Heart Care

Cardiovascular health:

Cardiovascular health relates to the health of the heart and blood vessels. It also relates to the health of organs that are critically dependent on a strong blood supply. Maintenance of cardiovascular health and prevention of cardiovascular disease can only be resolved with lifestyle changes and not with drugs. Drugs can only ever be used for very short-term relief due to their dangerous side effects.

Major cardiovascular diseases are:

• Coronary heart disease
• Stroke
• Heart failure
• Peripheral vascular disease.

The main underlying causal mechanism of cardiovascular disease is atherosclerosis, a process caused by local inflammation resulting in a protective build-ups of fat, cholesterol and other substances in the inner lining of the arteries. It is most serious when it affects the blood supply to the heart (causing angina or heart attack) or to the brain (causing a stroke).

The major, preventable risk factors for cardiovascular disease are:

• Tobacco/Smoking
• Chronic inflammation
• High blood pressure
• High blood cholesterol
• Insufficient or too much physical activity
• Stress/worry
• Overweight and obesity
• Poor nutrition

Tibb-e-Unani Unani Approach to Balancing Blood Cholesterol

In below discussion in the form of questions and their answers explain about the Unani approach to balancing cholesterol.

Cholesterol from the perspective of Unani Tibb:

First of all, it is important to understand that cholesterol as such is not mentioned in the Unani tibb classic books. Rather, the Unani tibbi texts discuss charbi and explain how to maintain a healthy quantity and quality of fat tissue in the body. When lipids are balanced and healthy, that subsequently helps to maintain balanced cholesterol.

In old Ayurvedic, Lipid tissue, fat tissue, is one of the essential seven dhatus, or body tissues. According to Ayurveda, the body is a combination of the following:

• Doshas (Ikhlat) — fundamental physiological governing principles (Vata (sauda), Pitta(safra) and Kapha(balgham)
• Dhatus — 7 tissue elements that support and sustain the body, including rasa dhatu (nutritive fluid), rakta dhatu (blood plasma), mamsa dhatu (muscle), meda dhatu (fat), asthi dhatu (bone), majja dhatu (bone marrow), and shukra dhatu (sperm and ovum)
• Malas (fuzlat) — metabolic impurities (urine, bowels, and sweat)

To understand how to maintain healthy fat, you first need to understand that balance is the main principle of Unani or Ayurveda. A moderate lifestyle, diet and daily routine uphold balanced functioning of every aspect of life: body, mind and senses. One also has to maintain peacefulness in mind, a blissful consciousness, and balanced control over the senses.

The principle factor behind balance in the body is balanced safra (digestive fire). Digestion is quite literally the basis for good health in every part of the body.

For instance, the creation of healthy body tissue (uzlat)  require a brightly-burning digestive fire, or metabolic process. A strong safra is equally important in maintaining balance in the ikhlat and and fuzlat.

Therefore, when digestion, assimilation and elimination are balanced, fat tissue and cholesterol will also be balanced.

It’s important to understand that fat tissue (cholesterol) in itself is not bad, and is actually essential for the body to function properly. So in the unani perspective, the production of cholesterol does not necessarily need to be lessened, but it needs to be balanced. When the digestion is balanced and healthy, then the body produces the right amount of cholesterol, in the right proportion to nourish the body.

Causes for cholesterol function to become imbalanced:

Digestion depends on the strength of the digestive fire (safra). Digestive fire is sustained with the fuel of wholesome foods and drinks. If we eat too little, or if we eat unwholesome foods and drinks, the digestive fire dwindles.

There are various types of Safra that work together in the digestive process. First, the food is metabolized by the main digestive fire located in the stomach and duodenum. Next it is metabolized by the safra located in the liver, and finally by safra located in the tissues.

When we eat fatty or oily food, it is metabolized by various types of Safra in a sequential process. It helps to break down the food. It also help to screen toxins and ensure that the food is transformed into healthy, good-quality body tissue. In an overall process it transforms the food into their respective tissues.

So the strength of the various types of safra is needed for the tissues to be formed properly, including the fat tissue. When the production of fat tissues is disturbed, the quantity (amount and proportion) and quality (contents) of fat tissues are also disturbed. In other words, because cholesterol is one of the contents of lipid tissue, the production of cholesterol becomes imbalanced when fat tissue is imbalanced.

Role of liver in producing healthy fat tissue and balanced cholesterol:

It’s important to understand that liver not only produces cholesterol, but it’s also part of the digestive system. It’s the place where toxins are screened before they enter the bloodstream. If the liver becomes overloaded with toxins, due to certain mental, physical and environmental factors, its functioning can become impaired.

This result in one of three types of imbalances: 1) an increase in fats 2) a decrease of fats, 3) fats mixed with ama (a toxic by product result of incomplete insigestion).

When fats mix with ama, it changes the quality of fat tissue and the quality of cholesterol, making it unhealthy rather than healthy. This mixing of ama with fat tissue is the main cause of imbalanced cholesterol. And it is the liver that is responsible for qualitative digestion, i.e. the quality, or purity, of the fat tissue and hence the quality of the cholesterol that is being produced.

Main causes of imbalanced digestion:

Main reasons fall into three categories: mental, physical and environmental. Mental causes include too much mental activity or pressures at work as well as emotional factors such as anger, worries, sorrow, and greed.

Physical causes include eating too much (above digestive capacity), eating too little (below the digestive capacity), and eating faulty food (against the digestive capacity). Other physical causes include eating before the previous meal is digested, eating irregular amounts at irregular times of day, eating while suffering from indigestion, suppressing natural urges, constipation, and emaciation.

Environmental causes include eating the wrong foods for the climate or season, as well as eating foods polluted with toxins.

Toxins and how they affect us:

There are three types of toxins. One, called ama in Ayurveda/unani, is the sticky, foul-smelling waste product of improper digestion. Ama settles first in the digestive tract and, if it continues to accumulate, mixes with nutritive fluid and travels throughout the body, settling in weak areas. Ama is caused by a dull, slow digestion or by eating foods that are too heavy and difficult to digest, such as packaged, frozen, canned, fried, fatty, or leftover foods.

The second type of toxin is called amavisha in ayurveda, and it is a more reactive, dangerous type of ama. Amavisha is created when ama is present for a very long time and is not flushed from the system. When amavisha starts to spread throughout the body, it can mix with the body tissues and the waste products.

If ghair tabai safra mixes with the fat tissue, and at the same time one continues to engage in an unhealthy lifestyle or diet, it can cause imbalance and disease in the lipid tissues. These lifestyle errors include: 1) lack of exercise 2) sleeping during the day 3) eating excessive amounts of fatty foods 4) indulging in alcoholic drinks.

For instance, imbalanced fats can distort the cardiovascular veins. When they become stiff and clogged, this causes high blood pressure. If these waste products has mixed with the blood and fat tissue, it can distort and damage the channels that carry fluids of various sorts throughout the body), narrowing the veins as in atherosclerosis.

So ghair tabai safra can cause all of the problems that are associated with impure lipid tissue which in turn are associated with high cholesterol, even though it’s not the cholesterol itself that causes these problems.

Toxins also enter the body from the environment, with exposure to lead and other heavy metals, or water or air pollution. These environmental toxins are the third type of toxin. Eating food that is grown using chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and food that is prepared with chemicals, additives, and preservatives, can also add to the toxic overload of the liver and result in disturbance of lipid metabolism.

What causes ghair tabai safra to accumulate in the liver and in the fat tissue:

To understand this, we need to look at how the tissues in the body are formed. All of the tissues are formed in a sequence of metabolic transformations, and the health and strength of each type of tissue is based on the previous one. When you eat food, it is converted into the nutritive fluid and from there is transformed into blood plasma and in a sequence converts to the muscle, fat, bone, bone marrow and finally reproductive fluid.

If ghair tabai safra has accumulated in the nutritive fluid, blood plasma or the muscle tissue, which are all raw material for forming fat tissue, then that ama or ghair tabai safra will also be present in the fat tissue. So that is one reason for ghair tabai safra in the fat tissue.

A second reason is eating unhealthy types of fat, which do not nourish the body but rather create ghair tabai safra. By unhealthy fat, we mean fat that is difficult to digest. This includes saturated fats found in meat, butter and vegetable oils. A worse type of fat that is virtually indigestible is the trans-fats, or hydrogenated vegetable oils, that are found in almost all packaged, processed and fast foods. Another type of unhealthy fat is rancid or overheated fats.

I think it’s obvious why you shouldn’t eat fats that are spoiled. But overheating fats is just as bad. Most polyunsaturated vegetable oils (corn, sunflower, safflower, sesame) are processed with chemicals or heat, and their nutritional value is destroyed. They end up creating free radicals, contributing to oxidized fats, or cholesterol, in the body. This can happen even if you use cold-pressed oils for frying or cooking foods.

A third reason is just eating too much fat overall, even if it’s the good kind of fat. While all of these factors can cause high cholesterol, the most dangerous combination is eating large quantities of unhealthy fat, which can happen easily if you eat fast foods or processed, packaged foods on a daily basis.

How liver reacts when it is confronted with unhealthy fat or too much fat:

There are many natural herbs that help increase bile production so healthy fat tissue (i.e., healthy cholesterol) can be processed properly by the liver and not cause harm to the body.

These five arkans are called the elemental fires, because each one corresponds to one the five elements: earth, water, fire, air and space.

For example, the food that you eat contains all five elements, and each element in the food is processed by the corresponding fire in your body.

Foods contain saturated fats and why are they bad for us:

Saturated fats are solid at room temperature. Eating saturated fat should be avoided, because it can lead to imbalanced cholesterol production and disease.

Most saturated fats come from animal products. They include lard, butter, hard cheeses, cream, ice cream, beef, pork, poultry with skin, palm oil, and coconut oil. Saturated fats are often used in fried foods and desserts such as cakes and cookies.

What foods contain trans fats and why are they bad for us:

Trans fats are a modern invention, formed by adding hydrogen to liquid fats. These trans fats cannot be digested by the body and thus create ama. They are considered to be far more harmful than saturated fats in disturbing the ratio of HDL to LDL cholesterol. Consuming a diet high in trans fat not only raises cholesterol levels but increases risk of heart disease, stroke and type II diabetes.

Margarine and vegetable shortening are trans fats, so you’ll want to stop using them. Because most packaged foods and restaurant fried foods contain trans fats, the easiest way to avoid these harmful fats is to stop buying packaged foods such as doughnuts, cakes, pies, cookies, pastries, pizza dough, crackers, biscuits, and fried foods. Look for labels such as hydrogenated vegetable oil, partially-hydrogenated vegetable oil, hydrolyzed vegetable oil and partially-hydrolyzed vegetable oil — as these are all names for trans fats. And avoid eating fried food at restaurants, especially fast food restaurants, as trans fats are commonly used for frying French fries and other foods.

Recommended guidelines for fats in our diets:

The American Heart Association recommends limiting your intake of saturated fats to less than 7% of your total calories for the day. So if your total calories was 1500, you would eat only 105 calories of saturated fats. Trans fats should be avoided altogether.

Monounsaturated fats are recommended, as they reduce total cholesterol levels and have the added advantage of raising HDL cholesterol. The American Heart Association recommends that you include 10 to 15 percent of your total daily calories in monounsaturated fats such as canola oil and olive oil.

Polyunsaturated fats, found in nuts and in corn, safflower, sesame, and sunflower oils, also help to reduce total cholesterol levels, but because they also lower HDL cholesterol, they are not considered as healthy as monounsaturated oils. The American Heart Association recommends that we get no more than 10 percent of our total daily calories from polyunsaturated fats. And they shouldn’t be heated. Buy cold-pressed polyunsaturated oils and use them raw in salad dressings instead.

Fats that are recommended by Tibb-e-Unani?

The two fats recommended by physicians of Tibb-e-Unani are ghee and olive oil. Ghee, or clarified butter, is made by boiling butter and separating out the milk solids. What is left is a clear, pure fat that can be heated to high temperatures without destroying its natural qualities.

Ghee provides essential fatty acids (fats that cannot be produced by the body and must be obtained from food). Ghee is the most easily digestible fat, and it contains Vitamins A and E and acts as an antioxidant. It is also a highly-intelligent type of fat, because it is a food that converts quickly into ojas, the master coordinator that integrates consciousness, mind and body. Ojas is another word for nature’s intelligence in the body.

The other oil that is recommended is olive oil. Olive oil is a monounsaturated fat, which means that it actually lowers cholesterol and triglycerides. But it is important to choose first cold-pressed, extra-virgin olive oil, which means that the oil is pressed from the olives without heat or unnatural processing. This method of processing has been followed for thousands of years, and it doesn’t destroy the nutritional quality of the oil, unlike modern processing methods, which involve high heat and chemical additives.

It’s also important not to heat olive oil at high temperatures for cooking. Use it for baking, for salad dressings, and for low-heat sautéing of spices and vegetables. If you need to heat the oil at higher temperatures, it’s better to use ghee.

Both ghee and olive oil are recommended, because nature’s intelligence has not been destroyed in their processing. Ghee contains smaller, highly intelligent fat molecules that pass through the lipid barrier and nourish the brain, which needs a higher proportion of intelligent fats than the rest of the body to function properly.

Canola oil being monounsaturated fat:

Canola oil is a monounsaturated fat, it’s true. But 50% of the canola oil grown in America and Canada today is genetically modified, which means that its natural intelligence is destroyed. For this reason, canola oil is not recommended by physicians of Unani Tibb.

Ghee and olive oil are nutritious and intelligent, can these cause high cholesterol levels by eating too much of them:

To understand how much, you first need to realize that not everyone is made the same. Each person has a different body type, and for some people, even one teaspoon of ghee used in cooking twice a day may be too much. If you have a phelgum imbalance or are predominantly phelgmatic, you probably require less fat, and too much fat — even the good kind of fat — could lead to imbalances such as obesity and high cholesterol. A person with a sauda imbalance, on the other hand, needs more healthy oils and fats to stay healthy and to maintain a normal body weight.

But to digest fat, even good fats like ghee and olive oil, a person needs to have a strong fire, or digestive fire.

Weak fat metabolism is one problem, but another problem is caused when the digestion is too high, or sharp.

Can a low-fat diet to lower cholesterol is a good idea, from the Tibb-e-Unani perspective:

From the unani perspective, the body also needs a proper amount of fat tissue for supporting and lubricating the body’s channels. Millions of carriers carry nutrients to the cells and waste away from the cells. All of these organs and body parts, whether large or small, are made of the element, or space, because they are basically hollow. Sauda, the element of air, is responsible for moving blood, air, nutritive fluid or waste through these channels.

Because both Sauda and Safra are dry by nature, the body channels can become dry and brittle over time. This is especially true in the Sauda time of life, from age 60 and older, when the dry, quick-moving Sauda khilt predominates. To keep the tissues flexible, elastic and functional, they must be constantly lubricated with fat tissue. Of special importance are the delicate channels carrying sauda, or oxygen that lead to the brain. If they dry out, the brain doesn’t receive enough oxygen, creating symptoms such as fatigue, lack of focus, high blood pressure. The Sauda that carry hot fluids such as blood also are prone to drying out, which can cause narrowing and even obstruction of the arteries (atherosclerosis). So this is another reason why your body needs a certain amount of fat tissue: to keep the body healthy and vital. And the amount of fat that is healthy for a person depends on their body type and health needs. It is different for different people.

Some remedies which can provide cholesterol protection, or help balance cholesterol levels in the body:

Cholesterol Protection can be done enhancing digestion and improving liver function, generating more bile and balancing the overall amount of healthy fat tissue including cholesterol. But specially blended Unani remedies usually goes beyond the simple increasing of bile by improving fat metabolism, thus reducing the production of excess cholesterol, and creating a healthier ratio of LDL to HDL cholesterol. It strengthens liver function, enhances successful metabolism of food, and builds plasma, blood, muscle and fat tissue. It enhances the quality, quantity and metabolism of fats, helping break down fatty foods so they can be converted to healthy fat tissue.

Finally, it flushes cholesterol from the elimination tract. This is also a very important factor, because when the liver purifies toxins and bad cholesterol, it dumps them in the colon to be eliminated by the body. So it’s very important that the elimination system be strengthened to cleanse the bad cholesterol from the body.

Dietary and Lifestyle changes that can help lowering cholesterol:

General guideline is to follow a light phelgum-pacifying diet, because those foods will help increase fat metabolism without creating much dryness and brittleness in the body. A phelgum pacifying diet favors bitter, astringent and pungent foods. Astringent foods include most pulses or dried beans, such as lentils, split mung dhal, and garbanzo beans. Stay away from the larger beans, but favor the smaller, split kind. Astringent foods also include many vegetables, such as the cruciferous family (broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower) and fruits such as apples and pears.

The ideal breakfast is a cooked apple with cooked prunes and figs. This will help cleanse the bowel and lower cholesterol levels. Bitter foods include greens such as spinach, chard, kale and mustard greens. These greens, when cooked and seasoned with spices, help cleanse the bowel and thus prevent the bad type of cholesterol from accumulating.

Avoid sweet, sour and salty foods. Sweet foods include not only sugar but also rice, wheat, pasta, breads, and sweet milk products. Sour foods include not only lemons and other sour fruits, but yogurt, cheese, tomatoes and vinegar, which is found in salad dressings, ketchup, mustard and pickles.

Always cook your food and eat it warm, because this helps counteract the cool, earthy phelgum dosha. Avoid bad fats, and cook with small amounts of ghee or olive oil.

Cholesterol-Balancing Spice Mix

Salty Digestive Lassi

Buttermilk Drink

Milk Drinks

Milk can be made more digestible and cholesterol-lowering by following this simple recipe. Boil a cup of whole, organic milk in one pan for five minutes and a cup of water with a pinch of cardamom and a pinch of cinnamon in another pan for five minutes. Mix them together and sip slowly.

Milk is not only a good source of protein for vegetarians, but it also converts quickly into ojas, making it a healthy food. In recent months, research has been published indicating that milk actually decreases obesity, due to the holistic effect created by calcium and other nutrients.

Best grains for providing fiber in the diet:

Soluble fiber (i.e. fiber that dissolves in water, such as oats, barley, and other whole grains) helps lower cholesterol levels by improving elimination, so it’s recommended that you include 15 grams of soluble fiber in your diet every day, with a total of soluble and insoluble fiber of 25-35 grams per day.

The phegum pacifying diet also includes many healthy grains. Whole oats provide needed fiber, as does barley, quinoa and amaranth. Quinoa also contains zinc, which enhances fat metabolism.

Of the whole grains, the most highly recommended fiber is barley. Barley enhances fat metabolism. Barley contains fiber throughout its entire grain kernel. Even if the outer bran layer is removed, as in pearled barley, there is still enough fiber in the kernel. Even though the grain is processed to remove the hull, bran, and some of the inner layer, it still provides three grams of dietary fiber in a half cup serving. You can also eat barley flakes, quick-cooking barley, and hulled or hull-less barley.

Some of the Healthy Snacks:

Tibb-e-Unani does not encourage snacks, as it disrupts the digestive process to eat before the previous meal has been digested. Instead, it’s better to eat balanced, freshly-cooked meals of organic foods flavored with all six tastes. When you include all six tastes (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, astringent, and pungent) in every meal, you will not have unnatural cravings that make you want to eat snacks. Also, if you eat your main meal at noon, when the sun and your digestive fire are both at their peak, you won’t feel as hungry before the next meal.

But sometimes if you are hungry between meals you can try the following:

• 1 ripe fruit, such as an apple, orange, peach, slice of melon, or 2 smaller fruits, such as 1 cup of grapes, 1/2 cup of strawberries or blueberries, or 2 mandarin oranges.
• A bowl of sliced fruit, flavored with cinnamon and a teaspoon of honey.
• 1 cup of 100% pure orange juice, grape juice, or pomegranate juice. Fresh-squeezed is best.
• 1 whole-wheat bread, warmed and filled with tomatoes, hummus, and leaves of cilantro, parsely, basil or mint.
• 1 apple cooked with a handful of raisins.
• Steamed pear topped with raisins.
• ¼ cup of dried fruit.
• Homemade trail mix made with 1 cup whole-grain toasted oat cereal, combined with ¼ cup chopped walnuts and ¼ cup dried cranberries or blueberries or raisins.
• A small handful of mixed, unsalted nuts such as pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts, or pecans.
• Toasted flat bread topped with one tablespoon of fresh cheese (such as panir) sprinkled with freshly-chopped herbs or herbal pesto.
• 2 slices of toasted, whole-grain/multi-seed, yeast-free bread topped with raw honey and cinnamon.
• Toasted flat bread topped with raw honey, cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of soaked nuts. Avoid cashews, as they are high in fat.
• 1 cup unbuttered/unsweetened popcorn, seasoned with herbs.
• Small bowl of tossed salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber; grated carrot, beet and daikon radish; chopped fresh herbs; and lemon and olive oil dressing.
• ½-1 cup puffed rice.
• Rice cake topped with honey.
• 1 cup sweet or salty yogurt drink (lassi).

Lifestyle:

It’s ideal to follow a phelgum-pacifying routine. This includes exercising every single day. Exercise balances all the fires, all of which are important for metabolizing fat and creating healthy cholesterol. Exercise also improves circulation.

To keep cholesterol in balance, it’s also important to do some kind of aerobic exercise in addition to waking up early and breathing exercises for at least half an hour every day. You can start with brisk walking, which is sufficient for many people. But if you feel the need for more vigorous exercise, you can swim, cross-country ski, take an aerobics class, or play sports. The important thing is to exert to only fifty percent of your capacity, and to gradually increase your endurance by exercising every day.

The Phelgum-pacifying routine also discourages sleeping during the day, as this causes the metabolism to slow. Wake up before six o’clock, and avoid daytime naps. Eat your meals at the same time every day, and plan to eat your largest meal at lunchtime, when your digestion is strong. To avoid indigestion at night, eat lightly.

Some of the herbs/minerals lower cholesterol: Guggul TURMERIC Bhumi Amla ZINC