Lower Your Cholesterol Naturally

In 1999, according to a study by IMS Health Global Services, world prescription medication consumption amounted to $342 billion. In 2006 that figure doubled to $643 billion. A significant proportion of the drugs consumed are excreted by the human body in urine and end up in municipal wastewater.
A study conducted by Université de Montréal researchers on downstream and upstream water from the Montreal wastewater treatment plant has revealed the presence of chemotherapy products and certain hypertension and cholesterol medications.
Bezafibrate (cholesterol reducing medication) and enalapril (hypertension medication) have been detected in the treated water leaving the wastewater treatment plant and in the surface water of the St. Lawrence River, where the treated wastewater is released.
The quantities of bezafibrate and enalapril detected in the raw wastewater, treated wastewater and surface water at the treatment station outlet are respectively 50 nanograms per litre, 35 ng L and 8 ng L for bezafibrate and 280 ng L, 240 ng L and 39ng L for enalapril.
Fish are ingesting cholesterol and high blood pressure drugs. Makes one wonder if their cholesterol levels are affected. Maybe just maybe they have lowered cholesterol levels.
“All in all, these quantities are minimal, yet we don’t yet know their effects on the fauna and flora of the St. Lawrence,” Professor Sauvé explains. A cheap method of collecting more data and analyzing them is needed.
When I apply for a fishing license they usually give me a listing of how much fish flesh I can eat. To my understanding this had to do with herbicides and pesticides collecting in the fish meat. Now I wonder if we have to worry about medications when we eat river fish – especially chemotherapy medications. This gives another reason to release fish after catching them.

Sodium and potassium, may work together to affect blood pressure and heart disease risk, according to a new analysis from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health.

The latest findings suggest that a high sodium/potassium ratio is a stronger indicator of increased risk of cardiovascular disease than high levels of sodium or potassium alone.

In a long-term observational study of the effect of lifestyle changes on blood pressure, there was a 24 percent increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease per unit of increase in the ratio of sodium to potassium.

This finding suggests that lowering sodium intake while increasing potassium consumption may reduce cardiovascular disease, according to the researchers.

They made no mention of what a high ratio of these two nutrients might be. It is interesting to note that levels of sodium or levels of potassium by themselves are not as important as the ratio of the two in regards to heart disease.

I have pointed out in other posts that in the U.S. we have an obesity epidemic. And it is occurring in our
children as well. As we sit playing video games and watching TV we are lacking in good old physical exercise.
Now doctors are seeing a correlation between obesity and heart disease as suggested by the following.

“It is clear that obesity is a risk factor for the development of premature cardiovascular disease in youth,”
reports Dr. Catherine McNeal, an associate professor of internal medicine and an assistant professor of
pediatrics at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine.

According to one scoring measure, obesity in male adolescents is a greater risk factor for
cardiovascular disease than smoking, McNeal noted.

The following is some more scary info.

Researchers at the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Medicine and Children’s Mercy Hospital
used ultrasound to measure the thickness of the inner walls of the carotid arteries, located in the
neck, in 70 high-risk children aged 6 to 19.

The average age of participants was 13, most were white, and about half were male. Fifty-seven
percent had a body-mass index (BMI) above the 95th percentile for their age.

On average, participants’ “vascular age,” meaning the age at which this level of thickening would be
normal, was three decades older than their chronological age.

The researchers point out that this is not a definitive study since it only had a test group  of 70.
To me it seems that any group of children taken at random should not be overweight and should most
definitely not have ‘old areteries’.

Is it possible that this generation of youth will be the first generation to not outlive their parents?

I read somewhere back there that in the future there would be a method of flushing the plaque buildup out of cardiac arteries. Today in the paper I saw an article on ‘chelation’ – the method has a name.
I looked up the term – Chelation (pronounced key-LAY-shun) is the use of a chemical substance to bind molecules, such as metals or minerals, and hold them tightly so they can be removed from the body. Chelation has been scientifically proven to remove excess or toxic metals before they can cause damage to the body. It was first used in the 1940’s by the Navy to treat lead poisoning.
Although it is not approved by the FDA to treat hardening of the arteries, EDTA (ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid) chelation is used by some physicians and alternative medicine practitioners to improve circulation and treat this disorder by removing calcium deposits and plaques from the arteries.
The American Heart Association states that there is currently “no scientific evidence to demonstrate any benefit from this form of therapy”.
Recently, a few deaths of patients who received this form of therapy has cast a big shadow of doubt on its value. However, these persons were all recent heart attack victims and after a heart attack there is a good chance of dying from another heart attack. So the jury is out whether the chelation therapy brought about the deaths of these patients.
To me it seems that if chelation worked for heart disease victims – what a great thing it would be! But it still has to go through many definitive trials before it can be accepted.

A team of University of California, San Diego School of Medicine physician-researchers is proposing that aggressive intervention to lower cholesterol levels as early as childhood is the best approach available today to reducing the incidence of coronary heart disease. They state that with a large body of evidence proving that low cholesterol levels equate with low rates of heart disease, “…our long-term goal should be to alter our lifestyle accordingly, beginning in infancy or early childhood” and that “…instituting a low-saturated fat, low-cholesterol diet in infancy (7 months) is perfectly safe, without adverse effects…”They propose lowering low-density lipoproteins (the so-called “bad cholesterol”) to less than 50 mg./dl. even in children and young adults is a safe and potentially life-saving standard, through lifestyle (diet and exercise) changes if possible. They do not advocate using drug therapy to reach these levels, especially in children with no other risk factors, but to achieve these low levels through “TLC,” or “therapeutic lifestyle changes,” such as diet and exercise.

In a UK study, the authors examined the relationship between fasting levels of blood fats and short term verbal memory in 3,673 male and female middle aged adults who were taking part in the study.

Blood samples were taken at two measuring points: at mean age 55 and mean age 61, and tested for lipid or blood fat levels, including total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and triglycerides. The participants also completed short term memory tests at the two measuring points.

This study started in 1985 and has been following over 10,000 male and female London-based members of the British Civil Service. The participants have regular clinical exams and periodically fill in questionnaires.The results showed that: · Compared to having high HDL-C, having low HDL-C was linked to having a higher risk of memory deficit at the first (27 per cent higher risk) and second measuring point (53 per cent higher risk).· Decrease in HDL-C over the 5 year follow up was linked with memory decline (61 per cent higher risk).The study is the work of researchers at University College, London, and is published in the 30th June issue of the Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology journal of the American Heart Association.Who would have thought that low HDL levels could be linked to memory problems in middle age? It’s amazing how much we are learning about heart related problems.

Olive oil (OO) is made by pressing olives. Olives are a fruit and in general as I’ve always pointed out, fruits contain nutrients that make them heart protective. But even beyond this there are factors that make OO much better than other vegetable oils. Part of it lies in the composition of its fatty acids.
For example: 100g (grams) of OO is typically composed of 27g of three fatty acids: 3.6g of saturated (SFA), 20.0g of monounsaturated (MUFA), and 2.2g polyunsaturated (PUFA). OO has the highest MUFA composition of any naturally-produced oil and here is where it is believed that OO excels in protecting the heart.
The negative effects of the SFA are pretty much neutralized by the other two fats and possibly other constituents in OO. This oil contains polyphenols which act as antioxidants. So substituting OO for other oils will lower your LDL levels and raise your HDL levels. Note – some researchers have suggested that the antioxidants may play a greater heart-protective role than the composition of fatty acids in OO.
It can be quite confusing buying OO because there are so many different types. The best one to buy is Extra Virgin Olive Oil. The main reason for this is that the olives have to be pressed within 24 hours after picking. If the olives are left in the open and in the sun they can quickly lose their nutrients. By expediting their processing, when you buy the resulting OO it is closest to the real fruit and you benefit from its many nutrients.
The second reason to purchase Extra Virgin OO is that it is pressed from the very best olives. Other reasons are that first pressed oil is technically flawless and has an acidity level of 0.8% or less.
The freshness is the key.

There is new hope on the horizon – testing for metabolic syndrome. You may recall that -metabolic syndrome can be described as a cluster of factors that put a person at risk for developing cardiovascular disease. Now a new breakthrough has occurred and doctors may soon have a test to identify well in advance those patients who are most likely to develop metabolic syndrome and further heart disease.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota have found that people with high oxidation levels of LDL particles are more likely to develop metabolic syndrome. They measured oxidized LDL in more than 2,000 generally healthy people in the 33-45 year old age group (average age 40). After removing those with metabolic syndrome, they followed the remaining 1,889 persons for five years. They found that those with the highest levels of oxidized LDL had 3.5 times the risk of developing metabolic syndrome five years later.

The researchers point out that if LDL particles are severely damaged, the body recognizes them and excretes them. But those minimally oxidized are not as easily recognized. The test they devised identifies minimally oxidized LDL particles, which they theorize are the ones that are most likely to be incorporated into plaque and cause health problems.

Everybody loves chocolate. But do you know that even though it might seem like it surely can’t be good for you that in fact it really is. In small quantities that is, this tasty treat can do much to help your heart and even prevent heart disease. First of all chocolate is a plant product. It is made from the cacao bean that comes from a tree. Plants do not produce cholesterol, only animals do. Additionally dark colored plants are known to have many health benefits one of which is flavonoids. Flavonoids act as antioxidants which protect the body by neutralizing free radicals (charged chemicals which are byproducts of body processes). Free radicals roam the bloodstream and when they encounter LDL particles (bad cholesterol), they can oxidize them. In their oxidized state, LDL particles can more easily burrow into the artery-cell walls and hasten hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis).
Dark chocolate contains a large number of antioxidants (nearly 8 times as many as found in strawberries). It has been shown to reduce LDL levels by as much as 10 percent.

Dark chocolate does contain fats, but only about one third of them are harmful to the arteries.
Since dark chocolate is high in calories, consumption should be limited to 100 grams a day or about 3.5 ounces. One bar of dark chocolate has about 400 calories, so if you eat ½ a bar a day you may balance your diet by eating less of something else.

Note – avoid eating your dark chocolate with milk, because milk can prevent the antioxidants from being absorbed by the body.

Look for dark chocolate bars with high-cocoa content. High-cocoa content assures that the bar is loaded with a flavonoid called epicatechin which prevents cholesterol from gathering in blood vessels, reduces the risk of blood clots, and slows down the immune responses that lead to clogged arteries.

While shopping yesterday I noticed that some fruit juices are sold enriched with vitamins. First of all if the fruit juice has a lot of the original fruit in it, it should be loaded with vitamin C at least. So if it mentions that vitamin it is almost false advertisement.

Vitamins A, D, E, and K are oil soluble. If you see that any of these are added to the juice, then be sure to drink the juice with oil or some fats like in meat or fish. Drink the juice with a meal to get the full benefits of these vitamins. This is because these oil soluble vitamins will not be absorbed by the body if they don’t find any fats to cling to. This is also true when you take multivitamins.

Vitamins A, C, and E are important vitamins in the prevention of heart disease. They each serve an important role.