Heart disease is a big term covering a lot of conditions. It refers to anything that has to do with damage to the heart or surrounding arteries, from coronary artery disease to arrhythmias to congenital heart defects. The vastness of the definition makes the question of reversing heart disease more complicated than it might otherwise be.
For example, a congenital heart defect is a structural abnormality a person is born with. So, while in some cases it can be managed or fixed surgically, it cannot be reversed. Arrhythmias are generally much the same. However, many coronary diseases arise as a consequence of poor lifestyle choices that can be reversed or at least halted.
What does it take to reverse heart disease?
If you really want to undo the damage to your heart, you have to get serious. Reversing significant damage takes effort and major life style changes, including a major diet overhaul. That means plenty of fruits and vegetables, rice and legumes, and all that healthy stuff diet connoisseurs have been raving about for decades. Instead of bacon and fried eggs for breakfast, have egg whites and skim milk. Avoid refined sugars, fatty foods, and carbohydrates that don’t occur naturally. Exercise also needs to be introduced into your life. This doesn’t mean going to the gym for a six-hour work out, lifting weights, running six miles, and swimming twenty laps. It means a half hour walk every evening.
The combination of a healthy diet and regular exercise should naturally introduce the third aspect of reversal: maintaining a healthy weight. Obesity contributes to heart disease because the heart has to work harder to pump blood through veins clogged with cholesterol and plaque that build up from the same things that put extra fat around the waist.
Just because you’ve made the lifestyle changes doesn’t mean the disease goes away. Despite improvement, it will still be important to visit the doctor regularly to check up on your heart’s recovery progress. If you take prescription medication, continue to use it until your doctor tells you otherwise.
