An Easy Way to Keep Your Heart Healthy

The AP Team on September 28, 2017

Your heart is one of the most important organs in your body. It’s a specialized muscle that works hard to keep you alive. As the core of your circulatory system, it pumps blood throughout your body, providing oxygen and nutrients to your tissues while simultaneously removing waste.

A healthy, pumping heart is the first step to a healthy, thriving body. Keeping your heart healthy is extremely important to your overall health. It’s easy enough to make good choices that can keep your heart working the way it should.

One of the best ways to keep your heart healthy is through the foods you eat. We’ve talked about eating for your heart before on our blog, but today we’re going to focus in on one specific food for your heart: flax.

Flax is a nutritious seed packed full of omega–3 fatty acids, fiber and a number of other great building blocks for your health.

Flaxseeds are great for your heart for a number of reasons.

Flax and your blood pressure

The first way that flaxseed can improve your heart health is through your blood pressure.

Some people with high blood pressure, or hypertension as it’s commonly called, will actually see improvements in their blood pressure levels after adding flax to their routine, according to a number of studies.

For example, according to a study done by TriHealth Heart Institute, “110 patients with high blood pressure and peripheral artery disease added 30 grams of milled flaxseed to their diet each day for six months. Results were compared to a similar group of people who added a placebo to their diets. The group with the flaxseed in their diet showed a measurable decrease in blood pressure.”

Plus, the American Heart Association notes that potassium, which can be found in flaxseeds, can also help to maintain normal blood pressure levels.

High blood pressure can definitely have a negative impact on your heart. It can lead to an increased risk of heart disease and even stroke. Adding flax to your routine is an easy way to help keep your blood pressure from rising.

Flax and your cholesterol

In a study done by the Roman City Hospital involving 40 patients, participants with high cholesterol were given 20 grams of ground flaxseed daily. They did just as well in terms of lowering cholesterol levels as those who were given statin drugs (statins are often used in treating people with cardiovascular disease).

The high fiber content in flax not only makes you feel full more quickly, which can prevent overeating, it also promotes lower LDL cholesterol levels. Both soluble and insoluble fiber can help to bring LDL cholesterol levels down, though greater effects have been found with soluble fiber. Flaxseed contains both kinds so you’ll get all of the health benefits of fiber when you eat freshly ground seeds.

Another study, published in Nutrition Research, found that administering 100 mg of flaxseed lignans daily could reduce blood cholesterol levels in men with moderately high cholesterol levels. Lignans are antioxidants found in whole and ground flaxseeds (though your body can only get the benefits of them when you eat the seeds ground).

Flaxseeds and the oil pressed from them are a great source of alpha-linolenic acid or ALA which, according to HealthCentral, is a plant-derived omega–3 fat, “which has been shown to lower LDL cholesterol, as well as triglycerides levels.” When you consume flax oil you absorb more of the omega–3s than when you eat the ground seeds so a teaspoon or two of flax oil a day is a healthy choice in addition to the ground seeds. You can put both in your morning smoothie or yogurt parfait and get all of the flax benefits you’re looking for in one fell swoop!

Flax for your heart muscle

Aside from the heart-health-related positives noted above, daily flaxseed intake can also improve the function of the heart muscle itself.

According to the Department of Physiology at the University of Saskatchewan, “Flaxseed and its components may improve cardiovascular health because of their numerous attributes. Flaxseed contains 35% of its mass as oil, of which 55% is alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). Flax meal, which is devoid of oil, contains the lignan secoisolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG). Flaxseed, flaxseed with very low ALA, flaxseed oil, flax lignan complex (FLC), and SDG reduce the development of hypercholesterolemic atherosclerosis.” In other words, flax will benefit your heart when you eat it in many different forms.

In other words, flax will benefit your heart in a variety of different forms.

According to another study done by the University of Maryland Medical Center on alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a great way to prevent heart disease includes eating a diet “that is low in saturated and trans fats, and rich in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, particularly omega-3 fatty acids.” It also shows “people who eat a diet high in alpha-linolenic acid are less likely to have a fatal heart attack. Another study found that women who ate high levels of alpha-linolenic acid (1.5 g per day) had a 46% lower risk of sudden cardiac death than those who ate the lowest amount of alpha-linolenic acid (about half a gram per day). Other population studies show that as people eat more foods with alpha-linolenic acid, heart disease deaths go down.”

The high ALA content of flax, especially when you take the oil, can’t be beat. Flax oil is the number one source for absorbable ALA.

Between lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure and generally improved heart function your heart will thank you for adding flax to your daily routine.

Adding flax to your diet

To keep your heart as healthy as possible, we recommend taking both flax oil and ground flax seeds, in order to get the full range of benefits.

The reason we recommend ground flax over the whole seed is becauseThe whole seeds are too hard and tiny for your system to break down, which means your body won’t absorb any of the seeds’ nutrition.

When you’re looking for ground flax, you should buy whole organic seeds and then grind them yourself, immediately before you use them. Buying them pre-ground or grinding them too far in advance can lead to the oils in the seeds going rancid. Rancid flax can be harmful to eat.

Choosing a high-quality flax oil is equally important. Proper pressing and storage are critical when it comes to this delicate oil.

Perfect Press® Flax Oil is Perfectly Pressed and stored in UV-protective Miron glass bottles.

What’s great about both flax and flax oil, is that they’re super easy to add to your diet. Looking for fun ways to incorporate flax into your routine? We’ve got a ton of recipes in the Activation Kitchen.

Discover more about how flax can help your heart now!

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