Vitamin B – Cheap Alternative for Controlling Cholesterol

February 3, 2010

Natural News

By E. Huff

A recent study found that niacin, a form of vitamin B, is far more beneficial to heart patients with high cholesterol than is the popular cholesterol drug Zetia. Dr. Anthony DeMaria, a leading cardiologist and editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology stated that the findings will eliminate Zetia from the preferred treatment options list.

Though Zetia is touted as being highly effective at reducing the levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), often called “bad cholesterol”, niacin is much more effective at boosting the levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), commonly termed “good cholesterol”.

Evidence reveals that niacin significantly reduces plaque buildup on arterial walls, improving blood supply to the brain, while Zetia, also known generically as ezetimibe, can slightly increase arterial plaque buildup. For this reasons, doctors and experts agree that niacin is the preferred choice in maintaining proper cholesterol levels and a healthy heart.

In addition to being more effective, niacin is also a much more affordable option. Though the trial utilized a time-released prescription form of niacin, quality niacin supplements are available over the counter that work equally as well if not better than the prescription form.

Zetia is often prescribed to lower bad cholesterol and maintain heart health, yet its track record seems to indicate the opposite effect for some. Out of the 208 participants who engaged in the study, nine of the patients on Zetia experienced heart attacks, stroke, or they died from heart disease. Only two on niacin bore such an outcome.

Dr. Jim Stein of the University of Wisconsin was one of several who emphasized over-prescription of Zetia, stating that doctors fail to practice evidence-based medicine when using the drug. He recommends utilizing safer, more effective alternatives like niacin that are proven to reduce incidences of heart attack, stroke, and death.

Studies consistently show that therapeutic doses of niacin alone can raise HDL levels by up to 35 percent and lower LDL levels by 20 percent. When incorporated into a well-balanced diet with regular exercise, the benefits increase even more. Proper diet and exercise will actually cause arterial plaque to dissipate over time, unlike statin drugs which have never been proven to break up arterial plaque.

Niacin is naturally found in dairy products, lean meats, fish and poultry, nuts, eggs, and whole-grain or sprouted breads. Diets rich in plant-based sterols, soluble fiber, and balanced sources of omega-3 and omega-6 oils will also contribute significantly to maintaining proper cholesterol levels and a healthy heart.

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Study Counts Benefits of Cutting Salt

January 21,2010

New York Times

By PAM BELLUCK

In a report that may bolster public policy efforts to get Americans to reduce the amount of salt in their diets, scientists writing in The New England Journal of Medicine conclude that lowering the amount of salt people eat by even a small amount could reduce cases of heart disease, stroke and heart attacks as much as reductions in smoking, obesity and cholesterol levels.

If everyone consumed half a teaspoon less salt per day, there would be between 54,000 and 99,000 fewer heart attacks each year and between 44,000 and 92,000 fewer deaths, according to the study, which was conducted by scientists at University of California San Francisco, Stanford University Medical Center and Columbia University Medical Center.

The report comes as health authorities at federal, state and municipal levels are considering policies that would have the effect of pressuring food companies to reduce salt in processed foods, which are considered to be the source of much of the salt Americans eat.

Last week, New York City announced an initiative to urge food manufacturers and restaurant chains to reduce salt in their products nationwide by 25 percent over the next five years. California, according to an author of the study, Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at University of California, San Francisco, is considering setting salt limits on food the state purchase for schools, prisons and other public institutions.

A panel appointed by the Institute of Medicine, the widely respected independent research arm of the National Academies of Science, is close to issuing a report that will make recommendations about reducing salt intake, including actions government and manufacturers can take.

Dr. Bibbins-Domingo also said the Food and Drug Administration was considering whether to change the designation of salt from a food additive that is generally considered safe to a category that would require companies to give consumers more information alerting them to high levels of salt in food. An F.D.A. spokesman was unable to say Wednesday whether such discussions were taking place. “We are actively looking at how to improve the nutrition content of the American content,” he said.

“For 40 years in this country we’ve been trying to get individuals to reduce the amount of sodium we consume and it hasn’t worked,” said Cheryl A. M. Anderson, an assistant professor of epidemiology and international health at Johns Hopkins University and a member of the Institute of Medicine panel.

“We need to collectively come together and approach the problem with a combination of efforts, including changing the food supply,” said Dr. Anderson, who also is a co-author of an editorial about the study in The New England Journal of Medicine. “This type of evidence really helps us support that movement toward not just relying on the individual to do something that is really difficult, limit salt.”

The study involved a computerized model that analyzed previous studies to estimate the benefits of salt reduction on lowering blood pressure and the lowered blood pressure’s effect on decreasing heart disease, stroke and heart attacks.

The researchers found that everyone would benefit from less salt, but people at higher risk for heart problems — blacks, people with hypertension and people over 65 — would benefit most.

Not every expert in the field of salt science was persuaded.

Michael Alderman, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, said the research was “based on the assumption that there would be no other effects of reduced sodium, but that’s not so.” He said that salt reduction could lead to insulin resistance and imbalances of hormones in the adrenal and kidney systems, and that clinical trials comparing these effects with the benefits of lowering blood pressure needed to be conducted.

Dr. Norman K. Hollenberg, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, questioned the assertion that the benefit of salt-reduction policies would be as great as antismoking policies.

“If we’re going to change something, smoking would be No. 1,” Dr. Hollenberg said. “Salt intake would come somewhere well below it.”

Dr. Bibbins-Domingo said that for many people the decrease in blood pressure would be modest, which is why, she said, “many physicians have thrown up their hands and said, ‘I’m not going to advise my patients to reduce salt because it’s too hard for patients and the benefits for any individual are small.’

“But small incremental changes in salt, such as lowering salt in tomato sauce or breads and cereals by a small amount, would achieve small changes in blood pressure that would have a measurable effect across the whole population,” she said. “That’s the reason why this intervention works better than just targeting smokers.”

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Obese Justification Not a Healthy Mindset

November 18, 2009

American Heart Association

Some obese people misperceive that their body size is normal and think they don’t need to lose weight, according to research presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2009.

In the Dallas Heart Study of 5,893 people, researchers found that 8 percent of the 2,056 who were obese said they were satisfied with their body size or felt they could gain weight.

“Almost one in 10 obese individuals are satisfied with their body size and didn’t perceive that they need to lose weight,” said Tiffany Powell, M.D., lead author of the study and a cardiology fellow at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “That is a sizeable percentage who don’t understand they are overweight and believe they are healthy.”

Participants included about 50 percent blacks, 20 percent Hispanics and 30 percent whites, similar to other urban populations, Powell said. About half – 54 percent – were women. African Americans (14 percent) and Hispanics (11 percent) were significantly more likely than whites (2 percent) to be satisfied with their body size and believe that they did not need to lose weight.

Using the sex-specific Stunkard nine-figure scale, participants chose the figure that represented their present body size and the figure that represented their ideal body size. Self-perceived ideal body size was classified as below normal, normal and above normal. Body size discrepancy, a measure of body size satisfaction, was calculated as the difference between self-perceived actual and self-perceived ideal body sizes.

Those with a misperception of body size believed they were healthy. But 35 percent of them had high blood pressure, 15 percent had high cholesterol, 14 percent had diabetes and 27 percent were current smokers. These risk factors are similar to obese individuals who acknowledged they had a weight problem and needed to lose weight, Powell said.

Overall, 2 percent to 3 percent of the study population perceived an above-normal body size as ideal. Compared to subjects who perceived their ideal body size as normal, those who perceived ideal body size to be above normal were more likely to be women, African American and had higher body mass index, blood pressure and higher insulin resistance.

Researchers also found:

Those who misperceived their body size were less likely to go to a physician. In fact, 44 percent didn’t visit a physician during the past year, compared to 26 percent of obese participants who correctly perceived they needed to lose weight.
There was no significant difference between the two groups in socioeconomic status or access to health care due to insurance status.
Among those who did see a physician in the past year, the obese individuals who did not feel they needed to lose weight were much less likely to report that their physician had told them they need to lose weight compared to those who perceived they needed to lose weight (38 percent vs 68 percent). Moreover, only 38 percent talked with their physician about dietary changes, while 64 percent of those with a more accurate body perception talked about changes.
Obese people who were satisfied with their body size didn’t exercise, while obese individuals who recognized they had a weight problem exercised regularly, on average.
The major limitation of the study is that researchers couldn’t infer causality between associated beliefs and behaviors because the study is cross-sectional.

“This is an important population that we aren’t seeing or targeting,” Powell said. “Understanding and countering this misconception may be a novel and perhaps vitally important target for obesity prevention and treatment. Because many of these individuals believe they are healthier than they really are, they do not go to the doctor and thus community interventions will be needed. However, Powell also emphasized that her findings show that physicians need to talk with their obese patients about exercise and weight loss. “The onus falls on us as physicians to determine who this population is and how to talk with them.”

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How I Stay Warm During the Cold Season…

If you’re wearing a hat and gloves 24/7, there are things you can do to keep warm besides blasting the heater or wearing wool from head to toe.

How to Stay Warm During the Cold Season

Poor circulation may be one reason why hands and feet get cold, however, it could also be caused by thyroid activity level, kidney and heart disease, anemia, hypertension, high cholesterol, smoking, and poor diet. See your doctor to be sure you do not have a medical condition. Then, try some of these ways to increase your circulation and to stay warm:

• Eat warming foods such as miso soup, red meat, whole grains, root vegetables, cayenne pepper and ginger; not ice cream or soft drinks.
• Indulge in heavier foods. Use more oils when sautéing, or dribble some ghee onto your rice or vegetables. Eat cooked rather than raw vegetables and fruit.
• Drink hot teas containing spices such as cinnamon, ginger, pepper and cardamom.
• Take hot baths, which are soothing and warm the body through and through.
• Try acupuncture, which increases circulation by stimulating nerves that relay information to the brain.
• Practice your favorite stress-reduction technique – meditation, yoga, therapy, laughter, and sex….
• Keep moving; your body generates heat as a byproduct when it moves. Get your heart rate up with brisk walks, bicycling or other forms of exercise.
• Use a rebounder or inversion machine to get the blood moving throughout your body. Much of your body heat is circulated via the blood stream, so wiggle those toes and fingers.
• Open blinds on south-facing windows during the day to let in the sun. Bask in it.
• Remember the old water bottle? Pour some boiling water into it, wrap it, and sleep with it at night to stay cozy. For extra warmth, try placing the bottle under your armpits or on the inside of your upper thighs. Your arteries are close to the surface of your skin there, and your blood can gain a little extra heat to circulate. 
• Surprise, surprise – drink plenty of water to keep your machine “well-oiled.” It’s important to keep hydrated, and to use good moisturizing skin products during the cold season as well as the heat of summer. 
• Mix raw, organic honey with some soothing cardamom pods into a cup of hot, boiled milk; light some lovely, natural scented candles; relax and enjoy the warmth.
• Flannel sheets and a thick down comforter make night time extra warm and inviting to snuggle into on even the coldest of nights!

If your house is just too cold, there are new space heating technologies such as convection heat and radiant heat that are worth looking into. A portable radiator-type oil heater uses a lot of power, but not nearly as much as a furnace. Tightening up the house by stopping air leaks, having insulated interior coverings on all windows, putting plastic up on the outside of windows, and putting a “jacket” on the hot water heater, all help. Close the heater vents and shut the doors to unused rooms in your home. Warning: electrical emissions from electric blankets and similar warming devices may be hazardous to your health.

Have a great week,
KT

Detecting a Stroke With Your Eyes?

October 16, 2009

Natural News

By S. L. Baker

If you have severe dizziness and especially if you have hypertension or high cholesterol, it’s important to be checked out to see if you are having a stroke. A trip to the emergency room for those kinds of symptoms usually involves a costly, high tech MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). But a new study from stroke researchers at Johns Hopkins and the University of Illinois concludes there may be a better, simpler — and far cheaper and quicker — way to distinguish a stroke from other problems that aren’t so serious but can also cause dizziness, vertigo and nausea. What’s more, the test is all natural. It consists simply of a one-minute eye movement exam performed at the bedside.

The study of 101 patients, all of whom had risk factors for stroke, was just published in the online edition of the journal Stroke. Working in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Illinois in Peoria, Illinois, Johns Hopkins neurologist David E. Newman-Toker, M.D., Ph.D., found that a quick, super cheap exam of patients seen at OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria for dizziness actually caught more strokes than MRIs.

“The idea that a bedside exam could outperform a modern neuroimaging test such as MRI is something that most people had given up for dead, but we’ve shown it’s possible,” Dr. Newman-Toker, who is assistant professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a statement to the media.

Dizziness is a common problem and sends about 2.6 million Americans to the ER each year, according to Dr. Newman-Toker. The vast majority of these cases are the result of benign inner ear balance problems. However, for about four percent, dizziness is a sign of a stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA, or “mini-stroke”). Over 50 percent of people who experience dizziness and who are having strokes don’t have other classic stroke symptoms such as one-sided weakness, numbness, or speech problems. That’s one reason ER doctors misdiagnose at least a third of stroke cases, according to Dr. Newman-Toker.

“We know that time is brain, so when patients having a stroke are sent home erroneously, the consequences can be really serious, including death or permanent disability,” Jorge C. Kattah, M.D., chairman of neurology at OSF St. Francis Medical Center and co-leader of the study, said in the press release.

Previous research has shown that people having a stroke have eye movement alterations that correlate with brain areas where stroke damage is occurring — and these eye movements are distinctly different from alterations seen with benign ear diseases. So Dr. Newman-Toker and his colleagues decided to test eye movements in dizzy patients to document whether they could distinguish which people were having strokes from those with other problems.

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Routine Consumption of Aspirin to Prevent Heart Attacks and Strokes “A Big Lie”

September 14, 2009

Natural News

By David Gutierrez

Taking an aspirin a day appears to increase a person’s risk of dangerous gastric bleeding as much as it decreases their risk of heart attack or stroke, researchers have found.

“We don’t have good evidence that, for healthy people, the benefits of long-term aspirin exceed the risks by an appropriate margin,” said lead researcher Colin Baigent, of the Clinical Trial Service Unit at Oxford University.

Health experts have been recommending for more than a decade that people considered at increased risk of cardiovascular disease (due to high blood pressure or cholesterol, obesity, advanced age or other risk factors) take one aspirin pill per day, as the medicine has been clinically shown to reduce the risk of serious vascular events in those people. This strategy — treating people with no symptoms of heart disease — is known as “primary prevention.”

A serious vascular event is a heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular death.

Many health agencies have shied away from issuing official recommendations, however, such as the United Kingdom’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

“There is no definitive guidance,” said Steve Field, chair of the Royal College of
General Practitioners, “and it makes it bewildering when you have a series of papers which then hint it would be beneficial to take aspirin.”

According to Field, many patients are attracted to aspirin as a way to stave off heart attacks because the over-the-counter pills are very inexpensive.

But the findings of the newest study, published in The Lancet, suggest that the risks of aspirin match the benefits in cases of primary prevention. Only in patients who have already had a heart attack or stroke does the benefit appear to outweigh the risk.

“This important study does suggest people shouldn’t take aspirin unless indicated by disease,” Field said.

While primary prevention recommendations have been based on estimated risks and benefits of aspirin treatments, the current study actually analyzed the effects of the treatment in 22 studies involving more than 100,000 participants. Six of the studies involved 95,000 people with a low to average risk of heart attack or stroke — the typical primary prevention population — and the other 16 involved 17,000 people who had already experienced at least one heart attack or stroke.

In both groups, taking an aspirin a day decreased the risk of a serious vascular event by about 20 percent in both men and women. It also increased the risk of gastric bleeding by about 33 percent.

In the lower-risk group, this came out to five fewer serious vascular events each year per 10,000 people taking a daily aspirin. It also meant three extra cases of gastric bleeding, however, and one extra stroke caused by internal bleeding. This led the researchers to conclude that the risks and benefits of the treatment were equivalent.

The results might be explained by the fact that people at increased risk of cardiovascular disease also tend to be at higher risk of gastric bleeding.

Because people who had already experienced a heart attack or stroke had such a heightened risk of further vascular events, however, the benefits exceeded the risks in that group — roughly 150 serious vascular events prevented per year for every 10,000 people treated, with the same three extra gastric bleeds and one stroke from bleeding.

“Aspirin is of clear benefit for people who already have cardiovascular disease, but the latest research does not seem to justify general guidelines advocating the routine use of aspirin in all healthy individuals above a moderate level of risk for coronary heart disease,” the researchers concluded.

“It is better for doctors to weigh up the benefit and risk of prescribing aspirin on an individual basis, rather than develop a blanket guideline suggesting everyone at risk of heart disease is routinely given aspirin,” said Ellen Mason of the British Heart Foundation.

Click here for the full report from Natural News

Tomato Pill Found to Reverse Heart Disease

August 11, 2009

Natural News

By David Gutierrez

A pill made from tomatoes may do more to help treat heart disease and high cholesterol than many pharmaceutical products currently on the market, according to preliminary trials carried out by researchers from Cambridge University.

The pill, known as Ateronon, contains a version of the tomato phytonutrient lycopene, which gives the fruits their bright red color. Lycopene has been shown in a number of studies to help relieve the symptoms of heart disease and to help prevent cancer

The chemical is poorly absorbed by the human body, however, so researchers from a Cambridge spinoff company have refined it into a more accessible form. In preliminary trials, Ateronon reduced the oxidation of harmful fats in the blood to zero after only eight weeks of treatment in 150 people, a more significant result than that observed in statin drugs.

The preliminary study results were announced at the pill’s launch, at a meeting of the British Cardiovascular Society.

“If you think that this can reduce the damage to the arteries, which is the damage that ends up causing heart attacks and strokes — this can potentially extend life but also saves lives on a global basis,” TV doctor Rob Hicks said. “The potential impact is enormous — we might see a fall in the number of people suffering heart attacks, strokes and other problems relating to arterial damage and the clogging up of the arteries. That has to be welcomed.”

Peter Weissberg of the British Heart Foundation noted that it could be some time before Ateronon undergoes enough studies to be considered clinically proven. Until then, he advised patients to “aim to get the benefits of the Mediterranean diet by eating plenty of fresh fruits and [vegetables].”

The Mediterranean diet, which has been proven to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, is heavy on fruits, vegetables, beans and nuts, light on meat, and uses olive oil as its primary fat source.

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