Cardiac Clinic Botswana

26/09/2026

7 Reasons To Consider A Meditation Practice

Meditation is simply directed concentration and involves learning to focus your awareness and direct it toward something specific: your breath, a phrase or word repeated silently, a memorized inspirational passage, or an image in the mind’s eye. The benefits of meditation are numerous, and include:

Helping lower blood pressure
Decreasing heart and respiratory rates
Increasing blood flow
Enhancing immune function
Reducing perception of pain and relieving chronic pain due to arthritis and other disorders
Maintaining level mood
Bringing awareness and mindfulness to everyday aspects of life

A simple form of meditation that can be practiced by anyone is to walk or sit quietly in a natural setting and allow your thoughts and sensations to occur; observing them without judgment.

26/09/2026

High Fat, High Anxiety?

Research from the University of Colorado Boulder suggests that turning to fatty foods may increase anxiety — at least in rats. Half of the rats in the study were fed a standard diet of about 11 percent fat for nine weeks; the others were given a high-fat diet of 45 percent fat.

The study found that high-fat diets were associated with altered gut bacteria, behavior changes, and changes in brain chemistry linked to anxiety. The animals on a high-fat diet gained weight and showed reduced gut bacterial diversity. They also had higher amounts of a type of bacteria called Firmicutes and less of Bacteroidetes — a scenario that has been associated with obesity. More research is needed to ascertain if these results have any correlation in humans.

26/09/2026

Are Your Hands As Clean As You Think?

Many people can be careless about washing their hands, which can lead to the spread of infection. Washing your hands is not only quick and cost-effective, but the best way to protect yourself and others from spreading germs. Wash your hands:

Before you pick up anything to eat
Before, during and after preparing food
After using the toilet, changing a baby’s diaper, or cleaning up a child who has used the toilet
After you blow your nose or sneeze
After touching garbage.

In addition, be extra sure to wash your hands before and after caring for someone who is sick and after touching pets, animal food or waste.

So, what’s the best way to wash your hands? Good old soap and water: work up a lather and scrub well, cleaning the backs of the hands, between the fingers and under the nails. Doing this should take about 20 seconds, or the length of time it takes to repeat the alphabet twice; afterwards rinse and dry on a clean towel or under an air dryer.

And skip the antibacterial soaps and gels for home use – in healthcare settings there is a need, but at home, there is no proven purpose for them, and they may be counterproductive by accelerating the development of resistance to antibiotics.

15/09/2026

https://youtu.be/EF8xOORlhyc

Prioritizing sleep is not a passive luxury—it is a critical, biolog...

14/08/2026

Turmeric: The Healthiest Of Spices?

Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is a culinary spice, a major ingredient in Indian curries. Used as both medicine and food for centuries, accumulating evidence suggests that this relative of ginger is a promising preventive agent for a wide range of diseases, probably due largely to its anti-inflammatory properties. Curcumin is the chief active component of turmeric and is usually taken as a supplement. Research indicates that:

Curcumin seems to delay liver damage, potentially protecting from the eventual progression to cirrhosis.
Turmeric reduces levels of heterocyclic amines – carcinogenic compounds that are formed when meats are barbecued, boiled, or fried – by up to 40 percent.
Curcumin inhibits the growth of skin cancer (melanoma) and also slows the spread of breast cancer into the lungs.
Turmeric that is part of daily curries eaten in India may help explain the low rate of Alzheimer’s disease in that country.

14/08/2026

Why are you not using mint?

Menthol, the active ingredient in mint that gives it its characteristic flavour, is more concentrated in peppermint than in spearmint and is considered an aid in digestion by providing calm to muscles of the stomach and intestine. It is a great aid for when the stomach is uncomfortably full, and encapsulated forms of peppermint oil help to ease GI spasms. Oil of peppermint has also been used to stop the growth of bacterial, viral and fungal infections, and to address asthma, sinusitis, allergy-related colds and other respiratory issues. Nutritionally, peppermint is a good source of vitamins A and C, along with manganese, and copper.

14/08/2026

5 Suggestions To Manage High Triglyceride Levels (a sub-fraction of cholesterol)

Triglycerides are the form of fat that moves through the bloodstream to your body’s tissues. Whenever your LDL (“bad”) cholesterol is measured, triglycerides are checked too, as it is typically performed in a lipid panel, in which total, HDL and LDL cholesterol are all measured.

High triglyceride levels can be genetic, but lifestyle influences are strong, and refined carbohydrates like sugar and fruit juices as well as alcohol are the main factors boosting triglyceride levels in the blood. This is especially true for quick-digesting (high glycaemic load) carbs. In many people, these foods elevate insulin levels, promoting both triglyceride production and the storage of fat on the body and in the liver.

I recommend the following lifestyle changes to help keep your serum triglyceride levels down to a level as low as possible:

Get regular exercise that is at least moderately intensive along with some weight training.
Opt for your carbohydrate sources to be whole. Vegetables, fruits, rolled or steel cut oats and sprouted breads provide you with a lot of variety, fibre and usually little in the way of blood sugar surges that often lead to rising triglycerides.
Cut back on alcohol, avoiding b**r especially (even small amounts of alcohol can elevate triglyceride levels).
Increase your intake of omega-3 fatty acids by eating oily fish on a regular basis
Maintain a diet that’s low in processed carbohydrates including fruit juices

14/08/2026

Reasons to eat tomatoes....

Low in calories.
Excellent sources of vitamin C, and provide vitamins A and K, potassium, manganese and fibre.
A source of lycopene – researchers have linked the lycopene (a carotenoid that gives tomatoes their red colour) with a lowered risk of heart disease and cancers, including those of the prostate, breast, colon and lung, as well as being helpful in lowering high cholesterol.
To get the tomatoes with the most lycopene content, choose smaller sized ones with the darkest red colour.

14/08/2026

4 Reasons Celery Is Healthy

Is an excellent source of vitamins C and K, and its active compounds, phthalides, may help lower blood pressure.

Has long been associated with dieting due to its fibre content and low-calorie count.

Is rich in potassium and sodium – important in regulating fluid balance and stimulating urine production.

Lends itself to soups, stews and stir-fries as well as salads, or spread on natural nut or seed butters as a snack.

14/08/2026

Canned Or Dried Beans?

The health benefits of beans are numerous: they are an excellent source of protein and fibre, are high in the B vitamin folic acid, and are a low-glycaemic-index food meaning a carbohydrate with a more stable blood sugar impact. But some beans – both in terms of variety and the way they are cooked – are actually healthier than others.

The most nutritious varieties of beans are black, red, kidney and pinto beans. Black beans have the most antioxidant activity of any of these bean choices.

When using dried beans, don’t discard the water used to simmer them – up to 70 percent of the antioxidants that beans provide end up in the simmering liquid. Instead, simmer the beans until they are done and then give them a chance to soak these key nutrients back in by leaving them in the liquid for at least an hour, longer is better.

Consider pressure cooking – a growing trend in preparing healthy, whole-food meals is pressure cooking. Dried beans that were soaked and then cooked in a pressure cooker were shown to retain the most antioxidant, therefore health value.

The easiest (and possibly healthiest) route? Buy canned beans. Canned kidney and pinto beans are two of the most antioxidant-rich foods you can eat, as the heat of the canning process enhances the availability of nutrients in the beans.