Tag: Heart Disease

You CAN Prevent High Blood Pressure

Persistent uncontrolled high blood pressure is a significant risk factor for a number of potentially fatal health conditions including heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and kidney failure.

Measuring Blood Pressure

Blood is pumped through the body’s blood vessels by the beating of your heart. Each beat represents a contraction of your heart muscles that pushes the blood through your arteries. That push exerts pressure on the walls of the blood vessels as a wave of blood is moved along. Between beats the heart is not actively pushing the blood and so, for that period of time, there is less pressure exerted on the walls of the blood vessels.

A device is used to measure the pressure exerted on the walls of the blood vessels. The result of the measurement produces two numbers that are usually written as a fraction like 116/78. This is usually read as “one sixteen over seventy-eight.” The top number represents the pressure resulting from the heart contraction and is referred to as the “systolic” pressure. The bottom number represents the lower pressure between beats and is called the “diastolic” pressure.

Physical Factors Affecting Blood Pressure

There are essentially two physical factors that impact blood pressure: the force with which the heart muscle pumps the blood into the arteries and the elasticity or flexibility of the walls of the blood vessels. Blood pressure may also be impacted if there is material stuck to the walls of the blood vessel which would constrain the flow and thus increase the pressure.

For the most part, the heart pumps blood with a fairly consistent force. In a high stress situation, where the body has dumped adrenaline into your system in a “fight or flight” response, the heart muscles might pump more vigorously and thus increase the pressure. But this is typically a short-lived phenomenon. If such a situation persists over a protracted period, the heart itself might incur some damage.

On the other hand, the heart may not have sufficient strength to pump the blood into the arteries at an adequate pressure level. This situation is known as heart failure. There are several physiological conditions that may lead to heart failure (including protracted periods of high stress which overloads the heart muscles) and there are varying degrees of heart failure.

However, the biggest factor affecting blood pressure is the flexibility of the blood vessel walls, followed closely by the extent to which a blood vessel may have deposits that constrain blood flow. It is this constraint on the flow of the blood through the blood vessels, whether by blockage or blood vessel inflexibility, that represents a significant health risk and is identified by high blood pressure readings. Healthy blood vessels are very flexible and can accommodate the surges of blood flow by easily expanding as a blood pressure wave moves through. Unhealthy blood vessels are more rigid or are blocked to some extent, resulting in a higher systolic pressure reading.

What Constitutes High Blood Pressure?

It might be easier to assert what constitutes “normal” blood pressure. According to the American Heart Association, normal blood pressure has a systolic reading of less than 120 and a diastolic reading of less than 80. Higher readings for either or both of these values represents risk, with higher numbers representing higher risk. Refer to the accompanying chart.

Preventing High Blood Pressure

The focus of most high blood pressure prevention strategies is to reduce any blockages of the blood vessels and to maintain the flexibility of the blood vessel walls. This maximizes the flow of oxygen to the cells throughout the body by maximizing blood flow.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a United Nations body, there are six things you can do to prevent high blood pressure.

  • Reduce Salt Intake

WHO recommends a daily maximum of five grams (5000mg). However, most other authorities recommend less than half of that, with some stating that 2300mg should be the maximum while other authorities set the bar at 1200-1500mg (and some much lower than that).

Salt is essential to certain body functions. However, excess amounts have a negative impact. Too much salt causes the body to retain excess fluid which increases the pressure on blood vessels and other organs in the body.

  • Eat Fruits and Vegetables Regularly

In addition to providing necessary nutrients, fruits and vegetables provide a natural source of fiber. This helps remove toxins from the body and aids in the stabilization of blood sugar levels. All of these things together promote healthy blood vessel maintenance.

  • Avoid Saturated Fats and Trans Fats

Trans Fats are not a natural material and are considered by the body to be a harmful toxin. Trans fats interfere with a variety of the body’s natural functions.

Some saturated fat is used by the body to maintain good health. However, excess amounts of saturated fats can lead to the significant production of “bad” cholesterol in the blood stream. This “bad” cholesterol can get deposited on the walls of the blood vessels and, over time, can cause a buildup that constrains blood flow. This pushes up the blood pressure readings.

  • Avoid Tobacco Smoking

Tobacco smoke contains a nasty combination of chemical toxins. This interferes with the transfer of oxygen from the lungs to the red blood cells. This means that the body has to work harder to get the necessary volume of oxygen carrying red blood cells to the cells of the body. Higher blood pressure can result from this extra effort to push blood through the system.

In addition, the body’s glutathione reserves are used to try to remove these toxins from the body. Lower glutathione levels can lead to problems as described below.

  • Reduce Alcohol Consumption

As with tobacco smoke, the body considers alcohol to be a toxin. Processing significant amounts of toxins reduces glutathione levels and puts stress on the body, including the circulatory system. Again, lower glutathione levels can lead to problems as described below.

  • Be Physically Active Every Day

Vigorous physical activity exercises not only your major muscle groups, it also exercises the heart muscle. This in turn causes the blood vessels to expand and contract more frequently which enhances flexibility in the vessel walls. Flexibility is a healthy desirable condition for your blood vessels.

And I would add two more:

  • Reduce Excess Body Fat

Some body fat is necessary. However, excess body fat exerts additional pressure on not only the various vital organs of the body but also puts additional pressure on the blood vessels, reducing their natural flexibility. There is a reason that we see a high correlation between high body fat levels and high blood pressure.

  • Increase Intracellular Glutathione Levels

Studies have shown that abundant glutathione in the cells can reduce the levels of Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL), also called the “bad” cholesterol. This kind of cholesterol is known for attaching itself to blood vessel walls. The resulting build-up can increase blood pressure. Increasing intracellular glutathione is a drug-free way to reduce LDL and thereby promote healthy blood pressure levels.

Summary

High blood pressure is a significant risk factor associated with a number of potentially serious (even fatal) health conditions. There are things you can do to prevent high blood pressure and thereby avoid this real risk to your wellbeing and your life. Most of these things are lifestyle choices that are well within your control.

#health #heartdisease #highbloodpressure

Benefits of Activating the Body’s AMPK Pathway

before and after image showing 55 pound weight lossA few years ago my daughters started expressing concern for my health. They nagged and cajoled at every opportunity, telling me I needed to get in better shape. I knew they were right but I didn’t want to go to the effort to change. I would huff and puff going up a flight of stairs. I admit that I was a little overweight. (Alright, I’ll tell the truth. I was obese.) I paid a premium price for most of my clothes because I had to shop in a large men’s specialty clothing store.

Finally, to put an end to the nagging, I joined the same gym where they worked out. I had never been to a gym in my life since phys ed in high school. I had no clue about how to use the machines or how to approach this working-out thing. In order to reduce the risk of injury, I engaged the services of a personal trainer. I endured an hour of cruel torture err… training three times a week religiously. I must admit that as time went by I started to feel better and was able to do more physically. My weight loss, however, was less than spectacular. After three months of torture I had lost a total of one pound!!

As you may have suspected, I really enjoy good food. And as most dieters will tell you, the biggest challenge to losing weight is the HUNGER. The truth is that, unless you exercise vigorously many hours a day, about 90% of weight loss has to do with what you put in your mouth and only about 10% is from exercise. You need to reduce your caloric intake. And when your body is used to eating at certain levels and you significantly reduce that, hunger results. Absent adequate motivation and strong will power, it’s really tough to stick to a weight loss regimen for any length of time in the face of perpetual hunger.

A Weight Management System

About the end of this initial three month period I was introduced to a weight loss system. One of the key components was some capsules, a nutritional supplement, that I took a short while before each meal. According to the documentation, the capsules would do two things. They would reduce the hunger pangs so your eating was not driven by food cravings. And they would burn off fat and reduce the conversion of carbs to be stored as fat. And all of this was heart healthy!

At the end of the next 90 days I had lost 15 pounds while not changing the level of physical activity. Still endured torture three time a week. But more than the pounds lost was the change in body shape. The fat was melting off and my clothes started to hang on me. I had to buy a smaller belt to keep my trousers up. The promise of the weight loss system was met. I was less hungry. I was satisfied with smaller portions. So my caloric intake was much less.

What was strange, and not mentioned in any of the promotional material, was that I started to crave healthier food. I used to hate fresh fruit and vegetables. But now I would munch on some grapes or some raw veggies with dip. That was a side effect for which I have no explanation.

At the end of 12 months I had lost 55 pounds. I had to replace my entire wardrobe, except my shoes and my ties! (And my daughters, wonderful women that they are, suggested that I do the world a favour and get rid of many of my ties. I’m not letting either one of them near my closet.)

This should not have been called a weight management system but rather a fat management system.

Under the Covers

If you have seen some of my writing you know that I am curious and have an analytical mind. I wanted to know what was behind this healthy nutritional supplement. The simple answer was that some of the ingredients in the capsules activated something in the body called the AMPK pathway. (I’m going to spell it out just this once – AMPK: Adenosine Monophosphate-activated Protein Kinase.)

Based on my research, switching on the AMPK pathway has many more health benefits than just helping with weight loss. As a result, I will probably continue to take the capsules even after I reach my target weight.

So what are these other benefits? I’m glad you asked.

  • As we already saw, reduced levels of obesity: Reduction of hunger, reduction of fat storage, accelerated burning off stored fat
  • Treatment and prevention of cancer: “… phytochemicals activate AMPK to increase cancer cell apoptosis (cancer cell death) and inhibit cell proliferation …” (Ref. 1) Refer also to (Ref. 2)
  • Improvement of Type II Diabetes indicators: reduction in fasting glucose, reduction in hemoglobin A1c, decrease in insulin resistance (Ref. 3)
  • Improved cardiovascular health: reduced LDL (bad cholesterol) and triglyceride levels, and improved heart health (Ref. 4)

Here is another case of solid benefits of healthy nutritional supplements not being adequately promoted for the prevention and treatment of disease. Why is that? Because the pharmaceutical industry can’t make obscene profits from well known nutritional supplements. And in most countries, nutritional supplement companies are prohibited by law from making specific health claims about their products.

References:

Reference 1: InYoung Kim and Yu-Ying He, Targeting the AMP-activated protein kinase for cancer prevention and therapy , Frontiers in Oncology, Published 15 July 2013.

Reference 2: Weidong Li, Shakir M. Saud, Matthew R. Young, Guohong Chen, and Baojin Hua, Targeting AMPK for cancer prevention and treatment, Oncotarget Open Access Impact Journal, Published 10 April 2015, doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.3629

Reference 3: Sandeep Rana, Elizabeth C. Blowers, and Amarnath Natarajan, Small molecule adenosine 5′-monophosphate activated protein kinase (AMPK) modulators and human diseases, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, Published 8 January 2015, doi: 10.1021/jm401994c

Reference 4: Rai Ajit K. Srivastava, Stephen L. Pinkosky, Sergey Filippov, Jeffrey C. Hanselman, Clay T. Cramer, and Roger S. Newton, AMP-activated protein kinase: an emerging drug target to regulate imbalances in lipid and carbohydrate metabolism to treat cardio-metabolic diseases, Journal of Lipid Research, Published December 2012, v.53(12); 2012 DecPMC3494254

#healthscience #obesity #diabetes #heartdisease #cancer

Heart Disease is Preventable

image of heart and stethoscopeRecently I listened to an interview with a reputable heart specialist. What he had to say was so important I knew I had to share the information. What follows contains so much direct quote and paraphrase of things said in the interview that I am sure it is violating somebody’s copyright. I hope they will understand. This is not a transcript of the interview; it contains excerpts of key messages.

About Dr. Harrington

Dr. Douglas Harrington earned his B.A. in Molecular Biology and his M.D. from the University of Colorado. He is board certified in atomic and clinical pathology and hematology. He is a member of the American Society of Preventive Cardiology. He has authored over 90 peer-reviewed publications.

Facts About Heart Disease

Heart disease is the greatest cause of death in the United States.

Since 2010, more women in the United States are having heart attacks than men. Five times as many women die from heart attacks than die from breast cancer. Heart disease is the primary killer of women, taking more lives than all forms of cancer combined.

An American Heart Association study of hospitalization of people with a first heart attack from unstable angina showed 83% had normal cholesterol levels. If you look at all people who had heart attacks, 50% had normal cholesterol. (So some historical assumptions about the causes of heart disease may be incorrect.)

The World Health Organization (WHO) did an inter-country study that looked at 32 countries. They determined that 90% of heart disease is due to lifestyle. 80% of that is preventable by actions the person can take themselves.

The Cause of Heart Disease

Most people think that heart disease is fundamentally a ‘plumbing problem’. That is not the case.

Free radicals are produced in excess by the body in response to a variety of factors like exposure to environmental toxins and eating excess amounts of certain types of foods like sugar. The cells in your body perform a lot of work trying to get rid of these substances and in so doing produce excess amounts of free radicals. (Refer to the article Get Rid of the Radicals.)

When free radicals come in contact with the artery walls, they damage the lining of the arteries in your heart. This is the start of heart disease. Over time this damage can evolve to become lesions.

Lesions on the wall of the arteries from the free radical damage are like blisters or pimples. They don’t cause any symptoms; they don’t cause pain; and they don’t restrict blood flow. But when the lesions ‘pop’, which they are prone to do if they become unstable, they cause an immediate blood clot. That is the most common cause of heart attacks and strokes.

How to Prevent or Reverse This Damage

There are several things you can do to help the situation:

  • Exercise
  • Diet
  • Medications
  • Supplements

Exercise

Exercise can help prevent or reverse lesions damage – but not just any exercise. The most beneficial is exercise in the form of resistance training like weight lifting or doing push-ups. Cardio exercise is good for burning calories and increasing the the strength of you heart and the fitness of your cardiovascular system. But it does not do much to convert unstable lesions to a level of stability; it just makes your heart do more work.

Diet

A “Mediterranean Diet” will help.

Historically the medical community focus has been on bloodstream cholesterol. However, the advice given in the past to avoid saturated fats is probably wrong. Trans fats are deadly. On the other hand animal fat, like butter, in reasonable quantities is actually good for you.

Excess sugar, excess refined carbs, and excess deep fried foods in the diet should be avoided. Certain types of oils like soy bean oil with preservatives should also be avoided. These things set up an environment in our body that allows or promotes the production of free radicals.

Grass fed beef can be good and has about the same amount of omega-3 as wild caught fish. But penned beef that is fattened up and fed chemicals to keep them healthy and gain weight are a problem. Farmed fish is problematic because of the omega-6, hormones, antibiotics and other substances. But wild caught fish like salmon is very healthy. Unfortunately much of the commercial fish in the market comes from fish farms.

Avoid processed foods. If you pick up something in the grocery store and you need an advanced chemistry degree to understand what is on the list of ingredients, you probably should not eat it.

Artificial man-made chemicals, whether in our food, in our water or in our air are a principal cause of free radicals. And high levels of free radicals is the root cause of heart disease.

Medications

Certain medications like statins will also help stabilize arterial lesions. But the down side is that they have a lot of negative side effects.

Supplements

You must ensure that your body has an adequate amount of necessary vitamins and minerals. Some of this can be supplied by your diet. However, you may have to augment that with nutritional supplements. Mass farming techniques have reduced the level of nutrients in much of the food that we buy so supplementation has become a necessity.

In addition to exercise and a healthy diet, the most effective thing you can do is to help your body get rid of the free radicals that are produced.

The body’s master antioxidant is glutathione. It is produced by every living cell in the body. But usually production of glutathione is insufficient, particularly in face of the onslaught of substances that produce free radicals.

However, glutathione is an endogenous antioxidant. That means that it originates from within the body. You can’t get much glutathione from food. The only effective way to raise your glutathione to scavenge the free radicals is to take a supplement that has a necessary glutathione precursor.

It was interesting, but not surprising, to note that Dr. Harrington recommended the use of the same supplement that I use to increase glutathione levels. Even after adopting a healthy diet you are still exposed to huge numbers of environmental toxins, so you need some way to enhance glutathione levels.

The Challenge

Because heart disease has little in the way of noticeable symptoms like pain or discomfort, doing the right things appears to show no improvement that can be felt. So people tend not to do what needs to be done to remove the threat.

The objective of prevention is to keep you out of the hospital. Understand that doing the things necessary to keep you healthy may not show obvious signs – other than you not experiencing a sudden life threatening event.

The Risk

Consider this scenario. You have blood pressure in the normal range. You have cholesterol readings in an acceptable range. You are not excessively overweight. According to your doctor you are pretty healthy. Your diet is not as healthy as it should be; but you feel fine. The first indication that you have heart disease is a sudden heart attack. There is a 50% probability that this heart attack will be fatal.

If you want to avoid that you must, at the very least, eat healthier and increase your intracellular glutathione levels – even if you currently feel healthy.

Addendum: Dr. Harrington and his team has developed a test for the existence of unstable arterial lesions. What this means is that you can have a clear indication of the risk of having a heart attack within the next five years. This is a simple blood test that is currently available in the United States and other countries. A positive result may allow the person to take corrective action in time to avoid the heart attack.

#heartdisease #glutathione #heartattack