The JACC looks at how herbal supplements can interact with the drugs that cardiologists prescribe regularly. If you take these supplements you might want to read the following article. It was published in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology which is the academic/scientific journal for cardiology doctors.

This is the summary. Click on the hyperlink below for the full article:

More than 15 million people in the U.S. consume herbal remedies or high-dose vitamins. The number of visits to providers of complementary and alternative medicine exceeds those to primary care physicians, for annual out-of-pocket costs of $30 billion. Use of herbal products forms the bulk of treatments, particularly by elderly people who also consume multiple prescription medications for comorbid conditions, which increases the risk of adverse herb-drug-disease interactions. Despite the paucity of scientific evidence supporting the safety or efficacy of herbal products, their widespread promotion in the popular media and the unsubstantiated health care claims about their efficacy drive consumer demand. In this review, we highlight commonly used herbs and their interactions with cardiovascular drugs. We also discuss health-related issues of herbal products and suggest ways to improve their safety to better protect the public from untoward effects.

http://zepickcardiology.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/5152.pdf

Taken from the JACC online

http://content.onlinejacc.org/

One of the biggest health risks Americans face is our diet. Zepick Cardiology recommends changing the way we think about diet as a way to help in the fight against diabetes, coronary heart disease and obesity.

Next I’ll post a website with some recipes.

Here’s an article from the American Heart Association:

What is the “Mediterranean” diet?

There’s no one “Mediterranean” diet. At least 16 countries border the Mediterranean Sea. Diets vary between these countries and also between regions within a country. Many differences in culture, ethnic background, religion, economy and agricultural production result in different diets. But the common Mediterranean dietary pattern has these characteristics:

* high consumption of fruits, vegetables, bread and other cereals, potatoes, beans, nuts and seeds
* olive oil is an important monounsaturated fat source
* dairy products, fish and poultry are consumed in low to moderate amounts, and little red meat is eaten
* eggs are consumed zero to four times a week
* wine is consumed in low to moderate amounts

Does a Mediterranean-style diet follow American Heart Association dietary recommendations?

Mediterranean-style diets are often close to our dietary recommendations, but they don’t follow them exactly. In general, the diets of Mediterranean peoples contain a relatively high percentage of calories from fat. This is thought to contribute to the increasing obesity in these countries, which is becoming a concern.

People who follow the average Mediterranean diet eat less saturated fat than those who eat the average American diet. In fact, saturated fat consumption is well within our dietary guidelines.

More than half the fat calories in a Mediterranean diet come from monounsaturated fats (mainly from olive oil). Monounsaturated fat doesn’t raise blood cholesterol levels the way saturated fat does.

The incidence of heart disease in Mediterranean countries is lower than in the United States. Death rates are lower, too. But this may not be entirely due to the diet. Lifestyle factors (such as more physical activity and extended social support systems) may also play a part.

Before advising people to follow a Mediterranean diet, we need more studies to find out whether the diet itself or other lifestyle factors account for the lower deaths from heart disease. See the Lyon Diet Heart Study entry in this Guide for more information.

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4644Mediterranean Diet