All Videos for Heart Disease

Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Purple Potatoes

Antioxidant, anti-inflammatory properties of white compared to yellow and purple potatoes. Purple potatoes may also help lower high blood pressure.



Chamomile Tea May Not Be Safe During Pregnancy

For the same reason aspirin should be avoided in pregnancy, chamomile has such powerful anti-inflammatory properties that regular consumption may result in a serious fetal heart problem—premature constriction of the fetal ductus arteriosus, which allows the fetus to “breathe” in the womb.



Making Our Arteries Less Sticky

Mushrooms appear to have an anti-inflammatory effect on human arterial lining cells in vitro, which may help stop the inflammatory cascade, thought to be integral to the progression of atherosclerotic (artery-clogging) heart disease. The effects of shitake, crimini, oyster, maitake, and plain white button mushrooms are compared.



Blocking the First Step of Heart Disease

By preventing the buildup of cholesterol in our bloodstream, we can prevent atherosclerosis in our coronary arteries—the leading cause of death in the United States for both men and women. This involves increasing our intake of fiber-containing plant foods, and decreasing our intake of trans fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol found in junk food and animal products.



Arterial Acne

Atherosclerotic plaques in coronary arteries may be more aptly described as pimples, initiated by the infiltration of cholesterol into the lining of our arteries. The ending—should blood flow to our heart muscle be cut off by a clot formed by the rupture of one of these inflamed pockets of pus in our arterial lining—is a heart attack.



Red Fish, White Fish; Dark Fish, Atrial Fibrillation

The consumption of dark fish (such as salmon, swordfish, bluefish, mackerel, and sardines) may increase our risk of atrial fibrillation—an irregular heartbeat rhythm associated with stroke, dementia, heart failure, and a shortened lifespan.



Raw Veggies vs. Cooked for Heart Disease

Fruit and vegetable consumption is associated with a lower risk of heart disease. But which is more protective—raw or cooked?



The Safer Cinnamon

There are four common types of cinnamon: Vietnamese, Chinese (cassia), Indonesian, and Ceylon (true) cinnamon. Which is safest in terms of the level of coumarin, which may damage the liver at toxic doses?



Poultry Exposure and Neurological Disease

Poultry workers exhibit an excess of a wide range of diseases, from thyroid conditions to schizophrenia, and autoimmune neurological disorders, such as myasthenia gravis. This may be due to exposure to viruses present in chickens and turkeys.



Harvard’s Meat & Mortality Studies

Monday, March 12, 2012: The Harvard Health Professionals Follow-up Study and the Harvard Nurses’ Health Study concluded that red meat consumption was associated with living a significantly shorter life—increased cancer mortality, increased heart disease mortality, and increased overall mortality.



Smoking vs. Kale Juice

The effect of kale juice on LDL and HDL cholesterol, and the antioxidant capacity of the blood.



Vegetables Rate by Nitrate

If nitrates can boost athletic performance and protect against heart disease, which vegetables have the most—beans, bulb vegetables (like garlic and onions), fruiting vegetables (like eggplant and squash), greens (such as arugula), mushrooms, root vegetables (such as carrots and beets), or stem vegetables (such as celery and rhubarb)?



Soy Worth a Hill of Beans?

Are soybeans better than other types of beans for heart disease prevention—or does the soy industry just have more money and clout to tout?



Plant-Based Atkins Diet

Harvard study found that men and women eating low carb diets live significantly shorter lives, but what about the “eco-Atkins diet,” a plant-based, low carbohydrate diet?



Atkins Diet: Trouble Keeping It Up

A case report in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly Journal of the American Dietetic Association) of a man who went on the Atkins diet, lost his ability to have an erection—and nearly lost his life.



The Power of NO

Antioxidants protect NO synthase—the enzyme that produces the artery-relaxing signal, nitric oxide. This may explain why those who eat especially antioxidant-rich plant foods have improved flow-mediated dilation of the brachial arteries.



Amla vs. Diabetes

For a dollar a month, Indian gooseberry (amla) powder may work as well as a leading diabetes drug—without the side effects.



Amla vs. Cancer Cell Growth

Indian gooseberries (amla), an important plant in Ayurvedic medicine, may have anticancer properties, as well as cough-, fever-, pain-, stress-, and diarrhea-suppressing effects.



Dried Apples vs. Cholesterol

Which common dried fruit is the most antioxidant-packed: apple rings, dried apricots, dried cherries, dried mango, prunes, or raisins?



Say No to Drugs by Saying Yes to More Plants

A study of 15,000 American vegetarians suggests their lower chronic disease rates translate into fewer surgeries (including hysterectomies) and medications (including aspirin, sleeping pills, tranquilizers, antacids, pain-killers, blood pressure medications, laxatives, and insulin).



Glycotoxins

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in our diet are thought to accelerate the aging process.



Trans Fat, Saturated Fat, & Cholesterol: Tolerable Upper Intake of Zero

The intake of trans fats, which come mostly from junk food and animal products; saturated fat, mostly from dairy products and chicken; and cholesterol, coming mostly from eggs and chicken, should be as low as possible.



Fast Food: Do You Want Fries with That Lipitor?

Cardiologists suggest that cholesterol-lowering statin drugs be given out free with fast food meals



Heart Attacks and Cholesterol: Purely a Question of Diet

To achieve the cholesterol level necessary to prevent heart attacks, most people must take cholesterol-lowering drugs—or eat a plant-based diet.



Heart Attacks and Cholesterol: Agribusiness Sees It Differently

The average “bad” cholesterol (LDL) level in people having heart attacks is in the “near-optimal” range, suggesting that the current guidelines are too lax.



Heart Attacks & Cholesterol: Dying Under Normal Circumstances

Most people hospitalized with heart attacks have cholesterol levels considered “desirable” under the current recommendations. Having a “normal” cholesterol in a society where it’s normal to die of heart disease is not necessarily a good thing.



Is Pomegranate Juice That Wonderful?

Food companies (such as POM Wonderful) invoke the First Amendment to defend false and unsubstantiated health claims.



Dietary Guidelines: Science vs. Corporate Interests

The USDA Dietary Guidelines Committee stands accused of ignoring the science to justify its recommendation to eat meat.



Plant Protein Preferable

Since foods are a package deal, Dr. Walter Willet, the Chair of Harvard’s nutrition department, recommends we emphasize plant sources of protein, rather than animal sources.



Dietary Guidelines: From Dairies to Berries

The success story in Finland shows that science-based dietary guidelines can save millions of lives.



Dietary Guidelines: Just Say No

What happens when the twin mandates of the USDA—to both promote agribusiness, and protect our nation’s health—come into conflict?



The Tomato Effect

Why does the medical establishment sometimes ignore highly efficacious therapies, such as plant-based diets, for heart disease prevention and treatment?



China Study on Sudden Cardiac Death

The China-Oxford-Cornell Diet and Health Project directed by T. Colin Campbell and colleagues showed that chronic diseases, such as heart disease, are not inevitable consequences of aging.



Our #1 Killer Can Be Stopped

Dr. Dean Ornish proved decades ago that heart disease could be reversed solely with diet and lifestyle changes.



Resuscitating Medicare

Medicare is now accepting for reimbursement the Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease and the Pritikin Program, which, on a personal note, is what inspired me to go into medicine.



The Effect of Canned Tuna on Future Wages

The mercury contamination in tuna and other fish may adversely impact future earnings by impairing brain function, and leading to a loss of intelligence (IQ).



Multivitamin Supplements & Breast Cancer

New research suggests that multivitamin use may significantly increase the risk of breast cancer and prostate cancer.



Vegetables vs. Breast Cancer

Mushrooms may help prevent breast cancer by acting as an aromatase inhibitor to block breast tumor estrogen production.



Rosy Glow

Erectile dysfunction may be an early warning sign for heart disease.



Saffron for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s

In a double-blind study, the spice saffron beat out placebo in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease dementia symptoms.