CardioSmart: Free Online Tools Help Women Beat Heart Disease

By Colette Bouchez
Have heart disease? Wondering if you’re at risk? Looking for new ways to improve your heart health - besides eating all that leftover chocolate from Valentine's Day?

As we hit the midway point in the Wear Red/ Women’s Heart Health Awareness month, the American College of Cardiology is offering some important new tools for not just learning about your heart health, but taking control of your risks – and maybe even saving your own life!

Among them is a set of five free CardioSmart Survival Guides - easy –to-read and easy-to-use resources for five of the most common heart problems disgnosed today. These include coronary artery disease, heart failure, arrhythmia (or irregular heart beat), hypertension ( or high blood pressure) and heart attack.

Developed by cardiologists for use with their own patients, the survival guides not only help you to better understand these conditions if you have them – or you’re at risk for developing them - they can also help you talk to your doctor about the kind treatments and lifestyle changes that could make a huge difference in how your feel and in your overall health.

In each of the guides you’ll learn what the condition is all about, how and why it occurs, questions to ask your doctor to ensure you get the best care possible, and most important, tips for living well with each condition.

"These Survival Guides are designed to take some of the guesswork out of taking care of your heart and encourage open discussion with your cardiologist. Something as simple as educating yourself and making small changes every day can have a profound effect on your heart health,” says Ralph G. Brindis, M.D., M.P.H., president of the American College of Cardiology.

Indeed, each year more women die of heart disease than all forms of cancer combined. Indeed, heart disease -and the conditions associated with it - are the leading health concerns for both men and women today. Heart health awareness is one of the best ways to protect yourself and take whatever steps are necessary to ensure your good health for years to come. If you get a yearly mammogram, if you would never skip a Pap smear, then you owe it to your yourself to give your heart the same level of attention and care.

The free guides are part of CardioSmart.com, a nationwide online program developed by the American College of Cardiology to help reduce the risk of heart disease and help those afflicted live longer and better lives. In addition to the 5 survival guides you’ll find a cache of valuble free information and tools that can make a huge difference in your life. To those with loved ones afflicted by heart disease, CardioSmart can help you to better understand their health concerns and problems and help you to help them in all areas of their life and health care.

To download your FREE CardioSmart guides CLICK HERE

Originally Printed by Examiner.com.
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For the latest health, beauty and style advice for women over 40 subscribe to RedDressDiary - It's Free! And be sure to check out CheapChicDiary.com for money saving beauty and style tips! Copyright by ElleMedia Network 2010 - All Rights Reserved. In addition to US Copyright, the text of this RedDressDiary article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. All formatting and style elements of this page are not available under this license, and Colette Bouchez retains all rights in those elements.

Pass It On: You Can Save A Life!

 Share this short, wonderful, funny, but important video with the women who you just can't imagine life without!   And for me, that means all of you!

Heart disease kills more women each year than all forms of cancer combined - and it is reaching epidemic proportions.  And you can make a difference - not just with your research dollars, but by spreading awareness about symptoms and treatments - and in doing so help protect the women in your life that you love.  Visit http://www.goredforwomen.org/ to learn more - and find a free email service to tell 5 of the women you really love, that you really love them a lot!

For the latest health, beauty and style advice for women over 40 subscribe to RedDressDiary - It's Free! And be sure to check out CheapChicDiary.com for money saving beauty and style tips!

Copyright by ElleMedia Network 2011 - All Rights Reserved. In addition to US Copyright, the text of this RedDressDiary article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. All formatting and style elements of this page are not available under this license, and Colette Bouchez retains all rights in those elements. The creators and contributors to this blog may or may not benefit from the products, services and information mentioned herein.

Heart Healthy Chocolate Goes Right To The Hips!

If you've been tossing back those Dove Bars and Hershey's Kisses in hopes of gaining some protection from heart disease, I hope you're smiling while you're eating ...because that might be the only help your heart is getting.

Sad, but true, as new research emerges showing that a key process used in making all types of yummy chocolate confections may reduce it's heart healthy benefits leaving us with nothing more than hip-heavy woes.

In a study published in this months Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, researchers reveal that much of the flavanoid content that gives cocoa it's heart-healthy effects, is largely lost during a preparatory step known as "alkalising," - a process used during the manufacture of chocolate to help make it easier to digest. The alkalising process, say the study group, reduces chocolate's benefits by up to two-thirds.

Moreover, before you plunk down a day's salary for that high priced premium chocolate with the higher cocoa content, there's something else you should know: A higher level of cocoa content is no guarantee that you'll also be getting a higher level of flavanoids.

The reason? Research shows that chocolate with higher levels of rich, healthy cocoa frequently requires more alkalising in order to make it taste so yummy. And you guessed it ...the more alkalising that's done the less flavanoids remain.

To conduct the current study researchers examined numerous types of commercial cocoa powders used in making chocolate. They measured levels of several chemicals related to the antioxidant protection of flavanoids both before and after undergoing the manufacturing process.

What they found: The average loss of flavanoid content was 60% - with the loss of certain types of flavanoids as high as 86%.

The good news: Many major chocolate manufacturers are conducting research of their own, each learning new ways to maintain chocolate's healthful benefits while still allowing for the processes necessary to make it taste so good.

And that means that better, more nutritious chocolate is definitely on the way!

But why wait for that? For now, we can just eat more to make up the difference. Really, who has time to wait for science ?:)

Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Published online ahead of print April 2008, doi: 10.1021/jf0728754
"Flavanol and Flavanol Contents of Cocoa Powder Products: Influence of the Manufacturing Process"
Authors: C Andres-Lacueva, M Monagas, N Khan, M Izquierdo-Pulido, M Urpi-Sarda, J Permanyer and R M Lamuela-Raverntos

Margaritas: Good For The Heart?

By now you've probably heard that drinking a glass or two of red wine every week is good for your heart. But what I'm pretty sure you haven't heard is that knocking back a couple of Margaritas - or Cosmos or Appletinis - or pretty much any alcoholic drink may net you the same benefits.

According to a new study published in the American Journal of Physiology, Heart and Circulatory Physiology, it may well be the alcohol content of the wine - and not the other nutrients such as polyphenols - that have the real protective effects on the heart. Indeed, after measuring the impact of both red wine or other alcoholic beverages on the heart and blood vessels, researchers found the effects were nearly identical.

The hypothesis: It may simply be alochols ability to relax the cardiovascular system that is responsible for the heart healthy effects of wine - and all the other cocktails.

But here's the catch (and you knew there would be one!) : While one alcholic drink yiedls good results, knock back a second or third and the protective effects disappear. Indeed, heart rate increases, blood is pumped harder and more vigorously, but the vessels themselves are unable to expand enough to accept the increased activity, thereby reversing the beneficial effects of a single serving.

So drink up - but have just one. Your heart will be healthy - and you won't gain a ton of weight. Yes, alcohol is packed with useless calories.

Soy Shakes and Belly Fat: Great NEWS!

Getting a little round around the middle? No longer able to pass it off as post pregnancy weight since your oldest just entered college?

You're not alone. And, you probably don't need me to tell you that excess weight that accumulates in the mid section is worse for your heart than those jiggly thighs you've been dying to get rid of since the 8o's. (Even though it's clear most of us would trade the jiggly thighs for just about any other problem.)

Still . . . its your heart I'm concerned about – which is one reason I'm so excited to pass along the findings from what could be a very important new medical study in this area.

More specifically, doctors at the University of Alabama found that drinking a daily Soy Milk Shake may play a role in how your body distributes your fat cells - and it may help keep fat away from the stomach area, particuarly in women.

The new report just published in the journal Fertility and Sterility found a component of soy-- a natural chemical known as isoflavone is what seems to do the trick.

The double blind, placebo controlled study assigned 15 women (average age 55) with an average BMI of 30, to drink either a placebo shake or a soy shake, containing 20mg of soy protein plus 160 mg of isoflavones, every day for three months.

The result: While neither group lost any weight, xray tests revealed the women who drank the soy shakes appeared to have less fat around their mid section than they did prior to when the study began! More specifically, the soy group had a 14.7 sq. cm reduction in belly fat, then the placebo group, who had a 22.9 sq cm increase in belly fat.

And remember, neither group lost any weight.

Although researchers say they don't quite understand the result, they do note this is the first study to suggest that components of soy may play a role in fat distribution – and that drinking soy protein shakes may, in fact, be one way that post menopausal women can help to control the level of belly fat which seems to accumulate more readily after age 55.

If you want to give the soy shakes a try, here's a link to an inexpensive brand similar in it's nutritional profile to what was used in the study. They come in vanilla and chocolate and they are yummy! Just don't wash them down with a box of doughnuts. :)