Archive for the ‘Healthy Living’ Category

Heart Disease: Inflammation or Cholesterol?

By Dr. Dwight Lundell MD 03/31/2010

During my 25 years as a cardiac surgeon, along with other prominent physicians labeled “opinion makers,” we insisted heart disease resulted from the simple fact of elevated blood cholesterol.   The only accepted therapy was prescribing medications to lower cholesterol and a diet that severely restricted fat intake. 

Pharmaceutical giants reported $33 Billion dollars in cholesterol lowering drugs last year. As a nation, we reduced the fat content in our diets faithfully and yet with 25% of the population taking statin medications, more Americans will die this year of heart disease than ever before and at a younger age. 

Don’t you think something is terribly wrong?

Let me say those traditional recommendations are no longer scientifically or morally defensible; in fact, the consequences dwarf any historical plague in terms of mortality, human suffering and dire economic consequences.

Statistics from the American Heart Association show that 75 million Americans currently suffer from heart disease, 20 million have diabetes and 57 million have pre-diabetes. These disorders are affecting younger people in greater numbers every year.

Low-fat diet recommendations with elimination of saturated fat are responsible for epidemics in inflammation, heart disease, obesity and diabetes.  Let’s look at why:

Hidden Omega-6 Oils 

Processed foods are manufactured with Omega-6 oils for longer shelf life; chips and fries are soaked in soybean oil.  Omega-6’s are essential as they are part of every cell membrane controlling what goes in and out of the cell but without a correct balance to Omega-3’s, more harm sets in.

If the balance shifts to excessive Omega-6, the cell membrane produces chemicals called cytokines that directly cause inflammation.  Today’s main stream diet has produced an imbalance from 15:1 to as high as 30:1 in favor of Omega-6. That’s a tremendous amount of cytokines causing inflammation.  A ratio of 3:1 would be optimal and healthy.

Animal fats contain less than 20% Omega-6 and are much less likely to cause inflammation than the supposedly healthy oils labeled polyunsaturated.  The science that saturated fat alone causes heart disease is non-existent. The science that saturated fat raises blood cholesterol is also very weak.

Perfect Brain and Memory Health

Imagine how great it will feel to enjoy life without the fear, embarrassment, or frustration of mental slip-ups. You won’t have to worry about forgetting people’s names… or missing appointments… or misplacing your glasses…or locking yourself out of your car or house.

Read on to find out more…

Add Harm From Sugars and Simple Carbohydrates

Simple carbohydrates and refined sugars cause the body to produce high levels of insulin from the pancreas.  Over time, cells will become sensitive and less resistant to excessive insulin creating Type 2 diabetes.  Then they become abnormally stiff from an overload of Omega-6 fatty acids.

When we consume more sugars than we use or need, a cycle of internal terror begins as our bodies are not designed to eliminate toxic substances.  Cells will become overloaded producing a substance called resistin that makes cells even less responsive to insulin. 

LDL is chemically changed from this cycle of internal terror becoming abnormal.  The LDL chemical changes are perceived by the body as an invader, an infection or foreign substance to be destroyed and the inflammatory process begins. 

The important point to remember is LDL would not become trapped in the artery wall and cause a plaque unless the LDL changed from oxidation or high blood sugar in the presence of inflammation.

Without inflammation being present, cholesterol would move freely throughout as nature intended.

What About Weight?

Excess weight creates overloaded fat cells that pour out large quantities of pro-inflammatory chemicals that add to the injury caused by having high blood sugar. In time this vicious cycle creates heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and finally, Alzheimer’s disease, as the inflammatory process continues unabated.

Arterial Inflammation 

Inflammation is simply your body’s natural defense to a foreign invader such as a bacteria, toxin or virus.  The cycle of inflammation is perfect in how it protects your body from bacterial and viral invaders.  However, if we chronically expose the body to injury by toxins or foods the human body was never designed to process, a condition results called chronic inflammation.

Chronic inflammation is just as harmful as acute inflammation is beneficial.

I have seen inside thousands upon thousands of arteries.  Arterial inflammation (diseased artery) looks as if someone took a brush and scrubbed repeatedly against its wall. Several times a day, every day, the foods we eat create small injuries compounding into more injuries, causing the body to respond continuously and appropriately with inflammation.

What’s the Answer to This Fire Raging in Our Bodies? 

It’s not as difficult as you might think.  Return to foods closer to their natural state.  If a food is packaged and processed or labeled “low-fat or no-fat diet” it is high in sugar or high in Omega-6 oil.  Check a few packages and you’ll see soybean oil as a major ingredient.

Choose carbohydrates that are very complex such as colorful fruits and vegetables.  Cut down on or eliminate inflammation-causing Omega-6 fats.  One tablespoon of corn oil contains 7,280 mg of Omega-6; soybean contains 6,940 mg. Instead, use olive oil or butter from grass-fed beef.

You can reverse inflammation in your arteries and throughout your body from consuming the typical American diet by following my recommendations in The Great Cholesterol Lie.  You’ll learn essential vitamins and minerals to add, inflammatory foods to eliminate, how to eat safely in fast food chains and a list of recommended tests to measure your risk factor for heart disease.

This is neither complicated nor mysterious yet conflicting information abounds making it appear so.  Death happens only once but good health is a continuum. 

Editor’s Note: Dr. Dwight Lundell is the past Chief of Staff and Chief of Surgery at Banner Heart Hospital, Mesa, AZ. He is the founder of Healthy Humans Foundation and Chief Medical Advisor for Asantae. In 2003, Dr. Lundell made the most difficult decision of his 25 year surgical career. As traditional medicine continued to chase the cholesterol theory of heart disease, Dr. Lundell closed his surgical practice. He then devoted the rest of his life to speaking the truth that inflammation causes heart disease. By lowering inflammation, heart disease has a cure.

Dr. Lundell is the author of the world-wide bestselling book, The Great Cholesterol Lie. This book is a revealing look at heart disease and the faulty theories of low-fat diets and cholesterol. He also reveals his clinically-tested recommendations for lowering inflammation that can prevent and reverse heart disease. Click here now to learn more.

 “This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise’s Total Health Breakthroughs which offers alternative health solutions for mind, body and soul”

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Understanding Heart Disease

Heart Disease and fats, is it all a scam?

Raw Foods, Enzymes, Vioxx, Vitamin B-12, Chronic inflammation, Heart Disease

Nutritional information to improve your health and lower dependence on prescription drugs.

Part 1
Medical mistakes and prescription drugs are causing great harm to our population. Can natural health remedies solve the crisis of chronic illness?

Part 2 Are large drug companies getting a free ride while they bilk the American people?  Should drug company executives be held accountable for dangerous drugs that are on the market.

Part 3 Nutrients that protect the heart against side effects of chemotherapy treatment.  A survey of Oncologists in Canada shows that they would not take chemotherapy nor would they recommend it for their families.  Cancer and heart attacks remain the leading cause of death in the US.  They are followed by side effects from taking prescription drugs.

Part 4 Green tea extract improves brain function.

Part 5 Natural progesterone revitalizes neurotransmitters and other parts of your nervous system.  ALS and other degenerative diseases including Alzheimer are helped.

Part 6 Vitamin C users are at lower risk for heart disease.  It also helps control cholesterol.  Add vitamin E and get even farther ahead.

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by Renee Pullman

You may have heard some of the old myths about body builders, that it will all just turn to fat and that they have big muscles but the quality of the exercise is not good like aerobic exercise is.

The facts are that if you do it right you will use a blend of weight training exercises, aerobics, and possibly yoga or some other stretching and strength system.  Aerobics a couple of days a week interspersed with weight training.  This brings the body to it’s most efficient state with a strong cardiovascular system and muscles to support whatever it is that you want to do.

Let’s face it there is nothing sexier than a body toned and trained that way.

If you are overweight the chances are you may be avoiding weight training because you think it will cause you to gain even more weight.  The facts are that robust exercise as described in combination with a sensible diet is the best way to lose pounds.

Following such a system may mean that you would lose 5 pounds for a particular period whereas someone only dieting may have lost seven.  But that doesn’t tell the whole story.  The rest of the story is that you will also have gained three pounds of muscle.  Muscle is a fat burning engine and as you continue you will achieve your goals and succeded well beyond anything possible with diet alone.

People just dieting will revert after a time and the weight comes back.  Those in a lifestyle change involving exercise will continue to progress.

Such a combination of exercise involving weight training is a lifestyle that will serve you throughout your life.  It will give you the juice to excell in all areas because lets face it, if you are tired all the time you severely limit your chances of success.  Such a lifestyle also contributes to longevity and quality of life.

Your success program begins with your body.  The daily ritual of caring for it includes keeping it fit and a workout routine weight training schedule.

Weight Training related articles

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Weight Training For Chest And Shoulders

Image by sabeth718 via Flickr

By Renee Pullman

Hemorrhoids are a terrible thing to have and after you understand that they are a disease of civilization and that an effective hemorrhoid home treatment is readily available you will wonder why you hadn’t heard about all of this before.

Unfortunately money drives our health care system and these simple home treatments don’t produce income. The common treatments also don’t produce a permanent cure, the hemorrhoids keep coming back. No one has told you that the best treatment is prevention, and, they haven’t told you how to prevent hemorrhoids or that home treatment is simple and effective.

But now home treatments are gaining favor as people are hearing about them. Since there is no quick cure in most common treatments, people are willing to take a shot at it at home. Here are three treatments that you should try.

Simple Hemorrhoid Home Treatment

1. Sitz Bath, you sit in a tub of warm water with a cup or two of Epsom Salts mixed in (keep the water as shallow as you can so the salts are not diluted). Sit knees to chest to avoid pressure on the anal area and to allow your cheeks to open and allow the cleansing and treatment to reach the area. Stay for 15 to 20 minutes and repeat 2 to 3 times per day. Sitz Bath will relax your muscles and improve the cirulation around the anus. This increased circulation is key in healing and preventing future hemorrhoids.
2. Witch Hazel has been used through the past several centuries to heal various ailments including hemorrhoids. Witch Hazel is an astringent, meaning it will shrink the hemorrhoids. You can use it as often as you like. One way to apply it is to pour it on your toilet paper and help clean yourself with it. It should also be applied again after you are clean.
3. Chinese remedies, whereas Sitz Bath and Witch Hazel are easily available in any drug store, Chinese remedies are a little harder to find, you also need to find the recipes. If your hemorrhoids resist some of the easier remedies then Chinese remedies will probably hold your answer as they are some of the most potent of remedies.

A hemorrhoid home treatment is inexpensive and effective, you do it all at home. You also quickly come to a treatment that works best for you without spending hundreds or thousands of dollars at the drug store and perhaps on surgical procedures.

Hemorrhoids Home Treatment: Find alternative hemorrhoid cures all the way from Sitz Bath and Witch Hazel, to the onion and garlic cure, to centuries old Chinese herbal treatments. You will also learn how Holly Hayden cured her hemorrhoids with natural means and now has helped thousands with her information.

I invite you to visit http://www.NaturalHemorrhoidTreatment.org to find out more.

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Hemorrhoid home treatment is an effective way to deal with hemorrhoids.

By Renee Pullman

If you are looking for panic attack help then the best thing I can tell you is you can cure this thing and make the attacks a thing of the past. Get excited as you read every word of this article because the ideas are simple but the effects really help.

Panic attacks of one form or another affect millions of people. Many try drugs and therapy and have found that more often than not that these are experimental. Yes there is help there but it is a long trial and error process where various drugs are tried and discarded hoping to find “the one” that will help.

Most of us don’t have time for that kind of approach and instead need to come to a quick understanding of the cause of the attacks and then on to how to overcome Them. This is not to say that the approach we are discussing is instant but it can quickly help you begin to control the attacks as you begin to bring the intensity down.

Panic attacks are caused by anxiety and a fear of something. This causes both emotional and physical symptoms. The symptoms of an attack can include shortness of breath, chest pain, nausea, restlessness, and sweating. You must understand and accept what is going on in order to beat panic attacks. Once you know that you are having an attack you will begin to gain control over yourself and make it go away faster.

Often you must take a counter-intuitive approach to things and panic attacks are no different. Learn that it is an attack and just accept it: OK, it’s an attack and then distract yourself a little. Reassure yourself that you are in control. Communicate with your body the things you are feeling and say, “OK this is only a panic attack and I feel” – then describe a feeling. Talk to yourself and tell yourself to “let go” and your body will begin to respond. You need to just do this and not be concerned with what actually happens with the feeling. It may take a couple of times to get things to kick in.

Sometimes preparing a list of things to think of and focus on while you are having attacks is helpful. After all when one of those things hits it is difficult to engage in creative thinking – but you can remember things. So a list of things to bring to mind can be a huge help. Make it detailed so you can just pull the items out when your mind is engaged in trying to fight off the panic. If you look to yourself for help and demand more of yourself than just being a victim of the attacks then you are on your way to the best panic attack help.

I invite you to find the panic attack help that you are looking for. Discover the drug-free way to stop anxiety panic attacks (it is not always the logical process that we expect). Get instant access to our panic attack help website: http://www.stopapanicattackfast.com.

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