4 Natural Ways to Prevent a Heart Attack or Stroke

To prevent a heart attack or stroke, go natural and forget the aspirin-a-day business.

K is for klotting – which doesn’t really start with a ‘k’, but it’s what I want to write about. Many people take an aspirin a day to prevent stroke and heart attack based on aspirin’s ability to thin the blood and prevent blood clots.

Most alternative doctors have been against aspirin for a long time because it damages the stomach lining and causes kidney and liver damage. Aspirin is responsible for a significant number of emergency room visits because it causes gastrointestinal bleeding.

New studies are now showing that an aspirin a day actually increases risk of stroke and heart attack in 40 percent of the people who take it. Research is also showing that long term use of aspirin increases your risk of macular degeneration and cataracts by as much as 44 percent. Read more

Unclog Your Arteries

Though it may be discouraging that it's not cheese nachos that unclogs your arteries, it's encouraging that something as simple as eating broccoli may prevent heart attacks and strokes.

This probably still won't encourage children to eat it, but the many healthy properties of broccoli include preventing a heart attack or stroke, say researchers.

A chemical found in the vegetable boosts the body's defence system to keep arteries unclogged.

Cauliflower, sprouts and cabbage can also keep the blood flowing freely.

They all contain sulforaphane, along with rocket, kale and pak choi, but broccoli contains the highest levels. Read more:

Don't Take an Aspirin a Day

Don't take an aspirin a day. It does more harm than good, say researchers.

Millions of people - including a substantial number of the "worried well" - take a daily dose of the drug in the belief it will keep them healthy.

But at a conference for leading doctors, British scientists said they have found that for healthy people taking aspirin does not significantly reduce the risk of a heart attack.

At the same time they found it almost doubles the risk of being admitted to hospital due to internal bleeding. Read more