Heart Health

Good heart health is vital for a long and healthy life. Keeping our blood pressure in check and our cholesterol levels low is an essential part of that. There are many products that can help with that, along with the will to make wise dietary and lifestyle choices.

Where are you most likely to survive a heart attack?

A few years ago, a study appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine revealing that you were more likely to survive a heart attack in a casino or airport than in a hospital. The reason for this was due to more rapid defibrillation (the use of a life-saving machine to shock the heart into beating normally again). This may still be the case, although in the UK the British Heart Foundation has distributed more than 6,000 defibrillators for use in the community.

Do vegetarians have less heart disease?

According to a recent study from the University of Oxford, hospitalisation or death from heart disease is 32% lower in vegetarians than people who eat meat and fish. The findings, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, tracked nearly 45,000 volunteers from England and Scotland between the 1990s and 2009. Overall the vegetarians had lower blood pressures and cholesterol levels than the meat-eaters, which is thought to be the main reason behind their reduced risk of heart disease. Even if you're not ready to ditch your Sunday roast, the findings do reinforce the idea that diet is central to the prevention of heart disease.