July 12, 2009
Control LDL Cholesterol To Control Heart Disease
Cholesterol is a vital element for our health and well-being. There are two basic types of cholesterol: HDL cholesterol is good for our health, LDL cholesterol is bad for our health.
HDL cholesterol is beneficial to the body and must be transported to all parts of the body by the bloodstream, whereas LDL cholesterol must be eliminated from the body via the very same bloodstream. The body has a mechanism to regulate the levels of LDL cholesterol and HDL cholesterol in the blood. Bad eating and lifestyle habits cause the cholesterol levels to exceed the normal healthy bounds thus overloading the regulatory mechanism. If this condition continues for a long time our health is jeopardized.
LDL cholesterol tends to stick to the inner walls of the blood vessels it moves through. The coating reduces the blood flow through the affected vessels. This means poor circulation which translates to poor health. The coating may increase to an extent where the blood vessel is severely constricted. This condition is known as arteriosclerosis.
Arteriosclerosis leads to high blood pressure which strains the heart and damages the walls of the blood vessels, a condition known as atherosclerosis. Clumps of LDL cholesterol can move down the blood vessels and block the minute capillary networks supplying blood to the brain and heart. If the capillary networks in these critical organs are blocked, the blood supply to these vital organs is cut off, stopped, and the organs experience a massive failure. Capillary blockage in the brain causes strokes, and capillary blockage in the heart cause heart attack. I don’t need to tell you the implications of these two conditions.
Heart disease can be prevented, or the risk of getting it can be reduced, if we follow some very simple health guidelines. The first is to counterattack the invasion of LDL cholesterol into the body. LDL cholesterol gains entry into the body with the food we eat. So you should mount a watch on the kind of food you eat. Saturated fats are heavy with LDL cholesterol and must be shunned. You can and should include the healthy fats into your diet (e.g. omega-3 fats found in fish) because they actively help to reduce the bad LDL cholesterol. Copious draughts of plain water helps the circulatory and excretory functions of the body, which at once improves health and eliminates the bad LDL cholesterol.
Stop using heavy cooking oil to cook food in. Switch to virgin olive oil which is highly recommended as a healthy cooking medium. Changing your cooking oil is a very effective way to reduce the risk of heart disease.
Cigarette smoking is bad for health. It harms the body in more than just one way. Smoking increases the level of LDL cholesterol. So quit now and your LDL cholesterol will be gone tomorrow! The steps outlined in this article are very easy to implement. You will avoid the risk of heart disease if you follow them.
A stressful lifestyle adds fuel to fire if you have an excessive LDL cholesterol level. Tension adds to the high LDL cholesterol situation, whereas a tension free lifestyle actually goes a long way to decreasing the LDL cholesterol level.
If you (or a near one) suffer from a high LDL cholesterol level, don’t get all worried up about it. That will be counter-productive. You should be positive instead. You can do a lot to bring the LDL cholesterol levels down to normal. Start having a good, healthy and balanced diet. Increase the amount of your activity. Start exercising, and continue to do so regularly. Stop smoking altogether. Not only will your bad cholesterol level get itself back to where it belongs, but your exposure to heart attack and stroke will disappear as well. Don’t worry, be happy!
Filed under Diseases and Conditions by Ned Dagostino
July 7, 2009
An EKG Can Save Your Life
If you need to seek advice from your general practitioner as a result of a heart condition or you have a hereditary risk of cardiovascular problems, he or she may schedule a test called an EKG or ECG. Most individuals become uneasy if they’re supposed to take medical screenings, nevertheless you should know that this screening is not invasive and can in fact be life saving.
ECG and EKG are abbreviations for an assessment known as an electrocardiogram. This assessment calculates the electrical activity of your heart. While a stethoscope can allow a doctor to hear the heart, the EKG lets the physician see the tangible electrical signal of the heartbeat.
The heart in fact beats in three kinds of movements. The initial movement is the P wave. It takes place when the left and right atria beat. These are the top chambers of the heart that get blood from the body or the lungs. The subsequent wave is called the QRS complex and is created by the bottom chambers of the heart called ventricles. These are the components of the heart that pump blood away from the heart. The final wave is named a T wave and it results in the recovery of the ventricles once they pulsate.
A health care provider can understand much of information about you heart by examining this pattern of waves. The ECG will demonstrate how long it takes electrical activity to pass through the heart. If it’s moving too fast or too slow, this data will assist your physician to make a diagnosis of your situation. The test will also show if there are specific regions of the heart that are performing ineffectually by calculating how much electrical activity is present.
When you take this assessment, some sticky pads will be positioned all over your upper body near the heart. These will be attached to wires that lead to the ECG appliance. At the same time as the test is running, the appliance appraises your electrical activity. Once the assessment is completed, the stickers are detached. Taking off the stickers is the most painful element of the assessment. The remainder is entirely painless since the apparatus is not running any sort of current into your body. It’s just measuring the electrical activity within you.
The EKG is among the the most commonly used tests for diagnosis of heart problems. Once you undergo this test, the results may well lead to a conclusion or to further testing to pin down the specific ailment. Tests like an echocardiogram might be ordered. An echocardiogram is a noninvasive and perfectly comfortable ultrasound of the heart.
Filed under Health-and-Fitness by Josh Dirk
Have you ever heard of the French Paradox? It was first used by Dr. Serge Renaud to describe how lucky the French people were to eat such delicious, fatty foods without having a high incidence of heart attacks and heart related problems.
60 Minutes featured a whole show to Resveratrol. The show featured information as to how people have been benefiting from Resveratrol. The French Paradox it seems was due to a little know, natural antibiotic found in the grapes that make red wine.
After the airing of that 60 Minutes report, red wine sales surged! However what many people did not realize is that it was actually the Resveratrol in the wine that was the catalyst for the benefits of the red wine. It was determined that Resveratrol was the allowing the French to consume their culinary delights without having to worry about heart disease.
Resveratrol, which is found in the skin of red grapes is mainly responsible for the benefits of drinking red wine. Since 60 Minutes did their report back in 1991, Resveratrol has been attributed to curing or preventing a host of ailments including heart disease and even cancer.
Resveratrol, which is found in the skin of red grapes is mainly responsible for the benefits of drinking red wine. Since 60 Minutes did their report back in 1991, Resveratrol has been attributed to curing or preventing a host of ailments including heart disease and even cancer.
Not to get too scientific, but In 2006, a group of Italian scientists performed a significant study that concluded that in addition to being a remedy that lowers blood sugar, decreases the likelihood of heart disease, acts as an anti-inflammatory agent and helps dieters lose weight…if all of that wasn’t enough Resveratrol was found to actually increase one’s lifespan. What Ponce De Leon had been searching for all those years was actually in his grasp. Resveratrol seems to be the Fountain of Youth.
Now of course Resveratrol can’t help if cardiovascular disease is a result of other non-dietary factors, or at least it has not been shown to help as of yet. “The French paradox is only a paradox if one assumes that dietary fat is the major cause of obesity and cardiovascular disease,” said Paul Rozin, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Heart disease indeed can be brought on by a number of factors that are not related to the diet. Research as to the benefits of Reveratrol in this regard is ongoing.
The esteemed medical researcher Dr. Christoph Westphal believes if the research and data continues in the fashion that it has, then it’s likely that we all may be taking Resveratrol to “prevent and forestall many of the diseases that strike us as we reach 50, 60, and 70″.
Westphal truly believes that Resveratrol has the ability to change how we view health care.
Resveratrol is readily available but one of the most effective Resveratrol supplements that we have found is Res-V. You can find out more by visiting our Resveratrol website.
Filed under diet by Brandon Fletcher
June 29, 2009
The LDL Cholesterol Connection With Heart Disease
Medical research proves beyond doubt that there is an unholy nexus between LDL cholesterol and heart disease. The long and the short of it is: LDL cholesterol is bad for the heart! What then is LDL cholesterol and what can we do to control it? The answer to that question is the burden of this article. Please do take the time to read it, it can mean the difference between robust good health and a lifetime of illness.
LDL stands for low density lipoprotein, with the ‘lipo’ prefix indicating ‘fatty’. Similarly HDL stands for high density lipoprotein. The liver produces HDL cholesterol. This HDL cholesterol is used to repair damaged tissue and even to replace the dead tissue. The byproduct of this repairative work is LDL cholesterol. The LDL cholesterol is flushed out of the system by our circulatory and excretory systems. The body has regulatory mechanisms to ensure the proper balance of HDL and LDL cholesterols. However, at times, the level of LDL cholesterol exceeds the normal range and we end up with high LDL cholesterol levels in the blood. This is bad for our health.
Excessive LDL cholesterol sticks to the inner walls of the blood vessel and forms a plaque which reduces the blood flow. This condition is called arteriosclerosis, which is the harbinger of critical heart diseases.
Arteriosclerosis leads to high blood pressure which strains the heart and damages the walls of the blood vessels, a condition known as atherosclerosis. Clumps of LDL cholesterol can move down the blood vessels and block the minute capillary networks supplying blood to the brain and heart. If the capillary networks in these critical organs are blocked, the blood supply to these vital organs is cut off, stopped, and the organs experience a massive failure. Capillary blockage in the brain causes strokes, and capillary blockage in the heart cause heart attack. I don’t need to tell you the implications of these two conditions.
There is just one thing we can do to guard against heart disease caused by excessive LDL cholesterol: assist the body in regulating the blood cholesterol level. The most effective way is by controlling what we eat. Medical researchers tell us that the most common reason for excessive LDL cholesterol is our over-indulgence in saturated fats, both directly and indirectly. We can have fatty foods which are good for health, like the omega-3 group of fats. The omega-3 fats actually work to reduce the LDL cholesterol in the blood, so we should have a lot of tuna and salmon because they are rich sources of omega-3 fats. Studies show that drinking a lot of water helps to increase the blood circulation which goes a long way in reducing LDL cholesterol.
Check the medium your food is cooked in. Stop using polyunsaturated vegetable oils because they change to trans-fats on heating, and trans-fats are harmful for health. Use olive oil instead, because it is a good cooking medium. Just this much is good enough to bring about a drastic reduction of LDL cholesterol.
Quit smoking. We all know that smoking is bad for the lungs and is also a carcinogenic activity. What most of us don’t know is that smoking aggravates the high LDL cholesterol condition. The LDL cholesterol will drop almost immediately from the time you stop smoking, and it will drop further if you do as mentioned in this article.
Medical research shows that stress leads to LDL cholesterol buildup. Lowering your stress level will lower your blood LDL cholesterol too. The moral of the lesson is that you should relax more often, give up those activities that add to your stress, and pick up those activities that reduce your stress.
Say no to saturated fats, both as food and as a cooking medium. Say no to cigarette smoking. Say no to stress. Say no to inactivity and a sedentary lifestyle. Say yes to regular exercise. If you do all this, you’ll be saying: “Good riddance, LDL cholesterol! Hello, health!
Filed under Diseases and Conditions by Ned Dagostino


