Dr. Ann

10 Foods Dr. Ann Strives to Eat Daily Nuts (Any Variety) Berries (Any Variety) Avocados Dark Chocolate (70% or higher cacao) Extra Virgin Olive Oil Freshly Brewed Tea (Especially Matcha) Dark Leafy Greens (Raw or Cooked) Legumes (Beans, Peas, Lentils) Seeds (Ground Flax, Chia, Hemp) Fermented Foods (2-3 Servings Per Day) Here’s one of my favorite […]

December 7, 2021 • Heart Health

Pecans & Heart Health

Want a delicious way to lower your cholesterol? Enjoy pecans regularly. That was the uplifting conclusion of a new clinical trial that set out to determine how consuming a generous portion of pecans daily impacted blood lipid levels.  For this study, scientists assigned 52 adults at risk for heart disease to one of three study […]

~ ~ ~ Like their nut cousins, sesame seeds are concentrated nuggets of nutritional excellence. They are exceptionally rich in a host of key minerals, and provide two very special and unique phytochemicals, sesamin and sesamolin. Both are super-potent antioxidants from the lignan family that have been shown to lower cholesterol, prevent high blood pressure, and boost the […]

Knowing that herbs and spices are teeming with potent antioxidant compounds, researchers from Penn State set out to determine if adding a blend of herbs and spices to a high fat meal could mitigate its adverse effects. For this study, they fed 6 overweight, but healthy men two separate test meals on two separate days. […]

Getting lots of dietary potassium has been shown to lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Here are the foods that provide the most potassium: Blackstrap Molasses Cantaloupe Avocado Beet greens Peaches Prunes Tomato juice Yogurt Snapper Lima beans Salmon Soybeans Swiss chard Apricots Oranges Pumpkin seeds Sweet Potato Banana […]

Looking for a sweet way to take a big bite out of your risk for cardiovascular disease? Go eat some fruit! In an evaluation that included over 450,000 Chinese adults followed over a seven-year period, those consuming fruit regularly enjoyed a significant reduction in the risk for heart attacks, strokes, and high blood pressure. Study […]

Including a bowl of cereal for breakfast is one of the easiest and most convenient ways to tap into the health-boosting power of whole grains. Eating whole grain cereal may be especially valuable for reducing the risk of high blood pressure. After following over 13,000 male physicians for 16 plus years, scientists found that men […]

A healthy HDL level (>50) is associated with less risk of heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer’s and colon cancer. Follow these simple strategies to raise your HDL (good) cholesterol level. (Mine is 93!) Lose weight, if overweight. Engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate aerobic activity (brisk walking) most days of the week. (Talk to […]

In what was arguably the most resounding scientific affirmation of the phenomenal power of healthy living to keep chronic disease largely under wraps, researchers reporting in the Archives of Internal Medicine (August 09) found that adhering to 4 lifestyle practices slashes the risk of developing our biggest killers. Based on this powerful study, people who… avoid […]

September 28, 2020 • Heart Health

How to Avoid Heart Disease

  If you can reach the age of 45 free of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, and tobacco use, you can breathe a huge, heart-felt sigh of relief. Based on a landmark analysis undertaken to determine how various cardiovascular risk factors at various ages impact the risk of heart disease, the expected […]

Poor sleep has long been tied to a greater risk of heart attacks and strokes, but how the two are related has been somewhat of a mystery. Thanks to a new study, we now have some clarity on the mechanisms that may be involved. For this study scientists had over 1,600 adults wear sensitive movement […]

If you enjoy your yogurt like I do, you will be pleased to know that in addition to getting a nice dose of several critical nutrients like calcium, zinc, potassium, B vitamins and those awesome beneficial bacteria (probiotics) – yogurt may help lower your risk of high blood pressure. In a study that followed the […]