Tag: heart health

If Exercise Were a Pill, Everyone Would be Taking it

Why daily movement might be the most powerful medicine you are missing.

Imagine if your doctor could prescribe a single pill that boosted your mood, increased your energy, improved your sleep, strengthened your heart, and helped protect you from chronic disease – all with minimal side effects. It would fly off the shelves. But what if that “pill” already exists – and it doesn’t come in a bottle?

Daily exercise is one of the most powerful and underutilized tools for improving both physical and mental health. From the rush of endorphins that lift your mood to the long-term benefits that support your brain and body, movement acts like a broad-spectrum medicine – one that is available to everyone, yet often overlooked.

When it comes to choosing the “best” form of aerobic exercise the answer might be far simpler than most people expect: walking. No complicated routines, no expensive memberships, no intimidating equipment – just putting one foot in front of the other.

Walking is accessible to everyone regardless of age or fitness level and it can be done almost anytime or anywhere. Whether it’s a quick loop around the neighborhood, a stroll during your lunch break, or a longer walk to unwind at the end of the day. It all adds up. Best of all it is completely free. The only real investment is a comfortable pair of sneakers and a bit of your time – making it one of the easiest and sustainable ways to tap into the powerful, feel-good benefits of daily exercise.

You have probably heard of the widely recommended goal of reaching 10,000 steps a day. While this is a great target to work toward, it is important to remember that everyone starts somewhere different. The key isn’t to jump straight to 10,000, but to begin at a level that feels comfortable and realistic for you. Maybe that’s 3,000 steps, 4,000, or wherever your current routine naturally falls. From there, a simple and sustainable approach is to gradually increase your daily steps by about 10% at a time. This allows your body to adapt without feeling overwhelmed and reducing the risk of burnout or injury. Over time, those small, consistent increases add up building endurance, confidence, and momentum – until that 10,000 step goal feels not only achievable but part of your everyday life.

A large meta-analysis published in The Lancet Public Health found that increasing daily step counts is consistently associated with lower mortality risk, with the greatest benefits occurring as people move from very low activity to into the range of 4,000 – 7,000 steps per day. While health benefits continue to increase beyond that, the gains tend to become more gradual at higher step counts. S0 – meaningful improvements begin well before reaching 10,000.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(21)00302-9/fulltext

At the end of the day the goal is not perfection. The goal is consistency. Daily movement even in simple forms like walking can act as a powerful, natural “prescription” that supports both the body and mind. By starting where you are, choosing an activity that fits into your life, and gradually building your steps over time, you create a habit that is not only sustainable but transformative. Those small intentional efforts compound leading to meaningful improvements in energy, mood, and long term health. The most important step is the one you take today – because every step forward is an investment in a healthier, stronger, and more vibrant version of yourself!

Photo credits to my husband. AI helped to anonymize the walker and gave his furry friend some appropriate footwear.

Salt Sense

Ninety percent of Americans eat way too much salt. The average American consumes approximately 3,400 milligrams of sodium per day. That is the equivalent of about 1 1/2 teaspoons.

The FDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020-2025 recommends that individuals 14 and over consume no more then 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day. The American Heart Association is even more conservative and recommends no more than 1,500 milligrams per day “ideally” for most adults especially those with heart disease.

A healthy active body needs only 200 to 500 milligrams of sodium per day to maintain proper fluid and electrolyte balance, conduct nerve impulses and contract and relax muscles. This computes to only 0.216 to 0.540 teaspoon per day.

Did you know that whole foods contain salt naturally? That’s right. A stalk of celery may not taste salty but it contains just over 30 milligrams of sodium. One cup of artichokes contain about 160 milligrams. One half cup of cooked carrots contain 45 milligrams. One cup of tap water contains 9 milligrams of sodium. Sodium is found in the earth naturally so it makes sense that it exists in foods that get nutrients from the soil. Even if you never add another speck of salt to your food you will not be sodium deficient by eating a balanced plant based diet.

I knew there was a reason why, after all these years, I never got rid of the old Himalayan and sea salt. It came in handy for this blog photo. Trust me I do not use them!!

High blood pressure is the most common consequence of diets high in sodium. When we eat too much salt, the body holds on to extra water to balance things out. This extra fluid increases blood volume which then increases blood pressure. Increased blood pressure over time narrows and damages the delicate inner lining of the arteries. A low sodium diet centered around plant based eating seems to be the best way to bring down blood pressure.

But hypertension is not the only consequence. Researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine found a connection between high salt diets and decreased nitric oxide levels. Nitric oxide is an essential molecule necessary for cerebrovascular health. Low levels of nitric oxide cause protein plaque deposits in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease. So reducing our intake of sodium may be all it takes to prevent dementia.

If dementia wasn’t enough to convince you to shake the salt habit maybe cancer will. Excess sodium intake has been linked to stomach cancer. In fact, it seems that the risk is on the same level as heavy alcohol use. How is this possible? Well it appears that excess sodium damages the delicate lining of the stomach causing lesions which, over time, can turn cancerous.

There’s more bad news. Eating too much salt can cause calcium to be leached out of the bones leading to low bone density and osteoporosis. High blood pressure can also lead to osteoporosis by increasing the rate that calcium is lost from the bones. For every 100 milligrams of sodium you consume above and beyond the recommended, you urinate out 1 milligram extra of calcium.

In addition to adopting a diet that is centered around plant based eating pay attention to nutrition facts on food labels. A general rule of thumb is to choose foods that have no more then 1 milligram of sodium per calorie.

I sincerely hope this article has been helpful. As always I love comments and questions. Lot’s of them!

I created these sodium visuals to help my patients understand how much sodium is in certain food choices. This was several years ago before the AHA lowered their recommendation to 1,500 milligrams or less (test tube #1). Look at how much sodium is in that frozen meal (test tube #2)? That’s double the daily recommendation in just one meal. Yikes!! Look at how little is in the apple and potato?

https://news.weill.cornell.edu/news/2019/10/high-salt-diet-promotes-cognitive-impairment-through-the-alzheimer-linked-protein-tau