Showing posts with label heart. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heart. Show all posts

Heart Health Month is here

3 Feb 2012
During Heart Month we are offering ARTERIOZYME, a natural enzymatic supplement that may help remove plaque from your arteries and improve health. 
Originally posted 17 2005


80% of patients who develop coronary artery disease have "normal" cholesterol levels.

On July 13, 2004 commercial media announced statements from U.S. health officials recommending new guidelines for Cholesterol levels. The recommendations are based on results of new clinical trials showing the benefit of cholesterol-lowering therapy in high-risk patients and support the ATP III treatment goal of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) <100>

Preventing heart disease requires much more than simply screening for high cholesterol in the blood. "Although this approach has been useful, it fails to identify almost one-half of the 1.3 million individuals who develop MI [myocardial infarction] in the US each year who have either normal or only moderately increased serum cholesterol concentrations," researchers have pointed out.1

What's more, an estimated 80% of patients who develop coronary artery disease have cholesterol levels (as measured by standard lipid profiles) comparable to those in healthy individuals.2 And nearly half of all cases of premature coronary artery disease are missed when using only current standard guidelines for cholesterol testing.3

Even among patients who have been identified with high cholesterol, a significant number of individuals do not respond to routine lipid reduction strategies, or, they go on to experience a cardiac event despite drops in cholesterol.4

This cumulative evidence clearly underscores the urgency of assessing patients with more advanced cardiovascular risk markers than those included in standard lipid panels.

The Comprehensive Cardiovascular Profile 2.0 incorporates the latest breakthroughs in cardiovascular disease research to provide advanced, early warning of CVD risk. This thorough evaluation features an advanced lipid profile with fractionation, independent risk markers (including homocysteine and hs-C-reactive protein), relative risk indices, and Metabolic Syndrome alerts. All of these advanced markers play a critical role in the biochemical environment underlying cardiovascular health. The insight they provide allows the clinician to accurately address abnormalities relating to heart and vascular diseases.

References:
1 Rifai N, Ridker PM. High-sensitivity C-reactive protein: a novel and promising marker of coronary heart
disease. Clin Chem 2001;47(3):404-411.
2 Schildkraut JM, Myers RH, Cupples LA, Kiely DK, Kannel WB. Coronary risk associated with age and sex of
parental heart disease in the Framingham Study. Am J Cardiol 1989;64(10):555-9.
3 Akosah KO, Gower E, Groon L, Rooney BL, Schaper A. Mild hypercholesterolemia and premature heart
disease: do the national criteria underestimate disease risk? J Am Coll Cardiol 2000;35(5):1178-84.
4 Superko HL. Did grandma give you heart disease? The new battle against coronary artery disease.
Am J Cardiol 1998;82(9A):34Q-46Q.



Selections from Natural Health News



Sep 13, 2011
A group of people with heart failure was studied to see how well they responded to COQ10 and other antioxidants. Patients had a 40% or lower ejection rate and had been diagnosed for at least six months. Daily dose of ...
Feb 02, 2011
Cordless Phones, like WIFI, Boost Heart Risk. Cordless Phone EMFs Trigger Heart Rhythm Abnormalities. By Erik Goldman / Editor in Chief - Vol. 11, No. 4. Winter, 2010. The controversy continues over the possibility that ...
Dec 22, 2011
When doctors recommend tests, drugs or surgeries to prevent bad outcomes (think cholesterol-lowering agents to prevent strokes or cardiac stents to prevent heart attacks) they tap into our deepest sense of what constitutes ...
Apr 19, 2010
Diet soda linked to heart risks. UPDATE: 29 April New information, or I should say confirmation of very old and well known information about phosphates and phosphorus in soda, diet or sweetened, reinforces negative health ...



Feb 03, 2010
Heart Month Hype. This morning I was checking email as usual and came across a most amazing advertising scheme being promoted by Diet Coke. Fashionable Diet Coke. Yikes! let's all get cardiovascular disease because ...
Feb 11, 2009
The Red Dress, Heart Month and Women's Health. "Heart Disease Doesn't Care What You Wear -- It's the Number 1 Killer of Women." The primary goal of The Heart Truth campaign is to raise awareness that heart disease is ...
Jan 31, 2010
Wear Red for Your Heart. Here's a compilation of articles we've posted on Heart Month and Heart Health and some good links. It seems as if little has changed in the way mainstream medicine looks at heart health concerns, ...
Feb 02, 2010
Yes, it is heart month and with that comes the latest attack on herbal remedies at the behest of Big PhRMA, CNN, and Time-Warner's medical mainstream Health.com. While the ABC was contacted and interviewed for the ...

NATURAL HEALTH NEWS IS A TRADE NAME OWNED BY CREATING HEALTH INSTITUTE SINCE 2000

For Your Healthy Heart

I was thrilled when I heard that Dr. OZ actually admitted publicly that artificial sweeteners are to be avoided. These chemical additives aren't the "natural" products advertising leads you to believe and they do cause heart health concerns in many people.

I was even more alarmed by the report on ABC News about the number of prescription drugs pushed on our aging citizens that are causing serious interaction problems.

I'd doing daily on-line walking program this month.  What's your exercise plan?  And are you getting enough pure water to drink?
And I'm in the process of writing a new report that will be published later this month.  
Remember that cholesterol drugs are really not necessary unless you have extremely high levels, over 252, or if you have elevated triglycerides.
More on heart health




So much you can do, because your health is really in your hands.

Selections from first Natural Health News

Dec 27, 2010
Cordless Phones, like WIFI, Boost Heart Risk. Cordless Phone EMFs Trigger Heart Rhythm Abnormalities. By Erik Goldman / Editor in Chief - Vol. 11, No. 4. Winter, 2010. The controversy continues over the possibility that frequent
Sep 02, 2010
Omega-3 spread maker Unilever says a 40 month study that found omega-3 spreads don't protect elderly heart attack sufferers from further cardiac events, requires further analysis and won't affect approved methods of usage. ...
Feb 02, 2010
And of course you know that CNN's own Larry King uses a garlic supplement for his heart condition, and has advertised it for years.Garlic is one of the best herbs for blood thinning as well as being an excellent source of magnesium to ...
Jul 03, 2010
September 22, 2008 — A new study has found that older adults with severe subclinical hypothyroidism had almost double the risk of developing heart failure (HF) compared with those with normal thyroid function over a 12-year follow-up ...
Oct 02, 2008
A 16-year study on the relationship between Vitamin C consumption and heart disease in women shows that Vitamin C supplement users reduce the risk of of non-fatal heart attacks and fatal heart disease by 28%, compared with non-users. ...
Jul 30, 2010
Jul 30, 2010
Norwegian vitamin K supplier NattoPharma has backed the role of vitamin K in calcium metabolism following the controversial British Medical Journal meta-analysis linking calcium consumption and increased risk of heart attack. ...
Nov 21, 2010
Not only are they over-prescribed, they have heart-risky side effects and many more problems like kidney failure secondary to rhabdomyolysis, just to highlight one (of too many). What, from this new report, bothers me is that when do ...
Feb 03, 2010
As part of Diet Coke's annual partnership with The Heart Truth campaign, the company has just introduced limited-edition "heart graphic" cans, each of which feature a large -- and just plain cute -- sketch of a big red heart. ...
Feb 05, 2009
Side effects are worse with age and the new data clearly demonstrates that the risks for any person over the age of 70 far outweigh the benefits – even for patients with heart disease. This study lends further support to my observation ...
Jan 31, 2010
Jan 31, 2010
It seems as if little has changed in the way mainstream medicine looks at heart health concerns, especially for women, so hopefully our information will be put to good use. I've listed some of the 100+ posts on Natural Health News ...
Aug 27, 2007
The research comes from a massive, multi-generational heart study following residents of Framingham, Mass., a town about 25 miles west of Boston. The new study of 9000 observations of middle-aged men and women was published Monday ...
Feb 11, 2009
Another very dear friend of mine, and younger than I am, has been dealing with heart failure for a couple of years. Her doctor is described as rude and demeaning of her choice of more natural care which the doctor disdains. ...
Mar 27, 2007
An extract from the leaves of the crataegus, or hawthorn tree, already available in Europe, extended the lives of patients with congestive heart failure who were already receiving medicinal treatment by an average of four months,
Jan 17, 2005
Preventing heart disease requires much more than simply screening for high cholesterol in the blood. "Although this approach has been useful, it fails to identify almost one-half of the 1.3 million individuals who develop MI [myocardial
Mar 25, 2009
Natural therapy may include vitamin E, nattokinase, cayenne, garlic (see ALLI-C, right column), or the heart health promoting herb - hawthorne. (More information on these natural treatments may be found here. ...
Nov 26, 2008
Prozac use has shown that women who took the SSRI (and fluoride based) antidepressant during the first three months of pregnancy gave birth to four times as many babies with heart problems as women who did not. ...
Nov 16, 2010
The data showed that multivitamin-takers are no healthier than those who don't pop the pills, at least when it comes to the big diseases—cancer, heart disease, stroke. "Even women with poor diets weren't helped by taking a multivitamin ...
Oct 24, 2007
If you read as many medical and nutrition research articles as I do you recognize that most heart research focuses on men's health; it's certainly been this way for decades. From nutrition research from the prestigious Karolinska ...
Feb 28, 2008
Just this week I have reports from two clients with serious heart problems and other health problems. Neither of these two people are taking aspirin. It has taken some months to see the improvement but here is one with a BNP reduced ...
Sep 17, 2008
It is not generally recommended that people without heart disease symptoms undergo these cardiac tests. But Mohlenkamp said that when it comes to judging whether it's safe for an older adult to exercise at such levels, it is "prudent" ...
Jan 10, 2011
Recall that, Eskimos eating high satfat & cholesterol diets have the lowest percentage of heart disease on the planet, but a thin Marathon runner who eats textured Soy burgers, Soy Vegetable Oil, Sugar & refined carbs (even with normal ...
Apr 14, 2010
The FDA has approved omega-3 fish oil as a heart-protecting drug. Big PhRMA is spending millions to market omega-3 fish oil. Why?, overwhelming that purified, concentrated omega-3 fish oil protects your heart from the risks of heart
Mar 02, 2008
Internationally acclaimed heart expert Kilmer McCully, MD, father of the homocysteine theory of heart disease, joined other scientists and consumer advocates in asking the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to drop the heart disease ...
Mar 31, 2009
HAMILTON, Ontario, March 31 (UPI) -- A "polypill" that combines blood pressure drugs, a cholesterol-lowering statin, aspirin and folic acid may minimize heart attacks, Canadian researchers say. Dr. Koon Teo of McMaster University in ...
Dec 26, 2007
It's great that younger people are focusing on heart health. And it's certainly alarming that health problems related to heart disease are showing up at younger ages than ever before. But statin drugs aren't the answer. ...
Nov 09, 2008
In May of 2005, a study published in the American Heart Association's journal, Circulation, revealed that kidney problems and muscle weakness were two to eight times more frequent among Crestor users than those taking other
Nov 13, 2008
(1) High C-reactive protein levels are associated with inflammation and heart disease/stroke. The authors concluded that, in apparently healthy persons with elevated C-reactive protein levels, rosuvastatin (Crestor) significantly ...
Mar 26, 2007
Cayenne, hawthorne berry, white willow bark, natural vitamin E, chelation, IV vitamin c and other scientifically supported natural treatments can and will help you prevent the risk of heart disease without risky (yes! angioplasty can ...
Nov 15, 2008
I know of many situations where people suffering heart attacks were given post-event stress EKG (ECG), passed with flying colors, returned to work, then died in weeks to a month or three. In the early to mid 1970s I used to teach ...
Sep 10, 2007
This is how you get confused, especially if you do to know the history of vitamin E and it's use to prevent are reverse heart disease (the medical studies on this date back to the 1940s and 50s). Natural vitamin E (listed on a label as ...
Jan 14, 2009
In 2003 several groups and health professionals made an effort to alert the public to the dangerous link between Avandia® and an increased risk of congestive heart failure. In late 2006 the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)
Jun 17, 2008
Many of the commonly prescribed drugs in the standards of care for cardiovascular disease actually deplete nutrients essential to heart health. Our office has a specific service that provides this information, which we offer to ...

VIOXX Continues to Be Risky

December 13, 2010: Heart risks of Vioxx persist long after drug is stopped
People who thought they were in the clear after they stopped taking the now banned painkiller rofecoxib (Vioxx) might have to think again. The risks of the drug, which was pulled off the market in 2004 after it was linked to heart attacks and strokes, persist even after people stop taking it, according to a study released Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The findings also serve as a reminder to use caution with related painkillers that are still available, notably celecoxib (Celebrex). Some studies suggest it might pose similar, though less severe, risks to the heart. Other related drugs, such as ibuprofen (Advil and generic) and naproxen (Aleve and generic), might as well. And all of those drugs, called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs), can cause dangerous gastrointestinal bleeding and other problems, especially when taken long term. See our advice on when to take an NSAID.

The new study found that seniors with mild cognitive impairment who had taken Vioxx had a higher rate of cardiovascular problems and death up to nearly a year and a half after they stopped taking the drug compared with those who took a placebo. It's unknown whether those risks persist even longer because none of the people in the study were followed past 500 days after they stopped taking Vioxx.
—Steve Mitchell, associate editor, Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs
Selections from Natural Health News

Vioxx maker Merck drew up hit list

Sep 27, 2009
Dr Fries said in the letter that Merck had been systematically playing down the side effects of Vioxx and said the company's behaviour "seriously impinges on academic freedom". The court was also told a rheumatologist on Merck's ...
Natural Health News: Pfizer hedging its bets? UPDATE
Oct 17, 2008
The Vioxx withdrawal, which triggered an avalanche of lawsuits against Merck, also raised concerns about the safety of other medicines in the same class, called Cox-2 inhibitors. They were heavily touted by their makers as superior to ...
Natural Health News: Drugs Contribute to Dementia, Delirium
Apr 01, 2009
For example, Public Citizen warned consumers about the dangers of Vioxx, ephedra, Baycol and Propulsid years before they were pulled from the market. A partial list of drugs is below. I chose Antihistamines because it is the time of ...
WE TOLD YOU SO
Aug 16, 2006
(Merck, the manufacturer of Fosamax, is currently involved in thousands of lawsuits involving its drug Vioxx which is no longer on the market. Vioxx was pulled after a study revealed that people taking the drug had an increased risk of ...

Walking Boosts Brain Benefit

The essential fatty acids are important nutrients for everything from brain function to cell function. Of course healthy fat is critical and omega 3 boosts brain health as it promotes cellular integrity.
ScienceDaily (Dec. 1, 2010) — The discovery by UCLA biochemists of a new method for preventing oxidation in the essential fatty acids of cell membranes could lead to a new class of more effective nutritional supplements and potentially help combat neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease and perhaps Alzheimer's.

Exercise is proven to benefit health because it is an activity that improves oxygen levels and improves circulation.  Now it is sure that walking makes brain fitness a sure thing.

And as another medical and health writer explains: "Activity, for a start, generally boosts blood circulation. Brain function may be enhanced by enhanced blood supply to this organ through improved delivery of oxygen and key nutrients".
The health benefits of walking are so well known that a fifth-grader could probably recite them. A daily dose of 30 minutes of brisk walking is good for your heart, lungs, muscles, blood pressure and bones.

Now we find out it's also good for your brain.

A study released last month by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh shows that walking a few miles per week can stave off the progress of Alzheimer's disease. According to the BBC, the study proves that "people who walk at least [5 miles] a week have bigger brains, better memories and improved mental ability compared to those who are more sedentary."

This follows an earlier study released in August. Led by Dr. Arthur F. Kramer, researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have shown that walking not only builds up your muscles, but also builds up the connectivity between brain circuits. This is important because as we age, the connectivity between those circuits diminishes and affects how well we do every day tasks, such as driving. But aerobic exercise, such as brisk walking, helps revive those flagging brain circuits.

"Almost nothing in the brain gets done by one area -- it's more of a circuit," Kramer explained to ScienceDaily. "These networks can become more or less connected. In general, as we get older, they become less connected, so we were interested in the effects of fitness on connectivity of brain networks that show the most dysfunction with age."

Neuroscientists have identified several distinct brain circuits, and one of the most intriguing is the default mode network (or DMN), which dominates brain activity when a person is least engaged with the outside world -- either passively observing something or simply daydreaming. Previous studies found that a loss of coordination in the DMN is a common symptom of aging and in extreme cases can be a marker of disease.

The study: For one year, Kramer's team followed 70 adults who ranged in age from 60 to over 80 years old. All of them were sedentary before the study began. The participants were divided into two groups. One did aerobic walking, while the others served as a control group that did toning, stretching and strengthening exercises.

Brain function was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine brain networks and determine whether aerobic activity increased connectivity in the DMN or other brain networks. The researchers measured participants' brain connectivity and performance on cognitive tasks at the beginning of the study, at six months and after a year of either walking or toning and stretching. A group of young adults, ages 20 to 30, was also tested for brain function for comparison.

The results: Those who walked briskly reaped the biggest benefits -- and not just physically, Kramer writes in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. As the older people became more fit, the aerobic exercise actually improved their memory, attention and several other cognitive processes. In fact, the coherence among different regions in the brain networks increased so much, it actually mimicked that of the 20-somethings.

Specifically, at the end of the year, DMN connectivity was significantly improved in the brains of the older walkers, but not in the stretching and toning group. The walkers also had increased connectivity in parts of another brain circuit called the fronto-executive network, which aids in the performance of complex tasks, and they did significantly better on cognitive tests than did their toning and stretching peers.

Kramer says even moderate aerobic exercise will enhance the function of specific brain structures and improve the coordination of important brain networks. But it must be aerobic to work. Toning and stretching aren't enough to reap the benefits.

"The higher the connectivity, the better the performance on some of these cognitive tasks, especially the ones we call executive control tasks -- things like planning, scheduling, dealing with ambiguity, working memory and multitasking," Kramer said. These are the very skills that tend to decline with aging, he said.

The gotcha: It doesn't happen overnight. It took a full year of walking for the results to be seen. Even the six-month test results showed no significant brain changes. The group that did the stretching exercises saw no cognitive benefit.

This isn't the first study to reach this conclusion. Recent research from the Harvard School of Public Health tracked more than 18,000 women ages 70 to 81 and concluded that the more active we are, the better our cognition. Specifically, walking one-and-a-half hours a week at a pace of one mile in 16-20 minutes gives the full cognitive benefits.

Walking may just be the wonder drug of old age.
And for the benefit of your heart Lifting weights strengthens your heart