This topic is from my newest book, please click here to get the book and several powerful bonuses to support your health journey: http://heartsolutionforwomen.com

Just when you think you know what’s good (or bad) for you, someone comes along and debunks it. Well today, I’m that someone. But to help guide you through a few future decisions, I’m going to walk you through why what you think you know is wrong.

Are you eating a low fat diet to help you lose weight? There are a few pitfalls here. While maintaining a healthy weight is very important to your heart health, many foods boasting low-fat on the labels have aspartame, a sugar substitute that is a hormone disruptor. In the end, it causes weight gain instead of the weight loss you were hoping for.

Fat gets a bad rep. Instead of opting for heavily processed foods that may or may not be low-fat, choose healthy fats like nuts, seeds, extra virgin olive oil, and fish high in Omega-3. This simple change will help protect and even heal your heart.

If you are serious about losing weight, do it right. The same things that will help your heart benefit your health overall. Move. Don’t be sedentary. You don’t have to run a marathon, but you do need to keep those joints in motion routinely. Drink plenty of fluids to keep your cells hydrated. And eat healthy foods. Look to the produce aisle for inspiration.

So what about cholesterol? You hear a lot about the good cholesterol and the bad cholesterol. You hear about an increased risk of heart disease, and doctors even test to check those levels. Simply testing LDL and HDL levels is only 40% predictive. It doesn’t give the whole picture.

Did you know that half of the people that experience heart attacks have normal cholesterol levels? So what can you glean from this?

1. Just because your cholesterol levels are normal, it doesn’t mean that you can’t still have a heart attack. Other factors can be at play. In fact, the Framingham Heart Study, revealed that 80 percent of all the individuals who had a heart event had cholesterol levels similar to those who had not.
2. If you were to randomly guess whether or not you would have a heart attack, you’d have a 50% chance of getting it right. Yes or no. The basic test doesn’t even meet that level. If you really want to know your health, you need something that breaks it down more accurately to get accurate results. Get the direct particle size cholesterol test. As I state in my book Heart Solutions for Women, this test breaks cholesterol down into more than twelve direct measurements and over fifteen inflammatory markers. It may be over 95 percent predictive of heart attack risk. This is the test I would want my patients to have. Don’t guess. Get the test.

Cholesterol is an essential element of the membranes of your body’s cells, including those in the walls of your nerves and brain. Cholesterol is present around damaged arteries not because it caused the damage, but because the body uses it to repair.  Cholesterol is an essential nutrient!

Is your doctor recommending statins? Statins are designed to reduce cholesterol. While some people may benefit from statins, many (especially women) do not. In fact, for women under 50, for every 5,000 women who take it, it will prevent ONE death. Much of this goes back to that breakdown of the kind of cholesterol in your body.

When people refer to bad cholesterol, they are referring to LDL. However, there are four different types of LDL, and some are significantly worse than others. Women in particular need to beware of their lipoprotein (a) or Lp(a) levels. Also, you need to watch out for Oxidized LDL levels. This can cause a vicious cycle of inflammation. The solution is to increase your HDL levels. (Also, you assist antioxidizing through exercise.) See how diet and exercise work in tandem.

If you have high levels of cholesterol, but it is not dangerous, using statins to reduce those levels can end up doing more harm than good and potentially lead to a cascade of health problems. Be wary of statins. Make sure you have all the information before heading in that direction.

Finally, perhaps the most shocking to people is that modern medical treatments CANNOT fix your heart. This includes surgery. Just as medicine can alleviate symptoms but mask the problem, the same is true for surgery. It does not address the underlying problem that created the situation.

While surgery can save a life, the only thing that can fix your body is it’s own natural healing processes. And that happens when you restore metabolic balance and reduce inflammation.

In the end, lifestyle medicine is the preferred treatment. It allows your body to heal naturally, without harmful side effects. I protects not only the health of your heart, but it extends throughout the entire body to protect you from other autoimmune conditions.

If you are on path to heart disease, I highly recommend getting a copy of my book Heart Solutions for Women and finding your Precision, Personalized Solution to good heart health.

This topic is from my newest book, please click here to get the book and several powerful bonuses to support your health journey:  http://heartsolutionforwomen.com