Conventional medicine uses diagnostic tests, prescription medications, and surgery to prevent heart disease and its complications.

Fortunately, there are tests that allow doctors to diagnose and start treatment early.  Blood tests to check your cholesterol and homocysteine levels as well as regular blood pressure checks are a good place to start. Elevated blood pressure can increase your risks for heart disease and can go undiagnosed for quite a while.  That’s why it’s a good idea to have your blood pressure checked regularly.

One method used to detect blockages is an exercise treadmill.  This test causes stress to the heart and if blood flow is limited, chest pain or tightening will occur.  This test will detect blockages of 50% or more.  Treadmill testing is not recommended for everyone, it only detects heart disease in an advanced stage.

Thallium tests and CT scans have also been used to detect early heart disease, however they are expensive and don’t show minor blockages.

The medical community agrees that most mild to moderate cases of high cholesterol and blood pressure can be treated first with dietary changes.  However,  some may need to be put on prescription medications called statins to help lowering the numbers.

Statins work by inhibiting the enzyme needed to manufacture cholesterol in the liver.  However, these drugs also block the manufacture of important nutrients, like CoQ10, which has been shown to benefit heart health.  Other side effects include liver problems, nausea, diarrhea, abdominal pain, headaches, and skin rash.

Despite their side effects, the statins are very effective in lowering the risk of future heart disease by 30% in appropriate patients.  Diabetics and known heart disease patients should be on these medications for the rest of their life.

Common blood pressure medications include

• ACE inhibitors, which relax the arterial wall and reduce fluid volume.
• Beta-Blockers, slows the heart rate and reduces the force of contraction.
• Calcium channel blockers, decrease the rate and force of  contractions, relax the arteries, and slow nerve impulses in the heart.
• Diuretics, most proven medication, however, they deplete potassium and magnesium and increase blood sugar levels, and cholesterol levels.

In some case, doctors may also add an anti-coagulant or anti-platelet medication.  These help reduce blood clotting in the arteries, veins, and heart.

Surgery in another treatment for heart disease.  Heart operations and surgeries have increase by a whopping 397%. Heart catherization is done to get more information about heart function.  A small tube is inserted in an artery in the arm or more commonly the leg and is moved into the heart.  This procedure also allows them to open blocked arteries (angioplasty) or repair certain types of heart disease.Coronary bypass is a procedure that “goes around” clogged arteries.  Surgeons can also repair or replace faulty valves.

Heart surgery has saved many lives, but also very expensive, complicated, and not without risks.

The key to successful heart disease treatment is to prevent plague buildup from the start. The best prevention is with your diet.

THE NUTRITION FACT

HEALTHY BODY FOR LIFE

We were reviewing some of the diet tips of 2008.  Here are a few that we thought were worth repeating.

1. Buy Organic - Are they worth the extra money you ask?  Yes they are!  Research is proving that when you buy organic you are stretching your dollar nutritionally.  Organic fruits and vegetable provide quite a bit more antioxidants than their conventional counterparts.
2. Eat yogurt - it’s  good for your tummy!  Yogurt provide the good bacteria, known as probiotics,   to help fight off digestive problems.  Yogurt has been seen to help ease irritable bowel syndrome symptoms and has also helped ease symptoms of food poisoning.  Be sure to check the label and buy yogurt that contains live bacteria/live cultures.
3. Food can taste good without fat - adding flavor to your food doesn’t have to mean  high calories and fat.  There are some great varieties available…   Hot Sauce: No calories; no sugar  Spicy brown mustard: No calories, no sugar Salsa: 2.5 calories; .75 grams of sugar in 2 tablespoons  Vinegars such as cider, fig, and raspberry: No calories; no sugar Lemon juice: No calorie; no sugar  Low sodium soy sauce: 9 calories, no sugar in 1 tablespoon  Wishbone Salad Spritzers: 10 sprays contain 15 calories and 1 gram of sugar
4. Margarine Madness - With all the talk about margarine and butter and which is the better health choice. Research shows that margarine isn’t as bad a it’s cracked up to be.  Claims that margarine are harmful to your health, cause cancer, is the equivalent of eating plastic are not true.  Most margarine today is trans fat free, but make sure you check the labels. While butter is loaded with cholesterol-raising saturated fats, it is also a natural fat that helps the body absorb vitamins and minerals more efficiently.
5. Eggs aren’t so bad – They provide an excellent source of “good fats” as well as vitamins, minerals, and protein. Egg got a bad rap because of the cholesterol and saturated fat in the yolk.  Protein is needed to break down amino acids  that our body uses to produce hormones, hair, skin and nails, as well as building muscle.  Omega 3s are now being added to eggs making them an even healthier choice.  Work eggs into your meal plan, just limit your yolk intake to 3 per week.
6. Too much red meat can make you stink -  A study in Hungary found that men who ate meat compared to those who did not for two weeks had a considerable and consistently more offensive smell.
7. You can trick yourself into eating healthy -  Are you struggling with the idea of changing your eating habits to quickly or at all? Remember taking small steps is better than not taking any steps at all.  Be Creative! Combining good food choices with not so good food choices and help you gradually adjust to the better choice.

Healthy Food in the pantry does no good!!! Find ways to get it into your stomach!!!

Happy Healthy Eating in 2009!!!

THE NUTRITION FACT

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Uncontrollable Risk Factors for Heart Disease include:

• heredity (family history of heart disease)
• gender (men tend to develop heart disease earlier than women)
• age (raises the older you are)

Controllable Risk Factors for Heart Disease include:

• High Blood Pressure
• High Cholesterol
• Sticky Fats
• Diabetes
• Elevated homocysteine levels

Now you know the risks but what exactly are they and what can you do to reduce your risk factors?

High Blood Pressure, also known as hypertension, occurs when blood vessels lose their elasticity or become narrow.  Blood pressure is a measurement of a ratio representing pressures in the arteries.  The top number, systolic pressure, measures the highest pressure when the heart is pumping.  The bottom number, diastolic pressure,  measures the lowest pressure when the heart is resting.

High blood pressure is the #1 risk factor for congestive heart failure, or the heart inability to pump sufficient blood throughout the body.  An estimated one-third of all strokes are directly related to high blood pressure.

Where should your blood pressure be? A healthy blood pressure for adults is 120 (systolic) over 80 (diastolic). High blood pressure is broken down into four main categories. They are:

1. Borderline – 120 to 140 over 85 to 89
2. Mild – 140 to 160 over 90 to 104
3. Moderate – 160 to 180 over 105 to 114
4. Severe – 180+ over 115+

High Cholesterol is no longer thought to be the single most dangerous risk factor in heart disease, but it still makes you more vulnerable to a heart attack.  Many health problems and even death can arise without adequate blood flow in the arteries.  Plaque, a combination of fatty material, cellular debris, calcification, and cholesterol, can build up and block arteries.  Cholesterol, however; is not all bad. Our bodies need cholesterol to function properly.  The body uses cholesterol to help in sex hormone and bile acid production. The “good cholesterol”, HDL (high-density lipoproteins), helps transport the cholesterol to the liver for metabolism and elimination.  The “bad cholesterol”, LDL (low-density lipoproteins), tend to stick more easily to the artery walls and build up as plaque.

The good news….you reduce your risk of heart disease by 2% for every 1% reduction in blood cholesterol.

Healthy blood cholesterol levels:

• Total Cholesterol – less than 200 mg/dl
• LDL Cholesterol – less than 130 mg/dl
• HDL Cholesterol – greater than 40 mg/dl

Homocysteine has a powerful affect on the heart.  Homocysteine is a non-essential amino acid, resulting from a deficiency of three B vitamins – B6, B12, and folic acid.  A combination of homocysteine and LDL cholesterol is believed to contribute to the build up of plaque in arteries and also may contribute to arterial wall damage.  High homocysteine levels pose a higher risk than high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and smoking.

Risk factors for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high homocysteine levels can include:

• obesity
• lack of physical activity
• smoking
• diabetes
• increased/uncontrolled stress and anxiety
• poor diet

Proper maintenance of these additional risk factors is also needed to lower your heart disease risk. Heart disease was once thought of as a “man’s disease”; however women are quickly catching up. Heart disease in women can be very different than men.  Women tend to wait longer to seek medical attention and female heart attack symptoms can be unrelated to chest pain, like back pain, nausea, and indigestion. Lifestyle choices have a tremendous influence in our level of risk for heart disease.  Being aware of the risk factors we can not control, and making the necessary changes for the ones we can control will greatly reduce our risk factors over time.

Start small….be persistent….learn to relax….and enjoy your life!

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HEALTHY BODY FOR LIFE!

These are staggering statistics.  It is critical that we are aware of the risk factors and symptoms, as well as ways to prevent or reduce our risks of heart disease.

The Nutrition Fact is writing several articles on heart health.  Please check back for new articles. They will be linked once they are completed.

SYMPTOMS OF A HEART ATTACK

• Discomfort, pressure, heaviness, or pain in the chest, arm, or below the breastbone (ie: angina)
• Discomfort radiating to the back , jaw, throat, or arm.
• A fullness, indigestion, or choking feeling (this may feel like heartburn).
• Sweating, nausea, vomiting, or dizziness.
• Extreme weakness, anxiety, or shortness of breath.
• Rapid or irregular heartbeats.

Symptoms typically last at least 30 minutes and are not relieved by rest or oral medications.

Some people have a “silent” myocardial infarction (heart attack).  Although this can occur in any patient, it is more common among diabetics.

DON’T WAIT!!

The best time to treat a heart attack is within 30 minutes from the onset of symptoms.  Waiting can increase the damage to your heart and reduce your chances of survivial. At the first signs of a heart attack call 911 for emergency treatment.

Women you need to really take your symptoms serious as heart attacks in women are usually very different from men and tend to be fatal more often the first time.  Here is a great description of a female heart attack.

THE NUTRITION FACT

HEALTHY BODY FOR LIFE!

Source: Cleveland Clinic Heart Center

1. Be aware that something very different is happening in your body not the usual men’s symptoms but inexplicable things happening (until my sternum and jaws got into the act).  It is said that many more women than men die of their first (and last) MI because they didn’t know they were having one and commonly mistake it as indigestion, take some Maalox or other anti-heartburn preparation and go to bed, hoping they’ll feel better in the morning when they wake up .. which doesn’t happen.  My female friends, your symptoms might not be exactly like mine, so I advise you to call the Paramedics if ANYTHING is unpleasantly happening that you’ve not felt before.  It is better to have a ‘false alarm’ visitation than to risk your life guessing what it might be!
2. Note that I said ‘Call the Paramedics.’ And if you can, take an aspirin.  Ladies, TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE! Do NOT try to drive yourself to the ER – you are a hazard to others on the road. Do NOT have your panicked husband who will be speeding and looking anxiously at what’s happening with you instead of the road. Do NOT call your doctor — he doesn’t know where you live and if it’s at night you won’t reach him anyway, and if it’s daytime, his assistants (or answering service) will tell you to call the Paramedics. He doesn’t carry the equipment in his car that you need to be saved! The Paramedics do, principally OXYGEN that you need ASAP. Your Dr. will be notified later.
3. Don’t assume it couldn’t be a heart attack because you have a normal cholesterol count.  Research has discovered that a cholesterol elevated reading is rarely the cause of an MI (unless it’s unbelievably high and/or accompanied by high blood pressure). MIs are usually caused by long-term stress and inflammation in the body,  which dumps all sorts of deadly hormones into your system to sludge things up in there. Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep.

Let’s be careful and be aware. The more we know, the better chance we could survive!

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HEALTHY BODY FOR LIFE!

Snoring can often seem like a problem without a solution – especially when it is getting in the way of a good night’s sleep.

Here are a few tips that may help you sleep through the night:

1. If your snorer is overweight, encourage him (or her) to lose weight.
2. Have your snorer roll over….no sleeping on his/her back.
3. Put three tennis balls in a sock and attach it to the back of his/her nightshirt.  This prevents the snorer from sleeping on his/her back. (That’s BRUTAL!)
4. Buy earplugs for you!
5. Try using nasal strips for your snorer.  They work.
6. Go to bed earlier than your snorer…you’ll be in a deeper sleep stage.
7. Get a white-noise generator to drown out the sound.

Usually, snoring is caused by allergies,asthma, congestion from colds, nasal blockages, a deviated septum, and even acid reflux.  Snoring has also been linked to more serious conditions like high blood pressure or sleep apnea.  There are also causes that are out of your control.  Men have narrower air passages than women and are more likely to be snorers.  Many couples affected by snoring resort to sleeping in separate bedrooms in order to get a good night’s sleep. This arrangement may help both people sleep better, but it can disrupt communication and intimacy.

Additional factors  for snoring….

• Age – As we get older, the throat becomes narrower and the muscle tone decreases.
• Excess weight – Excess fat and lack of muscle tone can contribute to snoring.
• Smoking – Smoking causes the throat muscle to relax and nasal congestion.
• Alcohol and certain medications – increase muscle relaxation, which increases snoring.
• Enlarged tonsil or adenoids - trap harmful bacteria and can become inflamed causing snoring.

Additional remedies to try:

1. Sleep on your side
2. Elevate your head – Elevating your head 4 inches allows the tongue and jaw to move forward making it easier to breathe.
3. Avoid dairy products before bed – Dairy products encourage mucous build up in the throat and can cause it to narrow.
4. Clear nasal passages – Allows for more free breathing.

According to the government’s patent office, there are hundreds of anti-snoring devices on the market. Some of them startle you awake when they sense you are snoring. Unfortunately, they may only work because they keep you awake!

Finding a solution to your snoring problem can reduce your risks of sleep deprivation and its health repercussions.

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HEALTHY BODY FOR LIFE!

A weak immune system has difficulty fighting off many of the irritants that bombard our bodies each day.  Germs, pollutants, free radicals and other substances compromise our health and subject us to illness.  Excessive sugar & alcohol intake, food allergies, and excess body fat are also contributing factors that weaken your immune system.

Vitamins C & E are great vitamins sources for improving immune deficiency diseases.    Vitamin C improves the white blood cells that help in fighting infection and antibodies that prevent the entry of viruses.   Vitamin C also reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease by increasing the good HDL levels and lowering blood pressure.  It also reduces your risk for colon, prostate, and breast cancers.  The recommended dosage is 200 mg, which can easily be obtained by eating six servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Vitamin E stimulates the production of killer cells that seek and destroy cancer cells.  It also slows the aging process and was linked to lowering the risks of heart attacks by 50% in a Harvard study.  Although it is difficult to obtain the full 100-300 mg recommended dosage, you can easily obtain 30-60 mg by eating seeds, vegetable oils and grains.  Zinc has also been known to help increase the production of white blood cells and the killer cells that help fight against cancer.  Zinc lozenges have been used to help fight off a sore throat.  It is recommended to aim for 15-25 mg a day as too much zinc can inhibit your immune function.

I recently came across a great vitamins source that will help support your immune system, improve cognitive functions, heart & cholesterol supplements, anti-aging supplements, as well as men’s and women’s health supplements that will support good prostate health and also help manage the emotional  and physical discomforts of PMS & menopause. Kinoko™ AHCC (Active Hexrose Correlated Compound) helps maintain normal immune function and response.*  Over 40,000 people worldwide use AHCC regularly as part of an immune maintenance program.  Studies have shown that many people with compromised immune systems also suffer from a selenium deficiency.  Selenium is a trace mineral and powerful antioxidant and “some evidence suggests that the consumption of selenium may reduce the risk of certain forms of cancer.  However, the FDA has determined that this evidence is limited and not conclusive.”** Selenium can be obtained through foods like tuna, red snapper, lobster, shrimp, whole grains, brown rice, chicken, sunflower seeds, garlic, as well as through a selenium vitamin.

I again would like to remind you of the importance of Omega-3 essential fatty acids. They also increase the white blood count’s ability to fight off bacteria and protect the body against overreaction to infection.  Check out our article on Flax Oil and our website for additional information and products.

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HEALTHY BODY FOR LIFE!

• 1 cup Karo corn syrup
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1 cup ground flax
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 6 cups rice krispies

Mix first 5 ingredients in sauce pan over low heat until melted and smooth.  Add rice krispies and stir.  Pour into 9×13 pan Press down to flatten. Cool and cut into 8 pieces.

Servings: 8

For many of us, chicken soup is the ultimate comfort food. Served before the entree at dinner or as a companion course with a sandwich at lunch, there’s nothing better. And what a great way to use the leftovers from last night’s roast chicken!

• 6 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup cubed cooked chicken meat
• 1 rib celery, trimmed and diced
• 1/4 cup diced onion

• 1 cup Barilla Plus Penne noodles or your favorite pasta
• Pepper to taste
• Fresh chopped parsley for garnish
• 1/4 cup toasted flaxseed

1. In a stockpot, combine broth, chicken, celery, and onion. Bring to a full rolling boil.
2. Add noodles. Cook uncovered until tender, about 10 minutes after water returns to a boil.
3. In the final few minutes of cooking, add black pepper as desired.
4. Ladle out into individual bowls, garnished with a sprinkling of chopped parsley and toasted flaxseed.
5.  Toast whole flaxseed in a small flat pan, with a long handle. Cover securely.  Hold pan over high heat, shaking vigorously to keep the seeds from burning.  You will hear the flaxseed start to pop.  As soon as the popping stops, remove the pan from the heat and remove the cover.  It only takes a few minutes.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Baking time: 15 minutes

Yield: 8 cups

Mix the above ingredients together in a blender. Keep stored in the refrigerator and use on sandwiches and salads.

Yields: 2 Cups