Posts Tagged ‘cardiovascular’

An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure

January 20th, 2010

Mainstream Medicine may finally be catching on.

In a major shift of emphasis in the battle against cardiovascular disease, the American Heart Association is urging people to embrace prevention rather than just try to avoid risks long associated with the world’s leading killer.

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The Dallas-based organization unveiled a list of seven steps people can take to help prevent heart attacks and strokes and live healthy lives well into old age. The recommendations, which include staying smoke-free, eating healthy foods and getting regular exercise, are all familiar.

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But leaders hope a more pro-active message comprising the entire package of steps will help blunt the impact of the obesity epidemic and build on four decades of progress against the ravages of cardiovascular disease.

“We’ve always looked at this from the risk side of the equation,” said Donald Lloyd-Jones, head of preventive medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago. “It’s important to push the agenda of promoting health, not just avoiding disease.”

Dr. Lloyd-Jones is lead author of a scientific statement being published in the AHA journal Circulation describing the science behind the strategy. The paper doesn’t break any new ground on heart-disease risk. Indeed, in addition to the steps on smoking, diet and exercise, the report urges people to control cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar and a measure of healthy weight called body mass index.

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Each of the recommendations has long been at the foundation of heart-disease prevention, but Dr. Lloyd-Jones says their impact taken as a whole hasn’t previously been appreciated.

By attaining goals in all seven steps, Dr. Lloyd-Jones said, people would achieve “ideal” cardiovascular health with a likelihood of living healthy lives well into old age.

Together, they amount to “a fountain of youth for the heart.”

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So, here’s my question….

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How do we get from telling to doing?

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There is a big difference between knowing that you should do something and actually doing it.

And, while education about disease prevention / health promotion is important, it still doesn’t get many big ole butts up off the sofa.

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Your Omega 3 Prescription

September 4th, 2009

nemo shark

By this point, you should already know that you need more Omega 3 fatty acids into your diet.

The question is: how much?

  • A teaspoon of fish oils?
  • A tablespoon?
  • 3 pills?
  • or a great big slab of smoked salmon?

Well, according to this study, researchers believe that “a 200 mg dose of DHA per day is enough to affect biochemical markers that reliably predict cardiovascular problems, such as those related to aging, atherosclerosis, and diabetes”.

This study is the first to identify how much DHA is necessary to promote optimal heart health.

The Study

To determine the optimal dose of DHA, the researchers examined the effects of increasing doses of DHA on 12 healthy male volunteers between ages of 53 and 65. These men consumed doses of DHA at 200, 400, 800, and 1600 mg per day for two weeks for each dose amount, with DHA being the only omega-3 fatty acid in their diet. (No EPA)

Blood and urine samples were collected before and after each dose and at eight weeks after DHA supplementation stopped. The researchers then examined these samples for biochemical markers indicating the effects of each dose on the volunteers.

They found that supplementation with only 200 mg/d DHA for 2 wk induced an antioxidant effect.

They concluded that “low consumption of DHA could be an effective and nonpharmacological way to protect healthy men from platelet-related cardiovascular events”.

Conclusion

If this study is correct, you need only 200 mg of DHA per day to reap the cardiovascular benefits of the Omega 3 fatty acid DHA.

And how do you get 200 mg of DHA?

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Can Potassium Reverse High Blood Pressure?

May 20th, 2009

High blood pressure is a killer….we all know that

Eating a diet high in sodium can lead to high blood pressure….we all know that

And because we know these things, a lot of people have been told by their doctors to stop eating this…

Salty Snacks

…and to start eating this…

celery

And they aren’t happy about it.

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But, maybe there is another way.

Maybe, instead of labeling salt as a BAD FOOD, and banning it from our diets altogether, we can balance out the hypertensive effect of sodium with the hypotensive effect of potassium.

If only we had some proof…

The Proof

Earlier this year, researchers found that “the ratio of sodium-to-potassium was a much stronger predictor of hypertension and cardiovascular disease than sodium or potassium alone”.

“There isn’t as much focus on potassium, but potassium seems to be effective in lowering blood pressure and the combination of a higher intake of potassium and lower consumption of sodium seems to be more effective than either on its own in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease,” said Dr. Paul Whelton, senior author of the study in the January 2009 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

In this study, researchers determined average sodium and potassium intake of their test subjects.

They collected 24-hour urine samples intermittently during an 18-month period in one trial and during a 36-month period in a second trial.

The 2,974 study participants initially aged 30-to-54 and with blood pressure readings just under levels considered high, were followed for 10-15 years to see if they would develop cardiovascular disease.

The results

  • The highest salt consumers were 20% more likely to suffer strokes, heart attacks or other forms of cardiovascular disease when compared to the lowest of the low sodium eaters.

20% more likely to suffer a stroke.

Better ditch that salt shaker…..right?

Maybe not…

  • The participants with the highest sodium-to-potassium ratio in urine were 50 percent more likely to experience cardiovascular disease than those with the lowest sodium-to-potassium ratios.

According to this study, the ratio of potassium to sodium in your diet is more important to the health of your heart than the overall consumption of sodium.

That doesn’t mean you should go crazy with the double bacon cheeseburgers.

According to Dr. Whelton, healthy 19-to-50 year-old adults should consume no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day — equivalent to one teaspoon of table salt.

More than 95 percent of American men and 75 percent of American women in this age range exceed this amount.

So, it’s probably safe to assume that you are part of the majority. How much potassium do you need to help balance out the salt?

To lower blood pressure and blunt the effects of salt, adults should consume 4.7 grams of potassium per day unless they have a clinical condition or medication need that is a contraindication to increased potassium intake.

Most American adults aged 31-to-50 consume only about half this amount.

And how do we get more potassium?

  • Good potassium sources include fruits, vegetables, dairy foods and fish.
  • Foods that are especially rich in potassium include potatoes and sweet potatoes, fat-free milk and yogurt, tuna, lima beans, bananas, tomato sauce and orange juice.
  • Potassium also is available in supplements. However, most potassium supplements come in dosages of 50mg . To get your daily 5 grams, you would need to take 100 pills.

So, maybe we should listen to the good doctor and “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” – Hippocrates

Click here for the USDA’s list of foods high in Potassium.

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    The Link between Belly Fat, Depression, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease

    April 29th, 2009
    sad homer

    sad homer

    In a previous article, I wrote about the link between belly fat (visceral fat) and depression.

    I have also written numerous articles on the links between belly fat and chronic disease:

    Today’s post connects all of that research.

    Today’s post is based on the findings of this study, which suggest that belly fat (visceral fat) “is an important pathway by which depression adds to the risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes.”

    The Study

    fat

    Visceral belly fat is the white stuff surrounding your organs. Subcutaneous fat is the white stuff on top of the muscles but under the skin

    Researchers from Rush University Medical Center looked at over 400 women “who were participating in the Women in the South Side Health Project (WISH) in Chicago, a longitudinal study of the menopausal transition”.

    They screened the women for depression and measured their visceral fat with a CT scan.

    Even after adjusting for variables that might account for the accumulation of visceral fat, the researchers found a strong correlation between depression and high levels of visceral fat.

    The women who showed signs of depression (assessed using the CES-D scale) had 24.5% more visceral belly fat than the women with fewer depressive symptoms.

    No association was found between depression and subcutaneous belly fat (non-visceral).

    So, what does this mean and why is depression linked to increased visceral fat, diabetes and cardiovascular disease?

    Lead researcher Dr. Lynda Powell speculated that “depression triggers the accumulation of visceral fat by means of certain chemical changes in the body”.

    Some of those changes could include:

    Future studies are planned to address the specific glucocorticoid or inflammatory mechanisms responsible for the link between depression, visceral body fat, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

    But for now, it’s going to have to be good enough to simply know that the link exists.

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    Your Anti-Senility Prescription

    December 31st, 2008

    senility

    This post is for everyone out there with a loved one over the age of 50.

    .New research shows that our lifestyle choices (nutrition and physical activity) have a powerful effect on age related cognitive health.

    Translation: Senility is mostly preventable with diet and exercise.

    And guess what?

    The same lifestyle choices that have created an epidemic of obesity in the Western world are also responsible for much of the dementia in today’s senior citizens.

    Here’s the science:

    Study #1

    Researchers from the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain found that maintaining steady blood sugar levels, even in the absence of disease (diabetes, metabolic syndrome) is an important strategy for preserving cognitive health.

    For many of us, senior moments are a normal part of aging. Such lapses in memory, according to this new research, can be blamed, on rising blood glucose levels as we age.

    Whether through physical exercise, diet or drugs, our research suggests that improving glucose metabolism could help some of us avert the cognitive slide that occurs in many of us as we age,” reported lead investigator Scott A. Small, M.D.

    Although it is widely known that the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease cause damage to the hippocampus, the area of the brain essential for memory and learning, studies have suggested that it is also vulnerable to normal aging.

    Until now, the underlying causes of age-related hippocampal dysfunction have remained largely unknown.

    In previous studies, Dr. Small et al had discovered that decreasing brain function in the dentate gyrus region of the hippocampus is the main contributor of normal age related cognitive decline.

    In this new study, researchers used medical imaging devices to “help us better understand the basic mechanisms behind hippocampal dysfunction in the aged.”

    Their research looked at measures that typically change during aging, like:

    • rising blood sugar,
    • body mass index,
    • cholesterol and
    • insulin levels.

    The research found that decreasing activity in the dentate gyrus only correlated with levels of blood glucose.

    “Showing for the first time that blood glucose selectively targets the dentate gyrus is not only our most conclusive finding, but it is the most important for ‘normal’ aging- that is hippocampal dysfunction that occurs in the absence of any disease states. There have been many proposed reasons for age-related hippocampal decline; this new study suggests that we may now know one of them,” said Dr. Small.

    Conclusion

    Control your blood sugar and prevent senility

    How?

    Read this and this and this and this.

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    Study #2

    In this study, researchers found that as we age, a slow, chronic starvation of the brain appears to be one of the major triggers of Alzheimer’s disease.

    When the brain doesn’t get enough glucose, “a process is launched that ultimately produces the sticky clumps of protein that appear to be a cause of Alzheimer’s”. During this process, a key brain protein (eIF2alpha) increases the production of an enzyme which, in turn, flips a switch that produces the sticky clumps of protein.

    And what causes this reduction in blood glucose to the brain?

    Cardiovascular Disease

    And how do we prevent cardiovascular disease?

    But don’t take my word for it.

    “This finding is significant because it suggests that improving blood flow to the brain might be an effective therapeutic approach to prevent or treat Alzheimer’s,” said Vassar, a professor of cell and molecular biology at the Feinberg School.

    A simple preventive strategy people can follow to improve blood flow to the brain is getting exercise, reducing cholesterol and managing hypertension.

    “If people start early enough, maybe they can dodge the bullet,” Vassar said.

    For people who already have symptoms, vasodilators, which increase blood flow, may help the delivery of oxygen and glucose to the brain. It also is possible that drugs could be designed to block the eIF2alpha protein that begins the formation of the protein clumps, known as amyloid plaques.

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