Healthy Support

9 heart-healthy foods to lower cholesterol and blood pressure

Food can start you on a path to heart disease — the leading cause of death in the U.S. — or help prevent high cholesterol, clogged arteries and heart attacks.

Diet can have a huge impact on heart health, says Dr. Sean Heffron, a cardiologist in the Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease at NYU Langone Health in New York.

“What we eat can influence our blood pressure, our blood sugar, our cholesterol levels, certainly our body weight,” Heffron tells TODAY.com.

“All of those things have a direct impact on the vasculature of the blood vessels of the body and can drive atherosclerotic heart disease. So what we eat is very important.”

The first step in the right direction is eliminating processed foods, which are high in salt and fat, and eat more whole fresh foods like fruits and vegetables, says Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a cardiologist, clinical

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Healthy Support

Highly Rated Diets to Support Heart Health

a variety of vegetables, beef, salmon, eggs and cheese
Aamulya / iStock / Getty Images Plus

Family Features

Eating healthy is an important goal for people looking to maintain or improve their physical health, particularly as it relates to the heart. With often conflicting information available online and via social media, it may be difficult or downright confusing to find the eating plan for you.

To help navigate the maze of information — and misinformation — experts assessed and scored the heart healthiness of several popular diets. Each diet was evaluated against the American Heart Association’s guidance for a heart-healthy eating pattern, which emphasizes eating a variety of vegetables and fruits, whole grains, lean proteins (including fish, low- or nonfat dairy and plant proteins), nontropical plant oils and minimally processed foods; avoiding added sugars, salt and alcohol; and sticking to this guidance even when you’re eating away from home.

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Healthy Information

Health Advice For Women at Each Stage of Motherhood

THURSDAY, May 11, 2023 (American Heart Association News) — Everyone knows that on Mother’s Day, Mom’s needs come first. But the rest of the year, mothers often put their health care on hold to focus on others.

“A lot of times as women, we tend to put ourselves last,” said Dr. Marlene Blaise, a cardiologist in independent practice in Alpharetta, Georgia.

Avoiding that is important for more than mothers themselves, said Jennifer Stuart, an epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

“It’s also important for our families,” said Stuart, who has a doctorate in epidemiology and focuses her research on adverse pregnancy outcomes and maternal cardiovascular disease risk. “As a parent, you’re laying down a foundation and modeling behaviors, healthy or otherwise, for your children. So, if we’re engaging in a healthy diet and physical activity, and our children are seeing

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Healthy Body

Physical activities like a daily, 20-minute walk may help reduce disparities in heart health

Statement Highlights:

  • Addressing low levels of physical activity among people in some targeted groups has the potential to improve equity in cardiovascular health.

  • Physical activity levels are lower among some population groups known to have higher cardiovascular disease risk, including adults who are older, female, Black, have depression, have disabilities, have lower socioeconomic status or live in rural areas.

  • It’s important to improve resources and opportunities to decrease barriers to physical activity. Physical activity initiatives should engage the community and individuals and be culturally appropriate.

  • Knowledge and resource gaps to building successful, sustainable physical activity programs for many under-resourced groups need to be addressed.

Embargoed until 4 a.m. CT / 5 a.m. ET Wednesday, May 24, 2023

(NewMediaWire) – May 24, 2023 – DALLAS Hearts are kept strong with regular physical activity, and daily activity such as a daily, 20-minute, brisk walk is key; however, some

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