Heart Attack City: Risks and Prevention

May 21, 2015 Culinary Medicine, Health News Comments Off on Heart Attack City: Risks and Prevention

It is called “Metabolic Syndrome” and if you have it then your risk of heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes are HIGH

Has your waist size increased – is it a bit embarrassing? You may have metabolic syndrome. But there are other factors, and if you have three of these factors than you have Metabolic syndrome. How much risk? It depends upon your age, and other factors but as much as two times the risk of heart attacks and up to 12 times the risk of heart attacks!

  • A waist size of 40 inches for men or 34 inches for women (measured at its largest point)
  • Triglyceride level of over 150, or on medication for triglycerides
  • Blood pressure of 130/85 or greater, or taking medicine for high blood pressure
  • Fasting glucose of 100 or greater, or taking medication for glucose control
  • HDL of less than 40 for men or less than 50 for women (the good cholesterol)

Metabolic syndrome is mainly increasing because of obesity.

The danger is that as we age – this becomes more likely. It turns out 47% of the population who are 60 years old and older have this. This is probably the increase in sedentary lifestyle, combined with eating more, and aging.

Four Changes You Can Make To Decrease Your Risk 

Maybe you can. A part of it involves taking care of yourself. Think of taking care of your body the way you would take care of your teeth – you need to think prevention.

  • Begin a regular exercise program – get out and move more

    Get moving again- a daily simple routine will reduce your risk of Metabolic Disease

    Get moving again- a daily simple routine will reduce your risk of Metabolic Disease

  • Incorporate more fruits and vegetables in your diet – consider the Mediterranean Diet or DASH diet as a permanent change

    Increasing fruits and vegetables in your diet, adopting a Mediterranean or DASH diet will reduce your risk of Metabolic Syndrome and heart attacks

    Increasing fruits and vegetables in your diet, adopting a Mediterranean or DASH diet will reduce your risk of Metabolic Syndrome and heart attacks

  • Eat fish twice a week – this will help raise the HDL – or “good” cholesterol

    Pike Place Market Salmon

    Fatty fish, like salmon, reduce the risk of heart failure and increase the “good” cholesterol HDL

  • Drink Hibiscus Tea to help lower blood pressure naturally.
Almost sounds too good to be true- but drinking this daily can help lower blood pressure- more than some medicines.

Almost sounds too good to be true- but drinking this daily can help lower blood pressure- more than some medicines.

As we learn more about the underlying causes of metabolic syndrome we will develop better strategies, but for now, those are the best strategies we have.

Often times we don't know we gained the weight

Often times we don’t know we gained the weight

REFERENCES:
Effect of sour tea (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.) on arterial hypertension: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Serban C1, Sahebkar A, Ursoniu S, Andrica F, Banach M. J Hypertens. 2015 Jun;33(6):1119-27. PMID: 25875025

Association of Fish Consumption-Derived Ratio of Serum n-3 to n-6 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Cardiovascular Risk With the Prevalence of Coronary Artery Disease.Tani S, Takahashi A, Nagao K, Hirayama A. Int Heart J. 2015 May 13;56(3):260-8.PMID: 25902881

Dietary fats and coronary heart disease.Willett WC. J Intern Med. 2012 Jul;272(1):13-24.PMID:22583051

Effect of mediterranean diet in diabetes control and cardiovascular risk modification: a systematic review.
Sleiman D, Al-Badri MR, Azar ST.Front Public Health. 2015 Apr 28;3:69.PMID: 25973415

Effects of a long-term lifestyle intervention program with Mediterranean diet and exercise for the management of patients with metabolic syndrome in a primary care setting. Gomez-Huelgas R, Jansen-Chaparro S, Baca-Osorio AJ, Mancera-Romero J, Tinahones FJ, Bernal-López MR. Eur J Intern Med. 2015 Jun;26(5):317-23.PMID: 25907985

The effects of the DASH diet education program with omega-3 fatty acid supplementation on metabolic syndrome parameters in elderly women with abdominal obesity. Choi SH, Choi-Kwon S.Nutr Res Pract. 2015 Apr;9(2):150-7.PMID: 25861421

 

About the Author
You probably first saw Dr. Simpson on TikTok or Instagram or Facebook or Twitter. Dr. Terry Simpson received his undergraduate, graduate, and medical degrees from the University of Chicago, where he spent several years in the Kovler Viral Oncology laboratories doing genetic engineering. Until he found he liked people more than Petri dishes. After a career in surgery, his focus is to make sense of the madness, and bust myths. Dr. Simpson, an advocate of culinary medicine, believes in teaching people to improve their health through their food and in their kitchen. On the other side of the world, he has been a leading advocate of changing health care to make it more "relationship based," and his efforts awarded his team the Malcolm Baldrige award for healthcare in 2018 and 2011 for the NUKA system of care in Alaska and in 2013 Dr Simpson won the National Indian Health Board Area Impact Award. A frequent contributor to media outlets discussing health related topics and advances in medicine, he is also a proud dad, author, cook, and doctor “in that order.” For media inquiries, please visit www.terrysimpson.com.