Ep 32 - HEALTH HACK: What Foods Are Good For My Heart?
In this episode of Health Hacktivators, Dr. Alka Patel speaks about heart health.
She explains what foods are good for heart health, and emphasises the importance of omega-3 fatty acids in reducing inflammation and promoting heart health. She also highlights the anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties of omega-9 fatty acids.
Dr. Patel emphasises the role of magnesium in maintaining a healthy heart and discusses the significance of omega-3, 6, and 9 fatty acids and their impact on lipid metabolism. She also highlights the importance of monitoring homocysteine levels and the role of B vitamins in heart health as well as suggests using a pulse wave velocity monitor (PWV) to maintain arterial flexibility.
In this episode you’ll hear about:
The significance of omega-3 and omega-9 fatty acids for heart health
Foods that have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties
Why it is important to monitor homocysteine levels
How B vitamins contribute to heart health
The role of a pulse wave velocity monitor (PWV) in monitoring and maintaining arterial flexibility for heart health
Practical hacks for supporting heart health, such as getting tested for fatty acid and homocysteine levels
To read the blogs that accompany the show and for even more focused health hacks, head to https://dralkapatel.com/blog/
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Podcast Transcript
PLEASE NOTE these transcripts are auto-generated and may not be wholly accurate.
Dr Alka Patel (00:00.738)
Hi, hey, and hello health activators. Today we are looking at heart health and I'm zoning in as always on one question, two research reviews and three hacks for a healthy heart. So today's question, today's question has been very much inspired by the beautiful Chef Rose. I hope you saw last week's episode and had a tune into our conversation. So what I want to zone in on today is what foods are good for my heart? So...
thinking about this then firstly what decisions can you make to support your heart health? Well one of the key decisions that you can make is to incorporate a variety of heart healthy nutrients into your food choices. So here's three specific nutrients and really kind of looking at what their impact on your heart health is. So first of all we've got omega-3 fatty acids. What are omega-3s? Well
They are essential fats. They're essential fats which you find in things like fish and flax seeds and walnuts as well. And what these fatty acids do is that they reduce inflammation. Now, if you've been tuning in for a while, you'll have heard me talk a lot about inflammation in previous episodes. So inflammation is that biochemical and physiological basis of, well, many if not most disease.
processes and your heart is no exception to this. So when inflammation is triggered and then it becomes more long-standing, more relentless, what then happens is that it damages blood vessels and it then leads to the formation of plaques, a build-up in your blood vessel. So what these plaques do is that they narrow the arteries, which then of course reduces your blood flow and that is what results in heart disease and heart attacks as well.
There's been a lot of research that's been done on this. There's research which has been published in the Journal of, for example, the American College of Cardiology. What's that shown is that eating regularly, eating regular omega-3 fatty acids reduces your chances of big cardiac events or things like heart attacks. Omega-9 is another fatty acid. Omega-9 is also anti-inflammatory.
Dr Alka Patel (02:18.922)
and you find it in things like olive oil and avocado oil and almond oil. So these are all heart healthy oils. Unlike another omega, omega-6, so omega-6 oils are things like corn oil and sunflower oil, and they're very much pro-inflammatory. So they increase inflammation. So avoid these. What you want is more omega-3s and omega-9s and less omega-6s.
And another way to reduce your omega-6 is auto to reduce processed food. It's full of these pro-inflammatory omega-6s. So have a zone in on that as well. So that's your omega's second nutrient is magnesium. So what does magnesium do? Well, what magnesium does is it relaxes your blood vessels, which means that it then regulates your blood pressure.
and blood pressure and heart disease have got a very strong correlation. So thinking about where you'd find magnesium, it's foods like leafy greens and nuts and seeds and whole grains as well. And third nutrient, well, what about potassium for hearted health as well? You might've heard about potassium and the heart. So what potassium does is it helps with things like fluid balance and blood pressure and muscle function as well. So if you remember your heart,
Well, it is a muscle. So potassium rich foods do help to support your heart health. And these are things like bananas and leafy greens as well. So those three nutrients I wanted to share with you. So let's dive in a bit deeper into the data aspect of heart health and more specifically the role of biomarkers in really being able to understand your cardiac health. So where do nutrients fit into this? Well, I've already mentioned your omega-3.
six and nine fatty acids. Now you've probably found that most doctors will measure things like your cholesterol levels for your heart, which is very, very useful. But the problem is what gets overlooked is the importance of these fatty acids on your cardiac health, because if you get right to the root of the processes that are going on, it's inflammation. So it makes sense to measure those important parameters that play a part in this. And this is
Dr Alka Patel (04:40.99)
where your omegas come into play. They play an important role, which means, makes sense to measure your omegas levels as well, if you want your approach to your heart health to be very much personalized to you. Because what that then means is once you know what your own levels of your omegas are, then you can use this information, you can use this data to really guide you to make food adjustments for yourself in a much more focused or targeted way.
and even consider taking targeted supplements as well to zone in and optimize your heart health. And there's another overlooked marker of cardiac health as well. We again tend to zone in a lot on cholesterol, which is important. We zone in on lipids and lipid metabolism. But another marker is something called homocysteine. So what is homocysteine? Homocysteine is an amino acid, so it's a protein molecule.
And it's produced when you metabolize, when you break down another amino acid, another protein molecule called methionine. And you get methionine from foods like meat and fish and dairy. And there's a relationship between methionine and homocysteine. And when this gets dysregulated or upset, then your homocysteine levels can rise. And these high levels of homocysteine in your blood, they've been associated with a higher risk of
heart disease and heart attacks as well. Because what homocysteine does, again, looking back to inflammation, is what it does is it increases that plaque buildup that I mentioned, that plaque that builds up inside your arteries, which, as I've said, then narrows your arteries, and that's what then results in heart disease and heart attacks. So it's a pretty significant molecule to test for, but even though it's significant, it often gets overlooked. But it is something that I do test with my clients because
what testing your homocysteine levels does is it gives you a very good window into your heart health. And then if you see that your levels are up, then you can lower this with lifestyle modifications, with very targeted supplementing, if that's what you need to do, to reduce any ongoing complications. So to give an example of this, we'll make sure you've got an optimal level of B vitamins. So especially vitamins B6, B9, and B12.
Dr Alka Patel (07:02.07)
because you need these B vitamins to then metabolize homocysteine. So eating more foods like leafy greens and beans and pulses and eggs is important if you find your homocysteine levels are raised as well. Okay, so we've explored the decisions that you can make around nutrition and food for heart health and we've looked at some of the data that you should consider to support those decisions and then you can target your outcomes.
in a more precise and personalized way. Let's then have a look at some devices that can help you to monitor your heart health. Now, blood pressure monitoring is probably the most obvious one. It's the first one that comes to mind, but I'm gonna just hold on that because I've got a few episodes coming up on blood pressure specifically in a few months time. So I'm not gonna talk about blood pressure today, but do please do stay tuned for episodes in a couple of months time.
We're all zoned in on this in much, much more detail as well. So what are the devices? Well, what about devices to measure heart rate variability? So your heart rate variability, that's that sort of variation in the time interval between your heartbeats. It's that pause between your heartbeats that you're measuring. And what your heart rate variability, your HRV does, well, it gives you a direct window into looking into that balance between your
sympathetic and your parasympathetic nervous system. So your nervous system, which regulates your stress response and your overall cardiac health as well. So what HRV monitors do is they give you, well, very much real time data on your heart's rhythm, which then reflects your resilience to stress and your recovery from stress as well. So that's heart rate variability and monitoring that. Another intriguing device.
is something called a pulse wave velocity monitor, PWV. So what is a pulse wave velocity monitor? Well, what pulse wave velocity does is it's measuring the speed at which your pulse wave travels through your arteries. And what this speed reflects is the stiffness or the flexibility of your blood vessels. So if you've got a higher pulse wave velocity then your arteries
Dr Alka Patel (09:26.494)
are much more stiff. And a stiff artery means more risk of cardiac events, more risk of heart disease or heart attacks. So monitoring your PWV makes sense because by monitoring it you can then see your trends and you can take proactive steps to maintain your arterial flexibility. And again, you do this through very specific lifestyle modifications. So
that might be things like zoning in on your exercise or zoning in on your stress modulation or on what you're eating. And all the while that you're doing this, you're tracking the effect so that you know that the changes that you're making are having the effect that you want them to. There's no guesswork involved. And then the last device that I wanted to kind of zone in on is something called photo plethysmography devices, PPG, photo plethysmography, what great word.
Now what PPG uses is light-based tech. So it's light-based technology to measure those blood volume changes in your blood vessels, well typically in your peripheral blood vessels, so those that are furthest from your heart. And they do this typically through sensors. So sensors on your fingertips or sensors on your wrist, which you may have seen. And what these devices do that use PPG technologies, they give you information on things like,
oxygen levels and pulse rate and blood pressure, which I will come back to talking about in a few months' time. And you'll find PPG devices are what are integrated in some wearable trackers and smartwatches. So what this all means is that if you monitor your cardiac metrics yourself without having to wait for long doctor's appointments or hospital appointments, it means that you get to understand, as I've said already, your own trends. You can spot changes. You can intervene.
early without waiting for that catastrophe to strike. So that's decisions, data, devices. Before we wrap up, let me give you some practical hacks then to support your heart health. Number one, incorporate flax seeds, walnuts, leafy greens, nuts, seeds, fruits into your diet and fish if you eat it. So do this so that you can ensure this rich intake of omega-3 fatty acids, magnesium and potassium as well.
Dr Alka Patel (11:49.238)
Number two is to get your fatty acids and homocysteine levels tested as part of your cardiac assessment, as part of your health assessment, so that you get a much deeper understanding of your heart health. Now these are tests that I do, so if you do want to prioritize your heart health or you're worried about your heart health, or maybe you've got a family history of heart disease, then do get in touch, you're welcome to get in touch, and you can email me at lifestylefirst at Dr. Alka Patel.
and we can get some tests organized for you through our conversation. And then number three is monitor, monitor your cardiac metrics with devices and wearable trackers. And I give my clients all sorts of.
very, very useful devices as part of my program. So again, you're welcome to get in touch with me if you want to find out more about things that my Live Longer Younger program or my longevity services as well. So please do feel free to get in touch with me, reach out to me through my email or through my socials at Dr Alka Patel UK. So that's it, that's a wrap and I wish you a health activating day.
