Simple ways to boost your cardiovascular health
Simple ways to boost your cardiovascular health
Cardiovascular health refers to the health of the cardiovascular system. Its definition is based on all the behaviors and health factors that, when optimal, are associated with better cardiovascular disease-free survival and quality of life. Choosing a healthy diet, being more active, and maintaining normal blood lipid and glucose levels are some of the strategies that help to maintain great cardiovascular health throughout our lives.
How to define cardiovascular health?
The American Heart Association has provided a number of metric definitions that can be used to classify poor, intermediate, or ideal cardiovascular health. These include diet, physical activity, smoking, sleep, weight, blood and glucose levels, and blood pressure.
Pursuing a healthier lifestyle from a young age is a great strategy for maintaining ideal cardiovascular health throughout our lives. This will result in a lower risk of developing cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, strokes, atherosclerosis, peripheral artery disease, and vein diseases (1).
In this article, we will dive into the 7 ways to improve your cardiovascular health!
Healthy eating behaviors
Creating a healthy eating pattern represents an easy way to improve your cardiovascular health. This means preferring certain foods such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, plant-based proteins, fish and limiting sweetened drinks, alcohol, full-fat dairy products, and highly processed foods.
Avoiding trans-fat and partially hydrogenated oils that are contained in many commercial baked goods represents another good and easy strategy to improve your eating habits (1).
Polyphenols derived from olive leaves also have many beneficial effects and represent a promising, natural ingredient for supporting cardiovascular health (2).
Giving up smoking
Smoking is deleterious for your circulatory system as it increases the risk of stroke in both men and women. Cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and tobacco products contain many toxic chemicals, as do their smoke, and liquids. Several beneficial changes occur after quitting smoking and within one year after quitting, your risk of heart disease goes down with 50% (1).
Physical activity
Regular exercise and physical activity are associated with remarkable health benefits. Adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity a week or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity or a combination of both, throughout the week. Parking further away from your work place or taking the stairs instead of the elevator contributes to physical activity levels and improves health outcomes (1).
Sleep quality
Sleep plays a crucial role for overall health and well-being. Short sleep duration or poor sleep quality is associated with high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels, and atherosclerosis. These conditions can be prevented by aiming for an average of 7-9 hours of quality sleep a day (1).
Body weight management
Maintaining a healthy weight, defined as a body mass index between 18.5 and 24.9 for adults, can help reduce the risk of many heart problems such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, and high blood pressure.
A few strategies that can help to manage body weight include choosing a healthy diet, increasing physical activity levels, limiting alcohol, avoiding stress, and improving your sleep quality (1).
Stable blood lipid and glucose levels
Cholesterol is a fat-like substance that your body needs, in the right amounts, for good health. Unhealthy levels of cholesterol can lead to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, such as heart disease and stroke. Checking your cholesterol levels regularly can help you understand whether you have normal blood lipid levels.
Over time, high blood glucose levels can damage your health too. Blood glucose levels rise because of the glucose that enters the bloodstream and insulin, a hormone that helps the cells take up the glucose they can use for energy production.
A healthy diet that includes vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, legumes, nuts, plant-based proteins, and lean animal proteins, may help you manage cholesterol and glucose levels. Other strategies include being more active, quitting smoking, and maintaining a healthy weight (3).
Blood pressure control
Blood pressure is defined as the pressure of your blood on the walls of the arteries as your heart pumps it throughout your body. When your blood pressure is permanently higher than normal, the risk of heart attacks and strokes increases.
There are no signs or symptoms of high blood pressure, which means it is crucial to have regular check-ups to measure it. Simple changes to your lifestyle, such as eating healthy and being more active can help manage your blood pressure over time (4).
How to improve your cardiovascular health?
To summarize, choosing a healthy diet, quitting smoking, being more active, improving sleep health, maintaining normal blood lipid, and glucose levels, and managing your blood pressure are great strategies to lower the risk of developing cardiovascular disease thus, improving your cardiovascular health.
New publication demonstrates potential of Naxus® for alleviating IBD through gut microbiota alterations and increased butyrate production in mice
New publication demonstrates potential of Naxus® for alleviating IBD through gut microbiota alterations and increased butyrate production in mice
Press release
In the present study published in Molecules, the leading international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal of chemistry, the authors evaluated the potential positive effects of arabinoxylans (AX) contained in Naxus® on T-cell-dependent colitis. The findings of the study showed that Naxus® was able to induce peripherally induced Treg (pTreg) cells in the colon. This resulted in a reduction of T-cell-dependent chronic colitis due to the increased levels of butyrate-producing bacteria and luminal butyrate levels. These findings implicate that there could be a role for Naxus® in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease.
Naxus®: a product researched and developed by BioActor
NAXUS®, an arabinoxylan extract obtained from the endosperm of wheat and is known for its beneficial health effects.
Wheat arabinoxylans (AX) are, in turn, a type of non-starch polysaccharide found in the cell walls of wheat grains. AXs are typically composed of a linear β (1-4)-linked xylan backbone with side residues of a-1-arabinofuranose units attached via α-(1-3) and/or α-(1-2) linkage.
Several clinical studies have shown that Naxus® is a powerful and well-tolerated prebiotic which induces a positive effect on the immune system and blood sugar levels by modulating the microbiome composition and Short Chain Fatty Acids (SCFA) production.
Effect of Naxus® on the Gut Microbiota Composition and Colonic Regulatory T Cells: in vitro and in vivo study
Introduction
The study was conducted by the group of Seita Chudan and the groups’ aim was to to understand the effect of wheat-derived arabinoxylan on gut microbiota, colonic regulatory T cells (Tregs) which are a specific subset of T cells that suppresses the immune response, and experimental colitis, this way, discussing the importance of a healthy gut microbiota and its connection to immune function and disease.
Many studies have looked at how AXs from wheat affect the bacteria and compounds in our gut, as well as a type of antibody present in the immune system called Immunoglobulin A (IgA).
However, not many studies have shown how AX might be helpful in treating Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), a condition that is characterized by inflammation of the GI tract. One recent study has looked at how AX might help with a type of IBD called DSS-induced colitis, but it’s still unclear if AX can prevent colitis.
Therefore, it is important to understand how wheat AXs affect the immune system and colitis, particularly in cases caused by the acquired immune system.
Methods
In this study, healthy and chronic colitis model mice were fed with food containing cellulose or Naxus® for 2–6 weeks and subjected to subsequent analysis of the gut microbiota composition and the number of colonic regulatory T cells in both groups.
Results
The results of this study indicate that Naxus® promotes the development of colonic pTregs and helps to reduce T-cell-dependent chronic colitis. The number of colonic regulatory T cells was significantly higher in the Naxus® group compared to the control group. These positive effects may be due to changes in the gut microbiota and increased levels of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), especially butyrate.
Table 1: Quantification of fecal SCFA in mice fed with food containing CE (cellulose) or AX (n = 8)
Butyrate is produced by certain bacteria in the Lachnospiraceae family, such as Eubacterium and Roseburia spp., Increases in Lachnospiraceae bacteria were linked to an increase in fecal butyrate concentration and a greater number of colonic Tregs in the Naxus®-fed mice.
In a T cell transfer model of chronic colitis, Naxus® was found to improve body weight loss and reduce colonic tissue inflammation, possibly through Treg induction. In addition, in this colitis model, wheat-derived arabinoxylan decreased TNFα production from type 1 helper T cells.
Therefore, Naxus® could be a useful prebiotic for preventing colitis by modifying the gut microbiota and shifting the metabolite production more towards butyrate.
Conclusion
This study shows that Naxus® has positive effects in a mouse model of chronic colitis. These improvements are linked to the alterations in the gut microenvironment by regulating the gut microbiota composition and increasing the number of colonic regulatory T cells, which could have implications for the prevention and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease and other immune-related diseases.
About BioActor
BioActor, based in Maastricht, Netherlands, is a product development company that has developed a range of proprietary bioactive ingredients for the nutrition & healthcare industry. The company focuses on the development of innovative activities that address active living and healthy ageing. The goal is to provide the nutrition & healthcare industry with science-based innovations that confer a real health benefit to the consumer.
Feel free to contact via info@bioactor.com for more information on the possibilities Naxus® has to offer.
Further information can also be found on: www.naxus.nl.
