What Are You Doing to Help Your Heart?

I exercise at least 3 times a week usually by raking leaves in my big yard. I also have exercise tapes which I used sometimes, but mostly my exercise it out of doors. (At age 82 I don't think I'm doing too badly.) ES

Hi to everybody

Fourteen months ago, I became vegetarian. At that time I suffered angina pains when walking up steep inclines etc. A couple of months ago, I suddenly realised that I had a huge improvement in angina pain. I now follow the Dr Dean Ornish diet (vegetarian) which has been proven to unblock diseased arteries. I know that diets like the Mediterranean diet are good for heart health, but it seems that these diets only prevent heart disease if that's the only diet you've ever followed. Once the arteries have become damaged by the Western diet, only changing over to the Dean Ornish diet (if you want to stay away from drugs and surgery) is the only one that will clear the blockages. The diet is not easy to follow, especially if you've been a big meateater etc. However, I'd rather stay away from drugs, having had a very bad experience with one, so the choice is not a difficult one for me.

http://www.webmd.com/diet/ornish-diet-what-it-is

Best of luck!

I am 70 and have deterioration of the connective tissue in my hips so I cannot walk too far without pain. Prior to going on Armour thyroid medication my total chloresterol was 268 and doctors were always pressuring me to use statins. I refused. Six months after starting the Armour my total chloresterol dropped 88 points and my HDL stayed at 65. I wonder how many people who are on statins for high LDL in spite of a heart perfect diet actually have mild hypothroidism?
I maintain my weight, follow a diet that every heart specialist wishes their patients would follow, lift weights, do stretch and strength exercise, and go to Curves. I wish I could walk a couple of miles but that is out of the question with my bad hips. We have a heated pool where I live but I am truly guilty that I fail to use it very often. In my youth I was a long distance swimmer. One of these days I will finally keep that promise to myself to get into the water and work out at least 3X a week.

Because I have painful feet and can't walk far, I swim five or six days a week year around for about an hour. The session includes water exercises for arthritis as well as swimming. I have the good fortune to live where an indoor pool is available 22 hours a day, seven days a week. Before I lived here, I went to a YMCA about ten miles away, but not as often. I also take medication for hypertension and cholesterol control and watch my diet. All this doesn't make me slim, but it keeps me from becoming heavier.

Barbara H.