The root cause of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases is the problem of blood and blood vessels, with the growth of age, blood vessels will gradually aging, especially with someone has bad habits, which will accelerate the hardening of blood vessels, brittle, and eventually atherosclerosis.
Theres a lot of wording about "softening the blood vessels.” For example, it is often said among the people that drinking red wine, vinegar soaked food and other "magic" can soften blood vessels. But do these "magic tricks" and "folk remedies" really work? Whats the real proper solution? Is red wine a good thing or a bad thing?
Zheng Yin, a well-known cardiovascular expert in Hainan and Vice President of Hainan Chengmei Hospital, said that drinking alcohol or vinegar really can not soften blood vessels, not only that, excessive drinking can not only promote blood circulation, reduce the occurrence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, but will increase the risk of liver damage, gout, female breast cancer and colorectal cancer, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
Drinking not only does not soften blood vessels, but “hurt your heart”
Moderate drinking could prevent cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases is a false proposition. The term stems from a 1991 "French paradox", in which the French have a low rate of cardiovascular disease, presumably due to their fondness for wine.
Researches have shown that resveratrol can soften blood vessels. However, the content of resveratrol in red wine is very low, and it is calculated that you need to drink at least 260 bottles of wine per day to achieve the antioxidant and cardiovascular effects required by the human body. Therefore, the method of softening blood vessels by drinking red wine is obviously not reliable.
In contrast, red wine contains about 8% to 15% alcohol, and excessive drinking can have a negative impact on cardiovascular function. Zheng Yin introduced that alcohol contains high heat energy, 1 gram of alcohol can produce 7 kilocalorie of heat, and heat excess will lead to obesity; secondly, ethanol, the main component of alcohol, can reduce myocardial contractility, expand peripheral blood vessels, resulting in decreased blood pressure, compensatory heart rate increase, and increase of cardiac output. In the long run, it will increase the burden on the heart, affect affect cardiovascular and cerebrovascular function, and eventually lead to various cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
Zheng Yin reminded that drinking for softening blood vessels and preventing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases is harmful, and excessive drinking will "hurt your heart" especially. At the same time, she stressed that people with chronic liver disease must not drink alcohol, even a simple drop.
Vascular aging is inevitable but can be delayed
"When blood vessel aging to a certain extent, it can not be reversed, but can only be delayed" Zheng Yin explained, and she added that as we age, arteriosclerosis is inevitable. However, through some means, such as controlling blood lipids, blood pressure, reasonable diet, increasing exercise, etc., we can effectively delay the aging and hardening of blood vessels.
Improper diet is the "silent killer" of blood vessel aging. With the improvement of peoples living standards, foods with high sugar, high oil, high fat and high salt are full of our lives, and blood vessels are filled and soaked by these unhealthy "nutrients" for a long time. Lipoprotein cholesterol particles are deposited in the blood vessel wall and accumulate more and more, forming atherosclerotic plaques like millet porridge on the blood vessel wall. Over time, plaque gradually increases, vascular pathways narrow, blood flow is not smooth, and eventually lead to coronary heart disease, cerebral apoplexy and other cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
Zheng Yin suggested that we should eat regularly and drink enough water in the daily diet. We should adhere to the balanced dietary pattern based on cereals, and the food should be diversified, with an average intake of more than 12 kinds of food per day and more than 25 kinds per week. We should eat more vegetables and fruits, whole grains and soybeans, and have fresh vegetables and dark vegetables account for half of the meals. We should eat a moderate amount of fish, poultry, eggs and lean meat, and eat less foods with high fat, especially those containing animal fat, such as fried foods, fatty meats, smoked and preserved foods. We should cultivate a light diet with no more than 5g of salt per day. A high-salt diet contains a higher concentration of sodium chloride, which would increase blood volume and cause blood pressure rising, which would increase pressure on the walls of blood vessels. Limit your intake of added sugars and drink fewer or no sugary beverages. In addition, to prevent the aging of blood vessels, we also need to stop smoking and limit alcohol, for long-term smoking and alcoholism will stimulate the liver to synthesize a large number of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (" bad "cholesterol) and lead to atherosclerosis. At the same time, we should keep exercise and maintain a healthy weight, it is best to walk 6000 steps a day, maintain at least 5 days a week of moderate intensity physical activity with a total of more than 150 minutes, which can be a good way to slow blood vessel aging.
Not only that, the emotional changes of great joy and extreme anger can also cause blood pressure fluctuations, damage the elasticity of blood vessels, thereby accelerating the aging of blood vessels, so we should try to maintain a peaceful mind, and regularly arrange physical examinations, pay attention to the abnormal indicators of blood pressure, blood lipids, blood viscosity, in order to prevent atherosclerosis and reduce the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases.
Text from Huang Fei