Powerful new way to protect your life & health ….
Welcome to our health & self help blog.
Focus on Your Health:
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. We do posts on staying healthy; preventing disease; aging more slowly; weight loss; exercise; nutrition; & news in medicine.
Today's post: Monday, 6-11-2007
Powerful new way to protect your life & health ….
Can you imagine driving a loaded semi truck on a busy freeway without being able to see out of the windows?
If people did that, it would be no surprise to find a rather high rate of serious accidents. And, it would be also no surprise that some or most of the accidents killed or severely injured the driver.
Until recently, this has been the case with people & their health. Even worse, for most people it still is.
I know of a woman who had a heart attack recently. And, as far as I know, neither she nor her husband had any clue she was at risk for one.
I met another woman who didn’t know she had type II diabetes until she suddenly found she couldn’t see well enough to drive or read.
My Dad has survived three heart attacks through extremely good luck & good medical care. And, even though his Mom died of a heart attack, he didn’t know he was at immediate risk for one until the first one happened to him.
This is no longer necessary. These conditions take years to develop usually. And, the more knowledgeable doctors & other people who want to help people avoid such surprises, now know about them. There are key blood tests for quite a few risk factors which show such events are on their way unless the risk factors are reversed.
Even better, we’re now beginning to know how to move these indicators from undesirable or dangerous readings to much safer or desirable levels.
In addition, not only can this often be done without drugs, many of the things you can do to reverse bad readings on one of the key indicators will also improve others as well.
If you’ve been reading this blog since the beginning, you’ve seen this information before here. But the woman I spoke of who had a heart attack, had her heart attack quite recently.
So, it seemed to me to be important to highlight how important these tests are.
Gradually, we are developing more accurate & specialized blood tests for developing health problems.
But the main ones we cover today are already known to address many of the risks well enough to give you superb protection from bad health surprises if you move each of them into the desirable zone.
1. For men, most doctors know that LDL cholesterol levels of over 160 are a significant risk factor for heart & other cardiovascular diseases.
There is some controversy as to how low your LDL reading should be. Many doctors think 100 is low enough while some who treat people with serious cardiovascular disease think below 80 or even 70 or below is better. Some other experts in preventing disease believe that below 120 is good enough if the more important indicators are in the desirable range. My own conclusion is that most people should aim for about 100 & that it’s likely that almost everyone should be at 120 or below. In may opinion, that includes women of all ages.
The good news is that eating a health enhancing diet, at least some regular exercise, & some key supplements, notably, sterol supplements, niacin, & inositol hexaniacinate can get most people to that level without drugs.
People with readings far above 160 or who already have severe cardiovascular disease my also need statin drugs. And I know of at least two cardiologists who normally use supplements with their patients prescribe statins for those kinds of patients – at least initially.
2. We are now beginning to find that HDL cholesterol levels are even more important. If excess LDL is like unpicked up garbage in your blood vessels, normal HDL is like garbage collectors. So, if you have enough HDL, even higher levels of LDL may be safe.
In fact, high levels of HDL tend to go with substantially increased longevity. Women tend to have higher readings than men. But for both men & women, it’s desirable to have LDL of over 60. And, it’s important to keep your HDL above about 45 if you possibly can.
We’ve done posts on some of the many things that increase HDL levels. But the most important seem to be regular, vigorous exercise, niacin & or inositol hexaniacinate, choline, chromium, &, particularly for men, regular light or moderate drinking of red wine, all seem to increase HDL.
Extra virgin olive oil as your main source of fats & oils helps. And, getting enough omega 3 oils also seems to help.
3. Blood glucose tests.
There are two main ones: fasting blood glucose & HBA1C. Fasting blood glucose is like a snapshot that tells you what your level is right then. And, because it’s the reading from the sugar on your red blood cells that tend to live about 60 to 90 days, HBA1C is an even more important measure. HBA1C tells what your average glucose level was for every day over the last 60 to 90 days.
These two tests are critical to get regularly. If your blood glucose begins to be too high it tends to get worse. And, if it gets & says too high or higher, it ruins your circulation with all sorts of horrible results. The doubling of risk of heart attack for men & the quadrupling of risk for women for heart attacks, are just the tip of the iceberg. Excessively high blood sugar & the vascular damage it causes do a whole list of horrible things to you.
So, do yourself a favor, & get these two tests soon. (Women are particularly at risk for problems in this area. But, today, so are many men.)
For fasting glucose, 99 or a bit lower is desirable. And, 110 or over consistently is not.
Over about 120 or 130 is classified as type II diabetes.
For HBA1C, the desirable range is at about 5.8 or a bit below. 6.0 or higher is not good. 6.1 & higher is now classified as type II diabetes.
Lowering bad readings on these tests without drugs is doable, particularly if you take strong action when the higher readings first show up. But high glucose is so dangerous, if your readings are much higher than the 120 & 6.1 listed above, your doctor will likely prescribe drugs. However, even with the drugs, you are only likely to be safe if you still do the nondrug things to lower high glucose readings.
These include:; eating controlled amounts of whole grains or none; likely eliminating rice & white potatoes, regular exercise almost every day or every day; totally giving up soft drinks & hardly ever eating refined grains; eating very little or no sugar; & eating more vegetables of all kinds than most people do plus eating health OK protein foods & oils almost every day instead.
Two supplements that seem to help are chromium polynicotinate & alpha lipoic acid. And, I’ve read that magnesium & cinnamon supplements may also help.
4. Homocysteine. High levels predict early death, cardiovascular disease, accelerated aging, & all kinds of mental decline.
What’s high? According to the more knowledgeable prevention oriented doctors I’ve read, 9.0 or higher. And, even the less informed doctors are beginning to know that 12.0 & higher is bad news.
The 6.0 to 8.0 levels typical of healthy teens & young adults are the desirable range. Since homocysteine levels tend to increase as you get older, a more realistic target range for older people is the lower end of the 7.0 to 8.9 range.
Cigarette smoke raises homocysteine significantly. So staying totally away from it is critical.
Other things that lower it are eating a lot of green vegetables & other plant food with high levels of folic acid; taking 800 micrograms or more of folic acid each day; getting at least 30 to 75 mg of vitamin B6 (100 mg or more of B6 is not a good idea); & getting 500 micrograms to 1,000 of vitamin B12. Taking a decent multivitamin & a decent B complex supplement in addition can also help. But avoid running your total B6 intake above 100 as doing so seems to cause nerve problems.)
And, if those two things don’t do the job, 500 mg a day of N-acetyl Cysteine (NAC) &/or daily supplements with TMG or betaine may well do the job. (Betaine hydrochloride is too acid for many people & also seems to work less well.)
We’ve covered 5 tests here: LDL & HDL cholesterol; fasting glucose; HBA1C; & homocysteine.
There are about a dozen more that it’s important to test for: triglycerides, C-Reactive Protein, various blood clotting factors, & more.
But it’s absolutely critical to your health to get these 5 tests initially; take strong corrective action if they are out of the desirable zone; & to get follow up tests to see if the corrective actions are working well enough – or to get the tests every year or so to be sure they stay where they should be even if they were in the desirable range initially.
Why subject yourself to horrible health surprises when you can see if they are coming & steer out the way?
With these tests you can do exactly that.
Focus on Your Health:
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. We do posts on staying healthy; preventing disease; aging more slowly; weight loss; exercise; nutrition; & news in medicine.
Today's post: Monday, 6-11-2007
Powerful new way to protect your life & health ….
Can you imagine driving a loaded semi truck on a busy freeway without being able to see out of the windows?
If people did that, it would be no surprise to find a rather high rate of serious accidents. And, it would be also no surprise that some or most of the accidents killed or severely injured the driver.
Until recently, this has been the case with people & their health. Even worse, for most people it still is.
I know of a woman who had a heart attack recently. And, as far as I know, neither she nor her husband had any clue she was at risk for one.
I met another woman who didn’t know she had type II diabetes until she suddenly found she couldn’t see well enough to drive or read.
My Dad has survived three heart attacks through extremely good luck & good medical care. And, even though his Mom died of a heart attack, he didn’t know he was at immediate risk for one until the first one happened to him.
This is no longer necessary. These conditions take years to develop usually. And, the more knowledgeable doctors & other people who want to help people avoid such surprises, now know about them. There are key blood tests for quite a few risk factors which show such events are on their way unless the risk factors are reversed.
Even better, we’re now beginning to know how to move these indicators from undesirable or dangerous readings to much safer or desirable levels.
In addition, not only can this often be done without drugs, many of the things you can do to reverse bad readings on one of the key indicators will also improve others as well.
If you’ve been reading this blog since the beginning, you’ve seen this information before here. But the woman I spoke of who had a heart attack, had her heart attack quite recently.
So, it seemed to me to be important to highlight how important these tests are.
Gradually, we are developing more accurate & specialized blood tests for developing health problems.
But the main ones we cover today are already known to address many of the risks well enough to give you superb protection from bad health surprises if you move each of them into the desirable zone.
1. For men, most doctors know that LDL cholesterol levels of over 160 are a significant risk factor for heart & other cardiovascular diseases.
There is some controversy as to how low your LDL reading should be. Many doctors think 100 is low enough while some who treat people with serious cardiovascular disease think below 80 or even 70 or below is better. Some other experts in preventing disease believe that below 120 is good enough if the more important indicators are in the desirable range. My own conclusion is that most people should aim for about 100 & that it’s likely that almost everyone should be at 120 or below. In may opinion, that includes women of all ages.
The good news is that eating a health enhancing diet, at least some regular exercise, & some key supplements, notably, sterol supplements, niacin, & inositol hexaniacinate can get most people to that level without drugs.
People with readings far above 160 or who already have severe cardiovascular disease my also need statin drugs. And I know of at least two cardiologists who normally use supplements with their patients prescribe statins for those kinds of patients – at least initially.
2. We are now beginning to find that HDL cholesterol levels are even more important. If excess LDL is like unpicked up garbage in your blood vessels, normal HDL is like garbage collectors. So, if you have enough HDL, even higher levels of LDL may be safe.
In fact, high levels of HDL tend to go with substantially increased longevity. Women tend to have higher readings than men. But for both men & women, it’s desirable to have LDL of over 60. And, it’s important to keep your HDL above about 45 if you possibly can.
We’ve done posts on some of the many things that increase HDL levels. But the most important seem to be regular, vigorous exercise, niacin & or inositol hexaniacinate, choline, chromium, &, particularly for men, regular light or moderate drinking of red wine, all seem to increase HDL.
Extra virgin olive oil as your main source of fats & oils helps. And, getting enough omega 3 oils also seems to help.
3. Blood glucose tests.
There are two main ones: fasting blood glucose & HBA1C. Fasting blood glucose is like a snapshot that tells you what your level is right then. And, because it’s the reading from the sugar on your red blood cells that tend to live about 60 to 90 days, HBA1C is an even more important measure. HBA1C tells what your average glucose level was for every day over the last 60 to 90 days.
These two tests are critical to get regularly. If your blood glucose begins to be too high it tends to get worse. And, if it gets & says too high or higher, it ruins your circulation with all sorts of horrible results. The doubling of risk of heart attack for men & the quadrupling of risk for women for heart attacks, are just the tip of the iceberg. Excessively high blood sugar & the vascular damage it causes do a whole list of horrible things to you.
So, do yourself a favor, & get these two tests soon. (Women are particularly at risk for problems in this area. But, today, so are many men.)
For fasting glucose, 99 or a bit lower is desirable. And, 110 or over consistently is not.
Over about 120 or 130 is classified as type II diabetes.
For HBA1C, the desirable range is at about 5.8 or a bit below. 6.0 or higher is not good. 6.1 & higher is now classified as type II diabetes.
Lowering bad readings on these tests without drugs is doable, particularly if you take strong action when the higher readings first show up. But high glucose is so dangerous, if your readings are much higher than the 120 & 6.1 listed above, your doctor will likely prescribe drugs. However, even with the drugs, you are only likely to be safe if you still do the nondrug things to lower high glucose readings.
These include:; eating controlled amounts of whole grains or none; likely eliminating rice & white potatoes, regular exercise almost every day or every day; totally giving up soft drinks & hardly ever eating refined grains; eating very little or no sugar; & eating more vegetables of all kinds than most people do plus eating health OK protein foods & oils almost every day instead.
Two supplements that seem to help are chromium polynicotinate & alpha lipoic acid. And, I’ve read that magnesium & cinnamon supplements may also help.
4. Homocysteine. High levels predict early death, cardiovascular disease, accelerated aging, & all kinds of mental decline.
What’s high? According to the more knowledgeable prevention oriented doctors I’ve read, 9.0 or higher. And, even the less informed doctors are beginning to know that 12.0 & higher is bad news.
The 6.0 to 8.0 levels typical of healthy teens & young adults are the desirable range. Since homocysteine levels tend to increase as you get older, a more realistic target range for older people is the lower end of the 7.0 to 8.9 range.
Cigarette smoke raises homocysteine significantly. So staying totally away from it is critical.
Other things that lower it are eating a lot of green vegetables & other plant food with high levels of folic acid; taking 800 micrograms or more of folic acid each day; getting at least 30 to 75 mg of vitamin B6 (100 mg or more of B6 is not a good idea); & getting 500 micrograms to 1,000 of vitamin B12. Taking a decent multivitamin & a decent B complex supplement in addition can also help. But avoid running your total B6 intake above 100 as doing so seems to cause nerve problems.)
And, if those two things don’t do the job, 500 mg a day of N-acetyl Cysteine (NAC) &/or daily supplements with TMG or betaine may well do the job. (Betaine hydrochloride is too acid for many people & also seems to work less well.)
We’ve covered 5 tests here: LDL & HDL cholesterol; fasting glucose; HBA1C; & homocysteine.
There are about a dozen more that it’s important to test for: triglycerides, C-Reactive Protein, various blood clotting factors, & more.
But it’s absolutely critical to your health to get these 5 tests initially; take strong corrective action if they are out of the desirable zone; & to get follow up tests to see if the corrective actions are working well enough – or to get the tests every year or so to be sure they stay where they should be even if they were in the desirable range initially.
Why subject yourself to horrible health surprises when you can see if they are coming & steer out the way?
With these tests you can do exactly that.
Labels: diabetes, HBA1C, health, heart health; blood tests; preventative medicine
posted by David at 1:36 PM
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