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Apple Cider Vinegar For Heart Health

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Apple Cider Vinegar For Heart Health

Can Apple Cider Vinegar Protect Your Heart?

The short answer is yes. Apple cider vinegar (ACV) is heart healthy and has a multitude of other health benefits. Let’s take a look.

Vinegar comes from the French words for “sour” and “wine”. All vinegars are mostly a mixture of acetic acid (CH3COOH) and water. Vinegar is made in a two-step fermentation process. Take ACV for example. The first step uses yeast to ferment apple juice into cider. The next step uses bacteria to change cider into vinegar. According to the makers of the most famous product, Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar, the laundry list of benefits is extensive. But let’s look at the research on ACV.

Cholesterol

In a study from 2008, diabetic rats fed with ACV had lower LDL, lower triglycerides, and better blood sugar control while increasing HDL (1). This is animal data that cannot always be applied to humans. Can’t hurt though.

Blood Sugar

A 2004 trial showed vinegar (not specifically ACV) improves insulin sensitivity, limits sugar breakdown from dietary sources, and increases cellular uptake of glucose into skeletal muscle. These are fascinating findings for those with diabetic or pre-diabetic conditions. ACV can help everyone (2). Multiple studies have replicated these findings. In fact, 2 tablespoons of ACV at bedtime led to significant improvements in glucose control (3).

Antioxidant

A 2014 study found that ACV decreased oxidative injury in the rodent model and improved lipid control (4). Limiting oxidation is always a good thing, especially when it comes to the human body.

Other cardiovascular benefits likely come from ACV’s ability to promote digestion and overall gut health.

But there’s more

Vinegar may help with:

  1. Weight loss (5)
  2. Cancer (6)
  3. Skin conditions (my clinical experience)

Vinegar has been used for thousands of years as a disinfectant. Multiple studies have found vinegar to be very effective against bacteria such as E. coli and even mycobacteria such as tuberculosis! (7)

You see, those old home remedies do work.

How to use Apple Cider Vinegar

Apple cider vinegar is a great addition to olive oil and sea salt for a delicious salad dressing.olive oil

For people with heartburn or reflux, try 1 tablespoon of ACV in a little water prior to a meal. Sip on ACV in water at 50/50 combo in between meals and before bed. Brush your teeth afterward.

For skin warts or fungal toes, “paint” the area with a Q-tip 2-3x per day. This may take 2-3 months to resolve the affected area. No risk in trying and 100% safe compared with toxic prescription drugs.

Sources:

  1. Pak J Biol Sci. 2008 Dec 1;11(23):2634-8.
  2. Diabetes Care January 2004 vol. 27 no. 1 281-282
  3. Diabetes Care November 2007vol. 30 no. 11 2814-2815
  4. J Membr Biol. 2014 Aug;247(8):667-73.
  5. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem. 2009 Aug;73(8):1837-43.
  6. Biofactors. 2004;22(1-4):93-7.
  7. J Food Prot. 1998 Aug;61(8):953-9.

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Heart Health Benefits of Probiotics

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Probiotics may be the most important supplement of all. Every one of my cardiology patients MUST take them. Their success (and mine) depends on it. Probiotics literally means “pro-life” and antibiotic means “anti-life”. Doctors use the term probiotic to encompass the trillions of bacteria (flora) and beneficial yeast that colonize our intestines. The gastrointestinal (GI) tract has a delicate balance of beneficial and harmful microbes doing the dance every day. When this coexistence gets out of whack in favor of the bad guys, disease will flourish.

Heart Health Benefits of Probiotics

The beneficial bacteria in our GI tract are responsible for:

  • Digestion
  • Vitamin synthesis
  • Detoxification of chemicals
  • Immune support
  • GI permeability (keeping unwanted particles out of the body while letting beneficial ones in)

Poor nutrition from grain (especially gluten containing grains), dairy, and sugar wreak havoc on the gut and can allow the bad bacteria and fungi to flourish. Antibiotics, steroids, fluoride, and chlorine inflict major GI damage.

Bacteria in the mouth convert plant-based nitrates to nitric oxide, the body’s main vasodilator. Read more about boosting nitric oxide here.

Also, genetically modified foods will surely alter our GI flora as the FrankenDNA from GMO will change the DNA of healthy gut flora.

Another nasty player is the pesticide Round-Up. The active ingredient glyphosate damages gut bacteria and causes a leaky gut.

How to maintain a healthy gut

If you do not have proper digestion with adequate amounts of stomach acid and digestive enzymes, disease will begin. Our ancestors ate bacteria in the dirt every day. They didn’t pull a carrot and scrub it clean. You can imagine Paleo people had very dirty hands, which would actually boost the immune system.

The health benefits of probiotics have been recognized for thousand of years. Our ancestors may not have known about the tiny bacteria themselves, but they knew the healing properties of fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, and yogurt. One bite of these items has billions of good bacteria and I recommend eating kraut or kimchi weekly. Kombucha tea would also be an excellent source of probiotics and is great for an afternoon pick-up. Dairy is best left for the baby cows.

WHY DOES A CARDIOLOGIST CARE ABOUT THIS ISSUE?

Well, cardiovascular disease is linked to inflammation and a major source of inflammation is the gut. Heal the gut and heal the heart. The good news is, probiotics are proven to heal the leaky gut.

Hundreds of studies confirm the benefits of probiotics on cholesterol levels. A study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition found those patients randomized to probiotics vs. placebo increased there HDL from 50 to 62.

Probiotics reduce blood pressure according to numerous studies and my clinical experience. Probiotics improve blood sugar. The lower the blood sugar, the lower the risk of heart disease. Probiotics lower inflammation and improve heart function!

In addition, probiotics:

  • Aid in food digestion and may reduce acid-reflux symptoms
  • Enhance the synthesis of B vitamins and improve calcium absorption
  • Improve symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome and ulcerative colitis
  • Promote vaginal and urinary health
  • Support immune function
  • May inhibit antibiotic associated diarrhea
  • May prevent Traveler’s diarrhea

PROBIOTICS are best consumed on an empty stomach so I recommend dosing when you first wake up and 30 minutes before dinner or even at bedtime. It is good to take a variety of probiotics as there are hundreds of different strains that make up a healthy gastrointestinal tract. Overdosing is very unlikely, if not impossible. Side effects are mostly limited to loose stools.

When our ancestors wanted a carrot, they would pull one out of the ground and eat. In present day, our store bought vegetables are washed before we buy them and then scrubbed at home to get off any remnants of dirt. I am not opposed to the cleaning of our food due to toxic soil, air, and water, but this is all the more reason to consume probiotics on a daily basis. In addition, our hands used to be dirty from the soil and our hunter-gatherer lives. Not any longer, you can’t walk five feet without running into hand sanitizer which effectively removes all good probiotics along with giving you an extra dose of chemicals. Could the diseases afflicting our children and the recurrent infections we all seem to get be due to our sterilized society?

Source:www.thedrswolfson.com