Dr. Steele: Heart health with your Apple Watch. So my name is Dr. Erica Steele. I’m a holistic doctor in family practice. I hold six degrees in my field and they’re all in the natural healthcare space, ranging from psychology to natural healthcare sciences, natural medicine, and I’m a board certified naturopathic doctor, and I choose to be drug free.
Doctor, so an Apple Watch can be a very useful tool for tracking and improving your heart health. The watch includes several features that help you to monitor your heart rate, including their heart rate app. It also displays your current heart rate and provides a summary of your heart rate over the past day.
Week as well as month. Additionally, the watch includes features called Heart Rate Sensor, which allows you to take an E C D, which is an electrocardiogram reading, which can be used to detect your abnormal heart rhythms. The watch also includes several other features that can help you to improve your heart health.
So for example, the activity app can be used to track your physical fitness on a daily level. The. Steps you take, the distance you cover, and even the number of calories that you burn. The workout app can track your specific types of exercises, such as running or cycling, and you can actually set goals for your exercise routine.
There is also a feature called the Breathe App, which also helps you to manage stress by really working on reminding you to be conscious. To focus on your breathing, the app has provided guided breathing exercises that can help you to relax as well as unwind. While it’s important to note, an Apple Watch can be a useful tool for monitoring and improving your heart health.
It should not replace the care of a healthcare professional. If you have any concerns about your heart health, it’s always best to consult with your doctor. Holistic doctors. Often excluded in that conversation, which is why we do education, because we really want to look at all things related to their heart, such as your stress levels, your water intake, your food as well as ruling out all the big stuff that your allopathic cardiologist is gonna do.
So tune in for more for information on heart health.
Dr. Steele: Ever wonder how to keep your heart healthy as you age? Tune in to find out. My name is Dr. Erica Steele. I’m a holistic doctor in family practice. I hold six degrees in my field and they’re all in the natural healthcare space. I’ve been in natural healthcare for over 20 years, and I choose a. To be a Drugless doctor.
So let’s get into it. Heart health is incredibly important, especially as we age, because the risk of heart disease typically increases as we age. So here are some tips to maintain heart health as you age, number one. Regular exercise, that’s movement. Movement of your body through physical activity can help to not only reduce blood pressure, but also improve circulation and reduce your overall risk of heart disease.
You wanna aim for at least 30 minutes of moderately intensive exercise, such as a brisk walk on most days of the week. So if you have an Apple watch, you can track it. And then also too, you can. Spike light jog. There’s so many different physical activities that you can do. Just find something that you enjoy and stick with it.
Second, maintaining a healthy diet. Eating a diet that is rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein as well as healthy fats can help to lower the risk of heart disease and improve overall cardiovascular risk. You want to avoid processed foods, added sugars, as well as saturated fats as those.
Definitely contribute to heart disease as well as a list of conditions such as diabetes and obesity and metabolic syndrome. Third, manage your blood pressure as well as your cholesterol. High blood pressure and high cholesterol are some of the major risk factors for heart disease according to. The American Medical Association, blood pressure definitely is one of those.
Your healthcare provider can help you to manage these conditions through lifestyle changes, or if they’re really high and you’re at great risk for heart attack or stroke, they can also prescribe medication. I personally do not prescribe medication in my practice and also I’m not an alternative doctor, which means I don’t replace medication.
For a naturally occurring substance, we want to really make sure that we’re working on lifestyle changes well before they become an issue. Once the blood pressure is really high, it puts the person at risk. And so just taking herbs or things like that oftentimes is not the best approach when you’re working to help.
I tend to tell my patients the number one cause of hypertension is dehydration. So make sure that you’re drinking a minimum of half your bodyweight and ounces and water. Fourth, don’t smoke. So smoking is a major risk factor for heart disease as well as stroke. It allows for decreased oxygen in the body, which then has decreased oxygen in the cells, not to mention all of the different heavy metals and chemicals.
So if you smoke, quitting is one of the most important things you can do to improve your health. If you need support in that, and you don’t wanna use a pharmacological, Please feel free to reach out. We do have a smoking sensation, A D I Y course. It is a 30 day course, and we also give you homeopathic tools to reduce cravings and detoxify your body.
Fifth, you wanna control your blood sugar levels, so if you have diabetes, it’s important to manage blood sugar levels through diet, exercise, as well as if you need medication, and that will help to reduce the risk of heart disease. I’m not saying that you always need medication. Not always necessary to have to stabilize, but that’s a conversation between you and your healthcare providers and your healthcare team.
I tend to work in concert with or integrative. I don’t replace a lot of things. However, I can reduce, if not eliminate medication usage depending on the patient and patient compliance. Every case is different, so I always like to look. What’s going on first, and I take a very practical approach with it.
Number six, you wanna manage your stress. So stress, ugh, is like gasoline on any fire, it can increase the risk of heart disease. So you wanna make sure you practice stress management techniques such as deep breathing or meditation. Or mindset training can all really help to reduce stress and improve overall, improve your overall health and wellbeing.
Lastly, regular checkups. So regular checkups with your healthcare provider or professional is really important to detect as well as prevent heart disease, as well as monitor any medication that you may be taking for existing conditions. So your allopathic doctor’s role, I like to call them firefighters of medicine.
That’s what their role is. They’re trained to look for and identify the fires and put them out before. They happen. Doctors like me, we are more like medical detectives. We find out why after the fact the fires have started. But also too, we’re always monitoring and making sure practically before things happen.
We try to teach people to be very proactive instead of reactive. So working with people on their mindset, their emotions, their stress, their eating habits, their lifestyle changes. All of that really plays in before, so that when you go to your regular annual checkup, your medical doctor says everything looks good because you’ve been very proactive throughout the year.
It’s important to note that everyone is different and the best approach for you may vary depending on your personal health history. I also look at genetics. As a part of it, and also trauma, which has a huge role in a lot of health conditions. So it’s always good to have a healthcare team, not just one provider and one different perspective, but people from all different perspectives.
I love working in teams. I love crosswords with different providers and an integrative style. Because we all don’t have the right answers, and we’re all not perfect. We are human beings, especially doctors. We do make mistakes and we overlook things. So it’s really important that we look at all different perspectives, not just the standard diagnose and manage model.
So if you wanna learn more about ways that you can help be proactive with your health, tune in and subscribe to find out more.
Dr. Steele: So Heart Health Awareness Month. Here we are, Heart Health Awareness Month is in February. My name is Dr. Erica Steele. I’m a holistic doctor in family practice. I hold six degrees in my field and they’re all in the natural healthcare space. So welcome to my channel. It’s time to raise awareness about heart disease.
Especially because it’s February and everybody’s talking about it. So heart disease, unfortunately, is the leading cause of death worldwide. So this, my purpose here is to educate people about the risk factors for heart disease and to educate people about how to have a healthy lifestyle and create healthy choices and habits and behaviors that can help to prevent this particular condition.
I’m always teaching about being proactive instead of reactive. So during Heart Health Month, we really wanna speak to various different pain points that you’re experiencing. It’s important to know that eating a healthy diet, regular exercise, not smoking, managing stress, maintaining your health, controlling blood pressure, are just some of the examples, how you can take care of your heart.
During Heart Health Awareness Month, several organizations and healthcare providers hold events such as health fairs, walks, runs, and educational seminars. So this is really the. To get out into your community. I know in this area we have a big heart health gala and we really wanna build awareness so that people understand the importance of keeping a healthy heart and a healthy heart lifestyle.
Many organizations also provide information and resources online to help people to learn more about heart health, including information on how to reduce the risk of heart disease. Through healthy lifestyle choices, it’s incredibly important to note that taking care of your heart is not a once a year experience.
Even though February is our observant month, we really wanna make sure that every month and every week and every day that you are creating an ongoing effort to ensure that you have a heart health. Again, just to recap, eating a healthy, balanced diet, regular exercise in movement, not smoking, managing your stress, managing your weight, controlling blood sugar.
Woo, I’m tired already. . So we, it’s important to know you wanna take it one thing at a time, step by step. You focus on the step you’re on or the next step. So go ahead and jot. A whole list of things that you need to do proactively with your health and start off at the first one, they say it takes 21 days to build a healthy habit.
I tend to recommend to my patients to start with water first. Really it’s mindset, so it’s making a decision. And then following that is about water. And then we look at protein, and then the list goes on for there. If you need any. Help in educating yourself about heart health. Please reach out to our practice at holistic family practice va.com.
We’re more than happy. Happy to help you to live a healthy and natural lifestyle.
Dr. Erica Steele – Ever wonder what some heart healthy meals look like? My name is Dr. Erica Steele. I’m a holistic doctor in family practice. I hold six degrees in my field and they’re all in the natural healthcare space, and I’ve chosen to be a drugless doctor. So here’s some examples of some heart healthy meals. You have grilled salmon with a site of quinoa, roasted vegetables.
Salmon is a great resource for omega-3 essential fatty acids, which can help lower blood pressure and also reduce the risk of heart disease. Quinoa is a high fiber, high protein grain. It can also help to lower cholesterol levels, roasted vegetables provide antioxidants and other nutrients that are beneficial for the heart.
Second Turkey chili, Turkey chili with a side of mixed green salad. Turkey is a lean protein source. It’s lower in saturated fat than other meats. And chili is a great way to incorporate a variety of vegetables such as bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, which are all rich in antioxidants and other heart healthy nutrients.
They have a lot of third, they have a lot of protein pastas out today. So I think Banza is a really good brand that has protein pasta. It’s pasta made out of chickpeas. They also have lentil pasta and black bean pasta, and you can mix that with marinara sauce and a side of grilled chicken. So pastas are a great source of fiber, which can help lower cholesterol levels.
Marinara is a good source of lycopene and antacid. Beneficial for your heart. Grilled chicken is a lean source of protein that is lower in saturated fats than your other meats, specifically like your red meat. Number four, black bean and sweet potato burrito with avocado salsa. So black beans are high in fiber, which can help to lower cholesterol levels.
Sweet potatoes are a good source of potassium, which can also help to lower blood pressure, and avocados are a good source of healthy fats that can help to improve your heart health. Grilled chicken or fish with a side of brown rice, as well as steamed vegetables is pretty much a good staple meal.
Grilled chicken or fish or lean sources of protein that are lower in saturated fat than other meats. Brown rice is a whole grain that also is high in fiber, which can help to lower cholesterol levels by improving your short chain fatty acids, which contribute to your prebiotics as well as your probiotics.
Steam vegetables provide antioxidants and other nutrients that are also really beneficial for the heart. It’s important to note that a healthy diet should be diverse and balanced with a good variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats. We tend to use more of the macro philosophy within our practice.
We don’t subscribe to any specific. Diet because diets tend to not work. Uh, and patients tend to get confused, or just that monotheistic version of eating is not necessarily considered healthy. So we look at, well, how many grams of proteins, how many grams of fats, how many grams of carbohydrates that the person needs?
So it’s always good to consult with your healthcare professional for getting that personalized.
Dr. Steele: Ever wonder what some heart health lab tests are? My name is Dr. Erica Steele. I’m a holistic doctor in family practice. I hold six degrees in my field and they’re all in the natural healthcare space. I am a drug list doctor. I have tons of credentials. If you have any questions about that, feel free to tune in.
So now let’s. Talk about heart health lab testing. So there’s several laboratory tests that can be used to assess your heart health. So let’s get into ’em. So the first thing is a lipid panel. So a lipid panel is a blood test usually run in your annual visit that’s gonna measure the levels of cholesterols as well as triglycerides in your blood.
High levels of cholesterol and triglycerides are risk factors for heart disease, especially that triglyceride number, especially that L D L. We look at all of those numbers because it helps us, and it shouldn’t be high or low although higher risk naturally is more risk factor towards heart disease.
But low risk also gives us indication that you’re not digesting well, which can also impact heart disease. So we really wanna be mindful that we’re not high, we’re not low, we’re balanced. Second blood glucose testing. So high blood sugar levels can be a sign of pre-diabetes, which is a risk of heart disease as well as metabolic syndrome.
A blood glucose test measures the amount of glucose in the blood, so we want anywhere between 80 and 85 and a glucose test to be optimal. Lot of times doctors will miss it cuz they’ll tell if the number is higher than that, they’ll say, oh, it’s fine. But we really want a nice conservative. Number three, a blood pressure test.
So high blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease. A blood pressure test measures the force of blood against the walls of the arteries. We standard do the one 20 over 80. However, if you age, if you’re like in the sixties, one 40 over 90. is considered acceptable. As long as you don’t have any other risk factors.
It’s also important to know that you don’t want a chronic low blood pressure. A lot of times people will come up with a low blood pressure, and that’s actually a sign of a chronic stress response. And as we talked about before, stress is a factor in heart disease number four H S C R P, so it’s a high sensit.
C reactive protein test that actually is going to test the protein that’s produced by the liver in response to inflammation in the body. High levels of this in the blood have been associated with an increased risk of heart disease. Number five, homocysteine. So homocystine is an amino acid that is produced by the body.
High levels of homocystine in the blood have been associated with the increased risk of heart disease. It can also be an indication. B6 and magnesium deficiencies. So we definitely wanna look at that. Number six, the E C G or electrocardiogram, that is a test that measures the electrical activity of the heart.
It can detect abnormal heart rhythms and other conditions that may increase the risk of heart disease. We have a little stethoscope in our practice that will PI pick it. Pretty quickly. We wanna make sure that there’s no irregular heartbeats. A lot of times people don’t realize they have murmurs or AFib, and so when we detect those, we’re able to send them to the cardiologist for a full workup and just make sure that their heart is healthy.
Number seven, an echocardiogram. That’s an ultrasound task that your cardiologist is gonna do that uses sound waves to create images of the heart. It. Issues with valve problems, abnormal heart structure, and of course your heart muscle problems. It’s important to detect these things early and especially if there’s a family history, you wanna make sure that you are staying on top of that.
It’s important to note that not all these tests may be necessary for everyone, and that some of these tests may be performed as a part of a regular checkup, or based on your specific medical history and symptoms. It’s always best to consult with a healthcare professional to determine which tests are appropriate for you.
I always say don’t. Test. But I also am very conservative with testing because you don’t always need to test every single thing. That’s where the clinical practice and the clinical experience of the clinician can really help. So tune in for more about heart health as well as other tests that you can run.
Speaker 1: Beautiful view of the beach. Ladies, many of us worry about the health of our men’s in our, the men in our lives, but how do you get them to see the doctor without being invasive or even nagging? Dr. Erica Steele from Holistic Family Practice in Virginia Beach is here with Summit Advice. Hey, Dr. Steele. How you doing?
Speaker 2: Hello? I’m doing well.
Speaker 1: The nagging effort doesn’t always work. And I know I do it and I’m sure there are women out there into it. And I think we don’t even realize that we’re nagging.
Speaker 2: We just say the same cuz it’s important to us, we’re passionate about it, so we’re just continuously on and on. And they perceive it as nagging.
Speaker 1: Got it. So what is another method of communication that will get your husband or your man and your life to the doctor?
Speaker 2: So I find that masculine men, which majority of the men that typically don’t go to the doctor, right? More of the masculine men, they really they wanna make us happy.
Okay? And coming from our emotional state I’m worried about this, or I’m concerned about this, or I have a fear about this, would you mind giving them the power? Position in that and ultimately giving them the choice. Okay.
Speaker 1: Give them the power. So you’re doing a little mind game. Okay, got that.
Speaker 2: Yeah! It’s not manipulation, ,
Speaker 1: that’s not with questions. Okay, so what are, what is being missed from men who decide not to go to the doctor? What are some of the things. That, could happen to them. Yeah. Because they just wait till the last minute to go.
Speaker 2: I think common metabolic health concerns, so like hypertension, hyperlipidemia, which is high cholesterol, obviously if they’re overweight, they realize that, but typically these other contributing lifestyle factors, so they’re not drinking enough water, they’re eating too high fat of food.
Those sorts of things. And what that is, it’s almost. Rocket fuel to whatever genetic predisposition that they have, right? Which unfortunately, sometimes that’s why men don’t go to the doctor because they’re so afraid. I’ve had many male patients come to the office I don’t wanna end up like my dad.
My, my grandfather, they all died young. I really wanna get on top of this, but that’s not the norm. Most, some men tend to avoid repressed. I got it and not deal with that. I got it.
Speaker 1: So what are some of the symptoms that you need to be looking out for that may be related to health issues?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so chronic headaches, a headache is not normal. Okay. That’s a classic sign of dehydration. Naturally, if you’re sluggish, energy lost, you have to kind of power through things. You’re fatigued, you’re not sleeping well. These are all really precursors to let you know that you know there’s something going on. If you just don’t feel a hundred percent revive, refreshed, and. And naturally, physically you’re not able to do is what you normally would’ve done.
Speaker 1: Got it. So when you’re dealing with a health issue, are there some factors that men should be mindful of as they age?
Speaker 2: Naturally what I just mentioned in terms of all the metabolic health conditions, we talked, you guys spoke with the other doctor from the urology perspective, prostate and inflammatory processes around the prostate, the bladder, those sorts of things increased Ur. All of those are definitely things to pay attention to and be really mindful of.
Speaker 1: So when you have that woman going in the your office with their man Yeah. What is the dialogue like, and then what are some of the happy stories that you know you’ve had because he’s decided.
Speaker 2: So I think some of the dynamic that I’ve seen is the wives are angry and they’re afraid. Okay. That’s really because they’ve been trying and trying enforcing. Their husbands, or significant other has now generated a health condition and now they’re scared that they may lose them. Oh. So that’s some dynamic, but recognizing for the woman, like it’s ultimately their choice, and you’re not making the choice for them, but you’re supporting them in the choice, and you’re communicating from a place of your concern. Okay. Because if you don’t communicate from that, then they really don’t get the importance of it.
Speaker 1: And the men, how are they when they come in?
Speaker 2: I think sometimes a little shell shocked. They. Do. They wanna make happy. Sometimes they don’t know how. They’re overwhelmed. We as women sometimes get overwhelmed with our health. When you’ve been doing a certain habit for 40 something plus years. Yeah. And you’ve got, this big elephant in the room and you need to deal with it. It’s like, where do I start? What do I do? And that’s one of the things that I really. Specialize in my practices, creating step by step approaches. We’re not gonna do everything overnight. It’s, we’re gonna focus on our water and our stress. We do it incrementally so it builds over time,
Speaker 1: so it’s not overwhelming. Yeah. Okay. So I understand you have some classes that are coming up too. Tell me about them.
Speaker 2: So we have three classes. So this one’s all about dad’s and dad’s health. Obviously in alignment with. Day. So we’re really looking at, helping, encouraging dad to stay conscious with his health. This is the perfect opportunity to passively bring either your father or your husband significant other to that class, cuz we’re all gonna be talking about mental health and we’ll also be doing a meditation in this class.
Speaker 1: Wonderful. And those are the dates for it. And then how do we make an appointment with you?
Speaker 2: We can, I have a scheduler, which is awesome. So you just call our office (757) 685-4325. Nine to nine is when our schedulers open and they schedule. We do a 15 minute complimentary wellness appointments.
Speaker 1: Wonderful. Thank you so much, Dr. Steele. It’s always a pleasure when you come. Yes, sure.
Dr. Steele: What is a heart health lifestyle? My name is Dr. Erica Steele. I’m a holistic doctor in family practice. I hold six degrees in my field and they’re all in the natural healthcare space. So let’s talk about what a heart healthy lifestyle looks like. So first off, it’s a combination of habits that can help to reduce the risk of heart disease.
And so habits really start with a thought. So you have to think, have an intention, make a decision. , right? Then you have an emotion around that decision, usually, hopefully a motivation, and then you have action. So your thoughts create your emotions, and then your emotions create your actions and your actions create your behaviors and your behaviors create your lifestyles because of your habits.
So let’s talk about some healthy habits for your heart. Number one, eating a healthy diet. So eating a diet that’s rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, and healthy fats can also help to lower the risk of heart disease and improve your overall cardiovascular health. Try to avoid processed foods like added sugars and saturated fats.
I typically say, if you don’t, can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it. If it’s God made, eat it. If it’s manmade, stay away from it. Pretty self-explanatory. Number two, exercising regular. So regular exercise and movement can help to lower blood pressure, improve circulation, and reduce the risk of heart disease. You wanna aim for at least 30 minutes of moderately intensive exercise, such as brief walking or bike riding on most days of the week.
So pick a, an activity that you enjoy, that you love, and then take it from there. Number three, maintaining a healthy weight. So being overweight or. Actually increases heart disease, mostly because it puts more pressure on the heart. That doesn’t mean that what’s healthy for one person may not be healthy for another person or vice versa.
So we wanna make sure that we look not just at the weight number, but also body composition. Cuz there’s a lot of people out there that are. Really built very strong and they have a lot of lean meat, excuse me, lean muscle. And so because of that, this scale may be really high, but they’re really strong. So we really wanna be concerned about your visceral fat that’s fat around your organs and your midsection, because that is really what.
We’re concerned about, especially when it comes to metabolic syndrome or diabetes or heart disease. Maintaining a healthy weight through diet and exercise can greatly reduce the risk of heart disease. Number four, managing stress. So stress, again, gasoline on any fire. Can increase the risk of heart disease.
So practicing stress management techniques such as breath work, which is deep breathing, yoga or meditation, can help to reduce stress and improve your overall health as well as wellbeing. Number five, not smoking. Smoking some major risk factor for heart disease and stroke because you’re literally depriving your cells of oxygen.
So quitting smoking is one of the most important things you can do to improve your health if you need help with that. We do have a smoking sensation program that’s completely natural and drugless. We use homeopaths, we use clinical hypnotherapy, and there’s a step-by-step process that we follow over a month long and we detox the body and reduce cravings all at the same time.
It’s a hundred percent natural. Number six, limiting alcohol intake. If you drink, that’s fine, but drink in moderation. So moderation is defined as one drink per day for women, or up to two drinks per day. For men, that can help reduce the risk of heart disease if you’re not drinking excessively.
Excessive alcohol consumption can increase the risk of heart disease. But also liver disease, diabetes, and any number of health conditions. Number seven, managing chronic conditions. So if you have a chronic condition such as hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, it’s really important to work with your healthcare provider to manage these conditions.
Through lifestyle changes, medications, or both? So again, I’m a holistic doctor. We don’t deal in medications, but we do work integrative. So a lot of times if patients are being proactive with their health, we’re working with them step by step so that we’re preventing these conditions rather than just waiting one time a year to go into the medical doctor and then, oh my gosh, there’s all these things.
We can actually measure things before they become a problem. So we can teach you how to be proactive instead of reactive with your health. The last thing is getting enough sleep. So lack of sleep can increase the risk of heart disease. So you wanna aim for about seven to eight hours of deep restful sleep.
So that maintain, that means maintaining a consistent sleep schedule, which can be challenging if you have. The late shift, or you have an erratic schedule, it really will throw off your circadian rhythm, and so it’s very difficult to be able to get good sleep. A lot of times if you have stress and you’re ruminating, which means you’re overthinking, you may need to address that first, the stress response so that you’re able to get good sleep naturally.
If you’ve had any history of trauma in your past or you have any anxiety, it can be really tricky to get enough sleep, so definitely consult your provider. It’s important to note that everyone is different. I love what I do because it’s so unique and I’m able to look at all the data. We take over 350 data points on each individual patient, and so we really give to the individual what the individual needs rather than just generalized approaches.
The best approach may vary depending on your personal health history, so it’s important to always consult with a healthcare professional for personalized guidance. Tune in to find out more.
Dr. Steele: I get asked so often is Heart Health, NU Nutrition or Simply Nutrition. My name is Dr. Erica Steele. I’m a holistic doctor in family practice. I hold six degrees in my field and they’re all in the natural healthcare space. I’ve chosen to be a drugless. Doctor, and so is heart health, really just nutrition.
Let’s talk about it. Nutrition does play a significant role in maintaining heart health, so eating healthy, a diet that’s rich in fruits and vegetables and lean proteins, as well as healthy fats can help to lower the risk of heart disease and improve. Overall cardiovascular health. There are other specific nutrients in food groups that are also really important for heart health to include either in your diet or through a supplement.
Some of those include an omega-3 essential fatty acid, which contains fatty acids that can be found in fish such as salmon, macro, and sardines. These. Omega three s can actually help to lower your blood pressure, reduce the risk of heart disease. Another nutrient to be looked out for is fiber, which is often found in your fruits, your vegetables, and even your whole grains.
Eating a diet that’s high in fiber can help lower your cholesterol levels because it helps those short chain fatty acids. It also can reduce the risk of c. As well as reducing the risk of heart disease. Potassium is also found in many fruits and vegetables, such as bananas and sweet potatoes and spinach.
Potassium can also help lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart disease. Antioxidant rich foods such as berries, dark chocolate, and even leafy greens, can also help to reduce inflammation in the body and lower the risk of heart disease. Avoiding saturated fats and trans fats, as well as monitoring your fat levels for the day can also, Be extremely helpful in reducing your risk of heart disease.
Saturated fats and trans fats can be found in foods like butter red meat, and processed food. And so we really wanna make sure that we minimize, if not eliminate those out of the diet.. Completely. It’s always good to consult a healthcare professional for personalized device. We do a lot of testing to be able to determine what actually a patient needs, especially when it comes to supplementations.
We don’t wanna supplement a bad diet. It’s also important to note that while maintaining a healthy diet is just one piece of the puzzle, there’s so many other lifestyle factors to consider, such as physical activity and stress management are also super important to maintaining your heart health.
Dr. Steele: Can heart health be improved? We’ll find out. My name is Dr. Erica steele. I’m a holistic doctor in family practice. I hold six degrees in my field and they’re all in the natural healthcare space, and I have chosen to be a drugless doctor. So to answer our question, can heart health be improved simply, yes.
If you take full responsibility for your health and wellbeing and choose to improve your lifestyle, so heart health can be improved through lifestyle changes such as regular exercise, maintaining a healthy diet, not smoking, and of course managing stress as well as your emotional wellbeing. It’s also really important to maintain a healthy weight, which includes not only a healthy blood sugar, but also healthy blood pressure, uh, making sure that you control your blood sugar levels.
Especially if you have diabetes, as well as drinking enough water, I cannot even stress enough as to how water is so important. Number one, cause of hypertension is dehydration, so making sure that you drink a minimum of half of your body weight and ounces in water is key to heart health. Additionally, some people may benefit from taking medications to either lower their blood pressure or to stabilize their blood sugar.
However you wanna consult with your healthcare provider to determine the best plan. Now, being a Drugless doctor doesn’t necessarily mean we kick out all of the pharmaceutical routes. In fact, I work alongside allopathic medical doctors all of the time, especially if the blood sugar is really high a lot of times.
Stabilizer to ensure that the person is healthy. They’re not going to necessarily have a stroke or a heart attack. Something of that regard that could be life-threatening. So what we wanna do is, Use that pharmacological agent as a stabilizer while we’re also making those lifestyle changes. I often say that health does not happen instantaneously, and disease doesn’t happen just outta nowhere either in each and every moment.
You’re either building health or building disease. So tune in and I will teach you more how to build health rather than build disease.
Dr. Steele: Specifically for heart health, and some even have dedicated hospitals specifically for heart health. I know we have one here in Virginia. Those particular facilities can provide information about services and treatments that are available, as well as contact information for a cardiologist or other specialist.
Second, you can search for heart health or cardiology clinics in your area. And many cardiology clinics specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of heart conditions. A lot of times some cardiologists can be functional medicine cardiologists, meaning they have functional training, they’re going to incorporate more of the holistic modalities such as supplementation.
Laboratory and some lifestyle coaching to be able to help you to have more of an integrated approach to your heart health. Naturally, you can always contact your primary care physician for recommendations. Your primary care physician may be able to refer you to different specialists in the area. Who either they have had experience treating with or who have experience in treating your specific condition.
You can also look for local support groups and organizations. There are many organizations that provide support as well as resources for individuals with heart conditions, as well as families and caregivers. You can also use online directories such as Google Maps, Yelp Health Grades, to search for cardiologists for health clinics within your area.
Last. Asking around, asking different people who they go see can be also really helpful to be able to say that an allopathic doctor is your only approach is not always accurate. Your allopathic provider is trained to look for and diagnose a disease process. It’s very important to go and have a battery of tests to make sure that your heart is strong.
A lot of times they’ll have at work, Clinics, they’ll have little trucks that come out and they’ll do a battery of tests just to give you what an assessment is, don’t forget that holistic doctors, while we’re not trained to diagnose or manage diseases, we’re trained to actually be more proactive with people and teach people step-by-step.
Practically what they can do to maintain a healthy heart rather than waiting until it becomes a problem and then running in and doing something. So it’s really important to be proactive instead of reactive with your health. It’s also important to remember that you should always consult with a healthcare professional for personalized device.
While the internet has great information and can lead you down all kinds of different rabbit holes, getting your data, getting your labs, having your case reviewed by a qualified professional is always gonna be the best.
