article - Everyday Plant-Based

Going Plant-Based: Lifestyle Risks Drop Fast

karenwpullen Blog May 4, 2021October 19, 2023article, lifestyle risks, plant-based

At the risk of sounding like a broken record…wait, that idiom is based on a disappearing technology!

OK, I do repeat the same message in all my posts. Eating a whole-foods, plant-based diet is the best way to reduce your risks of the lifestyle diseases that plague our nation: diabetes, obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, some cancers.

Does it take a long time to turn your health around? No. You can experience rapid, profound changes, with this kind of dietary 180.

If, however, you take your time making it to 100 percent plant-based, changes will be milder and take longer.

Important! If you are on medication, let your doctor know that you are changing your diet.

Going Plant-Based for Healthy Blood Pressure

karenwpullen Blog April 9, 2021November 4, 2023article, blood pressure, healthy eating, plant-based, vegan

What is Blood Pressure? With each contraction of your powerful heart muscle, blood surges through your arteries, veins, and capillaries, pressing against blood vessel walls. The walls expand then relax, expand then relax, with every heartbeat.

That’s why blood pressure measurements come in two numbers: the force against the artery wall when the heart is pushing blood through it (systolic pressure), and the force between beats (diastolic pressure).

Ideally, your blood pressure should be around 110/70. There’s an exponential increase in risk of dying from a stroke or heart disease as pressures go up, starting from around 110/70. But most people with high blood pressure have no signs or symptoms, even if it’s reached dangerously high levels. So, it’s important to check it regularly.

Health Concerns. High blood pressure, or hypertension, is of great concern. If the blood vessels are narrowed, or stiffened with sclerosis, the heart works extra-hard and less efficiently. Over time, the force and friction of high blood pressure damages the insides of the arteries, cholesterol plaques form along those tiny tears, and arteries become narrower. Blood pressure raises even higher. It’s a vicious circle.

Going Plant-Based to Reduce Inflammation

karenwpullen Blog February 10, 2021October 19, 2023article, inflammation, plant-based

What is inflammation? There’s a defensive war going on in your body, conducted by intelligence officers (ordinary cells), signalers (interferons and cytokines), generals (endothelial cells), armed soldiers (white blood cells). Their mission: to detect, envelop, destroy, and purge your body of bad germs, viruses, parasites, oxidizing molecules, and cancerous cells. That war, necessary for existence, leaves behind redness, swelling, heat, pain, loss of function. Inflammation.

Inflammation can be acute and short-term, depending on the insult to the body: a sprain, poison ivy, acne, pneumonia, burns. Short-term, the army is deployed, does its job, and the body is healed.

But chronic long-term inflammation has a dark side, playing a role in health concerns like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, psoriasis, asthma, skin aging, inflammatory arthritis, and inflammatory bowel disease. Read more

← Previous