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Jill Waldbieser
Jan 24, 2024
Keep your heart healthy
The number one killer in the United States is heart disease: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 610,000 people die from it every year—that is about one out of every four deaths. The cause of heart disease is generally clogged arteries.
These blood vessels can be blocked by fatty plaque that contains calcium, cholesterol, and other substances that circulate in the blood. "There is no one magic food that acts like Drano and cleans out the accumulated plaque," says Florian Rader, MD, a cardiologist at the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. "But good habits can help slow down that process, and maintaining a healthy weight and diet is one factor you can control to a great degree. And," he says, "It's never too late to start."