One of the single greatest determinants of whether you will suffer a heart attack or a stroke is the way your blood clots. The viscosity of the blood, its stickiness and its tendency to form clots are important factors that can be averted to save you from a cardiovascular tragedy.

Healing power of food

At Health Total, we believe that nutrition has the power to heal, and that is why nutrition plays an important role in all of our health plans. The therapeutic effect of foods on heart disease has more to do with blood clotting factors than with blood cholesterol. It usually takes longer to cut your risk of heart disease by reducing cholesterol than it takes by preventing blood clot formation. Ideally speaking, both cholesterol levels, as well as blood clots, should be reduced.

What to eat?

Here are a few clot-busting foods. They thin the blood by suppressing platelet clumping, depress fibrinogen levels (high blood levels of fibrinogen is a predictor of heart disease) and improve clot-dissolving activity. The anti-clotting effect happens almost immediately i.e. within 3-4 hours of eating them. You can reduce your chances of heart attack by preventing clots by consuming foods such as:

• Garlic
• Ginger
• Raw onions
• Green chillies
• Capsicum
• Green tea
• Raw vegetables
• Flaxseed oil
• Olive oil
• Dry red wine
• Fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, & sardines
• Asprin and vitamin E supplements

Foods such as garlic, onions and raw vegetables do both the jobs i.e. reduce blood clots as well as lower cholesterol so that you can get a double benefit. Therefore, when such foods are eaten regularly in small quantities they can have a powerful pharmacological effect on your blood clots and save you from a tragedy.

What to avoid

In contrast, certain foods encourage clot formation, as they contain high-fat content and other harmful substances, which are unhealthy for your body and add to fat storage and build-up. They are as follows:

• High-fat dairy products like milk, cheese
• Animal protein such as mutton, pork, steak
• Fried foods
• Maida based fried snacks like samosas, kachoris, pizzas
• Junk food

Food remedies

Here are a few home remedies you could try to keep your heart healthy and prevent blood clots.

• Crush garlic and cook it lightly with tomatoes in a teaspoon of olive or groundnut oil. Spread the paste on a slice of whole wheat bread or a whole-wheat khakra (oil free) and have it for breakfast along with a glass of vegetable juice made from ½ raw onion, 2 carrots and 2 tomatoes. (The anticoagulant compound called ‘ajoene’, present in garlic is released in the presence of heat and acidic food like tomatoes).
• Regular intake of red wine (taken in moderation) or black grape juice seems to promote anticoagulant activity discouraging heart disease.
• Eat half an onion as part of the salad with each meal. This would help to keep the blood thin.
• The ‘garam masala’ used in Indian cooking, discourages blood platelet clumping.
• Cloves and cumin seed powder used in it promote anti-clotting activity.

Reduce your risk with Health Total

Heart attacks have become dangerously common in the world we live in today, and the lifestyles and diets we follow do nothing more but increase our risks of suffering from one. That’s why we are here to help! By providing you with the right diet and lifestyle changes, our health experts help diminish your heart attack risk, for now and the years to come! To get in touch with us, give us a call on our toll-free number  1-800-843-0206 and get yourself a free first consultation today!