I bet you have no idea what the image below is? I’ll cut to the chase. There’s a good chance it’s a picture of your arteries.

Heart Disease is not mucking around. It’s the biggest killer every year. Ending millions of lives short. Upending countless lives. Here’s the kicker.

It’s completely avoidable.

How does your artery end up looking like the one above? From living!

The artery above is not actually that bad. After living an entire life, many of our vulnerable vessels look like that.

Not anymore.

Those vessels are being seen in people in their 20s and 30s at alarming rates. Our poor diet and lifestyle is giving us the vessels of someone in their sixties before we’re even married.

You might have heard of angina?

Angina occurs when your coronary vessels, the ones supplying your heart, are about 75% blocked. This leads to the common symptom of chest pain with exertion; the extra activity requires more blood flow than your clogged vessels can deliver.

Imagine the image above, except twice the size. How does this happen?

3 Basic steps

1. Plaque deposition

Your body uses its blood vessels to store excess cholesterol. It coats the internal surface of your vessels. This is normal. Even healthy people have a build-up of plaque after a long life.

We deposit plaque on our vessel walls from about the age of 11!

2. Plaque build-up

Here is where lifestyle comes in. A sedentary life combined with a poor diet leads to dumping more and more cholesterol onto your artery walls. Too many poor choices and quite a few of your coronary vessels will be 3/4 their original size; filled with all manner of gunk.

It’s important to be aware cholesterol isn’t the enemy. New research is shining light on inflammation as a central cause. This translates into the following advice:

• Focus on eating “real” and quality food. Avoid processed food when possible.
• Saturated fat isn’t as important as where you’re getting it from. The caveat is trans fats – these SHOULD be avoided at all costs.
• Avoid excessive eating.
• Vary your diet.

3. Clot formation

A fibrous cap covers the plaque on your artery walls. Without this, the cholesterol mixed in with everything else, immune cells and debris, would cause a blood clot.

Ever wondered how a heart attack occurs? This is how. When your fibrous cap springs a leak and the clotting factors in your blood plug it up. But they end up plugging your entire vessel.

When this happens in a coronary vessel, you stop supplying blood to your heart. No blood for the heart means no blood for the body.

It’s never too late. While we have access to all kinds of pills and potions, they still aren’t as miraculous as…

Diet and Exercise.

The changes and benefits witnessed are phenomenal. It’s hard, but trust me, it’s worth it.

Where to start?

Healthy living is made out to be complicated; It sells well. It doesn’t have to be.

• Eat “real food” where possible.
• Eat a variety of food.
• Eat more vegetables.
• Move often throughout the day.

If you are trying to lose weight, focus on food quality over quantity. Allow yourself to eat a little extra so long as the food is quality. Change the target, and you will find weight loss follows.

The best time to make a change is now.

Don’t waste your breath on regret; instead, be grateful that you have the power to make extraordinary change.