Heart Health Month: 8 Surprising Heart Facts We Learned Over The Last Year

Every February, organizations like the American Heart Association, the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute and the CDC team up for American Heart Month to remind us that heart disease is still the number one cause of death in the United States.

If you already exercise regularly, eat a nutritious diet full of heart-healthy foods and keep stress levels in check, you're on the right path toward a tip-top ticker. But there's always more research evolving to teach us more details about what keeps a heart healthy for life. Here's a look at some of the most surprising, uplifting and promising results that surfaced since the last American Heart Month.

For more on heart disease, click here.

For more on heart attack, click here.

Comments

[Alan Watson]

11:21 AM on 02/25/2012

Malissa Wood, M.D. is quoted: "... Americans are still frying with butter, lard and shortening," revealing her lack of research on this subject. In 1910 when heart disease mortality was below 10%, Vitamin D-rich lard from outdoor-raised pigs had 70% of the edible fat market. By 2000, soybean oil - much of it hydrogenated - had 70% of the market and heart disease mortality reached 40%. Lard has no trans fat; vegetable shortening had plenty - up to 50% since Crisco was introduced in 1912. And butter is never used for higher temperature frying! Dr. Wood should consult Julia Child's books about butter, who said: "If you're afraid of butter, use cream."

[Mrs Robinsons]

10:24 PM on 02/11/2012

Use the Canada Food Guide...
America can probably find it online somewhere...
use the old one in case there is a new one
in THIS decade...
you should be fine...
try to walk somewhere...
even if its for WII points
each day...
and cut down on your OVERHEAD.

[maribelles]

07:57 AM on 02/10/2012

In the video- She sidesteps the question of genetics - who's to know what his family "history" is really due to? Nobody said it was genetics. It could have been familial lifestyle and dietary choices. Additionally, there IS research in epigenetics indicating genes respond quickly to both supportive and unsupportive stimuli (read: wholesome diet vs. bad diet, for example). The mainstream party line STILL toots the idea that "healthy grains"- and for us, that mostly means WHEAT- is "heart healthy" as the little jingle goes. But mounting data, including that brought forth in the highly readable best seller Wheat Belly, show it is not. Truth is, there has been ample research for A LONG TIME, illuminating healthy protocols for heart health, but much of it has been suppressed by the medical industry status quo. Why is it that these days the comments for an article give us better information than the article?

[eLucida]

01:30 PM on 02/09/2012

I concur with Alvarask:

"Apart from presenting yet AGAIN the thoroughly discredited
hypothesis that saturated fat is bad for you, this article goes
further and frames that incorrect info in such a way as to make
it look like saturated fats are TRANS FATS. They are NOT!!!"

[eLucida]

01:23 PM on 02/09/2012

Trans-fats are unhealthy.
Saturated fats are fine.

"Two major studies conclude that saturated fat does NOT cause heart disease"

1. Fats and Fatty Acids in Human Nutrition. Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, 2009; 55 (1-3).

2. Siri-Tarino PW, et al. Meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies evaluating the association of saturated fat with cardiovascular disease Am J Clin Nutr 13 January 2010 [epub ahead of print].

[tef59]

03:33 PM on 02/07/2012

ugh. yoga.

[starson1]

01:10 PM on 02/07/2012

The good news is that it looks like heart disease can be completely prevented with a healthy enough diet, or even reversed:
http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/our-number-one-killer-can-be-stopped/

[boris schvarts]

08:54 AM on 02/07/2012

Olive oil becomes toxic, when heated, sunflower oil is a pure poison, heated, or not, and butter, lard and coconut oil are still the healthiest choices for frying.

[kasel1]

05:05 AM on 02/07/2012

Researchers say it isn't "likely" the American diet would produce the same results as the Spanish? These aren't scientists, they're publicists, marketeers, and paid guessers. If you already think you know the answer, there's a very good likely your measurements will confirm your prejudice. Time to change occupations.

[artgardenr]

01:09 AM on 02/07/2012

You know what I mean? Some people smile easily and some walk around with frozen masks disguised as faces. My philosophy.....one minute of joviality erases one hour of misery. Can you imagine a lifetime of blissful interludes? You could live to be a hundred!

[Chuck Bluestein]

12:18 AM on 02/07/2012

What is said about yoga is true but it is funny which pose they chose to show. Bikram's hot yoga has about 25 poses. Only one of those poses has this warning, from Bikram's book on this yoga. it is the one that is showed on your slideshow. It says "As for the Bow Pose, a beginner with high blood pressure MUST NEVER perform the pose without a qualified teacher present."

A webmd article says that cutting down on salt is as good as quitting smoking for heart health. As far as that large study done in the slideshow, it has a big flaw that makes it invalid. What is that large flaw? It does not measure or estimate the amount of sodium consumed! It measures the sodium in the urine.

So it wrongly assumes that the more sodium that you consume, the more sodium in your urine. But they never tested that since if they did they would find that it is false. If the body gets rid of the sodium, then it is not bad for you. It is the sodium that you do not get rid of that is bad for you. http://bit.ly/uA7FuC Huffington Post has an article saying that low potassium and high sodium is much worse than high sodium. The more potassium you consume, the easier it is for the body to get rid of excess sodium. So people with more sodium in their urine, had more potassium in their diet.

[HerrMonk]

11:21 PM on 02/06/2012

Every year we seem to rediscover, and then forget, common sense...

[DrP]

11:18 PM on 02/06/2012

Why do these health articles on Huffpo make me want to scream. I've got to stop coming to this website. And I only read the first screen. Please: Butter and lard are not transfats!!!!!! Saturated fat has no implication in heart disease. I've know that for years. Heaven help us!

[Chuck Bluestein]

12:34 AM on 02/07/2012

There are 2 types of trans fats. One is hydrogenated fat. Can you guess what the other type is? About.com says "Trans fats are a type of fat. There are two distinct types which appear in the human diet, one of which has a negative effect on our health." "These fats are usually referred to as 'hydrogenated fats' or 'partially hydrogenated fats'." "The other type of fat that has a trans configuration occurs naturally in the milk and meat from certain animals (ruminants, like cows and bison)."

[saramshivers]

11:09 PM on 02/06/2012

I take a supplement called Hemeez for my heart! Find out a lot of valuable information on their website.

[cmdrmom2]

04:02 PM on 02/06/2012

Butter and lard are REAL foods, not processed, and they belong in the diet. The key is moderation.