Heart Disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. One out of three Americans suffers from it. Do you?

The good news is that you can lower your risk of getting heart disease by 80% and may reverse its progression by following these easy diet and lifestyle changes says Dr. Dean Ornish, M.D. New York Times bestselling author of The Spectrum book.

4 EASY STEPS TO PREVENT AND REVERSE HEART DISEASE: 

1.  Watch what you eat.

Avoid eating animal products like red meats, pork, chicken or cold cuts. A plant based diet is recommended. This includes: fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, seeds and nuts, legumes, egg white omelets, avocados (to get the healthy fats), wild fish, complex carbohydrates like brown rice & sweet potato; Always cook with olive oil and add a 70% dark chocolate as a treat. It’s important to reward yourself!

2. Reduce stress.

Stress can have the serious effect on your body. It may affect behaviors and factors that increase heart disease risk like high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, smoking and drinking alcohol to ”reduce stress” or physical inactivity.
It’s important you form a habit of releasing stress. For example:

– Take a 20 min. walk whenever you’re feeling stress. It will help you take your mind off what’s making you stressed.

– Meditation, as little as 10 minutes in the morning, in the middle of the day or before you go to bed as a final release of your day.

– Our clinical director’s favorite one Tai Qi (Tai chi). It’s like meditation in motion, for the mind and body.

3. Love More.

As Dean Ornish says “Open Your Heart.”  The love you get from family and friends is very healing, especially to the heart. Do not isolate, be more social. Go out for a coffee, a tea or a natural juice with your friends and take the time to have a nice conversation with them.

4. Be Active, move your body.

Cardio exercise 3-4 times weekly like the treadmill for 30- 45 minutes. It’s always more fun to exercise outdoors like walking, even if it’s just walking your dog, biking, swimming early in the morning sunlight, especially if you live in Florida where we have such beautiful beaches.

Acknowledgment to our clinical director’s mentor Dr. Dean Ornish 

If you want to know more about how to prevent a heart attack or how to reverse heart disease feel free to contact us at contactus@stuartzoll.com or call 561-395-2667 and we will be happy to connect you with our clinical director Dr. Stuart Zoll who has 35+ years of experience in preventive medicine. He will be happy to answer all of your questions.

(Image by Rebalance Nutritional Medicine)