It’s the biggest killer in the world.
This year alone, cardiovascular disease (CVD) will
- Kill 610,000 Americans
- Cause 735,000 heart attacks
- Affect 1 in 16 women
- Strike 1 in 13 men
Those numbers are alarming… but they only tell part of the story.
The newest problem: Cardiovascular disease has begun to increasingly affect younger adults (aged 35-54). And it’s increasing even faster in younger women than men.
That’s why it’s more important than ever to protect your heart from the three biggest threats it faces.
What Is CVD?
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) includes any illness that affects the function of your heart (cardio) or your blood vessels (vascular)
Under the CVD heading, you’ll see issues like:
- Heart attack (blood flow to the heart is suddenly blocked)
- Cardiac arrest (heart stops beating)
- Heart failure (chronic condition where the heart can’t pump enough blood for the body)
- Stroke (blood flow to the brain is suddenly blocked)
- Vascular disease (conditions affecting blood flow through the veins and arteries)
- Hypertension (high blood pressure)
- Arrhythmia (abnormal heartbeat)
- Atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)
Any of these conditions can severely limit your life, or even end it too soon. That’s why many doctors are proponents of aggressive medication protocols for people with CVD risk factors.
But here's something interesting to note: While the biggest CVD risk factors usually get treated separately, every single one springs from the same underlying source: Imbalance.
The 3 Biggest Threats to Your Heart
Your cardiovascular system faces a lot of threats, from smoking to high-fat diets to inactivity.
But the three biggest threats come from imbalances in critical body systems.
- Calcium imbalance causes a deadly build up in your heart and blood vessels
- Gut imbalance (dysbiosis) leads to dangerous toxic streaming and inflammation
- Cholesterol imbalance threatens your vascular health
By rebalancing these three problem areas, you can protect your heart and blood vessels for a longer, healthier life.
Neutralize Threat #1: Calcium Imbalance
Most of us think of calcium as a good thing – and it is. You need this essential mineral to build strong teeth and bones.
But what most people don’t know is that calcium doesn’t work alone. And without another key nutrient on board, calcium won’t make its way into your teeth and bones where it belongs. Instead, it will build up in your blood vessels and heart tissue, and cause them to calcify, or get hard. And while hard bones are good, hard veins, arteries, and heart muscle are very bad.
That’s where vitamin K2 comes into play. Think of K2 like a calcium chaperone – guiding calcium into bones and keeping it out of delicate blood vessels and heart tissue.This powerhouse vitamin makes sure calcium doesn’t build up inside your arteries (which causes atherosclerosis) and keeps your blood flowing freely.
Plus, if some calcium has already made its way into your blood vessels, K2 can help clear it out and keep your veins and arteries flexible (like they’re supposed to be).
And with the right K2, you'll also experience a very positive “side effect”: By directing calcium where it belongs, it helps support optimal bone density to strengthen your bones and teeth… But how do you identify the good forms of K2 from the bad?
The Right Vitamin K2 Balances Calcium
There are a few different forms of vitamin K2. They’re called menaquinones (or MKs) and they range from MK-4 to MK-13. The most important and most absorbable of those is MK-7… also known as Vitamin K2-7.
You can get K2-7 from food, but it’s pretty tough to get enough vitamin K2-7 that way. After all, many foods contain no K2 at all, and most people don’t eat enough of the few that do. The best food sources of K2 include:
- Natto, which is soybeans fermented with Bacillus subtilis
- Goose liver
- Dairy products from grass-fed cows (grass-fed matters for this)
- Dark meat chicken
How many servings of those are you getting every day? Probably not enough to cover your full K2-7 requirements. That’s why most of us need a high-quality vitamin K2-7 supplement to keep calcium in check and keep our cardiovascular system running smoothly.
Neutralize Threat #2: Gut Imbalance – Dysbiosis
Your gut microbiome hosts trillions of bacteria, including probiotics (beneficial bacteria) and pathogens (harmful bacteria). And depending on which bacteria are “in charge,” they can have an outsized impact on your cardiovascular health.
When your gut microbiome is in good balance, probiotics outnumber pathogens, and those good bacteria help keep your heart pumping and your blood flowing. But when pathogens outnumber probiotics, everything shifts.
Bad bacteria produce many harmful substances, and the worst of the bunch are called lipopolysaccharides, or LPS toxins. Those toxins attack the protective inner lining of your gut – the gut barrier – which is designed to keep food particles, bacteria, and toxins safely inside your gut and out of your bloodstream.
But when the LPS toxins breach that barrier, pathogens and particles escape from your gut and into your circulation. That creates a condition called toxic streaming, and it’s exactly as bad as it sounds. Once LPS toxins and other pathogens are in your bloodstream, they can travel anywhere – including your heart . And to get there, they run through your blood vessels, causing damage along the way.
Toxic streaming and dysbiosis have been directly linked to:
- Atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)
- Hypertension
- Heart failure
- Coronary artery disease
Toxic streaming causes body-wide inflammation, a major risk factor for heart disease. And a new study found that people with high levels of LPS toxins in their blood faced a much higher risk for heart disease and worse outcomes.
So how can you properly address LPS toxins? Choose a clinically proven gut superstar.
Spore Probiotics Get Your Microbiome in Balance and Address Toxic Streaming
Supplying your microbiome with spore probiotics is the only way to stop toxic streaming at the source.
Spore probiotics thrive where other probiotics fail. They survive the harsh conditions of digestion to arrive alive and intact in your gut microbiome. There, spore probiotics clear out pathogens and set up camp, colonizing in your gut and allowing many other species of probiotics to flourish.
By rebalancing the gut and squashing dysbiosis, spore probiotics effectively address toxic streaming… keeping those LPS toxins out of your bloodstream, your blood vessels, and your heart. Plus, the balancing effect of spore probiotics helps drive a healthy inflammatory response – and that’s crucial for a healthy heart.
Neutralize Threat #3: Cholesterol Imbalance
Cholesterol has a bad reputation, leading people to believe that lower is the only way to go. But that’s not quite right…
Cholesterol is a fatty, waxy substance found everywhere in your body – it’s a crucial part of every single cell.
Your body – especially your brain – needs a healthy balance of cholesterol to function. Without enough cholesterol, your brain cells can’t communicate properly, and your body can’t produce all the hormones it needs. Too much cholesterol also triggers health problems, like clogged blood vessels that can lead to serious heart disease.
On top of all that, there are different kinds of cholesterol, and your body needs them in the right balance. There’s LDL (low density lipoprotein) cholesterol and HDL cholesterol (high density lipoprotein). People refer to LDL as “bad” cholesterol, and HDL as “good” cholesterol. And along with those, you also have to keep an eye on their cousin, another type of fatty substance called triglyceride (or TG). Your body needs some TG to store up energy… but too much TG and you’re looking at another set of health issues.
The trick is to get rid of excess cholesterol and triglycerides, while leaving enough to supply your body with what it needs.
That’s exactly what specialized fibers known as prebiotics do: They keep these fats in balance by managing LDL and TG, all while beefing up low levels of HDL. But of course, some prebiotics do a better job of this than others.
Precision Prebiotics for Healthy Cholesterol Balance
Prebiotics are a special type of dietary fiber that bypass digestion so they can arrive intact in your large intestines – your gut. There, prebiotics nourish the beneficial bacteria (probiotics) in your gut microbiome, helping keep your gut in good balance.
But that’s not all prebiotics can do…
Prebiotics have also been shown to play a key role in improving heart health and reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. Their main role: controlling cholesterol without the danger of completely eliminating the cholesterol your body needs.
Three specific types of prebiotics have been shown to keep cholesterol and triglycerides in healthy balance:
These precision prebiotics work to remove excess LDL cholesterol and triglycerides from the bloodstream… increase levels of healthy HDL cholesterol… and keep the different types of cholesterol in healthy balance.
Even better: Prebiotics help keep blood pressure in the "no-problem" range.
Just Thrive Heart Health Products
Your Total Heart Health Care Package
Give your body a life-supporting gift with the Just Thrive Total Heart Health Care Package. It’s exactly what your cardiovascular system needs to stay healthy, strong, and protected.
Just Thrive Vitamin K2-7 supplies pharmaceutical grade vitamin K2-7 along with three crucial co-factors that expertly manage calcium.
Just Thrive Probiotic contains a combination of four spore probiotics proven to address LPS toxins and drive optimal balance in your gut microbiome.
Just Thrive Precision PREbiotic contains an exclusive blend of GOS, FOS, and XOS that can keep your cholesterol (and blood pressure) in healthy balance.
Show your cardiovascular system some love with the Just Thrive Total Heart Health Care Package today.
