes.

Stick to your good-fat, high-fiber, low-salt plan

Enjoy oatmeal with walnuts for breakfast

Emotions – good and bad – are powerful players in our health and wellbeing. Happiness and laughter can actually help us fight and recover from disease. The flipside? Disturbing emotions can make us sick. Take stock of your emotional state to get another handle on your heart health.

The Troublemakers

Stress, hostility, anger and other negative emotions raise your blood pressure, constrict blood vessels, disrupt the body’s normal repair mechanism and make your heart’s job much more difficult.

Depression can make life seem not worth living, but it can also make staying alive much harder. People with depression are 4 times more likely to have a heart attack than people who are not depressed.

The Lifesavers

Professional help can reduce more than 90% of depression symptoms in just 3 months. It can be scary to ask for help, but there’s a big pay off when you do. Call a friend, visit your doctor or ask a coworker to get a good referral.

Meditation and relaxation techniques will teach you how to weather the stressful elements in your life and to reduce your body’s physical response to stress. (Your daily walk should already be pitching in here.)

Make and maintain friendships. Reach out to the people around you and the old friends you’ve let slip away. Having a good network of people you can depend on will help you manage turbulent times much more smoothly.

Walk 30 minutes.

Stick to your good-fat, high-fiber, low-salt plan

Enjoy oatmeal with walnuts for breakfast

Call an old friend (you can tell her how well you’re doing!)

More and more research is showing that the presence of too much bacteria in your mouth increases inflammation throughout the rest of your body. That inflammation boosts the amount of plaque deposited in your coronary arteries, which rupture during a heart attack. One study found that having periodontitis (gum disease) raises your risk of heart disease by 50-80%.

Make the easiest change yet: floss every day, at least once a day.

Walk 30 minutes.

Stick to your good-fat, high-fiber, low-salt plan

Enjoy oatmeal with walnuts for breakfast

Breathe slowly and deeply for 5 minutes when you hit a snag in the day

Floss

Make yours a multi.
Multivitamins are loaded with heart-healthy micronutrients including magnesium, which helps keep the heart’s rhythm stable, calcium, which lowers blood pressure, vitamin D, which can decrease inflammation in blood vessels and vitamins C and E which work together to form a powerful antioxidant combination. Choose a multi (or a combination of vitamin pills) that contains:

Magnesium – 400mg

Calcium – 1200mg (better if you have 600 twice daily)

Vitamin D (400 IU for those under 60, 600 IU for folks over 60)

Vitamin C – 1200 mg (better if you do 600 twice daily)

Vitamin E – 400 IU daily

(Important: If you are taking a statin such as Zocor, Prevachol, Lipitor or Crestor, reduce the amount of vitamins C and E you are taking to no more than 100 mg twice daily and 100 IU a day respectively. C and E inhibit the anti-inflammatory effect of statins.)

Get Plenty of B’s.
You can raise your HDL by taking 300 mg of pantothenic acid (vitamin B5) daily. And a daily dose of 800 micrograms of folate, another B vitamin, can lower homocysteine (which, when raised, increases your risk of heart disease) to healthy levels.

Fill Up On Flavonoids, which are powerful antioxidants and anti-inflammatory substances that occur in certain plants such as nuts, tea, red wine, grapes, cranberries, orange juice, onions, tomatoes, and tomato juice. Enjoy them in abundance (all except for red wine, which you should limit to one 5oz glass daily).

Walk 30 minutes.

Stick to your good-fat, high-fiber, low-salt plan

Enjoy oatmeal with walnuts for breakfast

Floss

Write down 5 things you are grateful for before you go to sleep

Take your vitamins

One small pill can make a big difference in your chances of having a heart attack. For men with no history of a cardiovascular event, aspirin lowers the risk of heart attack by 32%. Though it may not reduce a woman’s risk of heart attack, it does decrease her chance of stroke by 19%. That’s because aspirin disables platelets, which are critical to clot formation. Since the key event in a heart attack is the formation of a clot, it makes sense that aspirin can go a long way in heart attack prevention. If you have a history of heart disease, aspirin is one of the key weapons you can deploy to protect your heart.

Talk to your doctor before taking daily aspirin for heart attack prevention, since aspirin can raise your risk for an ulcer or stomach bleeding. But, the recommended dose is half of a regular aspirin or 2 low-dose aspirin daily (162 milligrams total) for men over 35 and women over 40. Drinking half a glass of warm water before and after swallowing the pill can reduce your chance of developing an ulcer by more than 60%.

Meditate for 5 minutes when you get out of bed

Walk 30 minutes.

Stick to your good-fat, high-fiber, low-salt plan

Enjoy oatmeal with walnuts for breakfast

Take your vitamins and daily aspirin

Floss

Research shows that besides the calories you’re burning during your daily walk and other activities, you need 60 minutes of stamina training weekly to keep your heart muscle and blood vessels healthy. That means exercise that elevates your heart rate to 80% or more of your age-adjusted maximum (220 minus your age). Don’t worry: you can break it into three 20 minutes sessions. Try your first one today.

Exercise options: cycling, swimming, using an elliptical trainer, walking the stairs in your house

Walk 30 minutes.

Stick to your good-fat, high-fiber, low-salt plan

Enjoy oatmeal with walnuts for breakfast

Take your vitamins and daily aspirin

Floss

Not getting adequate sleep hastens the aging in your arteries and bumps up your risk of a heart attack. The science says that the optimal amount is 7-8 hours a night for men and 6-7 hours for women. And you need to be sleeping solidly during that time. Running short on sleep causes us to release less serotonin (the pleasure hormone), which leads us to eat more sugar and fall back on old habits such as smoking.

Walk 30 minutes a day

Stick to your good-fat, high-fiber, low-salt plan

Enjoy oatmeal with walnuts for breakfast

Take your vitamins and daily aspirin

Work in a 20-minute stamina session three times a week

Floss

Take many moments to recognize how far you’ve come

Wow, look at you! You’re getting moving most days. You’ve cleaned out your pantry and loaded up on good-for-you foods! You’re back in touch with old friends and taking time to relax and let go. You’ve implemented new habits that give your heart a healthy boost every day.

You’ve made huge strides (literally and metaphorically) toward a healthy heart. You should feel very proud. And then, you should get up tomorrow and keep it going!

Walk 30 minutes.

Stick to your good-fat, high-fiber, low-salt plan

Enjoy oatmeal with walnuts for breakfast

Take your vitamins and daily aspirin

Floss

It’s time to brag to your doctor about all the good changes you’ve made. Then have him or her get the proof by rerunning your numbers.

For those who are battling a hereditary tendency toward high blood pressure, cholesterol, or heart disease, your doctor may not feel that lifestyle changes will get your numbers low enough. So now is a good time to talk about whether adding medications to lower blood pressure or cholesterol makes sense.

Congratulations you have worked really hard, and you are well on your way to a longer, happier, healthier life.