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Healthy Tips

Heart-Healthy Advice You Need

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Whether you’re at high risk for heart trouble or you’re trying to control early-stage heart disease, here are some simple lifestyle changes you can make.

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Exersise and Eat Right.
Simple lifestyle changes can help reduce your risk of heart disease. If you’re at high risk or you’re trying to control early-stage heart disease, here are some important preventive steps — involving diet, exercise, medical options, supplements and lifestyle — you can take.
Diet
Think international. People who eat a traditional Mediterranean or Asian diet appear to have lower rates of heart disease than those who eat a typical American diet. Incorporate elements of these diets into your healthy eating plan.

Eat heart-smart foods. Choose foods that can reduce cholesterol and improve heart health, such as fruits (apples, avocados, dried fruits, grapefruit, oranges, strawberries), vegetables (broccoli, carrots, corn, lima beans, onions), seafood (clams, mussels, oysters), fish containing omega-3 fatty acids (salmon and bluefish), soy, nuts and whole-grain breads and cereals.

Cut the fat. To keep your cholesterol level down, limit the amount of fat you eat, especially saturated fat. Your total fat intake should be no more than 30% of your daily calories. Focus on low-fat alternatives to red meat, such as fish or skinless chicken or turkey. Eating fish several times a week can cut your risk of heart attack by as much as half. Lower your intake of dairy fats by switching to low-fat or skim varieties. Or try soy milk — soy protein can lower cholesterol.
Spice it up. If you have high blood pressure, cut your sodium intake. In fact, researchers now think that even people whose blood pressure is within normal range should cut back on sodium. Avoid processed foods, which contain a lot of sodium, and ease up on salt at mealtime. But don’t settle for bland fare. Add flavor with salsa, curry, peppers, or garlic. Eating one to three cloves of garlic a day has been shown to reduce blood pressure and possibly lower cholesterol.

Add rough stuff. Soluble fiber — plentiful in fresh fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains — prevents arterial plaque buildup. Studies show that eating three or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily can lower the risk of heart attack and stroke by 25% or more. In one study, eating cooked dried beans daily lowered LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, by 20% in just three weeks. Other research showed that a diet high in whole grains can cut a woman’s risk of dying from heart disease by up to 15%. And dozens of studies confirm that eating oats has a cholesterol-lowering effect.

Seeing red. Drinking alcohol in moderation raises HDL, or “good,” cholesterol and “thins” the blood, reducing the likelihood of clots that can cause heart attack and stroke. Red wine offers additional benefits. Its dark pigments are rich in bioflavonoids that prevent the oxidation of LDL, making it less likely to stick to artery walls. Research showed that people who drank two 8-ounce glasses of red wine a day were 40% less likely to have a heart attack than those who didn’t imbibe. But don’t overdo it — too much alcohol raises your triglyceride level (and high triglyceride levels are linked to coronary artery disease and untreated diabetes in some people). And if you have an alcohol problem, the harm far outweighs any potential benefit. Other good sources of bioflavonoids: black and green tea, onions, kale and apples.

Exercise
Work your heart. The best preventive medicine for your heart is aerobic exercise. It reduces high blood pressure and atherosclerosis by widening the blood vessels. Plus, it raises “good” cholesterol levels. Choose an activity that works the large muscles of your legs and buttocks (like brisk walking or bicycling), and strive to reach your target heart rate for at least 15 to 20 minutes, three or four times a week.

An (up)lifting idea. An American Heart Association (AHA) survey found that lifting weights a few times a week can improve heart health in some people. That’s because stronger muscles can lower your heart rate and blood pressure. Having more muscle tissue also raises your metabolism, which helps control your weight. But don’t skip the brisk walk. The AHA recommends pumping iron in addition to aerobic exercise.

Be flexible. Flexibility exercises like yoga not only help keep your joints limber but also help cut the production of stress hormones that can contribute to heart disease.

Evaluate Your Heart Health
Medical Options
Schedule a checkup. Until age 65, you should have your blood pressure checked at least every other year. At age 65, you should have it checked at least annually. Most doctors also recommend a yearly cholesterol screening if you have high cholesterol or other heart-disease risk factors. Your doctor may also recommend electrocardiography (an ECG) to evaluate your heart health. While you’re there, ask about a simple blood test for a substance called C-reactive protein. According to Harvard researchers studying 28,000 healthy women, this test helped predict heart attack risk better than cholesterol tests.
An aspirin a day? People with existing heart disease may benefit from low-dose aspirin therapy, which may prevent heart attacks. The dosage ranges from part of an aspirin (80 mg) to one aspirin (325 mg) daily. Ask your doctor what’s right for you.

Depressurize. High blood pressure can lead to heart disease. If diet and exercise can’t control it, blood-pressure medication can help.

Deal with diabetes. People with diabetes, most of whom are adults with the type 2 form of the disease, are two to four times more likely to have heart disease or stroke. Controlling the disease is often just a matter of losing extra pounds, exercising regularly and following a heart-healthy diet.
Don’t ignore depression. One study found that depressed people were 1.7 times more likely to develop heart disease and that depressed men were nearly three times as likely to die from it. See your doctor for help.

Supplements
Consider folate and vitamin B6. These vitamins lower elevated levels of homocysteine, a substance in the blood that may raise your risk of heart disease. A daily intake of more than 400 mcg of folate and 3 mg of B6 appears to reduce the risk of heart disease in women.

Go fish. Fish oil capsules contain omega-3 fatty acids, which act as anticlotting agents. Check with your doctor before taking them to avoid interactions with other medications.
Get garlic. Garlic capsules offer the health benefits of garlic without odor. Choose pills that supply 4000 mcg of allicin and take 400 to 600 mg a day.

Lifestyle
Rein in your rage. Don’t get mad — it’s bad for your heart. A study of nearly 13,000 people found that those who were quick to anger were almost three times more likely to have heart attacks than their cooler-headed peers.

Stay trim. Being even slightly overweight can increase your blood pressure and put you at greater risk for heart disease. Follow a heart-smart diet and make exercise a priority.
No ifs, ands, or butts. According to the American Heart Association, you can cut your risk of death related to heart disease by 50% by kicking the smoking habit. After three smoke-free years, your risk of heart disease is the same as that of a lifelong nonsmoker.

Time out. Minimize stress, a risk factor for heart disease. Try meditation or visualization or yoga. Prayer may also help. Take brisk walks with a friend; your conversation may add extra stress relief.
Getting away is good for your heart. Researchers found that men between ages 35 and 57 who took a yearly vacation were one-third less likely to die from heart disease than their stay-at-work colleagues.

Source  :Readers Digest

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Healthy Tips

The Essential Multivitamin

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More Americans take a daily multivitamin than any other supplement. It’s an easy, safe way to get numerous benefits from a variety of nutrients without having to pop a handful of pills every day……..CLICK & SEE

Taking a daily multivitamin is especially important for older adults because as we age, our bodies become less efficient at absorbing vitamins and minerals from food. And if you follow a vegetarian diet, you may not be consuming enough of certain vitamins and minerals to begin with.

When choosing a multivitamin, pick a brand with high quality control, high reported bioavailability (this means your body can absorb the vitamins), and few additives. These include multis by Thorne, PhytoPharmica, and Vital Nutrients. Don’t choose a multi that contains iron unless you’re a woman who is still menstruating or your doctor has recommended that you take additional iron.

Multivitamins got a boost in June 2002, when the Journal of the American Medical Association published two articles by Harvard doctors on their benefits. The doctors recommended that everyone, regardless of age or health status, take one. We agree. Among the heart-related benefits you might reap are a lower homocysteine level and less oxidation of LDL. Some of the nutrients most likely responsible include:

B vitamins. One of the best reasons to take a multivitamin every day is to be certain to get your fill of B vitamins. This family of vitamins — thiamin, riboflavin (B1), pyridoxine (B6), niacin (B3), pantothenic acid (B5), cobalamin (B12), folic acid, biotin, choline, inositol, and para-aminobenzoic acid — plays a critical role in every function inside your body. But the vitamins really shine when it comes to your heart. Folate, B6, and B12 help prevent a dangerous buildup of the amino acid homocysteine. If homocysteine levels rise too high, they damage endothelial cells (which line the arteries), blocking the production of nitric oxide and leaving arteries more prone to plaque buildup. Keeping homocysteine in check is a good enough reason by itself to take a multivitamin.

Another B vitamin, choline, helps your body process cholesterol. And vitamin B5 can actually lower LDL and triglycerides and raise HDL, at least at high doses. The vitamin apparently works by reducing the amount of cholesterol your liver makes.

Generally, a multivitamin will give you all of the B vitamins your body needs. But if you have elevated homocysteine levels, talk to your doctor about taking an additional B vitamin supplement. Should you decide to do so, don’t exceed the recommended dosages. Because they are fat soluble, many of these vitamins can build up in the body to toxic levels.

From:Cut Your Cholesterol

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News on Health & Science

Federal Panel to Review Use of Artery Device

PFIZER’S decision last weekend to abandon a promising cholesterol drug is but the latest recent setback as the health care industry continues its assault on cardiovascular disease, which has remained the leading cause of death and disability in Western societies since World War I………....click & see

Another reminder of the difficulties will come this week in Washington. Thursday will be the first of two days of hearings by a federal advisory panel that is expected to recommend stricter regulation on the use of drug-coated stents, the medical device industry’s most popular tool for dealing with clogged heart arteries.

The panel will weigh evidence that the stents, which were developed to keep coronary arteries open after they have been cleared of plaque, can in some cases cause fatal blood clots months or even years after they have been put in patients.

“From where we sit, there are more questions than answers,” said Dr. Daniel G. Schultz, director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health at the Food and Drug Administration, which is holding the hearings.

Wall Street is uneasy, too. The nation’s market leader in stents, Boston Scientific, whose stock was struggling under the weight of the company’s $27 billion takeover of Guidant in April, has experienced an additional 7 percent stock decline in the last three months  largely on rising concern among doctors and consumers about the long-term clotting risks.

The nation will spend close to $258 billion treating cardiovascular diseases this year, according to the American Heart Association, including $50 billion on devices and drugs.

But drug and device companies face a shifting landscape in which the traditional image of the heart and circulatory system   pipes and pumps where any clogging is a threat   has been replaced by a far more complicated picture. It is now clear that the human circulatory system can adapt to some types of clogging, but that patients can be killed without warning by the rupture of “vulnerable plaque”: fatty deposits containing a stew of cells that can cause rapid formation of a clot.

So far, though, there is no sure way to locate which plaques are about to rupture. Nor is there a proven drug or device for preventing their formation, dissolving them or sealing them off.

“Technology is pushing against the limits of our knowledge, and we are finding that to a certain extent, things are more complicated than we thought,   said Dr. Barry T. Katzen, director of the Baptist Cardiac and Vascular Institute at Baptist Hospital of Miami.

There are numerous forms of cardiovascular disease, which causes or contributes to the death of 2,500 Americans every day, according to the American Heart Association. While heart attack may be the most obvious dire outcome, symptoms as diverse as swelling of the feet, sexual dysfunction, stroke, kidney failure and chest pains are all common.

The death rate has been falling since the 1960s, a trend driven by the decline of smoking and more attention to healthier diets and lifestyles. But medical technology like heart pacemakers and defibrillators; blood-thinning and anti-clotting.
drugs; and, more recently, the cholesterol-fighting statin drugs have all helped, too.

Pfizer was chasing a potential blockbuster vision of reversing the progression of heart disease. Its drug torcetrapib stimulates production of a fat-grabbing protein   high-density lipoprotein, or HDL, the so-called good cholesterol. High levels of HDL can reverse plaque accumulation.

In theory, drug companies that are already working on closely related HDL stimulators may achieve torcetrapib’s benefits without its dangerous side effect of raising blood pressure. But Dr. Steven E. Nissen, chairman of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, who was the lead investigator on an early clinical trial that highlighted the promise of torcetrapib, said researchers might now have difficulty enrolling patients in trials of related drugs.   It might kill the class,  he said.

Stents, meanwhile, are frequently used to relieve the disabling discomfort of angina rather than treat acute heart disease. They were introduced in the 1990s as an enhancement to angioplasty, a procedure in which a tiny balloon is inflated inside a blockage in a blood vessel to create a broader channel for blood flow. Bare-metal stents halved the frequency with which coronary arteries quickly clogged up again at the angioplasty site to about 20 percent.

Drug-coated stents, introduced in the United States in 2003, cut the reblockage frequency in half again and quickly grabbed close to 90 percent of the market because they saved patients the costs and risks of repeat procedures. Boston Scientific’s Taxus and Johnson & Johnson Cypher are the only drug-coated devices currently approved for sale, although Medtronic recently asked the F.D.A. to approve its Endeavor stent, and several other potential competitors are also developing products.

But now stent sales are falling in the United States and doctors report numerous calls from patients wondering whether the drug-coated devices are ticking time bombs. The risk may be slight, but it adds up to tens of thousands of heart attacks annually, because 600,000 Americans now receive coronary stents each year. And research suggests that such heart attacks kill as many as half of the patients who suffer them.

So far, the added risks of late clotting appear to balance the added risks of repeat procedures for bare-metal stents. That leaves unsettled the question of which device — the drug-coated or the bare-metal stent — might be safer in the long run.

One contentious issue the F.D.A. panel plans to discuss is the risk, benefit and cost of keeping patients indefinitely on a daily diet of aspirin and the anticlotting drug Plavix, to reduce the late clotting risk. Wall Street will also be watching closely to find out whether the panelists urge the F.D.A. to discourage the widespread “off-label” use of drug-coated devices in groups of patients who are in poorer health than those studied in the clinical trials.

One suggestion has been that the F.D.A. may require longer-term safety data for new stents. Because many of the new designs have features and early data suggesting they may be safer than Taxus or Cypher, however, some experts believe the F.D.A. will end up requiring more rigorous follow-up studies, rather than delay their entry into the market.

The new designs point to a persistent challenge for medical device regulators. Will changing technology render obsolete much of the safety data doctors are clamoring for about today’s devices before it can be compiled?

Source:New York Times

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Ayurvedic Healthy Tips Herbs & Plants

Garlic: The Herbal “Wonder Drug”

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Discover the benefits of this common kitchen plant.
Garlic has been used throughout history to ward off the Plague and to protect soldiers from gangrene. Today this herbal “wonder drug” is used for a myriad of health problems, including high cholesterol and coughs. More information about garlic’s benefits can be found at this likn.

Know Your Garlic

For those looking to reduce sodium intake, garlic is the answer! The hot, strong taste of fresh garlic gives food a zing no amount of salt can equal. Buy cloves in bulk and store in a cool, dark place. To get the most health benefits out of your garlic:

Always peel it first. Otherwise, some of the disease-preventing compounds might not form.

Give it a break after cutting or crushing it. Leave it there on the cutting board for about 10 minutes to allow the health-promoting compounds to form.

To get rid of garlic breath, chew on fresh parsley, mint, or lemon or orange peels, and use lemon juice to get the odor off your hands.

Healthy Investments

Garlic peelers and garlic crushers are two gadgets that make using fresh garlic not only easy, but fun. A garlic peeler — really, a small plastic tube — takes the work and mess out of peeling garlic. Just put a whole garlic clove inside the tube and roll it back and forth, pressing firmly. Voilà! A naked clove, ready for your garlic crusher.

Click to learn more about:-> Garlic

Source:Stealth Health

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How to Get More ‘Good’ Cholesterol

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Doctors aren’t the only ones telling people to lower their cholesterol. Television commercials also tout cereals   from Quaker to Kellogg’s   and medications that encourage viewers to become heart healthy and promise to lower LDL, the “bad” cholesterol.

But there is another type of cholesterol that physicians agree is important to raise — HDL, or the “good” cholesterol.

HDL works in opposition to LDL. Instead of increasing the risk of heart disease, it can help prevent heart attacks and stroke.

Doctors have known this for more than a decade, but cardiologists have recently started paying more attention to HDL after a study showed that giving doses of it could reverse plaque buildup in arteries, said Dr. Robert Rosenson, a preventive cardiologist at Northwestern University in Chicago and a member of the American College of Cardiologists’ prevention committee.

For the first time, the study showed how raising HDL is likely as important as lowering LDL when it comes to reducing the risk of heart attack, Rosenson said.

And just as too many Americans have high levels of so-called bad cholesterol, too few have low levels of good cholesterol. The latest statistics from the American Heart Association show that as many as one in three adult men and one in 10 adult women have low HDL cholesterol.

Therefore, “the next big hope is raising HDL,” said Dr. Greg Brown, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Drug May Offer Hope

Hope may lie with a new drug, torcetrapib, that raises HDL. It has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but Dr. Steven Nissen said the trials of the drug were “one of the most watched.” He is interim chairman of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic and president of the American College of Cardiology.

“If [torcetrapib] works, it’ll be a revolution,” said Nissen, who’s also the principal investigator in an ongoing trial of the medication. Early trials of the drug have resulted in a 50 to 60 percent increase in HDL levels, he said.

Torcetrapib may raise blood pressure slightly in some patients, though, which is an unwanted side effect when trying to reduce risk factors for heart disease, Rosenson said.

Also, it is not yet known how effective torcetrapib will be at reducing the risk of heart attack, Nissen said.

The drug has received a lot of press already in part because of controversy raised when Pfizer, its manufacturer, said initially that it would market torcetrapib ony as a combination pill with Lipitor, a cholesterol-lowering drug.

But this week The New York Times reported that Pfizer had reversed its decision and now plans to make it available as a stand-alone drug as well.

What About Niacin?

Even though torcetrapib won’t be approved until 2008 at the earliest, there are already medications on the market that are effective at raising HDL. Niacin, or vitamin B3 in high-dose form, is one that raises HDL by about 30 percent, Brown said.

In spite of its effectiveness, niacin isn’t prescribed very often by general doctors, said Dr. Roger Blumenthal, director of the Johns Hopkins Ciccaroni preventive cardiology center and spokesman for the American Heart Association.

That’s because it often causes flushing, or heat flashes, in patients. Although it’s effective, many doctors don’t prescribe it, because it requires counseling patients on side effects and adjusting the dosage many times, Brown said.

While some patients can’t tolerate niacin, the side effects do go away after two to three months of continued use, he added. Also, drug manufacturers are developing newer preparations of niacin that minimize the side effects and may become available next year, Blumenthal said.

Lifestyle Changes Work, Too

For patients at high risk of heart attack and strokes, some preventive cardiologists have been fairly aggressive about treating low HDL. But Blumenthal said that cholesterol guidelines for general physicians have focused more on lowering LDL than on raising HDL and that the evidence for them to aggressively treat low HDL isn’t yet available.

But, if you are interested in increasing your good cholesterol, there are a number of things you can do, doctors said. Not surprisingly, they are what doctors always advise — get more exercise and eat better.

First, lose weight if you are overweight, Brown said, because overweight or obese people are likely to have lots of bad and not enough good cholesterol.

Regular exercise also pumps up HDL levels. And, for those who smoke, quitting raises HDL levels as well — a result that can be seen in about 60 days, Rosenson said .

Altogether, the lifestyle changes can raise HDL by about 20 percent, he added.

As for dietary recommendations for elevating HDL, Rosenson said fish, walnuts, almonds and avocados all have monounsaturated fats, which can help raise HDL slightly, although he recommends them in moderation.

Lifestyle changes are important, doctors said, not only for improving HDL but for overall improvement in cholesterol and health.

But, said one dietitian: “There is no magic cereal that will suddenly improve cholesterol. However, eating high-fiber cereal is a great way to start your day.”

Source:ABC News

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