A healthy heart is vital for long, enriching life. A lot of people are under the misconception that our heart health is what it is – and that we can’t do anything to change it for the good or the bad.
Actually, though, the way we live our lives can have a massive impact on how well our hearts can function. Diet, exercise, and stress levels all come into play when it comes to the overall health of your heart.
If you’ve recently found out that you’re at high risk of heart disease or a heart attack because your arteries are clogged, now is your time to make a real change. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that simply transforming your lifestyle is enough to reverse artery damage and give your heart a new lease of life – literally.
It’s never too late, either, so if you’re interested to learn how to clean your arteries naturally, stay tuned.
Before you can work towards the solution, it’s important for you to first understand the problem. Exactly how do arteries become clogged in the first place? It all results from a build-up of something called plaque on the inner walls of the arteries.
This plaque can accumulate over time, preventing adequate blood supply from flowing to and from the heart. Eventually, this can lead to coronary heart disease, which in turn can lead to heart attacks as a direct result of a lack of oxygen to the heart. It can also result in chest pain and shortness of breath, as well as circulatory issues around the body, especially the hands and feet.
The plaque inside the artery walls is made up of a number of substances found in the body, including fat, cholesterol, and cellular waste. For this reason, diet is a huge contributor to artery-clogging – a diet rich in foods higher in fat and cholesterol will lead to a plaque build-up over a faster amount of time.
Luckily, if your arteries are clogged with plaque, making a few simple diet and lifestyle changes is all it takes to reverse the damage and return to optimum health. These changes are not difficult to keep up with, and, in fact, should improve your overall health and wellbeing drastically, so there’s certainly motivation for you to persevere if the going ever gets tough.
Keep on listening to discover exactly what you can do to clean your arteries naturally and effectively:
As we’ve mentioned already, diet plays a huge role in the health of your heart. While a diet consisting of high fat and high cholesterol foods will contribute substantially to artery blockage, one containing artery-clearing foods will have the opposite effect.
Research even suggests that certain foods can not only help you to maintain heart health but reverse any damage that’s already been caused to the arteries. Some of these foods include:
Whole grains are high in dietary fibre, which has been proven to improve blood cholesterol levels and prevent heart disease. New research has discovered that diets containing plenty of whole grains can lead to thinner walls in the carotid arteries.
These arteries are vital for delivering blood to the brain, preventing strokes and damage to the brain cells. The best sources of whole grains are whole grain pasta, bread, and rice, as well as buckwheat, quinoa, oats, plain popcorn, and rye.
Spinach is an incredible source of nitrate, a form of nitrogen that is absorbed directly through the plant’s roots from the soil. When we digest spinach, nitrates are converted into nitric oxide, which helps the arteries to resist plaque and blood clotting.
Over time, this can help reduce the risk of strokes and heart attacks. One study found that participants who consumed a meal high in nitrates experienced a dramatic drop in blood pressure after just a few hours, which lasted for the entire day that followed.
Turmeric is rich in curcumin, the substance that gives it its familiar orange colour. Curcumin is something of a superfood, and just a small amount of the stuff contains an impressive amount of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
It’s been shown in studies to reduce cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood sugar, by clearing fatty deposits from the arteries. Turmeric has a distinct but subtle flavour that’s perfect for curries and stews. You can purchase Turmeric supplements here
If you want to avoid clogged arteries, you can’t go wrong with adding nuts to your diet. We’ve known for a while now that nuts are an excellent source of healthy unsaturated fats—which, unlike saturated fats, have shown to have a number of heart-healthy properties.
Similarly to nuts, olive oil is a source of not saturated fats, but monounsaturated fats, which help raise healthy cholesterol in your body. Research shows that when this cholesterol passes through the arteries, it actually helps rid them of any fatty deposits, allowing for easier and more open blood flow. Try using olive oil instead of your usual oils for cooking, roasting, and frying.
The studies into how watermelon may help to unclog the arteries are in their early days, but there’s still sufficient evidence to suggest that switching water for watermelon juice has some effect in reducing fat and cholesterol levels, as well as cleaning plaque from the arteries. It does this by causing the arteries to relax, decreasing inflammation, which can irritate the blood vessels and lead to heart disease.
Herbal teas, like chamomile, hibiscuses, ginger tea, and green tea are all fantastic sources of flavonoids, which help neutralize oxidation in the body. Several studies have shown that certain flavonoids in green tea, called catechins, protect our cells and have antioxidative, anti-hypertensive, anti-inflammatory, and lipid-lowering effects, to name just a few.
Herbal teas can directly block high-cholesterol and high-fat foods from being absorbed into the bloodstream, which maintains healthy levels of blood sugar and prevents blockage in the arteries.
You might have heard avocado being referred to as a healthy fat, which essentially means that, like olive oil and nuts, it helps reduce the bad cholesterol and increase the good cholesterol in the body. This good cholesterol is really effective at clearing the arteries.
Avocado also contains vitamin E, which prevents something called cholesterol oxidation, or damage to the artery-blocking cholesterol by free radicals. You can use avocados as a replacement for unhealthier spreads on your toast or sandwiches, as well as in salads and rice dishes.
Exercise is time-consuming and tiring, so it’s no wonder we’re not often up for doing it. Unfortunately, the less active you are, the more at risk you are of suffering from heart disease and other heart-related issues.
Those who are less fit and active are more prone to high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, both of which commonly leads to heart disease. Even with a good diet, if you’re not physically active, you might still experience clogging of the arteries as a result.
Exercise, no matter what the activity might be, has been proven time and time again to be incredibly beneficial towards the arteries and overall heart health. Over time, exercise can stimulate the body to flush the bad cholesterol out of the arteries, cleaning them and allowing for far less restricted blood flow to the heart. Just thirty minutes of light-to-moderate exercise five days a week is enough for you to make noticeable changes to your heart health.
There’s no reason why you can’t tailor your exercise to make it the most enjoyable for you. Try joining a local beginner-friendly sports club, or trying your hand at a new sporty hobby.
If you need a distraction from your gym activities, download your favourite podcast, or read an engaging book while you’re on the treadmill or cross-trainer. And don’t feel pressured to commit to something that’s too intense.
We’re all at different levels fitness-wise, and you shouldn’t be ashamed to admit that your physical strength isn’t at its best. Even taking a daily stroll around your local park is better than doing nothing.
It goes without saying that smoking and alcohol consumption should be avoided at all costs if you’ve been warned that your arteries are clogged. Not only can the chemicals in tobacco weaken the blood vessels and damage cells, but they can also directly result in a build-up of plaque in the arteries.
It can also cause the blood to thicken and result in the formation of clots in the vital parts of the circulatory system, which can lead to a heart attack. Quitting smoking can make a huge difference to your body in just minutes, reversing heart and blood vessel damage and reducing heart disease risk.
Alcohol can have just as negative effect on the arteries as smoking. Studies have found that heavy drinking can actually age the arteries, causing them to stiffen up and respond incorrectly to different blood pressure levels.
If your arteries are already clogged up from a poor diet, this doesn’t bode well when it comes to overall heart health. For that reason, it’s advised that you cut down on your alcohol consumption to help, not hinder yourself on your journey to naturally cleaning your arteries.
It’s never too late to turn your life around and make the essential positive steps towards a healthy heart. Not only will more exercise, a better diet, and cutting out bad habits naturally clean your arteries without the need for medical intervention, but you’ll also feel a lot healthier and happier in yourself too.
You can also purchase some great artery cleansers supplements online. Click here to find out more.
If the tips we’ve mentioned all feel a bit too much, too soon, don’t feel pressured into putting them in action all at once. Start by introducing a few artery-cleaning foods into your diet, and incorporating light physical activity into your lifestyle. Progress, no matter how fast or slow, is bound to get you there in the end.
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