These AWESOME FOODS WILL CLEANSE YOUR BLOOD VESSELS! THE BEST FOR CIRCULATION Hello! What are the things that destroy your arteries, that build up fatty plaques, the atherosclerosis in your carotids, in your coronary arteries that supply our heart—that can lead to a heart attack or a stroke?
And can these fatty plaques in the blood vessels, atherosclerosis, be reversed? Is this regression possible? And what are the 10 foods that can reduce your chance of having this fatty deposit in your arteries?
Well, that's today's topic. What are the 10 best foods for your circulation and the worst ones that you should avoid them. So stay until the end because you'll learn how to keep your blood vessels as healthy as possible and how to clear out fatty plaques.
But first, already enjoy the video, subscribe to the channel so you don't miss our health tips, and activate the bell to receive notifications. And it is also very important that you spread this knowledge with your friends and family. Because when it comes to your health, our health is worth sharing!
So share there! And tell me: do you have fat plaques or poor circulation? What part of Brazil or the world are you from?
Write down there! Come on! We know that cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in Brazil and in the world.
And what we also know is that changing your diet a little and exchanging bad habits for healthy habits makes all the difference. There are 3 things that can destroy your arteries: the first is inflammation, the second is the deposit of cholesterol, atherosclerosis, and the third is the formation of clots or emboli that have broken off from one place and fall into a specific place, clogging a vessel of the lung, or brain. That's why the most important thing is to recognize how to prevent your blood vessels from getting sick, to stop this destruction that happens to your arteries, and also to know that it is possible, yes, in some cases, to reverse the fat plates, based on numerous studies solid scientists.
Why is it important for us to fight inflammation to prevent clogs? You see, inside the arteries that are like pipes that carry our blood to the organs and tissues, there is the endothelium that is like a carpet that lines this pipe. And why is this endothelium important?
Why it's responsible for vascular homeostasis: so vascular tone—it produces relaxation factors like nitric oxide that make the artery dilate. In addition, it makes blood flow laminar and fluid, in addition to maintaining the balance between coagulation and fibrinolysis — preventing clots, and on top of that, it prevents circulating cholesterol from sticking there, penetrating the vessel and causing plaques, so it repels the cholesterol. You see - inflammation of the body causes endothelial dysfunction - all endothelium responses are going to be impaired.
Cholesterol, instead of being repelled, will be attracted to that dysfunctional point, which will be like tar, the cholesterol will stick there. It will form fatty plaques. So inflammation and high cholesterol are really bad for your arteries.
It's a flammable combination - phosphorus and gasoline. So, understand, you have to decrease inflammation in the body. How do we do this?
We have to attack the causes of inflammation. What are they: obesity, especially visceral - belly, smoking - smoking, inflames all arteries, high blood pressure, sedentary lifestyle, stress, lack of sleep, high cholesterol and avoiding an inflammatory diet. Let's break it down: First look at your belly.
Is she protruding? This causes inflammation. It's important that you measure this - get a tape measure - if you're a woman and you're under 88 cm, that's right, and if you're a man and you're under 102 cm, too.
Now, if you're above that, you have to try to lose the belly. Don't think that eating the right 10 things, which I'm going to talk about at the end, will offset that. Will not.
So this obesity, apple is the most dangerous. Visceral obesity acts as an endocrine organ. Fat releases inflammatory molecules like TNF-α and IL-6.
It produces substances that interfere with hormones - I just did a video on testosterone, so it's going to transform testosterone into estrogen via aromatase. In addition, this fat produces hormones that increase your appetite, worsen your mood and raise cortisol – which is the stress hormone. In addition to messing with the entire metabolism, increasing the risk of insulin resistance, pre-diabetes and diabetes, high blood pressure and liver fat.
Gotta lose belly! What makes your belly bigger and also makes your inflammation worse? First, ultra-processed foods, which are foods full of preservatives to extend shelf life, flavorings, artificial colors… They are cheap, which is why they are widely consumed.
But they don't act like a bomb inside you - they are full of sugar, fats and salt in addition to having low nutritional value and worse, people substitute a natural food that would be healthy for these industrial formulations with several processing steps, with many things synthesized in labs that cause inflammation and cancer—all to last longer on the shelves or to improve their taste and appearance. Oh, I don't eat that. Will it be?
Let's go: stuffed cookies, Cheetos packaged snacks, instant noodles like noodles, diet soda or not. What other foods increase belly fat and cause inflammation? You must have thought about sugar.
And you got it right - both sugar and fructose corn syrup — which are cheaper — and considered worse than sugar. If you drink sodas or juice from a box or eat industrialized salad dressing, ketchup or mustard, cakes, canned fruits, jellies, puddings, you are consuming these, which do a great deal of damage to your health. So you have to cut down on sugar and fructose corn syrup.
You know those cereal bars? Watch out! They have a healthy appearance, but they are made with corn syrup and fructose, that is, wolf in sheep's clothing.
Other refined carbohydrates: pasta, white rice, white bread… they all cause a spike in blood glucose and insulin. Several studies link this type of food to obesity, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and other inflammatory conditions. So, when you can, always use wholegrain carbohydrates: wholegrain bread, wholegrain pasta, brown rice.
Other foods that are very bad for your arteries are trans fats. These were a disaster for the health of humanity. Why trans fats?
Because at the beginning of the last century, they figured out how to make oil look like saturated fat. So they hydrogenated, that is, chemically altered the structure of unsaturated fats, to be more like saturated fats. Of course someone pays the price.
In 1980 they discovered an association of trans fats with heart attack and that trans fat was worse than saturated fat, because, in addition to increasing bad cholesterol, LDL, it lowered HDL (which is good cholesterol). It makes inflammation worse and is linked to diabetes and dementia. So we should avoid everything that has on the label hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fat that can be found in margarine, snacks and processed desserts and fast foods.
And finally, saturated fats. Saturated fats are those that are solid at room temperature such as coconut oil, picanha fat, whole milk that has that cream on top, butter and red meat that has that white fat that we see. Saturated fat also raises cholesterol, which is why we recommend that you eat more white meats like fish and poultry and restrict red meat to just 2-3 times a week and always choosing leaner cuts.
Here we talk about inflammation. And the cholesterol? Cholesterol isn't necessarily "bad" because your body needs it to build cell membranes and make some vitamins — like vitamin D, hormones, and bile salts.
. . But too much cholesterol and/or if you have inflammation, it can be a problem.
The main source of cholesterol is the liver not the diet. It produces 70-80% of circulating cholesterol. That's why your genetics have a lot to do with it.
And it is very important that you do your blood tests to know your cholesterol level. What types of cholesterol? Mainly 2- We have LDL, which is the bad cholesterol that it deposits in the arteries and HDL, which is the good cholesterol that it manufactures hormones like testosterone.
That 's why it's a myth that those who take cholesterol medicine drops testosterone. Lie. It's the good cholesterol that makes the testosterone, and it's the good cholesterol that plays the role of the garbage man, cleaning up LDL cholesterol.
That's why if you have a very high LDL, you are producing a lot of waste. If your HDL is high, you have a lot of junk, which could prevent a bigger problem. Now, if your bad cholesterol is too high and you don't have a lot of garbage… Oops, you 're going to deposit.
Especially if you have the inflammation, which I talked about earlier, which we can see through a simple blood test called ultrasensitive C-reactive protein. If it's high, it increases your cardiovascular risk, you're going to have a lot of pixie in your arteries and it's going to clog your circulating cholesterol. On the other hand, if your C-reactive protein is too low, even a little higher than normal cholesterol won't do much harm.
So that's why there are people with normal cholesterol who have a heart attack, and there are people with high cholesterol who don't have any plaque. Precisely because more variables are involved: CRP, lipoprotein A. Now, to say that high LDL does not increase heart risk is absurd.
It increases, yes, it forms atherosclerosis. And what are the 10 best foods to keep our arteries clean? The 10th food you should put on your plate: Olive oil.
You can put it in the salad, you can put it in your beans or rice. Olive oil is rich in monounsaturated fatty acids that can lower LDL cholesterol. It is also rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory.
Studies have shown a link between lower risks of cardiovascular disease, some cancers, and even dementia in people who consume greater amounts of olive oil than those who use little or none. The 9th food: Fish rich in omega 3 What are they? Salmon, tuna, trout, sardines, mackerel, herring.
These fish eat phytoplankton that contain omega 3 fatty acid. Omega 3 increases HDL cholesterol which, as I said, is the choir's garbage and can also reduce triglycerides, has an antioxidant, anti- inflammatory, vasodilator effect, reduces planetary aggregation, everything that improves your arteries. The 8th Food: Nuts Almonds, walnuts and chestnuts can improve blood cholesterol.
Basically, all are good. But they are caloric and expensive, so eat little, don't overdo it. The 7th Food You Should Eat: Chia Chia seeds are packed with nutrients, including omega-3s, iron, calcium, and antioxidants.
In addition to having a lot of fibers and mucilage that gives that gooey look. It improves both cholesterol and triglycerides in the body. The 6th Food - Flaxseed Some studies suggest that alpha-linolenic acid, present in flaxseeds and flaxseed oil, may benefit people with heart disease because it lowers blood pressure, lowers LDL cholesterol, and helps control blood sugar levels.
And flaxseed is rich in phytosterols, which block the absorption of cholesterol by the intestine. The 5th Food You Should Eat: Oats Oats contain both soluble and insoluble fiber. And it is rich in beta-glucan, which improves cholesterol levels and reduces cardiovascular disease.
That's why the oat had that seal from the Brazilian Society of Cardiology. If you eat one and a half cups of cooked oatmeal a day you can lower your cholesterol by 5-8%. The 4th Food: Beans Beans —black, white, string, all are rich in soluble fiber.
They also take time to digest, so you'll feel fuller for longer. If you don't like beans, chickpeas, lentils, peas have the same benefit—eating 3/4 cup can reduce LDL cholesterol by 5%. It's just not worth feijoada!
The 3rd food: Avocado Avocado is rich in monounsaturated fat. Avocado is also rich in antioxidants like vitamin E which has anti-inflammatory properties. Research suggests that adding avocados helps improve LDL cholesterol levels in overweight or obese people.
The 2nd Food: Dark chocolate with high levels of cocoa The positive impact that cocoa flavonoids have on blood vessels and blood pressure is more than proven. Epicatechin (which is a flavonoid) is primarily responsible for its positive effects on vessels, including increasing the production of nitric oxide that causes vasodilation. It also reduces inflammation and influences insulin resistance.
Of course, no milk chocolate. It has to be a chocolate with more than 70% cocoa. In addition, cocoa protects the nerves and has beneficial effects on satiety, cognitive function and mood.
AND THE 1st food: Red wine Grapes contain many polyphenols. Ah, so is grape juice the same as red wine? Not quite.
Red wine is probably better for you than grape juice because the fermentation process changes the composition of the juice, and the grape skin, which is full of antioxidants, is used in making wine. So much so that the color of the wine indicates how much polyphenols the drink has - red has more than white and white more than beer. In addition, alcohol in small amounts reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
But wine is indeed a double-edged sword. If you overdo it, you will gain weight, it can damage your liver and your brain. So, enjoy in moderation.
You think, okay, I understand that changing my diet and lifestyle can help me not to form plaques. But you already have plaques, you already have a stent, you have had a stroke or a heart attack… Is that all it takes? I do not think so.
The only diet that has ever been proven to reverse and slow down atherosclerosis is a very restrictive diet, which is not for everyone. A 1980s study of 22 people found that a plant-based diet (no animals at all) could reverse atherosclerosis in some arteries. In 2014 they tried to replicate this, and a study was published of nearly 200 patients on this plant-based diet that showed that 22% had confirmed reversal in some arteries.
See, 22% was little, almost 80% had no impact. But this study didn't just rule out animal products — it also cut out vegetable oils, processed foods, sugar, refined carbohydrates, excess salt, fruit juice, and having plenty of avocados and nuts in the diet as well as lots of physical activity. So look, an extremely restricted diet: I tried to do it and it lasted less than 1 month, it didn't work for me, I dropped out.
And with questionable results. So if you already have atherosclerosis, it's not just diet and exercise. In this specific case, the doctor should prescribe medication for cholesterol to try to stabilize the plaques or even reverse them.
What types of boards can we downsize? Especially those plaques rich in lipids, in fats, the soft plaques. They are the most dangerous, the ones that cause the most heart attacks, but they are also the ones that have the most influence.
Cholesterol meds, especially statins, have the power to reduce the size of plaque and harden it, calcify it, so there is less risk of that plaque rupturing. Then they dry and harden the board. Intracoronary ultrasound studies show that as bad cholesterol, LDL, was reduced, there was greater regression of plaque.
With LDL around 80, half of the people had atherosclerosis regression—more than the people on the restricted diet. But in that group where LDL was below 60 mg/dL, 90% of the lipid-rich plaques could show some regression. Regression does not mean that all plaques are gone, it means that the size of the plaque has been reduced from 50% to 40%.
So we have 3 main cholesterol remedies on the market. Statins (simvastatin, rosuvastatin, atorvastatin, pitavastatin. .
). They act on the liver, reducing the production of cholesterol. Another important cholesterol-lowering medication is ezetimibe, which reduces the absorption of cholesterol from the intestines.
In isolation, it is a weak drug, but if you combine it with a statin, the result is impressive because it blocks production by the liver and absorption by the intestine, having a synergistic effect. And the third major class of cholesterol-lowering drugs are the pcsk9 inhibitors. PCSK9 is an enzyme that binds to LDL receptors, preventing bad cholesterol from being removed by the liver.
These drugs are expensive and injectable —it is applied 1x every 15 days subcutaneously, and we only use it in very isolated cases. But of course it's not just the cholesterol medicine that's important. To obtain regression of the fat plaque, we need to remove the causative agents.
Smoking, controlling blood pressure, exercising, managing stress, sleeping better. There's no magic formula, but yes, plaque regression is possible. Follow what I just said and you will have healthy arteries, your endothelium, which is that carpet, nice and without inflammation.
Did you like the video? And what's the next video you'll watch? I'll leave my two suggestions on the side My video on how to detox from sugar AND my video on walking to get you motivated to exercise My name is André Wambier, cardiologist, and this is cardiodf.
com. br Remember subscribe And see you in the next video, Thank you very much!
