here are my 10 rules for preventing a heart attack AKA a myocardial infarction which is caused by chronic inflammation and something called endothelial dysfunction which eventually leads to Fat being deposited in the wall of the artery known as atherosclerosis atherosclerosis leads to fatty streaks and plaque formation and when that plaque ruptures it travels Downstream and clogs up the artery this causes a blockage of blood flow which means part of the heart muscle doesn't get any blood and the lack of oxygen causes part of the heart muscle to die off how can this be prevented unfortunately
three of the risk factors are out of your control like age which is the most powerful independent risk factor the older you are the higher the risk the second risk factor that's out of your control is gender so pre-menopausal women are less likely to have a heart attack compared to men but this actually evens out after menopause the third is family history some of us have genetic conditions that predispose us to heart attacks at younger ages regardless there are risk factors that you can control started with number 10 on the list cocaine don't do it
because cocaine is a hell of a drug number nine don't smoke cigarettes the risk for a heart attack can be decreased by 65 percent after quitting smoking number eight reduce stress in your life of course there are multiple ways to do this this is a great reason to do activities outdoors like going for a walk or going for a hike and other things to help reduce stress like meditation getting good sleep writing things down in a gratitude Journal doing things that you love whatever that might be and not to be underestimated is spending time connecting
with friends and family because we know based on the longest study ever done at Harvard that the people who live the longest and happiest lives are the people who have meaningful relationships I love you Dad okay the rest rest of the rules on this list all have to do with improving the other modifiable risk factors for heart attack in other words improving high cholesterol high blood pressure obesity diabetes and metabolic syndrome all of these things I just mentioned are caused mainly by insulin resistance meaning your cells start to not respond as well to the insulin
that's floating around in your bloodstream let's say you get some blood work done and you do a fasting lipid panel that shows your cholesterol numbers pay special attention to these numbers especially the triglyceride level and the HDL level also known as the the good cholesterol and as you'll soon see the total LDL number is actually less important why well once the serum triglycerides unloads its fat at the adipocyte meaning the fat cell it turns into a small dense LDL therefore the triglyceride to HDL ratio the real ratio of bad to good cholesterol is the best
biomarker of small dense LDL which is the best biomarker of cardiovascular disease and the best indirect way of determining your degree of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome if that triglyceride level is higher than 150 it's all but guaranteed to be metabolic syndrome now the second most important biomarker to look at is that HDL the good cholesterol so if it's higher than 60 that's going to indicate great cardiovascular health but if it's less than 40 in men or less than 50 in women the risk of heart disease is much higher now look at that triglyceride to
HDL ratio for unknown reasons Race Matters with this so if that ratio is over two and a half in Caucasians or over 1.5 in African Americans that's a correlate of metabolic syndrome and what about that bad cholesterol the LDL cholesterol if it's less than 70 the fraction of small dense LDL ends up being so low that it's highly unlikely to cause harm now if it's over 300 which is super high there's a good a chance that you have a rare genetic disease that's causing that like familial hypercholesterolemia in which you can't clear your LDL in
this instance in this genetic condition because you can't clear your LDL you would need a low-fat diet and likely require a Statin medication as well now if your LDL level Falls between 70 and 300 like most people then what you should do is exactly what we just talked about which is look at the triglycerides and the HDL and that triglyceride to HDL ratio just remember that high triglyceride levels and metabolic syndrome are a direct result of insulin resistance and the only way to fix that root cause of the problem is with exercise and even more
so by eating unprocessed food exercise as well as eating unprocessed food they both serve to reduce inflammation in the body and keep your cells in mitochondria in tip top shape the same can be said for intermittent fasting so number seven on this list is exercise ideally you want a minimum of 150 minutes of water intensity per week but even getting up and going for a walk is much better than doing nothing number six on the list intermittent fasting which basically gives you the same benefits as exercise as it promotes autophagy and mitophagy so the way
I see it why not do both now the most practical way of doing intermittent fasting and what I do is time restricted eating or time-restricted feeding for example I'll eat in an eight hour window and then I'll fast for 16 hours number five through number one on this list they all have to do with eating unprocessed food in order to prevent or even reverse insulin resistance and eliminate inflammation and oxidative stress in the body but to get a little more specific number five on this list entails eating foods with plenty of Omega-3s things like salmon
chia seeds hemp seeds flax seeds and walnuts are all great sources now you want at least a gram or two of Omega-3s every day number four eat foods with plenty of vitamins and minerals and antioxidants that's why vegetables and whole intact grains can't be underestimated also seeds and nuts number three is to minimize eating foods that are high in saturated fat especially when it's coming from beef and pork especially if they're processed Meats like pepperoni bacon and the like number two is avoiding foods that have added sugar or refined carbohydrates or at least eating less
than 25 grams of added sugar per day 75 percent of the food in grocery stores has added sugar so it's super easy to eat more than you should and it's the sugar in refined carbs that's really the biggest driver of insulin resistance so eating less than 25 grams of added sugar per day is probably the most important thing that you can do to improve your overall health and this includes reducing your risk of a heart attack but number one on this list might be just as important if not more important and that means eating foods
that contain both soluble and insoluble fiber most of us consume 10 to 15 grams of fiber per day when we should be getting at least 25 to 30 per day we're often tricked into thinking that bread has lots of fiber but the reality is that it only has a lot of soluble fiber why now when that wheat is being processed during that Milling process they remove the bran in The Germ of the original wheat kernel and they only keep the endosperm the endosperm is what contains the flower now the brand contains the insoluble fiber but
it's gone now and you can't add it back once it's processed so that's why processed food has no insoluble fiber so why is that so important well in a nutshell the insoluble fiber slows down digestion and absorption of all those other things that you eat which helps to keep you feeling full and eating less but also since it slows down the absorption of sugar that means a lower and a slower release of insulin from the pancreas so this helps to keep your insulin levels down and prevent or even reverse that insulin resistance but let's face
it it's hard for most people to eat mostly unprocessed food maybe because they don't know what foods they should be eating or they don't like the taste of unprocessed food maybe they're addicted to sugar or they don't have the time to go to the grocery store and do the cooking or perhaps it's a combination of some or all of these things me personally this is one reason why I'm such a huge fan of making smoothies because it makes it so easy to get my 25 grams of fiber 2 grams of Omega-3s vitamins minerals antioxidants while
keeping the added sugar to a minimum and if you want more details to check out the biggest risk factor for a heart attack you should definitely check out this video right here
