A powerful new way to protect your health.
Welcome to our health & self help blog.
In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.
Today's post: Friday, 7-14-2006
A powerful, & as yet under-used, way to protect your health.
*Are you yet aware that there are now multiple & measurable indicators of your current & future health available to you?
Do you know that getting these measured at least once a year & taking action to put those not in the desirable zone where they should be, is often critical to your continued good health?
If your readings on one of these measures is in the danger zone, your doctor very probably knows to work with you to get your reading out of the danger zone. But, too often in today’s system, that measurement may not happen until your health has already been harmed.
Even worse, such readings really do justify prescribing effective drugs to get you out of the danger zone. But these drugs have side effects. Some people even die from the drugs they take. And, their real dollar cost is very high even if you don’t seem to be paying full price.
And, the follow up doctor visits many people taking these drugs then do multiple times a year, cost money & eat up a lot of your time.
What is not common knowledge yet is that getting a battery of these measurements done regularly & knowing how to improve your less desirable readings without drugs -- & doing it -- will both profoundly protect your health & help you avoid getting into the danger zone with all its dollar costs & inconvenience & real risks.
Your blood level of homocysteine that we discussed in yesterday’s post is one of these measurements.
(Here’s a correction & addition to that post.:
First, here’s the actual study title of the article I read on Medscape.
Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation (HOPE) 2 -- Homocysteine Lowering in Stable Chronic Vascular Disease
ACC 2006:
And, here is their technical version of the fact that the researchers are totally convinced that higher homocysteine levels tend to cause heart disease & that the higher the level of homocysteine, the greater the damage.:
"Homocysteine continues to be regarded as a possible marker of CVD risk -- and one of the follow-up studies from HOPE explores whether lowering serum homocysteine levels will have beneficial effects on that risk."
"Numerous experimental studies have shown that homocysteine increases oxidative stress, causes endothelial dysfunction and vascular injury, and enhances thrombogenicity. They have also demonstrated that there is an independent and graded association between homocysteine and cardiovascular risk. Epidemiologic studies suggest that mild-to-moderate elevations in plasma homocysteine concentrations are associated with increased risk of atherothrombotic cardiovascular disease."
This study reported the group given extra B vitamin supplements B6, B12, & folic acid, had 12.9 homocysteine levels vs 13.2 for the placebo group.
This is a correction since I had remembered that the group given the B vitamins still had above 13.0 & so stated in yesterday’s post.
My point in yesterday’s post is still accurate since the 12.9 is a reduction of 0.3 when to get out of the danger zone, to 9.9 say, a reduction of 3.0 on top of that is needed.
And, to get to a clearly safe level of 7.9 from the initial 13.2 a reduction of 5.3 was needed.
These reductions are 11 & almost 18 times as much as the reduction they found.
But, to get back to today’s theme, I think the quote from their study shows well that if your homocysteine level is high, you could be having your heart & blood vessels damaged by it.
And, if you are over 30 years old, or follow less than an almost perfectly healthful lifestyle with plenty of vegetables, exercise, & relief from higher levels of stress, it’s very probably over 10.0 now.
And, that level is NOT safe.
And, you have my very best wishes that you do not smoke & very rarely are exposed to second hand smoke. Both of these things sharply boost your homocysteine levels.
Why not have your homocysteine level measured?
If yours is high, you can take action to lower it. Next week we’ll post a bit more on how that can be done to add to the ideas in yesterday’s post.
The really expensive multiple testing that some people get each year does tell you & your doctor more than just the few most basic measures. And, it includes over 30 different readings.
But if you do the things that put the smaller number of key indicators we’ll list here solidly into the desirable zone, for almost all of you the important measures in the longer list will improve by that much also.
1. We’ve listed homocysteine & a bit about why it’s important in today’s & yesterday’s posts.
Here are some of the other most important key things to measure as they are indicators of good health or of potential future problems or current problems depending on whether or not they are in the desirable range, in the moderately dangerous range, or in the danger zone.:
These include:
2. HDL cholesterol. (High is better, well over 60. Readings under 40 are risky as are those much less than one fourth of your total cholesterol.)
3. LDL cholesterol. (Low is better, under 100. 130, where I discovered mine was, is moderately dangerous. And, readings over 160 are in the danger zone & will almost always get you a prescription for statin drugs if your doctor knows yours is that high.)
Bad readings on these first 3, homocysteine, HDL cholesterol, & LDL cholesterol are leading indicators you have or are getting cardiovascular disease. And, that can & does lead to high blood pressure, strokes, heart attacks, impotence, & peripheral artery disease bad enough to make walking too painful to do or amputation.
4. Fasting blood glucose.
& 5. Hb a1 c or HBA1C (which indicates your over-all average glucose level over the past 60 to 90 days.)
Keep your readings on these two indicators below the danger zone, below 110 & 6.0 abtwxzrbrespectively. Readings in the eighties or slightly lower & 5.5 or less are desirable.
These two readings can tell you if you are headed to or have type II diabetes. And, if you catch slightly high readings early, you can take action without drugs to escape getting type II diabetes. In addition, if you already are in the early stages of it & bring these readings down successfully with nondrug & drug methods, you may avoid the horrible effects that untreated type II diabetes causes.
Getting these two measured, if you do have type II diabetes & didn’t yet know it, can literally be life saving & can spare you things like going blind or having a foot amputated or getting fatal kidney damage or having a massive & fatal heart attack.
6. And, have your blood pressure measured every so often.
About 115 over 75 or 110 over 70 are close to ideal. Very low readings & a bit too high, like 138 over 86 & a LOT too high, over 160 over 100, are not
Readings of 160 over 100 & higher damage your heart & health & are very definitely danger zone readings.
Unfortunately, at this writing, doctors tend to mostly, & in some cases only, suggest these tests, if you develop scary disease symptoms.
This is quite literally being penny wise & pound (or ten dollar bill) foolish.
It’s a bit like only letting a driver see out of his or her windshield AFTER they’ve driven over a cliff.
My suggestion is to get these key factors measured once a year.
They are not like the shape of your foot or the length of your arm, where, barring serious injury, they stay the same indefinitely.
They tend to get worse as you get older unless you prevent it. And eating worse or exercising less, or being under more stress can cause them to get worse. Just like doing the reverse as we suggest here, tends to improve them.
The wonderful thing is that if the readings are bad & you take action that should help, you can then test after doing those things for two or three months & see if you are getting results.
In it we post health commentary & reviews of books, eBooks, & other things that improve or protect your health or which enable you to live longer, to be more prosperous, & to be more effective.
Today's post: Friday, 7-14-2006
A powerful, & as yet under-used, way to protect your health.
*Are you yet aware that there are now multiple & measurable indicators of your current & future health available to you?
Do you know that getting these measured at least once a year & taking action to put those not in the desirable zone where they should be, is often critical to your continued good health?
If your readings on one of these measures is in the danger zone, your doctor very probably knows to work with you to get your reading out of the danger zone. But, too often in today’s system, that measurement may not happen until your health has already been harmed.
Even worse, such readings really do justify prescribing effective drugs to get you out of the danger zone. But these drugs have side effects. Some people even die from the drugs they take. And, their real dollar cost is very high even if you don’t seem to be paying full price.
And, the follow up doctor visits many people taking these drugs then do multiple times a year, cost money & eat up a lot of your time.
What is not common knowledge yet is that getting a battery of these measurements done regularly & knowing how to improve your less desirable readings without drugs -- & doing it -- will both profoundly protect your health & help you avoid getting into the danger zone with all its dollar costs & inconvenience & real risks.
Your blood level of homocysteine that we discussed in yesterday’s post is one of these measurements.
(Here’s a correction & addition to that post.:
First, here’s the actual study title of the article I read on Medscape.
Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation (HOPE) 2 -- Homocysteine Lowering in Stable Chronic Vascular Disease
ACC 2006:
And, here is their technical version of the fact that the researchers are totally convinced that higher homocysteine levels tend to cause heart disease & that the higher the level of homocysteine, the greater the damage.:
"Homocysteine continues to be regarded as a possible marker of CVD risk -- and one of the follow-up studies from HOPE explores whether lowering serum homocysteine levels will have beneficial effects on that risk."
"Numerous experimental studies have shown that homocysteine increases oxidative stress, causes endothelial dysfunction and vascular injury, and enhances thrombogenicity. They have also demonstrated that there is an independent and graded association between homocysteine and cardiovascular risk. Epidemiologic studies suggest that mild-to-moderate elevations in plasma homocysteine concentrations are associated with increased risk of atherothrombotic cardiovascular disease."
This study reported the group given extra B vitamin supplements B6, B12, & folic acid, had 12.9 homocysteine levels vs 13.2 for the placebo group.
This is a correction since I had remembered that the group given the B vitamins still had above 13.0 & so stated in yesterday’s post.
My point in yesterday’s post is still accurate since the 12.9 is a reduction of 0.3 when to get out of the danger zone, to 9.9 say, a reduction of 3.0 on top of that is needed.
And, to get to a clearly safe level of 7.9 from the initial 13.2 a reduction of 5.3 was needed.
These reductions are 11 & almost 18 times as much as the reduction they found.
But, to get back to today’s theme, I think the quote from their study shows well that if your homocysteine level is high, you could be having your heart & blood vessels damaged by it.
And, if you are over 30 years old, or follow less than an almost perfectly healthful lifestyle with plenty of vegetables, exercise, & relief from higher levels of stress, it’s very probably over 10.0 now.
And, that level is NOT safe.
And, you have my very best wishes that you do not smoke & very rarely are exposed to second hand smoke. Both of these things sharply boost your homocysteine levels.
Why not have your homocysteine level measured?
If yours is high, you can take action to lower it. Next week we’ll post a bit more on how that can be done to add to the ideas in yesterday’s post.
The really expensive multiple testing that some people get each year does tell you & your doctor more than just the few most basic measures. And, it includes over 30 different readings.
But if you do the things that put the smaller number of key indicators we’ll list here solidly into the desirable zone, for almost all of you the important measures in the longer list will improve by that much also.
1. We’ve listed homocysteine & a bit about why it’s important in today’s & yesterday’s posts.
Here are some of the other most important key things to measure as they are indicators of good health or of potential future problems or current problems depending on whether or not they are in the desirable range, in the moderately dangerous range, or in the danger zone.:
These include:
2. HDL cholesterol. (High is better, well over 60. Readings under 40 are risky as are those much less than one fourth of your total cholesterol.)
3. LDL cholesterol. (Low is better, under 100. 130, where I discovered mine was, is moderately dangerous. And, readings over 160 are in the danger zone & will almost always get you a prescription for statin drugs if your doctor knows yours is that high.)
Bad readings on these first 3, homocysteine, HDL cholesterol, & LDL cholesterol are leading indicators you have or are getting cardiovascular disease. And, that can & does lead to high blood pressure, strokes, heart attacks, impotence, & peripheral artery disease bad enough to make walking too painful to do or amputation.
4. Fasting blood glucose.
& 5. Hb a1 c or HBA1C (which indicates your over-all average glucose level over the past 60 to 90 days.)
Keep your readings on these two indicators below the danger zone, below 110 & 6.0 abtwxzrbrespectively. Readings in the eighties or slightly lower & 5.5 or less are desirable.
These two readings can tell you if you are headed to or have type II diabetes. And, if you catch slightly high readings early, you can take action without drugs to escape getting type II diabetes. In addition, if you already are in the early stages of it & bring these readings down successfully with nondrug & drug methods, you may avoid the horrible effects that untreated type II diabetes causes.
Getting these two measured, if you do have type II diabetes & didn’t yet know it, can literally be life saving & can spare you things like going blind or having a foot amputated or getting fatal kidney damage or having a massive & fatal heart attack.
6. And, have your blood pressure measured every so often.
About 115 over 75 or 110 over 70 are close to ideal. Very low readings & a bit too high, like 138 over 86 & a LOT too high, over 160 over 100, are not
Readings of 160 over 100 & higher damage your heart & health & are very definitely danger zone readings.
Unfortunately, at this writing, doctors tend to mostly, & in some cases only, suggest these tests, if you develop scary disease symptoms.
This is quite literally being penny wise & pound (or ten dollar bill) foolish.
It’s a bit like only letting a driver see out of his or her windshield AFTER they’ve driven over a cliff.
My suggestion is to get these key factors measured once a year.
They are not like the shape of your foot or the length of your arm, where, barring serious injury, they stay the same indefinitely.
They tend to get worse as you get older unless you prevent it. And eating worse or exercising less, or being under more stress can cause them to get worse. Just like doing the reverse as we suggest here, tends to improve them.
The wonderful thing is that if the readings are bad & you take action that should help, you can then test after doing those things for two or three months & see if you are getting results.
posted by David at 1:04 PM
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