Archive for the ‘alcohol’ Category

Should You Be Drinking Wine To Control Blood Pressure?

Sunday, October 26th, 2008

You’ve probably heard that drinking wine may be good for your health. Studies have shown that drinking moderate amounts of wine may help control blood pressure and the risks of heart disease. Wine may also reduce the risk of strokes and gallstones.

A moderate amount of wine is up to two glasses per day for men, one glass for women. Those over 65 should stick to one drink per day. Excessive drinking may lead to health problems such as cancer, stroke, fetal alcohol syndrome, and damage to the heart, pancreas, and liver.

Researchers have found that a moderate amount of ethanol increases good (HDL) cholesterol and prevents the formation of bad (LDL) cholesterol. Ethanol also prevents the formation of blood clots that could lead to a heart attack or stroke. Red wine contains antioxidants, which may be helpful in preventing certain diseases. You don’t need to drink wine to benefit from antioxidants, however; they’re available in fruits, vegetables, and red grape juice. Red wine is also rich in polyphenols, compounds associated with heart health. Polyphenols are also found in chocolate, tea, berries, and olive oil.

So should you start drinking wine? The American Heart Association says that if you do not currently drink, you shouldn’t start drinking for health benefits. You can lower your risk of cardiovascular disease by exercising regularly and eating a low-fat diet. If you enjoy a glass of wine with dinner, consider it only a small part of your overall health strategy.

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What do Cholesterol Levels Mean

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

By going to the doctor and getting a simple blood test to check your cholesterol, you can find out what your levels of cholesterol are. When you go to get your cholesterol checked, it will be checked for all levels of your cholesterol. Your test will come back showing the levels of your cholesterol and what they could mean for your health. Your doctor will take all your information about your age, family history, smoking and your blood pressure into account. This will tell your doctor what your risk of heart disease will be from the cholesterol levels that you have. The levels of cholesterol that will be checked will be your total blood cholesterol level, your HDL cholesterol level, your LDL cholesterol level and your triglyceride level. These are all very important levels of your cholesterol. And each one will mean something different for you.

If you have a total blood cholesterol level less then 200 mg this is good level. And will put you at a low risk for heart disease. If it is above 200 mg you are considered to be borderline high risk. Your doctor will probably recommend that you change your lifestyle to lower your blood cholesterol level. And request that you have your cholesterol checked more often. If it is over 240 mg then you are at high risk. And your doctor will want to want to put you on a treatment plan and probably prescribe medication for you to lower it.

If your HDL cholesterol level is higher then this is good. Low HDL levels can put you at a high risk for heart disease and other problems. If your LDL cholesterol level is low then it is good. This will help to reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke. If your triglyceride level is high. This means that you have a high total cholesterol level. People can have a high triglyceride level because they are overweight, smoke cigarettes, are inactive, and drink excess alcohol. These levels can mean different things for you. Go to your doctor and get the treatment that is best for you to lower your cholesterol.

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Dealing With Cholesterol

Friday, August 22nd, 2008

Hypercholesterolemia is said to be one of the main disorders leading to even more serious conditions, such as heart diseases and, in the end, to heart attacks. This is why if we happen to be diagnosed with high cholesterol level we must act in order to restore the normal one. To reduce cholesterol is not an option we may take or not take in such circumstances. On the contrary, if we care at all about our health the reasonable thing to do is to make the decision of following a proper treatment. Lowering cholesterol is a complex process but, despite of this feature, it is still urgent.

Many are the measures one can take in order to deal with cholesterol issues. Some of them refer to dietary habits, meaning we have to reduce or to remove the intake of certain foods, such as yolk-based dishes, fatty meat, organs, shrimps, pastry, regular milk, cream and cheese. Also, changing one’s diet means to enrich meals with other healthier nutrients, like oat, different types of nuts, various species of fish, and so on. Other recommendations made while undergoing a treatment intended to reduce cholesterol refer to physical exercises. Working out alleviates not just cholesterol-related problems, but also has a positive overall impact on our organisms. It helps to reduce our body weight and implicitly it improves the blood pressure.

The process of lowering cholesterol implies, in addition, the necessity to quit smoking. Irrespective of the fact that smoking is extremely damaging from many points of view, it only complicates more whatever heart diseases we may have. Alcohol intake must be eliminated or reduced as much as possible as well. But the thing about the above mentioned manners to deal with cholesterol issues is that they are partial, that is, in order to get visible results one must combine them all or at least some of them into a single conjoint effort. Sometimes, this proves to be a demand too great to be able to satisfy.

But researchers developed some new supplements with the purpose of enabling the process of lowering cholesterol. In time, it was proven that some natural substances improve the low level of HDL, also referred to as the “good” cholesterol, and to diminish hypercholesterolemia which is caused by a high level of LDL, or “bad” cholesterol. Niacin, for instance, is a very powerful compound, also known as nicotinic acid or vitamin B3.

Because of this, it may be possible that it generates some unpleasant side effects, it is usually employed as inositol hexaniacinate. Policosanol may as well count as a supplement helping to lower bad cholesterol and to improve the good one. Guggul and green tea extracts are also proven to decrease the LDL level and to increase the HDL one. Garlic is healthful just as well, and fish oils, rich in omega-3 fatty acids, are extremely efficient in doing the same job. lowering cholesterol is not something we are allowed to ignore if the circumstances ask us to pay attention to our health, especially if we consider that hypercholesterolemia is the main cause of heart diseases. In order to reduce cholesterol some measures are within our reach, and with the purpose of helping our regimen, some supplements with proven efficiency are nowadays offered to us.

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How to Fight Cholesterol

Monday, August 4th, 2008

Dr. Helen is having some cholesterol hell. She wants to keep her LDL cholesterol low and HDL cholesterol high, and having suffered a heart attack in the past this is of the utmost importance. The product she was using was Benecol Smart Chews, which, judging by the nutrition facts, don’t seem to have anything particularly wrong with them. It uses plant sterols, proven to lower LDL cholesterol in the human body. Yet her LDL cholesterol and triglycerides level went up. What gives?

Whatever the reason, cholesterol is something you should try to keep in check whether young or old. Sometimes, triglycerides and LDL cholesterol come from crazy places you wouldn’t even think of. Below are my tips for getting your cholesterol under control through the use of a good diet, exercise, and supplements.

Avoid Processed Foods and Artificial Sweeteners

This is so hard to do nowadays because almost everything is processed and almost everything has corn syrup in it (even the chews!). Processed foods like corn syrup — and even white bread and white pasta — are turned into glucose (sugar) rapidly by the body. Excess sugar that your body doesn’t use fast enough will be turned into fat. In this case, most often these foods will be turned into triglycerides, a kind of fat that is easy to burn off but is detrimental to your health.

Buy truly whole grain products whenever possible to avoid this affect on the body.

Limit Your Alcohol Consumption

Certain alcohol beverages, such as beer and especially wine, have been shown to have incredible health benefits in moderation. A couple glasses of wine a day is no problem. However, when you drink alcohol, the liver prioritizes the metabolism of alcohol over other substances such as glucose. This results in even more glucose than usual being converted into triglycerides. This will happen especially when drinking cocktails that involve fruit juices and syrups. This is especially a warning to all the college students out there!

Eat Your Fiber

This can’t be stressed more. Fruits, vegetables, and legumes have so many different qualities that are amazing that they shouldn’t be passed up on. In terms of helping with your cholesterol, there are some benefits that your greens can give you that few foods can. The soluble fiber in fruits and legumes, as well as oatmeal, form gelatinous substances in the intestine and bind with cholesterol so that it is removed rather than absorbed. Eating just 15 grams of soluble fiber a day can reduce your LDL cholesterol by 10-15% over time.

Exercise and You Won’t Be Sorry

A regular regimen of exercise is extremely helpful in burning off triglycerides and reducing LDL cholesterol while boosting HDL cholesterol. There is no doubt that cardiovascular exercise as well as weight training reduces inflammation, excess fat, and LDL cholesterol. Truly, any amount of exercise is beneficial but those who do it regularly will see the most benefit. You need to remember though that the heart is also a muscle, and while it may seem strange, a whey protein shake after a jog is just what it needs to build itself stronger than ever before.

Get Acquainted with the Good Fats, Throw Out the Bad

A supplement with plant sterols alone is not going to do the trick — essential fatty acids have the most control over your cholesterol levels. Before I say anything, I just wanted everyone to know that I am extremely biased against low/no fat diets. I think they are ridiculous and led to a generation of people coming down with cardiovascular diseases. That’s because fat in your diet is so absolutely necessary that you can’t afford to cut it out. In terms of cholesterol, fat can save your life if you eat the right kinds. So what are they?

Monounsaturated fats are what you want the most of in terms of lowering LDL cholesterol. When eating a salad or some whole wheat pasta, feel free to drizzle a good helping of extra virgin olive oil. Salad dressings based on olive oil are also good. Seriously, olive oil is amazing and shouldn’t be passed up on.

You should also make sure to get a large amount of your essential oils from food sources. Fish have a lot of good fats in them, such as the polyunsaturated omega-3 and omega-6. Avocado is great. Some coconut oil, a medium-chain saturated fat, has been shown to be beneficial as well. You should also eat a decent amount of nuts, as they contain a great amount of oils that are beneficial to the body.

So what are the bad? Any kind of processed or refined oil. That giant, cheap gallon of vegetable oil should be thrown out immediately. There is no better way to raise your triglyceride and LDL cholesterol count than to cook everything in vegetable oil. When oils are heated they undergo a chemical transformation that makes them much less healthy for you. Basically, anything that says processed, hydrogenated, or partially hydrogenated should be thrown out especially if found in packaged food. These are generally trans fats — the biggest culprit in terms of bad cholesterol.

You will also want to trim as much fat off of red meat as possible as, unlike coconut oil which is a medium-chain saturated fat, these are long-chain saturated fats and do have a connection to higher LDL cholesterol. Replace some of your red meat meals with fowl and fish instead.

Some Supplements Do Wonders

There is a reason that bodybuilders and nutritionists are absolutely obsessed with certain supplement products. Their benefits are proven, visible, and effective in everyone.

Flax seeds and flax seed oil are one of nature’s best sources of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Taken as a supplement or whole, these little guys do wonders for your cholesterol and heart. Cod liver oil is a good alternative, containing these fats along with vitamins A and D naturally.

Like I said, bodybuilders and nutritionists take these because they work. AI put a bit of flaxseed oil in every protein shake I make. While I’m sure the Benecol Smart Chews has had some kind of effect given the plant sterols, I don’t believe that it can have nearly the effect as supplementing with essential fatty acids.

Conclusion

There are many lifestyle changes that you can make in order to boost your cardiovascular health and tackle cholesterol problems. As a natural substance that your body needs, dietary cholesterol itself has very little impact on the cholesterol in your body. When you eat more cholesterol, your body simply makes less. The terms HDL and LDL actually refer to lipoproteins that surround the cholesterol the production of which has much more to do with dietary fat than dietary cholesterol. A good exercise regimen, but most of all a healthy diet full of unprocessed foods and essential unsaturated fatty acids, are essential to raising your HDL and LDL levels, thus preventing the kind of arterial plaque that can lead to so many cardiovascular diseases.

These tips worked for me, and I hope that by following my suggestions you can successfully achieve your goals. Good luck Dr. Helen and everyone else!

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Triglycerides

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

Triglyceride is a fat-like substance produced in your body. High triglyceride level can occure due to obesity, cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking, lack of physical activity and a diet very high in carbohydrates. High triglyceride level usually leads to high total level of cholesterol with high bad cholesterol level and low good cholesterol level. High triglyceride level in blood can also be a sign of diabetes mellitus and/or heart disease.

Blood triglyceride level depend on age and sex. Women tend to have higher triglyceride levels than men do, and as they get older, their cholesterol and triglyceride levels tend to rise.

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Lipitor and Red Wine

Sunday, July 20th, 2008

There have been plenty of studies done showing the heart healthy benefits of alcohol. But while there are rumors red wine is the best, is it really?

According to a study by Jefferson Medical College researchers, who compared the effects of drinking either red wine or gin on several biochemical markers in the blood, red wine had a much greater effect in lowering levels of substances which are hallmarks for heart disease and stroke.

Subjects in two groups were given two drinks a day of either wine or gin for 28 days. Then, those who received red wine the first time then were given gin. Those who had gin first then received red wine. The researchers measured levels of inflammatory biomarkers before and after each half of the trial.

The red wine dramatically lowered, more than the gin, the levels of molecules involved in inflammation.

While this is a controversial issue, there are many experts who believe the benefits of wine have been shoved under the rug. In fact, this is highly valuable medicinal, as powerful as some of the best drugs we have available today in preventing heart disease.

“Moderate drinking that’s say one, two drinks a day of alcoholic beverage provides as much protection as the statins. It’s about a third reduction in heart attacks, which is very substantial. And alcohol’s a lot cheaper,” said Dr. Emanuel Rubin, a pathologist.

The statins are drugs like Lipitor or Pravachol. Red wine contains many complex compounds including polyphenols, which are absent from gin, and what the researchers believe make the difference.

But Dr. Rubin cautions, regardless of the alcohol, there are true benefits to be gained by drinking daily. “I think it is a reasonable thing for doctors to recommend to patients after a certain age that ordinary social drinking is actually good for you,” he said.

Keep in mind not to overdo it. The research found there’s no benefit when you have more than two drinks per day.

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