Bad health habits cause avoidable diseases & HUGE health care costs….

Today's post: Thursday, 8-30-2007

“How we set up to pay for our ballooning health care & medical costs is both irrelevant & insoluble if five to ten times more people are getting sick than should be doing so. And, this is now the case.”

Virtually no sane & unstressed people volunteer to die early.

And, if you were to ask for people who are interested in taking a lethal dose of rat poison or who are at all interested in getting an obnoxious, disabling, or fatal disease, you would find no takers.

Incredibly, by the way they eat; don’t exercise; & fail to manage their health risks, most Americans today are doing just exactly those things.

It was recently announced that the percent of Americans who are really fat is continuing to go up.

Depending on the state, between 17.6 % in Colorado, the median of about 24.4 %, & 30.6 % in Mississippi – or an average of roughly one out of four Americans is now really fat.

(Obese is the medical term for people with a BMI of 30.0 or higher. Very few people (who are very heavily muscled) are not really fat at that level. And, many people who don’t exercise are really fat at a lower number. But it’s a pretty accurate gauge for most people.)

The effects of being that fat -- and the bad health practices that cause it -- also produce or help cause diabetes, high blood pressure, heart problems, other cardiovascular problems, many cancers, & early mental decline.

So, our health care costs are going through the roof already. And, the productivity of our workforce is less than it easily could be, so there’s less income to pay for the added & unnecessary health care costs.

Worse, in the near term, the baby boomers are about to began entering their 60’s in huge numbers. And, even in people who follow good health practices, these disease become much more likely after age 60. In people who don’t follow good health practices, almost everyone begins to get these diseases.

The day the obesity statistics were announced in the San Jose Mercury News (& across the country) they quoted Jeffrey Levi, the executive director of the Trust for America’s Health as saying this:

“…every candidate for president talks about health care reform and controlling health care costs, if we don’t home in on this issue, none of their proposals are going to be affordable.”

I totally agree with him & wrote almost the same comment several days before I read his comment. I wrote:

“How we set up to pay for our ballooning health care & medical costs is both irrelevant & insoluble if five to ten times more people are getting sick than should be doing so. And, this is now the case.”

How can this be fixed?

1. Virtually all soft drinks & foods made with refined grains; foods made with any high fructose corn syrup; those made with ANY hydrogenated vegetable oils, whether partially hydrogenated or fully hydrogenated; many of the foods made with added sugar; & beef and poultry or farmed fish that has been mostly or totally grain fed tend to make people fat and sick.

Many of the Americans who are the fat people in this study eat very little else. Ouch !!

These foods are not as painful or fast as rat poison; but they kill you and make you sick about as well if you ingest them long enough.

And, much of this kind of food & drink is cheap today. So poor people & young people in their formative years tend to eat it.

Half of all food today is eaten away from home. Most fast food & a good bit of restaurant food is this kind of health harming food. And, employers today tend to have vending machines that make this kind of food available and serve these kinds of foods at company functions.

Why not make it a serious federal crime to put any hydrogenated vegetable oil or high fructose corn syrup in any foods or drinks anywhere in this country?

Why not tax all foods made with sugar or refined grains by having fifty percent of their purchase price fund government health care & disease prevention programs?

Why not tax all soft drinks by having 80 percent of their purchase price fund government health care & disease prevention programs? (Diet soft drinks harm health as much as regular soft drinks according to recent research.)

2. If people really knew how much exercise did FOR them and how much NOT exercising did to them, almost everyone who isn’t quite sick or disabled would do regular exercise.

About a quarter of all Americans get NO exercise at all. And another quarter gets too little to support good health and avoiding obesity.

Why not make it a requirement that to receive any federal funds or state funds from any state all K through 12 schools and all organizations that accredit K through 12 schools must have all of their able bodied students in some kind of exercise program?

(These programs can be individualized & managed by computer over the web. They don’t all have to be in group PE classes. This has already been done successfully in Minnesota.)

Why not have a federal tax on any company that doesn’t have a program to encourage its employees to exercise & to make it easier for their employees to do?

(People who get enough regular exercise either avoid getting fat or stop being fat or stay healthy even if they are still somewhat fat. And, they get far fewer of these avoidable diseases—including cancer--according to research I’ve seen reported.)

3. Despite having only about 20 percent of Americans who smoke or a bit more, if no one smoked, about half the cardiovascular diseases of all kinds & about half of the cancers would no longer happen.

(And, that doesn’t even count the deaths, burn injuries, property damage, & avoidable health care costs caused by fires that wouldn’t have happened it the people who caused them didn’t smoke.)

Why not make it a federal law that any kind of company from a corner gas station or convenience store to a cigarette company that sells cigarettes or other tobacco products in this country at all has to pay an extra ten percent penalty on top of its existing federal income tax bill?

What can you do as an individual?

A. You can ask any presidential candidate you can reach:

Do they support disease prevention efforts like these?

Do they know such efforts could cut the number of people getting these avoidable diseases by at least 80 percent?

What else will they do as president to make this reduction happen?

B. You can follow good health practices yourself.

1. You can stop ingesting the foods listed above as disease causing & eat the foods we listed in our last blog on Tuesday, 8-28-2007 as being low in glycemic load instead.

2. You can do regular exercise every week on at least three to five days including two sessions of strength training.

&

3. You can not smoke yourself & avoid second hand smoke.

C. You can teach your own children to follow good health practices.

David Ludwig has a superb book called, Ending the Food Fight, that can be very helpful for parents of kids who are old enough to make their own decisions but who are following bad health practices now.

D. Lastly, since most employers want to cut health care costs, if your company does things that sabotage good health practices, consider letting your employer know it would save them money to do things differently.

You may not be in a position to or work in a company where you can access your CEO or work in one that has a Wellness Director.

But, if you can, it’s well worth doing.

If you can’t, wish me luck in my efforts to do it for you.

One of my personal goals is to have nearly every company in the United States to promote good health practices and to stop helping to support harmful ones.

Glycemic load can help you eat right & lose fat….

Today's post: Tuesday, 8-28-2007

(This post is a very good short-summary of how to eat right.)

Foods that cause very rapid rises in your blood sugar tend to cause you to put on fat you don’t need. They can cause mood problems. And, if you eat a lot of them & eat them often, you tend to be fat & are at very high risk of type II diabetes & cardiovascular disease if you don’t have them already.

One way to measure this is with the glycemic index. It measures how much an equal weight of food tends to increase the blood sugar of the person eating it.

The bad news is that it can be misleading since a typical serving of some foods is large & for others it’s quite a bit smaller.

Why not have a measure of the blood sugar increase of typical servings of food?

There is one. A measure of this more accurate & useful number was created & is called the Glycemic Load.

Last week on Thursday, 8-23-2007 in the Early to Rise email there was an excellent article on this which I include today.:

(This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.)

Glycemic Index? Not So Fast

By Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., CNS

If you’re a regular ETR reader, you already know how important the glycemic index is to make sure you’re eating well. But there’s a big problem with using the glycemic index as a guide to eating: It doesn’t take into account portion size. Glycemic load - a far more useful number - does.

The glycemic index measures your blood sugar response to a "standard" serving of 50 grams of digestible (non-fiber) carbohydrate. Great. But the real world of actual portions presents a much different picture. Some carbohydrate foods have way less than 50 grams in a serving, while many typically have a lot more.

Enter the glycemic load, a formula that multiplies the glycemic index by the number of grams of carbs in a typical portion (and then divides the result by 100, in case you’d like to do the actual math). Because the formula for glycemic load takes into account real-life portion sizes, it gives you a much better idea of what a food is doing to your blood sugar.

Take spaghetti and carrots, for example. The glycemic index of 50 grams of spaghetti is only "moderate," but you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who eats just 50 grams of spaghetti. The glycemic load of spaghetti is humongous. And while the glycemic index of 50 grams of carrots is "high," you probably wouldn’t eat 50 grams of carrots. (There are only three grams of carbohydrate in a single carrot.) Carrots have a high glycemic index- but a very low glycemic load.

Using the glycemic index is a great start in learning about the impact of food on your blood sugar. But glycemic load is even better, because it takes into account what you’re actually likely to eat.

It’s easier to find the glycemic index of a food than the glycemic load, but you can find both at mendosa.com/gilists.htm.

Alternately, you could ignore the entire glycemic numbers game and just follow this simple rule: When it comes to sugar, less is more, zero is better.

[Ed. Note: Dr. Jonny Bowden is a nationally known expert on weight loss, nutrition, and health. He’s a board certified nutritionist with a master’s degree in psychology, and the author of the best-selling book, The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth. For more information, go to www.jonnybowden.com.”
********
More info I got from www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm : (It’s listed in his article above.)

Many foods that enhance your health are very low in glycemic load.

Though they are not listed in that reference source, health enhancing or health OK protein & fats like extra virgin olive oil, avocados, nuts, wild caught salmon, beef fed only grass, poultry only pasture fed, & some other wild caught fish & seafoods are all very low or zero in glycemic load.

Almost all green nonstarchy vegetables are very low in glycemic load & very nutritious.

Strawberries & lentils are very low.

Many fruits are low: apples, whole grapes, kiwi fruit, whole oranges, peaches, plums, & nectarines, prunes, & other berries are all low.

Nonfat yogurt is low.

Bananas, real fruit juices, oatmeal, & barley are moderately low.

Sweet potatoes are medium but very nutritious.

If almost all of what you eat is on this list as listed as low, you’ll find it much easier to stay healthy, stay trim, &/or to lose excess fat if you have it now. That’s particularly true if you also do NOT eat foods that are high.

What foods are high & so are better NOT eaten or eaten only VERY rarely?

Much to my surprise almost all kinds of rice are high. Pasta is high. I already knew potatoes & French fries are high. (Raisins are high but can be eaten occasionally along with low or very low glycemic load foods to compensate.) The other foods that are listed here as high simply are eaten too often & in such large servings that they are NOT good food choices. (Very small servings eaten with low glycemic foods or small servings once a week or less may be OK for some people.)

Also, any food made with refined grains is either high or tends to impact most people as high. And, unlike most of the foods listed above as low, they have little fiber to help make you feel full. They also don’t give you as much nutrition as the low glycemic load foods do.

Lastly, foods & drinks made with high fructose corn syrup tend to boost your blood sugar, to NOT make you feel less hungry, & even to make you MORE hungry sometimes.

And, food & drinks made with artificial sweeteners tend to be eaten along with high glycemic load foods, make you MORE hungry for real sugar, & to cause problems with metabolizing sugars & fats from other sources I’ve read. A recent study found that in addition to the studies showing they don’t work to help with fat loss, diet soft drinks made with artificial sweeteners produce as many health problems as regular soft drinks do.

Lung cancer kills some smokers; but this harms ALL smokers….

Today's post: Monday, 8-27-2007

Do you smoke or does someone you care about smoke?

Most doctors know the most important reason that not smoking or quitting smoking protects your health. They do know the most important reason to NOT smoke or be around second hand smoke.

Here’s the horrible bad news: Most smokers DON’T know.

The 1964 report that smoking does tend to cause lung cancer is well known. So most smokers have heard that cigarettes are thought to cause lung cancer.

But most people who develop lung cancer are older people. And, the majority of smokers don’t get or die of lung cancer.

Most smokers know that they don’t seem to have lung cancer. The people they know who smoke don’t either. And, they know or have heard of smokers who never got lung cancer even by the time they are older.

So, since that tends to be ALL they know, they just expect to be in the lucky majority who avoid lung cancer & don’t take the health warnings seriously.

Unfortunately, when they do find out the much more important dangers of smoking and that they hurt ALL smokers – for sure including them, they find out when the damage is already done.

Sometimes they find out before the damage is irreversible. Too often they find out when they are irreversibly impaired or even dying.

So, what is it that they don’t know?

Earlier today we went online with our new website, http://www.iehealth.com/ which is centered around the health guidelines to follow to ensure you keep good health or which can help you restore your health.

One of the guidelines we discuss there is the recommendation that people NOT smoke as a health guideline.

Our take is that is a good guideline & is an accurate one. But that it is weak & ineffective for helping people keep good health.

Here’s what we recommend instead
-- & the HUGE reason NOT to smoke most smokers don’t know.:

“No smoking” in some ways is the single most important item on their list.

But it’s incomplete. Breathing second hand smoke is very nearly as bad for you. And, for the unlucky few, it can even be worse because the exposure is greater. (A bartender in a bar where all the patrons smoke can be exposed to 3 packs a day of cigarette smoke without ever smoking himself or herself.)

No smoking or exposure to second hand smoke – is a MUCH better guideline.

Secondly, most smokers have no clue WHY smoking is bad for you or how HORRIBLY bad for you it actually is.

So, I think many smokers will only follow that guideline if they do know this information.

Most smokers today only know that some smokers get lung cancer. And, particularly if they are younger, they may know no one in their circle of friends & acquaintances who smokes who has lung cancer. So, since that’s all they know, they just count on continuing to be one of the lucky smokers who don’t get lung cancer & continue to smoke.

Here’s what they don’t know.:

1. Smoking helps cause virtually EVERY KIND of cancer. Not just lung cancer. By one estimate, sixty percent of all people who have cancer now are smokers who would not have gotten cancer if they hadn’t smoked.

2. But that’s NOT the most important harm smoking does. Believe it or not, all the cancers smoking causes are the little problem !!

The big problem with smoking is that it directly causes heart & cardiovascular disease & speeds up the aging process.

Smoking INCREASES your homocysteine level; reduces your HDL level; & makes the HDL you still have less effective at clearing out excess LDL from your blood vessels.

The only good news is that instead of waiting many years to find out too late that smoking has caused cancer or a massive fatal heart attack, smokers today can have their HDL & homocysteine levels checked. Then they can see for themselves that smoking is beginning to harm them RIGHT NOW. And, it’s NOT guesswork. Their high homocysteine level will show them the proof NOW.

By the way, the cardiovascular diseases that cigarettes cause include erectile dysfunction, strokes, peripheral artery disease, foot amputations from peripheral artery disease, & kidney disease – NOT just heart attacks. And, smoking causes plenty of heart attacks.

Most smokers would decline to get on a jumbo jet they knew was going to fall out of the sky and crash.

But hardly any know that as smokers they are already following a path as deadly & over 100 times more likely to happen every year just from the cardiovascular diseases smoking causes.

So the third missing part of this guideline is to see to it that:

everyone knows ALL of why smoking is bad for you & has their homocysteine & HDL levels checked at least once a year.”

What should those numbers be to ensure good health?

Here’s what we posted on http://www.iehealth.com/ :

“These guidelines leave out homocysteine of 8.9 or less & HDL of over 40.

(Ideal homocysteine readings range from about 6.0 to 7.9; & HDL readings of over 60 are highly desirable with over 80 close to ideal.)

For many if not most people these two measures are much more important in assessing heart attack risk, death risks, & longevity than the LDL they did include. And, homocysteine of 9.0 & up is predictive of age related mental decline also. In addition, there are effective ways to improve your results on both measures.)“

*************

Doctors used to think that homocysteine readings of equal to or somewhat over 10.0 & was normal because so many people tested that way.

Unfortunately some still do. Mercifully, research shows that readings of over 9.0 are harmful. And, many doctors who know this work hard with their patients to bring these readings down to 8.9 or lower.

For people who don’t smoke & avoid second hand smoke, that’s doable.

Smokers tend to have much higher homocysteine readings. And, it’s unlikely that they can lower their homocysteine levels this much if they don’t quit & stay away from second hand smoke.


So, if you smoke, get your homocysteine & HDL checked.

And, talk to your doctor about quitting or a referral to a doctor who specializes in quitting.

Doctors now have several ways to make quitting easier & much more likely to work permanently. You can more than triple your odds with your doctor's help.

Or go to the American Cancer Society for information & support in quitting. They care & have helped thousands of people to quit.

Better heart health & blood tests without drugs….

Today's post: Monday, 8-20-2007

A friend’s wife is about to see a cardiologist. Her most recent blood test had fasting glucose of just over 115; HDL just under 40; & LDL of somewhat over 160.

Many doctors, even some cardiologists, would simply write a statin drug prescription to lower her high LDL.

LDL of over 160 IS a risk factor for worsening vascular (blood vessel) health & heart attacks & strokes. (LDL of under 130 or even under 100 would be far safer for her.)

However, good doctors & cardiologists would also prefer she have:

fasting glucose of 110 or less; & order a test of HBA1C to be sure that’s 5.9 or less;

& HDL of over 45 or even more than 55 if it can be achieved.

And, increasingly, some of these doctors also know that statin drugs may be unnecessary.

If she immediately uses effective nondrug ways to improve these readings, it’s quite likely she can improve them enough as measured by a post test to make taking statins unnecessary.

If the post test shows little or no improvement, of course, most doctors will insist on the statin drugs to at least bring her LDL down to below 130.

Here are some key ways she can achieve all these goals enough to stay off drugs.

I. These steps lower LDL cholesterol.:

a. Recent studies have found that up to 2,000 mg a day of sterols, a food component found in vegetables & nuts, will produce strong drops in LDL cholesterol.

Products like Benecol margarine lower LDL because they have sterols added. But margarine is not that good for you. The wonderful news is you can simply buy & take sterol supplements instead. (And, eating more vegetables, & nuts if you aren’t allergic to them, also helps & has many other health benefits. They contain sterols & fiber that lower LDL cholesterol.)

One of the best & least expensive sterol supplements that produced at least 15 points of the 30 points I dropped my own LDL cholesterol is a beta sitosterol supplement called “Cholesterol Balance” by Natrol. Each tablet has 300 mg of sterols. I only took 3 a day. If his wife takes 3 a day just before lunch & 3 a day just before dinner, she may well lower her LDL cholesterol 30 points or more just from that one step.

b) If she also stays away from transfats (aka known as trans fats) totally & eats less butterfat & fatty meats, she may well do even better.

1) Extra virgin olive oil; wild caught fatty fish like & sardines Alaskan salmon; beef fed only grass, avocados, & nuts are all much better for you as sources of fats & oils than fatty meats like ham & beef from grain fed animals, butter, cream, full fat milk & full fat cheeses.

And wild caught fatty fish like & sardines Alaskan salmon; beef fed only grass, beans, oatmeal, nonfat & very lowfat dairy products, lean poultry, & nuts are all much better for you as sources of protein than fatty meats like ham & beef from grain fed animals, full fat milk & full fat cheeses.

Even better, most of the health OK sources of oils & of protein we list here have other health benefits.

Switching more completely to the health OK choices may well drop her LDL by another 5 or 10 points. (If she hadn’t already largely made that switch it would do even more.)

In addition, nuts, beans & oatmeal have both insoluble & soluble fiber that tends to lower LDL cholesterol; & beans and oatmeal are inexpensive. So, specifically increasing those from once or twice a week to closer to once or twice a day, can lower her LDL even more.

2) Staying completely away from transfats (aka known as trans fats) may be even more important. They will gradually disappear now that how horribly bad for your health they are is becoming better known.

But they are NOW in virtually all commercial baked goods, some & even possibly most fast food frying oils, some brands of commercial pizza, chili, oil roasted nuts, bread, peanut butter, candy bars, ice cream, mayo, & microwave popcorn.

If it isn’t a whole single food, like broccoli or wild caught salmon &/or it’s in a package, check the label for transfats of more than zero AND look for partially or fully hydrogenated vegetable oils.

(0.49 grams per serving, which can legally be listed as zero transfats, is too much transfats for good health. And, you may well eat three servings in normal use besides. So, if it lists ANY partially or fully hydrogenated vegetable oils as ingredients, it has too many transfats to be OK for your health to eat.)

My friend’s wife already eats far less of these foods with transfats than the average American; but if she stops eating ANY, transfats well enough, she may well drop her LDL by another 10 or 20 points. (Even better transfats, increase the most harmful kind of LDL, so this step will protect her health the most of any we list here.)

II. This step lowers LDL cholesterol AND boosts HDL.:

Taking real niacin, NOT niacinimide which has separate health benefits but doesn’t affect HDL & LDL, boosts HDL lowers LDL; AND it makes the LDL you do have change into a less harmful kind. (This is virtually the reverse of what transfats do.)

Some studies even suggest it protects your health & reduces your risk of death BETTER than statin drugs. It definitely does more for you.

However, it does have some side effects in larger doses.

I took one 300 mg niacin tablet after breakfast & only rarely experienced any niacin flush symptoms. And, I took one 200 microgram capsule of chromium polynicotinate a day. And despite a family history of high LDL cholesterol was only at 130 while my HDL was consistently over 60.

I’ve heard some people say that inositol hexaniacinate, marketed as no flush niacin, is ineffective. But I found a publication on PubMed that suggested it was effective. When I added a 300 mg capsule of inositol hexaniacinate at lunch & one at dinner, my HDL went up about 15 points & my LDL went down 15 points. To be fair, this may have been due to other things I did right. But that was the change that seemed to make the difference. And, I made little or no others then.

The other way to avoid the niacin flush & get the heart protection is to take 500 mg of time release niacin three times a day with meals.

But that can cause liver problems in some people. So you have to do that in cooperation with your doctor so you can have the liver function blood tests regularly to be sure your liver stays OK.

III. Boosting HDL

Here’s a list of things that seem to boost HDL besides the things in the other two lists above.

1. Do strength training at least two days a week for half an hour.

2. Get a total of 1500 calories a week or more of exercise.

3. Be sure you get a good intake of choline every day. Lecithin & choline supplements work. And, wheat germ, liver, & egg yolks are high in it.

If she does the other things listed here, eating two to four eggs a week for the choline in their yolks & their high quality protein looks like it boosts HDL cholesterol much more than it boosts LDL cholesterol.

And, lecithin supplements are inexpensive.

4. Taking 400 to 600 mg a day of magnesium (if you aren’t already taking Milk of Magnesia every day) increases HDL; tends to reduce or prevent high blood pressure; & tends to prevent constipation.

5. Using extra virgin olive oil raises HDL & lowers LDL. Unfortunately oils like soy, corn, safflower, & to some extent canola, lower BOTH HDL & LDL. So if she uses only extra virgin olive oil & virtually eliminates taking in corn oil, soy oil, & safflower oil, she may find that boosts her HDL as well.

6. You have to be careful with drinking red wine as a health aid. But it does boost HDL cholesterol; & tends to reduce blood clotting & benefit heart health.

For women, drinking more than one a day can do more harm than good. (Men can get away with up to two a day.)

Also, if she winds up taking larger amounts of niacin, she needs to be extra careful to avoid drinking more wine than that to protect her liver.

But, if she does it safely & takes no medicines that mix badly with alcohol, if she drinks one glass of red wine each evening rather than just a few times a week, it will raise her HDL, possibly from 5 to 12 points.

IV. lowering fasting glucose:

These things tend do that:

1. Taking 200 to 600 micrograms of chromium polynicotinate a day.

2. Taking 200 to 600 mg a day of alpha lipoic acid.

3. Cutting back or eliminating added sugar in her food. And, making sure to switch to a non sugar added version of foods that come with sugar added.

4. Getting enough regular exercise.

5. Eat very little bread, even whole grain, & eat NO refined grain foods. And, eat no packaged cereals besides oatmeal, shredded wheat, & wheat germ.

6. Drink NO soft drinks & eat NO foods with high fructose corn syrup added.

(Despite doing # 1. & #4 & # 5 & 6 above, my fasting glucose was 115; & my doctor told me I would be wise to lower it. Bless him for that.

I switched from sugar added applesauce to no sugar added; I cut my intake of sugar in almost exactly half; continued to take chromium & exercise regularly; & added 200 mg a day of alpha lipoic acid. I was lucky that so little worked. But I was doing enough things right already that making these small changes dropped my fasting glucose from 115 to 87.

If she does what I was already doing & adds what I added, she may not lower her fasting glucose to less than 90; but it’s virtually certain she will drop to below 110.

Then if her post test shows HDL of 48; LDL of 128; & fasting glucose of 102, her health protection will be far better; & her doctor may well hold of on prescribing statins.

And, that kind of change IS doable with these nondrug steps.

Why NOT to eat today’s farmed salmon….

Today's post: Wednesday, 8-15-2007

For many years, at special occasions, I liked to order salmon in restaurants.

I don’t do that anymore. Every time I ask if the salmon they use is farm raised, they always say yes. (Hopefully, that will gradually change.)

And, I’ve now learned that farm raised salmon tends to not have the full health benefits of wild caught salmon. This is largely because, like factory farm raised cattle & poultry, farmed fish are fed grain & other processed feeds instead of eating their natural diet.

Even worse, farmed fish are MUCH higher in PCB’s, & pesticides & herbicides, & other organic chemicals.

Monday, I found out, farmed fish today have even worse problems.:

>>> This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.

“Why JS Should Avoid Farm-Raised Salmon (and Why You Should Too)
By Jon Herring

Last week, I received an e-mail from an ETR reader helps to illustrate a few important points. JS writes:

"First, I would like to congratulate you on an excellent newsletter. I know you're busy, so I will get straight to the point. I eat [Brand X] Pink Salmon every day. Basically, I want to know is it dangerous to eat that much?"

There should be nothing unhealthy about eating a lot of salmon. However, you shouldn't eat any food EVERY day. It can cause an allergy to that food. In fact, doctors specializing in food allergies report that many people are allergic to their favorite foods for this very reason.

But there is a bigger issue here: JS is eating a brand of salmon that I am fairly certain is farm-raised. And that could very well be detrimental to his health.

According to laboratory tests commissioned by Environmental Working Group, farmed salmon is the most PCB-contaminated source of protein in the U.S. food supply. These fish are also known to have harmful levels of mercury, DDT, and dioxin.

And that's not all. Farmed salmon are fed corn and soy meal (not exactly the natural diet of a salmon). Because of this unnatural diet, these fish have far more unhealthy omega-6 fatty acids and fewer healthy omega-3s than wild salmon.

And it has been shown that farmed salmon consume more antibiotics by weight than any other livestock.

So, instead of farm-raised salmon, be sure to insist on wild Alaskan salmon. These fish live in some of the most pristine waters on earth. They have extremely low levels (usually not a trace) of mercury and PCBs. And they are rich in heart-healthy and brain-boosting omega-3s. You can find canned wild Alaskan salmon in most grocery stores, and most health food markets will have fresh fillets.”


My comments:
Eating foods with antibiotics added is a sure way to help increase the number of antibiotic resistant or antibiotic proof bacteria. Even worse, it may well guarantee it will likely happen to you personally.

Why eat such foods? And why not eat the kind that benefits your health instead of harming it?

It may be that future farmed fish may be safe to eat & have more of the health benefits of the wild caught fish. But the challenges are considerable.

It may well be more useful to help see to it that we use sustainable methods of using wild caught fish & help protect them from environmental harm with our resources instead.

Why NOT to eat today’s farmed salmon….

Today's post: Wednesday, 8-15-2007

For many years, at special occasions, I liked to order salmon in restaurants.

I don’t do that anymore. Every time I ask if the salmon they use is farm raised, they always say yes. (Hopefully, that will gradually change.)

And, I’ve now learned that farm raised salmon tends to not have the full health benefits of wild caught salmon. This is largely because, like factory farm raised cattle & poultry, farmed fish are fed grain & other processed feeds instead of eating their natural diet.

Even worse, farmed fish are MUCH higher in PCB’s, & pesticides & herbicides, & other organic chemicals.

Monday, I found out, farmed fish today have even worse problems.:

>>> This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.

“Why JS Should Avoid Farm-Raised Salmon (and Why You Should Too)
By Jon Herring

Last week, I received an e-mail from an ETR reader helps to illustrate a few important points. JS writes:

"First, I would like to congratulate you on an excellent newsletter. I know you're busy, so I will get straight to the point. I eat [Brand X] Pink Salmon every day. Basically, I want to know is it dangerous to eat that much?"

There should be nothing unhealthy about eating a lot of salmon. However, you shouldn't eat any food EVERY day. It can cause an allergy to that food. In fact, doctors specializing in food allergies report that many people are allergic to their favorite foods for this very reason.

But there is a bigger issue here: JS is eating a brand of salmon that I am fairly certain is farm-raised. And that could very well be detrimental to his health.

According to laboratory tests commissioned by Environmental Working Group, farmed salmon is the most PCB-contaminated source of protein in the U.S. food supply. These fish are also known to have harmful levels of mercury, DDT, and dioxin.

And that's not all. Farmed salmon are fed corn and soy meal (not exactly the natural diet of a salmon). Because of this unnatural diet, these fish have far more unhealthy omega-6 fatty acids and fewer healthy omega-3s than wild salmon.

And it has been shown that farmed salmon consume more antibiotics by weight than any other livestock.

So, instead of farm-raised salmon, be sure to insist on wild Alaskan salmon. These fish live in some of the most pristine waters on earth. They have extremely low levels (usually not a trace) of mercury and PCBs. And they are rich in heart-healthy and brain-boosting omega-3s. You can find canned wild Alaskan salmon in most grocery stores, and most health food markets will have fresh fillets.”


My comments:
Eating foods with antibiotics added is a sure way to help increase the number of antibiotic resistant or antibiotic proof bacteria. Even worse, it may well guarantee it will likely happen to you personally.

Why eat such foods? And why not eat the kind that benefits your health instead of harming it?

It may be that future farmed fish may be safe to eat & have more of the health benefits of the wild caught fish. But the challenges are considerable.

It may well be more useful to help see to it that we use sustainable methods of using wild caught fish & help protect them from environmental harm with our resources instead.

Eating cauliflower & broccoli prevents aggressive prostate cancer….

Today's post: Tuesday, 8-14-2007

I recently read this health news item:

The U.S. National Cancer Institute, apparently working with the Cancer Care Ontario in Toronto, studied the diets of 1,300 men.

The researchers found these two very positive results.:

Eating cauliflower once a week cut the incidence of aggressive prostate cancer by 52 %.

And, eating broccoli once a week cut the incidence of aggressive prostate cancer by 47 %.

This is extremely good news for two reasons.

1. With many nutrients, you have to take them daily to get much effect. So, for something you eat once a week to roughly cut your risk in half of something really painful & deadly is incredibly good news.

And, although eating cruciferous vegetables every day may well work better, even eating one of these two each week will give you outstanding protection from aggressive prostate cancer, according to this study.

2. Many people find it a LOT easier to eat cauliflower than broccoli. And, eating cauliflower works a bit better for preventing aggressive prostate cancer than eating broccoli does.

Eating broccoli is well known to make getting most cancers a lot less likely. But many people simply don’t like it or find that broccoli simply has too harsh a taste.

Cauliflower, by, contrast is very bland to almost tasteless. And, I’ve wondered if the harsh taste of broccoli was a necessary part of the cancer protection.

This study suggests that for aggressive prostate cancer at least, the reverse may be slightly true. (My guess is that cauliflower is a bit higher in some factor than broccoli.)

This protection from aggressive prostate cancer, of course, is added an added value of these two vegetables:

Eating cruciferous vegetables of all kinds tends to prevent most cancers.

And, all cruciferous vegetables are nonstarchy vegetables -- which work very well to keep you from getting fat if you eat lots of them daily.

I’d love to see the data from a study that had men eat these two foods daily to see if that gave better protection.

My guess is that it would.

It’s also worth noting that the supplement DIM, a compound in cruciferous vegetables, has been found to reduce the breakdown of testosterone to DHT which causes BPH, or noncancerous prostate enlargement.

This compound might also be one of the ones that produces this protection against aggressive prostate cancer.

But the cruciferous vegetables have so many other compounds that make cancer less likely, you clearly would be well advised to only take DIM in addition to eating these two cruciferous vegetables.

More of the incredible benefits of exercise….

Today's post: Tuesday, 8-7-2007

On Sunday, 8-5-2007 Parade magazine had an article I thought so important, I decided to give you a report on it.

Our regular readers already know that exercise helps you lose or keep off excess fat, release growth hormone to slow aging, keep or even restore most of your youthful strength, prevent or improve insulin resistance & type II diabetes, protect your heart, & even grow new brain cells to counteract aging or stress.

The Parade article highlighted a set of reasons why exercise also helps keep you feeling good or can help you feel better.

*Exercise helps reduce stress & anxiety.

Michael O’Shea, who wrote the article points out that vigorous exercise is often a “mini-vacation” from stress. “(It’s hard to obsess about your to-do list when you’re concentrating on your next push-up.)” -- as he puts it. I can testify this is true from my own experience.

He also says the American Council on Exercise reports that exercise tends to clear stress hormone & chemicals from your blood.

To that I’ll add that by dropping your resting heart & breath rate as you get in shape, it helps increase the amount of stress needed to make you feel physically stressed. Since you speed up breathing & heart rate during exercise & tense & use your muscle, when you stop & your body recovers, you get physically relaxed which also lowers stress. And, when you do get stressed enough to raise your heart rate both you & your heart can handle it because of the exercise & training you’ve done.

*Exercise improves mood.

Regular exercise even lifts mild depression & can take effect in as little as 3 weeks or even less after beginning it. Even the anti-depressant drugs that work can take longer than that.

This thought to be because exercise increases endorphins & reduces cortisol & other stress hormones.

He adds that even a short walk can help immediately at times. And, since social interaction helps depression too, he suggests exercising with a friend or taking an exercise class.

(I’ve found going to a gym & being friendly with the other regulars works very well for this too.)

*Improved self-image.

This, I think is one way exercise relieves stress. You experience in your exercises that you can overcome difficulty successfully and persist in your efforts-- & while exercising, you are focusing on what you can do or are gradually doing better instead of more negative thoughts about yourself.

Many people find that the confidence they get from exercise helps them do better in all the rest of their lives also.

*Much better sleep.

When you exercise during the day, your muscles relax more I think. And, your body is programmed by evolution to put you in rest & repair mode to compensate for your exercise that you did.

It also helps often that exercise reduces stress & stress hormones that can keep you awake.

So, if you aren’t doing regular exercise now. Please consider beginning to. (Even a few sort walks or set of a few pushups or squats at home during the week will help get you started.)

You’ll feel better –or at least stop feeling quite so horrible if things are bad now.

You’ll recover far faster from setbacks. Your whole life will improve.

And, that’s in addition to all the health benefits.

Resveratrol can help you lose fat & fight type II diabetes….

Today's post: Thursday, 8-2-2007

Taking resveratrol also slows aging & may partially reverse aging in some cases. And, it might increase your physical endurance while exercising.

Today, August 2, 2007, the health news email, “ Bottom Line's Daily Health News “, that I subscribe to had an article with some key points that I thought worth summarizing & posting here.

(I don’t agree with everything they publish. But they do have some excellent info often.

To get: Bottom Line's Daily Health News, go to:
www.bottomlinesecrets.com/e2/e2_signup.html

“Four times each week Bottom Line's editorial team will e-mail you ... We'll bring you the latest news from the world's best….” )

Here’s my summary of their article & my comments.:

Resveratrol is found in the skin of purple & red grapes & in the red wines that are made from them.

In a Harvard Medical School study, researchers fed overfed aging mice, simulating the way many people in the United States & elsewhere now eat.

Some of the mice were just overfed & fed food that was 60% fat. And, some were also given resveratrol in addition to being overfed the same diet.

The mice that were also given resveratrol:

1. Had lower levels of blood glucose & insulin, healthier livers, & lived longer by enough to suggest humans given that much resveratrol per pound of bodyweight would live several years longer.

2. Had better insulin sensitivity & blood sugar control.

3. Had more of the mitochondria that produce energy within cells & their mitochondria also worked better. So they were quicker & better coordinated than the mice that got no resveratrol.

4. In another study, mice that were given high levels of resveratrol doubled their exercise endurance compared with those that were not.

These findings strongly suggest that people who eat right & exercise regularly would find it much easier to lose fat & do well with their exercise programs if they also took resveratrol.

And, it suggests that people who do these all things, including taking resveratrol, would be dramatically less likely to get type II diabetes or, if they already have it, to be much more successful managing it & with fewer drugs than would otherwise be the case.

The editor of Bottom Line's Daily Health News interviewed Mark Hyman, MD author of UltraMetabolism, & one of the world’s most thoughtfully & intelligently innovative doctors.

His first comment is that drinking red wine won’t give you the amount of resveratrol the mice were given. The mice were given more resveratrol for their bodyweight than a human would get from drinking “hundreds of bottles” of red wine a day.

He also made a point that in people no supplement you can take – including resveratrol -- can over-ride horribly bad health habits.

He also pointed out that this research confirms what he has found separately, “that glucose control, insulin sensitivity and mitochondrial function are key factors in aging. And, that when these things are in poor shape, people get many diseases & disabilities.

Dr. Hyman then recommended NOT eating junk food & processed foods, (which contain sugar & refined grains, to which I’d add also have too much salt & often have unhealthy fats.)

He recommended eating lots of vegetables, nuts, beans, fruit, & eating other health OK protein foods & fats. He recommended wild caught fish that are high in omega 3 oils in particular.

He points out that eating right & stopping eating junk foods has similar effects as the researchers found by giving their mice resveratrol.

He also points out, as I did in an earlier post that many other supplements do some of the things the researchers found that resveratrol did.

He points out that:

CoQ10 improves mitochondrial function. Chromium supplements help control blood sugar levels.

acetyl-l-carnitine, alpha-lipoic acid, magnesium & purified fish oil all tend to improve both mitochondrial function & help control blood sugar levels.

He then adds that regular exercise tends to keep your mitochondria healthy. His specific advice is so good I quote it here.:

“ Each week, make it a point to schedule two to three 20-minute strength-training sessions, and at least three 30-minute periods of aerobic conditioning.” (You also have to almost always DO the exercises you’ve scheduled.)

He also recommends alternating intense or fast exercise with easier or slower exercise or “interval training.”

Strength training tends to produce this alternating of intensity by making you work hard on each set & then you rest briefly in between sets. But, in cardio or aerobic exercise, you need to produce this alternation yourself.

Many health experts, including Dr Al Sears who write for Early to Rise are now advocating that kind of aerobic exercise.

It does seem to be much more effective in helping you lose fat & in improving insulin resistance & blood sugar control. It’s also been found to get you in good shape faster than exercising at a single speed in your cardio workout.

Dr Hyman then suggests to “*Practice effective stress management & “Reduce your exposure to toxins.”

I agree with him that following his advice & taking the other supplements he recommends will give you very similar if not better results than the mice that were fed resveratrol. I said as much in an earlier post myself.

But this article has motivated me to also take resveratrol in addition. It sounds like my efforts to tame & reduce my “fluffy tummy” will work better & I’ll do better in my cardio exercises.
It may also help me live longer & in better health.

I don’t agree with everything Dr Hyman says & I find some of his advice undoable for me. But the quality of what he says that I do agree with & his advice I can follow is unbelievably good. And, some of his work on a new paradigm in medicine is so good he could one day win the Nobel Prize in medicine.

Here’s more information on Dr Hyman from the “Bottom Line's Daily Health News” article.”

“Mark Hyman, MD, founder and medical director of The UltraWellness Center in Lenox, Massachusetts, author of UltraMetabolism (Scribner) and The UltraSimple Diet (Pocket).

Dr. Hyman is the former co-medical director of Canyon Ranch, and editor-in-chief of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal in alternative medicine.”