As a martial artist and fitness instructor, I never knew my business’s most popular online webinar would be on cardiovascular disease.  But my experience as a nurse practitioner could have told me otherwise.  With all the different exercise routine ideas, diet fads and mountain of health supplements, people still want to explore deeper into integrative medicine.  While this article is strictly informational and not to be taken as medical advice in any way, it may change your thinking regarding the future of global healthcare and the questions you ask your own licensed medical provider. 

The ”trio” of high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes is a top concern for medical providers and public health officials around the world; historically, cardiovascular disease, stroke and diabetes are the largest cost burden for healthcare in most countries.  While many diseases can benefit from a global integrated “best practices” approach, these three should be at the top of the list.  And while some people have strong enough cholesterol, blood pressure or blood sugar levels to warrant prescription medicines, many do not.  Even of those already on prescription meds, the goal should be, under the close guidance of your medical provider, to eventually get off any pills you may not need to be on. 

Exercise and diet can do much of this; herbs and high-quality supplements can make up for a lot of the rest.  It can be argued that up to at least half of the people on blood pressure, cholesterol and Type 2 diabetic meds, could eventually, with proper integrative medicine, could come of all meds and those with stronger genetic predispositions could use only herbs in some cases over drug prescriptions. 

Actually, the more interesting argument in this holistic approach to cardiovascular health is not if, but how, because the devil is in the details.  Which type of diet or how much or what kind of exercise?  Which herbs offer safe, alternative substitutes to pharmaceutical meds and which ones can be safely combined?  There are many missed opportunities for smarter discussions we could be having.

EXERCISE

The most important thing I stress to my own patients, after it’s we know it’s medically safe for them to do vigorous physical exercise, is to find a way to train at home. Cardio, strength and balance work can easily be done from your house with a little guidance.  It’s usually the daily details of implementation we never learn or consider that becomes the stopping block.  A good goal to start with for cardiovascular health is to aim for 20-30 minutes a day of aerobic activity at least.  Check out our free download here for specific exercise info.

Home-based workouts do several important things.  First, it promises no excuses (restrictive gym hours, transportation issues, weather, time to actually go, etc.) but it also offers unseen benefits from home:

*Less time needed during day – one of the best points

*It does force you to become educated and self-sufficient in creating proper workout plans

*Offers a chance to exercise with family members which is also excellent bonding time

*The luxury of privacy and moving at your own pace with no distractions of others

*Save money from gym memberships (could go towards better food!)

*The ability to wear what you want and listen to what you want without needing headphones

*More hygienic not needing to share used equipment

*No temptation to compare yourself to others

DIET

Practicing the old food pyramid got a lot of people into trouble unfortunately.  Whole grains are fine in moderation, with high protein and high healthy fats being key to most people for best longevity and neurologic and cardiac health, assuming no underlying conditions that would warrant a low fat or low protein diet (i.e. advanced renal failure).  Diet modifications to consider:

*Adding some type of medium chain triglyceride oil to your coffee or simply use coconut oil

*Fruits are important to ensure antioxidants but choose ones that double-up with the strongest immune system benefits – trying to choose the highest antioxidant foods (measured through ORAC) is not important because we only absorb about 5000 antioxidant “ORAC units” per day. This means going crazy with antioxidants alone is not helpful, but rather, choosing a handful of fruits that really support your immune system will help even more (for example, blueberries boost natural killer cell counts!)

*Vegetables should be a blend of types and colors and low calorie veggies can be eaten throughout the day (i.e. cabbage, cucumber, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, chard, onion, radish, peppers, spinach, zucchini, etc.)

*Know which foods are worth cooking beforehand. Carrots, eggplant, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, asparagus, bell peppers and spinach are all better boiled first.  Most other veggies can be grilled with extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil and improve the taste by adding chives, cilantro, green onion, chili peppers (if you like spicy) then after adding fresh-squeezed lemon or lime juice and seasoned to taste. Keep it simple.

*Grains are not inherently bad, people just overdone in the modern Western diet.  Complex carbs are much better and in general avoid breads and avoid white rice.  Try oats, teff, quinoa, fonio (Africa supergrain), kamut, spelt, buckwheat, millet and freekeh.  Excellent snacks through the work day with some nut butter like sesame seed (tahini) or sunflower butter.

*Go for omega 3’s with a blend of walnuts, chia seeds and hemp seeds (or hemp powder).  To get the full range of omega 3’s (DHA and EPA) you also need to eat fish or fish oil supplements. For vegans and vegetarians, there are now algae oil supplements that give adequate amounts also.

*Avocadoes and nut butters are two healthy ways to build the “good fat” into your diet.  A serving of tahini (from sesame seeds), almond butter or sunflower butter is great to add to smoothies or breakfast foods and provide a healthy source of energy.

HERBS

For this section, we encourage people to check out our Health and Wellness 7 Day Challenge which discusses which herbs and spices work for most people and why.

Integrative medicine goes far beyond a healthy diet and daily workout and herbal supplements.  It is a lifestyle change.  It means creating new habits in response to stress and challenges.  This is the reason our online martial arts and fitness program is called “Building Body Mind Soul”, because you are actually building up all these things week to week, physically, mentally and spiritually.  Click here to try completely free classes in our program right now!