Heart Healthy Foods – by Dr. Tom Bayne
Heart Disease: The Number One Killer of Women – by Dr. Martha Howard
High Blood Pressure: How it affects your family and how you can lower it – by Dr Melody Hart
Healthy Heart Month (Jan 2008) – You don’t have to die from Cardiovascular Disease – by Dr Hugh A. Jenkins N.D., D.C.BTA Clinician
What’s the Real Deal about High Blood Pressure? – by Teresa Zeigler, L.Ac.
Your Heart Health and Gum Disease – by Dr Kevin Boehm

Here are some facts about heart disease and cholesterol that many people are shocked to find out:

The hard part about cholesterol is that we assume because our blood cholesterol is too high that we need to stop consuming foods that contain cholesterol. Cholesterol that naturally occurs in animal foods is not harmful to your health. But it can become harmful to your health if it is damaged by exposure to high levels of heat and/or harsh processing techniques. If you regularly consume damaged cholesterol than you likely have significant quantities of damaged cholesterol floating through your circulatory system. So while it’s true that a high HDL/total cholesterol ratio can reflect a lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease, what’s most important when it comes to cholesterol and your health is to avoid eating animal foods that have been cooked at high temperatures, since these foods are typically rich in damaged cholesterol.

Here are some proactive heart health tips:

Supplements can be a great adjunct to a healthy lifestyle. CoQ10 is found in every cell in the body and it is responsible for healthy cellular energy levels. It has a particular affinity for heart muscle and it is a great cardio-protective nutrient to take. Research suggests that statin drugs, or HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors, a class of drugs used to lower cholesterol, may interfere with the body’s production of CoQ10. All statin users should supplement with CoQ10. Antioxidants help the body neutralize the effects of free-radicals. Free-radicals are the source of much of the oxidation reactions that are the cause of heart stress and disease. Antioxidants like Vitamin E have potent free-radical neutralizing properties giving it huge cardiovascular benefits. Vitamin K2 has been the subject of many European research studies recently. Their findings showed that vitamin K2 removed calcium from arteries which softened arteries and decreased plaque in arterial walls of the subjects studied. This would normally be enough benefits for one nutrient, but to the researchers amazement the K2 seemed to take the calcium to the bones offering the added benefit in women of strengthening bones.

Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD, author of The Cholesterol Myths : Exposing the Fallacy that Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease

February is Healthy Heart Month! Here are two facts about heart attacks that every woman needs to know. They could save your life:
1.HEART ATTACKS ARE NOW THE NUMBER ONE CAUSE OF DEATH IN BOTH MEN AND WOMEN.
2.CHEST PAIN IS NOT THE MAIN WARNING SIGN OF HEART ATTACKS IN WOMEN.

A November 2003 National Institutes of Health (NIH) study, titled “Women’s Early Warning Symptoms of Acute Myocardial Infarction” – (PDF available at www.circ.ahajournals.org/go) studied 515 women. A whopping 95% of them said they knew their symptoms were new or different a month or more before having their heart attack. Here are the facts and figures on the “warning signs”:

Unfortunately, most doctors continue to consider chest pain as the most important heart attack symptom in both women and men—so it is important for women to bring any of the above symptoms to the attention of their doctors, to say that they have heard of the NIH study on women’s heart attacks and are concerned that they might be at risk. Recognition of these symptoms by both women and their doctors is critical to prevention and treatment, because it is clear that women’s symptoms are not as predictable as men’s. There is a wide range of symptoms that can indicate that a heart attack is about to happen, or is in progress.
Here is the list of symptoms that women reported for a heart attack in progress:

In addition to preventing acute heart attacks by being aware of symptoms, long-term prevention is equally important.
Controllable heart-attack risk factors, and prevention tips for each one:

Non-controllable cardiac risk factors for women:

If you fall in any of these categories it is important to follow prevention strategies, to be aware of any new symptoms, and to report them to a doctor.

Emotional risk factors

Emotional risk factors for heart attack are generally not discussed in allopathic medicine in the United States. However, a series of studies definitely proves that Type A behavior (defined as time urgency—the “hurry sickness”—and free-floating hostility) doubles the risk of coronary artery disease. Furthermore, a prevention study shows that counseling to modify Type A behavior brought about a 45% reduction in heart attack recurrence in the counseled group. (See Meyer Friedman, MD’s excellent summary article “Type A Behavior: The Poorly Recognized and Rarely Treated Major Coronary Risk Factor” archived online at www.sfms.org/go.
With more women working in high speed, high stress jobs, Type A behavior is an increasing heart attack risk for women. If you have found yourself pounding the steering wheel or getting angry in the airport line too many times, consider counseling as prevention. Happy Healthy Heart Month!

High blood pressure is a major problem in today’s fast paced, high stress world. It is a silent condition that steals health and is a precursor to serious cardiovascular disease that can steal life. Most cases of high blood pressure are caused by arteriosclerosis and atherosclerosis – factors that can be brought under control by diet and lifestyle improvements.


Blood pressure can affect the whole family by them being irritable with headaches, dizziness, sleeplessness, fatigue and edema. You and your family members can avoid getting high blood pressure by diet and lifestyle improvements.


You can lower your blood pressure by keeping your body weight down. One of the biggest risk factors is increased fat storage. Avoid refined foods, caffeine, salty, sugary, fried and fatty foods, heavy pastries and soft drinks. All cause potassium depletion and allow arterial plaque build-up.


Include lots of vitamin C, magnesium and potassium rich foods, like broccoli, bananas, dried fruits, potatoes, seafood, bell peppers, avocados, cauliflower, brown rice and leafy greens.


As for lifestyle exercise is important take a brisk 30 minute walk every day with plenty of deep lung breathing. Relaxation techniques are very important, massage and meditation are best for hypertension.


Avoid phenylalanine (especially as found in Nutra-Sweet) and over the counter antihistamines.

Heart/Cardiovascular Diseases—The Silent Killer is the No.1 killer of nearly half of the American population and sends more than 6 million people to the hospital each year. For many, a fatal heart attack is the first symptom of this horrible disease. Worse, many of the “TRADITIONAL” risk factors don’t accurately predict whether you are susceptible. Educate yourself by understanding the role of nutrition, exercise and positive lifestyles choices. You can dramatically strengthen your health and lower your disease causing factors just by making simple changes.


ARE YOU AT RISK FOR HEART/CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE?
Find out with this cardiac survey: Which of these characteristics, conditions or lifestyle issues best describes you?
1. Earlobe creases
2. Thyroid dysfunction
3. Gum disease
4. Smoking
5. Sedentary lifestyle
6. High stress
7. High red meat (pork, beef and lamb) consumption, more than 3x per week.
8. Diet rich in processed carbohydrates (white flour, white sugar, white rice).
9. Baldness
10. Family history of heart disease
11. Overweight, especially in the abdominal region
12. High Cholesterol levels especially the TG/HDL ratio
13. Hypertension/High Blood Pressure
14. Age of life 40 and above.

Listed above are 14 of the most common risk factors for heart disease, but there are more than 250 documented risk factors and you are at risk with even one characteristic on this list. If you have 3 or more of these risk factors, you are at serious risk of a possible heart attack and you must take action to protect your cardiovascular health.


You don’t have to die from heart/cardiovascular disease. Discover the real factors, know the hidden causes and find the real answers. Protect yourself from heart disease with knowing some of the untold truths that are hidden from you. These are just 5 of the many untold truths:


1. IT’S NOT THE TOTAL CHOLESTEROL THAT MATTERS, IT’S YOUR TRIGLYCERIDES/HDL RATIO!!!
In the past we’ve always focused on the total cholesterol numbers and it is important to keep them within “normal” range. However, it is even more important to maintain a proper ratio between the triglycerides (TG) and the HDL, the “good” cholesterol. The higher the TG level is, the lower the HDL level will be and although the statin drugs can help reduce the overall cholesterol and cause many side effects, they do nothing to boost the all-important HDL. The higher the TG/HDL ratio is, the higher the risk of a heart attack, regardless of the total cholesterol!


2. INFLAMMATION IS THE HEART OF THE MATTER!!!
Inflammation is the body’s basic emergency response system. When the body perceives an attack of any kind, the immune system rallies to defend itself. It sends an army of white blood cells to destroy the invaders. Eventually these white blood cells pile up in layers on the blood vessels creating unstable lesions that rupture weak blood vessels triggering a heart attack. The system is made more vulnerable if there are more risk factors like overweight/obesity, smoking, a family medical history of heart disease, high stress and/or the S.A.D. (standard American diet) of highly processed sugar laden, carbohydrate-rich foods. All of these risk factors are known to shock the immune system into action and cause the inflammation reaction that can lead to heart disease.


3. WOMEN ARE 10-15 TIMES MORE LIKELY TO DIE FROM HEART DISEASE THAN FROM BREAST CANCER!!!
Heart/Cardiovascular disease is still the No.1 KILLER of both Men and Women; the symptoms are different in women. Thus women may not be aware of what to look for, this put them at greater risk of death or serious complications from a heart attack. Women often have subtler symptoms that may be misdiagnosed as chest pains related to anxiety or panic attacks and/or severs stress, but only about 41% of women have any pain at all. Other symptoms include dizziness, nausea, weakness, fatigue and/or anxiety. Because of the misdiagnosis these women are advised to take the WRONG medications, when what they need is immediate cardiovascular care. Only about 3% of women believe they will die of heart disease, but 45-50% do. And 45-50% of women believe they will die of breast cancer, but only about 3% do. When a young woman dies 3 days before her 20th birthday, we must educate women of all ages of the danger of cardiovascular disease.


4. CARDIOLOGISTS ARE OFTEN SLOW TO REACT TO NEW MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS!!!
Most physicians are highly motivated to help, treat and cure patients. Some of them are slow to react to the new developments in treatment options. It’s because the physicians don’t know about the fibrinogen, C-Reactive Proteins, Homocysteine and other cytokines. These are relatively NEW developments—WITHIN THE PAST 10+ YEARS. The drug companies, who highly promote the toxic prescription drugs that, are more expensive, damaging and harder to acquire than their natural options, perpetuate this ignorance. Don’t trust your health and/or your life to a doctor who is NOT abreast of current medical and natural research and testing!


5. DRUGS ARE NOT THE SOLUTION THEY MAY BE THE PROBLEM!!!
The real problem with prescription heart drugs is that they are only temporary fixes-BANDAIDS, not permanent solutions. Most of the popular cardiovascular medications have some serious if not deadly side effects and/or cross reactions you may not be aware of, from mild nausea, confusion, fatigue, serious muscle weakness and atrophy, liver and gallbladder problems, malabsorption leading to malnutrition, depression, arthritis, stroke and believe it or not even heart attack. The best solution is prevention; by getting to the underlining causes of heart disease you can prevent a heart attack and other cardiovascular problems.


A predominate plant-based diet, exercise, stress management, positive lifestyle and supplementation with natural high quality supplements can help you maintain healthy cholesterol readings, strong heart function and excellent circulation for a very long, healthy life.

High blood pressure or hypertension also known as the silent killer is a major problem in America’s fast-paced, high stress world. Blood pressure is the force of the flowing blood against the walls of the arteries. It is measured in two numbers. The first number is systolic pressure which represents the pressure generated when the heart contracts and pumps the blood through the artery. The lower number is diastolic pressure, which represents the pressure in the vessels when the heart is at rest. If your systolic pressure is equal or greater than 140 mmhg, and/or your diastolic pressure is equal or greater than 90 mmhg on three separate occasions while seated, a definite diagnosis can be made.

Causes of High Blood Pressure – Although behavior patterns and stress play an important part, hypertension is most closely related to dietary factors. Other key elements are:

If you experience any of the following sign/symptoms you should see your physician to have your blood pressure monitored: headache, fatigue, confusion, nausea/vomiting, excessive perspiration, muscle tremors, chest pain, ear ringing/buzzing

How Can You Prevent High Blood Pressure?
Everyone–regardless of race, age, sex, or heredity–can help lower their chance of developing high blood pressure. Here’s how:
1) Maintain a healthy weight, lose weight if you are overweight
2) Be more physically active
3) Consume lower salt and sodium foods, reduce consumption of red meat, eat more fruits and vegetables
4) If you drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation. Quit smoking — it increases your risk of heart attack and stroke.

These rules are also recommended for treating high blood pressure, although medicine is often added as part of the treatment. It is far better to keep your blood pressure from getting high in the first place.

Teresa Zeigler, L.Ac. is a Chicago Healers.com (www.chicagohealers.com) Practitioner and Certified Acupuncturist and Chinese Herbalist.

Gum disease is caused by a number of things. There are always bacteria present in the mouth with the potential to create the gum disease state, but how the body reacts to their presence may be the most important thing.


In a healthy mouth, the gum disease causing anaerobic bacteria are generally present but in far fewer numbers than in an unhealthy mouth. The normal aerobic bacteria are present in abundance which helps our immune system with a check and balance system synergistically limiting the harmful pathogens from rapid population growth. Normal brushing and flossing daily and maintaining a healthy diet of as many organic, non-processed foods all aid the immune system in maintaining this healthy state.


Gum disease worsens through many factors. If improper or insufficient daily care is negligent, the normal highly aerobic bacterial balance shifts to higher anaerobic gum disease producing numbers of bacteria. Our immune system becomes challenged to fight the problematic anaerobes. Our white blood cells release chemical mediators and cell to cell messages to bring reinforcements in to gain the upper hand in this fight. Some of these anaerobes, once killed by the white blood cell response, release what are known as endotoxins, a normal bacterial cell component which when released damages our own healthy cells causing cell death. In essence, it is a friendly fire-like circumstance. In our killing of the harmful pathogens, the bacteria release their chemical time bombs that kill our healthy gum and or bone cells, thereby increasing the amount of collateral damage caused. Certain men and women lack certain chemical safeguards that would protect themselves from their own enzymes’ killing of their own healthy tissues. For example, if endotoxins kill off osteoclast cells (our normal bone remodeling cells), they can release large quantities of the collagenase enzyme. Collagenase is a normal body enzyme that in a controlled setting by our healthy cells is enormously useful, but in this instance, lethal to a lot of surrounding tissue if that enzyme can’t be neutralized quickly enough.


Looking at this from a vascular standpoint here’s what happens to blood vessels in the immediately affected areas of gum disease. Our immune system has used chemical messengers, cytokines and prostaglandins to not only call more white blood cells to fight the ever growing infection, but also these chemicals tell our capillaries (small blood vessels) to open up gaps within their walls to allow the newly arriving white blood cells access in fighting the infection. More bacteria are killed, more endotoxins are released, and now we have blood vessels wide open allowing the invading bacteria and their toxic by-products access to anywhere they would like to go within our body through our blood delivery system. You now have a bigger problem.


The same endotoxin, among other things, has the same lethal effects on muscle, lymphatic, heart, brain and every other differentiated human cell type. Turning this potent killer loose on your heart or brain tissue can certainly cause havoc to be frank. If tunica intima cells (cells that line the inside of your arteries) are damaged, this can certainly lead to scar tissue formation, arteriosclerosis, and hypertension over time. This puts added burden on the kidneys and the heart muscle itself. Over a couple decades if the vascular damage cannot be corrected, renal failure, stroke, heart attack, and quite possibly death can be the result. Heart disease is among the top three causes of morbidity and mortality today, as it has been for a number of years. As we in the holistic field know full well, this is looking at the bigger picture. Proper oral care performed daily limits these risk factors. Failing to do so can have catastrophic effects if left unchecked and untreated. Brushing and flossing is not just about teeth and gums anymore. It’s about raising awareness of the potential for bacterial penetration of our vascular system and allowing a localized infection to spread systematically with the above mentioned outcomes as a partial list of possibilities to the unsuspecting host.


The age adjusted death rates for coronary heart disease and stroke have each reduced about 30% since 1999, according to the latest data in the American Heart Association’s heart disease and stroke statistics (2009 update published online in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association). These reflect the latest data for 2006. “The American Heart Association is proud of the progress this country has made against America’s number one single cause of death and the number three killer,” said Association President Timothy Gardner, M.D. (News release, American Heart Association, Dallas December 15, 2008)


If heart disease is 30% better and still the number 3 killer of Americans, it certainly seems like we have a long way to go.


Okay, heart disease runs in your family and you have been diagnosed with gum disease. What do you do? Unfortunately, we can’t get into everything that it would be wise to do in prevention, supplementation, or nutrition, but here are a few of each that are easy to do and remember.


On the hygiene front, brush 2-3 minutes at least twice daily, and preferably with an electric toothbrush (Oral-B, Sonicare, Rotodent, Crest, etc.) These are proven superior to hand brushing. Floss daily going lightly in an up/down direction making sure to get under the gum line to break up the anaerobes where they love to hide. For those with bridgework, use floss threaders, proxybrushes and/or super floss wherever you are able without causing damage. I prefer non-alcohol containing mouth rinses as another adjunct, and there are a lot from which to choose. For gum disease sufferers, a waterpik on low pressure can be a great thing to flush out problem areas and place medicaments where they can be of best benefit. And by all means, see your dentist at least twice annually.


With respect to nutrition and supplementation, let’s keep it simple. Eating a diet of as much organic whole, raw vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds with small amounts of meat, fish, and poultry, and limiting processed foods is as simple as it gets. You often will derive most of the vitamins, minerals, protein, fats, carbohydrates, and anti-oxidants you need just by doing this. If supplements are needed, and often times are, try these for starters: vitamin C, vitamin E, and CoQ10 are all powerful anti-oxidants that are very useful in our cardiovascular system and in gingival tissue, either diseased or healthy. They are able to neutralize toxins on a cellular level, which is what makes them so useful. There are large numbers of more obscure, or less well known, anti-oxidants, but almost everyone knows about these three.


Just because heart disease runs in your family and gum disease is found, doesn’t mean the executioner’s song is playing. You can alter things over time and effect positive change. But this often takes discipline in diet, hygiene and supplementation, which most individuals choose not to do as they should. Hiding from the problem won’t help. Look hard in the mirror and choose wisely. Accept that hard choices must be made, and do what’s necessary. Gum disease tends to be cyclical in nature and with the proper attention to all phases of health and hygiene, you can certainly do your best to limit your own risks and repair past damage in many instances.