Stem Cells and 10 Illnesses #3

The third disease where stem cells could prove to be very helpful is in heart disease. Because this is the leading cause of death in the United States, researchers are looking at this strongly.

The hope is that stem cells could regenerate normal heart muscle to replace heart muscle that has been damaged. There has been success with this in mice.

Omega 3 Protects Us Part 2

The first disease I will talk about in relation to the omega 3s is heart disease. As you know, omega 3 is a power anti-inflammatory. So it is not surprising that studies have shown a significant decrease in the number of sudden death from heart disease in those individuals that take an omega 3 supplement. In fact, in one study of 11,000 people talking omega 3 supplements, there was a 45% decrease in the risk of sudden death from heart disease.

It is pretty well accepted today that if you are at risk for heart disease because of family history or for any other reason, you should be taking an omega 3 supplement. You can also get omega 3 from fish, but you need to eat wild fish not farm fish. Of course my favorite is salmon.

Salt

Most Americans who don't read food labels and keep the salt shaker handy consume upwards of 4,000 milligrams of salt a day. So how much salt should we be getting. According to the American Heart Association dietary guidelines, adults should be getting about 2,300n milligrams a day. This is about a teaspoon of salt.

Just because you can't taste the salt doesn't mean that it is not there. Read that package label and see just how much salt is in those packaged foods. You'll be amazed.

Studies indicate that if you can keep you salt intake to about 1,000 milligrams a day, there is less heart disease and less high blood pressure. Obviously eating more fresh fruits and vegetables also helps in decreasing heart disease and keeping the blood pressure lower.

Over the next few days I'll be giving you some tips on lowering salt intake in your diet.

Good Oral Health & Disease

Too many of us do not take good care of our teeth and gums. The amount of gum disease is on the rise which can lead to other diseases in the body. Basically if you have a build up of plaque on your teeth, this causes inflammation of the gums which if not treated can up causing a bacterial infection.

What you may notice is bleeding of the gums or some discomfort in the mouth. Because of the rich blood supply in the mouth, it is fairly easy for the bacterial to get into the blood stream. This can set up and infection in the heart or just spread inflammation in the blood vessels. Remember that inflammation is the real problem with heart disease, not the cholesterol.

Having frequent dental cleaning, at least every 6 months is critical to your health. Can't afford the dentist, if there is a School of Dentistry near you, you will be able to afford the care.

Tumeric

I've talked about tumeric before, but it bears being mentioned again. You will see this spice used in Asian cooking and in curry dishes. The greatest thing about tumeric is that it is a very potent anti-inflammatory agent.

As I mentioned a few days ago, the heart disease and cholesterol piece is more related to inflammation than cholesterol. There are a plethora of diseases that tumeric may help prevent and help. Some of these are disease such as Alzheimer's, pulmonary disease, inflammatory bowel diseases, Parkinson's, arthritis, and psoriasis. Studies out of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center have shown that tumeric affects gene activity in cancer cells. Tumeric actually starves and kills cancer cells. Multiple studies and Universities are now testing tumeric to determine it's affect in various types of cancer.

Sodium Intake

How much salt should you actually be getting? That's a common question that I get asked frequently. The normal, healthy adult (no know medical problems) should eat no more than 2300 milligrams of salt a day. This is about 1 teaspoon of salt. Now that is not just what you add at the table. Read the label of any processed food such as canned soup and you will see that you are probably way beyond your daily amount with one serving.

Most of the sodium that we get in our diets today comes from eating in restaurants and eating processed foods. Be sure to read the labels on any food you purchase. Many restaurants now will tell you the sodium content of their foods. You can always ask for a low-sodium entree, just ask the waiter.

Your best choice is to pick fresh fruits and vegetables.

If you are at risk for or have heart disease, stroke or high blood pressure your daily salt intake should be no more than 1500 milligrams a day.

Heart Disease On The Rise

I saw this question in the paper and I just had to respond to it. Someone asked why heart disease seemed to be on the rise even though many people are taking anti-cholesterol medicines and all the information out about low fat diets.

The interesting thing about this question is the response which was that heart disease is on the rise because of the aging of the population, obesity, and diabetes. While I don't necessarily disagree with this, the real underlying problem is not cholesterol which is the myth that the American government has fed us. The underlying issue is inflammation. And how many people do you think are following a low fat diet? Would we see the amount of obesity in this world if they were? We're eating junk - or at least most people are. I'm reminded of the ad that I heard a few weeks ago about Fruit Loops being a healthy choice. What are we buying into here.

I won't get back on my band wagon about the cholesterol issue, but if you are new to this blog, then go back and read my post starting 9/6/08. You can also just search the Cholesterol category to find out more - better yet search on the inflammation category on the lower right of this page.

Weight Loss Drugs Drawbacks

Lastly, I want to talk about Phenteramine (Adipex, Ionamin). This is one of the more dangerous drugs in terms of the side effects. While it can cause things like an increase in blood pressure, increase in heart rate, diarrhea, anxiety or restlessness, these are not the things to be mostly concerned about. The bigger risk here is the development of a disease called pulmonary hypertension. This is an insideous disease that comes on without any symptoms. Once we discover that it is present, we have very few things we can do to treat it.

This is a lethal complication for you and while losing weight is important, this drug can actually totally rob you of your future health and your future. The risk with this drug is just way too high to even consider using it.

Know Your Sodium Limit

Sodium is becoming more and more of a problem within our society. This is because we have a large portion of the population with high blood pressure, heart disease, and/or stroke. People at risk for these diseases are anyone over 40 years of age, African Americans, and anyone with high blood pressure. Almost 70% of the US population is at risk.

So how much sodium should you be getting each day. Most of the federal and nutritional guidelines indicate that 2300 mg of sodium each day is the right amount, as long as you are a healthy, normal adult without heart disease, stroke or hypertension. If you have high blood pressure, then you need to decrease the amount of sodium intake each day to 1500 mg.

Now the first thing is how much is 2300 mg. In the form of salt because that is how we get most of our sodium, 1 teaspoon = 2300 mg approximately. If you have heart disease or hypertension, the 1500 mg is about 2/3 of a teaspoon of salt per day. Now this means total intake. This does not just mean you can add that much salt each day to the food you eat.

Read the labels. Especially processed food contains large amounts of sodium. Tune in tomorrow for some tips on deceasing sodium in your diet.

Your Job and Your Health

As you might imagine, your health is definitely influenced by your job. In today's economy there are some new factors which are affecting our health that may not have been an issue before. These factors not only influence your health, but how long you will live.

The factors around work that influence your health these days are things like, do you still have a job, how secure are you in your job, and how much do you enjoy your work. These are factors which may have a huge impact on your health and longevity, perhaps more than if you are on the right diet to lose weight.

One of the most devastating factors above to our health is the loss of our job. In Finland, after a major layoff occurred, the risk of death from heart attack went up fivefold for those losing their jobs. In the USA, studies are currently being done to look at this, but some of the preliminary results show that people who lost their jobs in their 50s were twice as likely to have a heart attack or stroke within the next 10 years.

A study in Michigan has shown that job insecurity can be as bad for health as a bout with a serious illness and worse than an actual job loss. Part of this boils down to you feeling valuable in your job.

Red Meat - the Cons

Because of the saturated fats found in many cuts of red meat, the medical community as cautioned us against eating it. Saying that it will increase the LDL cholesterol and triglycerides and in turn increasing your chance of heart disease. While I follow their logic here, I do not agree that cholesterol is the issue. I believe the issue is inflammation not the cholesterol.

The medical community also states that red meat consumption is associated with higher rates of colon cancer, gallstones, and gout. The interesting thing here is that gout is an inflammation caused by uric acid crystals in a joint.

I would not and do not feel guilty about eating red meat. If some of the things above are concerning to you, then buy lean cuts of meat like sirloin. You could also eat venison, ostrich or buffalo. Game meats tend to have much lower fat content and also less calories.

Soy

You may not have grown up eating soy, but there are lots of products in the stores these days made from soy. And as usual there is controversy over whether soy is good or bad. So today I will go over some of the positive things about soy and tomorrow I will hit some of the bad things about soy.

Probably the best thing about soy is that it is an excellent low fat protein source. But this is just one of it's features. Soy also contains minerals like iron, zinc and calcium. The true health benefit of soy is in the isoflavons it contains. Isoflavons are similar in chemical structure to our own estrogen.

Isoflavons help women combat the symptoms of memopause, as well as improve bone health, decrease heart disease risk, reduce cancer risk, and protect against prostate problems.

Fasting Helps Prevent Disease

While I'm on the subject of fasting, there is research that tells us that fasting can help with several common diseases. I mention a couple of those yesterday in terms of cognitive function.

But other diseases which fasting may help protect you from are heart disease, diabetes, and asthma to name a few where research is being conducted. With intermittent fasting, researchers found a 40% reduction in the risk for heart disease. This can be very significant if you are one of the 65% of Americans who are overweight.

The incidence of diabetes has been shown to decrease which is not a huge surprise is you are eating less. In Asthmatics, the number of attacks was decreased and the overall symptoms from Asthma were less.

The greatest thing about fasting is how good you feel and how much more energy you will have. This combined with the decrease in disease means you'll live a longer, happier life.

A Spice That Helps Your Brain

I have written about this spice before as an anti-inflammatory and it is part of the anti-inflammation diet. Turmeric which is often used in soups, stews and casseroles does indeed help the brain as well.

Turmeric helps keep the brain healthy by decreasing oxidation which occurs with increased inflammation. Turmeric also decreases plaque in the blood vessels.

The brain is similar to the heart in that plaque in blood vessels can become oxidized and break free. In the heart this causes a heart attack, in the brain it causes a stroke.

Vitamins Good, Bad, or No Effect

As a researcher, I always go crazy when the news media picks up on some bit of research and runs with it, without really looking at whether the study is valid or not. A prime example is the Women's Multiple Vitamin study. I was some what surprised to see that this was actually published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Of course what the media picked up on was that the study "showed" that multivitamins are useless against cancer and heart disease in women.

Now, let's take a look at the study. This was actually a survey, which means that the results are only as good as the questions asked of the participants and the truth of the answers. What am I talking about here. If you really want to know if vitamins work, then you need to design a study in which you actually give the participants vitamins. This published study did not give anyone vitamins, merely asked the question, "do you take a multivitamin?" Most people would answer this question yes. But if you go look and count how many times a week they actually take the vitamin, it will likely not be every day. Now I know there are us out there who would rather not eat than to miss our vitamins, I'm one of those, but this is not the average person out there. The other question you have to ask is what kind of vitamins were they taking. Was it the cheapest brand they could get? Was there any quality control behind the vitamin they were taking to say that they were actually getting what it said they were getting in that vitamin. Oh, and here's another thing, were the components in the vitamin actually able to be absorbed by the body.

The interesting thing about all of this is that here is a "study" that says vitamins have no effect towards cancer and heart disease. The conclusion is that if vitamins don't have an effect, then you must need to take the expensive, toxic medications of big pharma. Well, I for one am not buying this one. Until they can put together a decent study, this does not show me anything and there are far more studies that do show the effects of vitamins.

Popeye Had It Right, Spinach Is Good for You

Yes, spinach is a super food. It contains powerful antioxidants which can help our bodies be healthy in many ways, not the least of which is to prevent many medical problems. Some of the nutrients in spinach are choline and inositol. These substances help prevent thickening of the arterial walls (atherosclerosis), thereby helping to control or decrease heart disease.

Spinach also contains lutein which is a powerful antioxidant that helps prevent cataracts and age related macular degeneration (the leading cause of blindness in people over age 65). And while we're speaking of those over 65, spinach is also an excellent source of fiber. Much better than taking metamucil every day, try spinach either cooked or raw. Not only will you get the benefits of the fiber, but also all of the vitamins and minerals spinach contains.

While it is a good source of calcium, most of the calcium is not available for our bodies to absorb. The oxalic acid in spinach combines with the calcium rendering it unavailable for absorption by our body.

Walnuts

Walnuts are another super food with many benefits. Of course most of you probably know that walnuts are rich in omega 3, but there are many other benefits to walnuts. They are also a wonderful source of fiber. How many people out there do not eat nuts because they are "high in fat"? That is not the issue here. The fat in walnuts is good fat, omega 3. In addition, if you eat a handful or so a week it will help with constipation, one the biggest complaints of people over the age of 65. Walnuts are both a soluble and insoluble source of fiber. They bind with fatty acids, decrease the stomach emptying time and thereby decrease the speed at which sugar is absorbed into the blood stream. Diabetics out there, can you see how this might help you?

Walnuts are also a rich plant source of protein and besides the omega 3s, they are also have B vitamins and Vitamin E.

Walnuts have been shown to help protect against heart disease and they also have been shown to decrease C-Reactive protein. See my notes about C-Reactive protein on 11/20/08. This leads me right into my thoughts about anti-inflammatories which is the key to many diseases.

More on Pomegranate Juice

While I was looking at pomegranate juice, I found some other interesting information about this fruit. One study showed that drinking 8 ounces of pomegranate juice a day over a three month period, increased the amount of oxygen reaching the heart muscle. This particular research was done with patients who had coronary artery disease. So with the effects mentioned yesterday and this research it stands to reason that pomegranate juice could be beneficial to your heart health.

There is another benefit that has been described, and that is the effect of this powerful antioxidant on cancers such as prostate and breast cancer. There is a reduction in the risk of breast cancer and in animal studies, they showed a slowing the growth of prostate cancer cells.

Vitamins

Did you see the news a few weeks ago that reported vitamins as being not beneficial in heart disease? I caught this on our local evening news report by a not so prominent physician. While he did not report the details of the study, he was quick to report that the study demonstrated that vitamins made no difference in the incidence of heart disease.

Some research of my own revealed that the study, most likely used synthetic vitamin E and it was only given every other day. We already know the flaw in this one. The vitamin C dose was 500mg every day which is at least something, it is not enough to make a difference. The interesting thing here is that surgeons who order vitamin C after a surgery to help with healing usually order 500mg twice daily. So the set up in this study was that the dose were inadequate to begin with. A study that was bound to show that vitamins did not make a difference.

The news made this sound like all vitamins were not helpful and played that aspect up.

My suggestion, if you hear something like this on the news, check it out. Some of the research out there, while it gets reported and press, there are often flaws in it.

Vitamin E

Many of you may be taking Vitamin E because you know it is supposed to be good for your heart. Vitamin E is an antioxidant which intercepts free radicals and prevents them from creating inflammation in the blood vessels where lipids have formed plagues. Free radicals will cause inflammation around these plaques which causes them to begin to go into a chain reaction which will end up in small pieces of the plaque breaking off and begin floating free in the blood stream.

The danger here is that piece of free floating plaque may become lodged in a small blood vessel in the heart or in the brain. If it is the heart, you end up with a hear attack. If it is the brain, you end up with a stroke.

So Vitamin E is good for your heart but also for your brain.

I'll talk more tomorrow on sources.