Thursday, February 26, 2015

Effective Ways to Stop Osteoporosis….

Today's Post:  Thursday, 2-26-2015

As he often does, in an email earlier this month, Dr Al Sears emailed me some of the things he finds prevent or stop or reverse osteoporosis AND shows that before agriculture we know that osteoporosis was very rare to never happened at all! 

In fact, the evidence shows that older people then had heavier and stronger skeletons than younger people!

He left out to take vitamin K2 and effective strength training and to avoid colas most of all and why.

He also left out the problem with proton pump inhibitors and the need for people who take them to supplement with magnesium and perhaps boron.

But he has SO much right and says it so well, I decided to do a post based on it!

1.  Here’s a quick recap of the things I’ve learned that help prevent or reverse osteoporosis first.

a)  The most critical and effective one to include is to do some kind of weight bearing or bone stressing exercise for each of the major bones in your body. And the bones in the back and spine and pelvis and legs are most critical.

Super slow or slow rep heavy stress training with moderately high repetitions but for just one set per exercise does this best.  (I learned to do this myself and can feel how very effective it is immediately and the day after!)  (I learned of it from The Perfect Workout who helps people do a complete program in just 20 minutes with a one on one personal trainer coach.)

We know that baseball pitchers develop much stronger and heavier bones in their pitching arm for example.

But what is most interesting is that this kind of exercise was developed because many years ago, people over 65 with osteopenia, early stage or moderate osteoporosis were helped to do leg presses on a workout machine.  And, they got exactly that kind of coaching to gradually get stronger over 12 weeks to 3 months.  In just that short time, their degree of osteoporosis got much less as their bones got heavier and stronger!

Of course, the key here is that had they done exercises also for their back and abdominal muscles and arms and other leg exercises AND were helped to add the foods and supplements that increase this bone building effect – AND to completely STOP the things that cause osteoporosis, AND kept doing it all for three YEARS, the effects would have been dramatically greater.

Just exactly that is available to you in this post by combining my points here and the points in Dr Sears’ post below!

b)  It’s been known for some time that getting enough calcium intake plus taking vitamin D3 helps build your bones. 

But that is rarely done in a way that works!

Taking calcium supplements does little due to the low bioavailability of the calcium.  And, adding tiny amounts of synthetic vitamin D2 does very little to improve things!

In massive contrast to that, eating very abundantly of leafy greens and beans and lentils and raw nuts if you aren’t allergic – which are all high in bioavailable calcium AND taking 5,000 iu to 10,000 iu a day of vitamin D3 plus vitamin K2, which ensures the calcium adds to your bones and comes out of your blood vessels, plus eating those foods and taking magnesium supplements of at least 400 mg a day plus taking boron, 3 mg a day -- all done with this kind of exercise, is extremely effective.

(If you do take small amounts of calcium in supplements, taking them right after eating both improves their bioavailability and help prevent them from going into your blood vessels instead of your bones.)

c)  If you take proton pump inhibitors which tend to cause your bones to break, following these methods, particularly the exercise and magnesium supplements, has been shown by actual direct tests to be essential to avoid things like a broken pelvis or thigh bones.

d)  The other most essential thing to do is to STOP doing the major cause of osteoporosis in both men and women.  The acidic effect of ingesting too many carbonated drinks each day and the even greater acidic effect of the phosphoric acid in cola drinks are both direct causes of osteoporosis. 

So to prevent the fattening effect and the other health harms from drinking both regular and diet soft drinks AND to stop giving yourself osteoporosis, completely stop drinking them! 

Why keep making yourself fat and sick and making your bones weak?

2.  Here’s what Dr Sears wrote in his email:  [As I often do, my comments are set off by this style of brackets.]

“As an anti-aging specialist, I've spent a lot of time studying and treating osteoporosis among the many "older" patients who come to my wellness clinic.

Many of them believe they must accept this painful and dangerous condition as an unavoidable part of aging.

This means I also spend a lot of time debunking the osteoporosis propaganda put out by the medical establishment.

I want them to learn about the natural ways they can keep their skeletons strong – at any age!

Osteoporosis is a "silent" disease, because it gives no clue that you might have it until a slight bump or fall produces a nasty, disabling fracture.

The degeneration and weakening of bones – osteoporosis means literally "porous bone" – has become a virtual epidemic in America. Ten million people have developed the disease.1

Another 18 million have been diagnosed with osteopenia, a condition regarded as the precursor to osteoporosis.

And treating these ailments has become a giant cash cow for Big Pharma and the mainstream medical establishment, who hawk their heavy-duty medications to the masses of America's senior citizens.

Some doctors have even begun prescribing powerful medications to stop or delay the onset of osteoporosis to people as young as in their 30s and 40s.

The side-effects of these drugs can range from hot flashes, leg cramps and nausea to blood clots, strokes and heart attacks.

Some of these drugs have also been linked to breast, uterus and esophagus cancers.2

[Taking these drugs is a direct cause of severe acid reflux disease!]

[Worse, they make your bones denser and heavier BUT also more fragile and likely to break!

Why take something that has both harmful side effects and makes what you are taking it to prevent MORE likely!??]

So instead of putting yourself unnecessarily at risk and lining the pockets of Big Pharma in the process, here's what I tell my patients: You don't need risky drugs to keep your bones strong.

This is not about debate or opinion. It's a fact. Archaeological evidence reveals that average humans 7,000 years ago had skeletons so strong they could make a modern orangutan jealous.

And, amazingly, they achieved this without the help of Big Pharma and risky osteoporosis drugs.

These people were Neolithic hunter-gatherers. They weren't born with bones of steel. But their bones became stronger with age - not weaker.3,4,5

And they developed these near-superhero frames in an environment that would kill most of us today.

Hunters roamed the forests and plains to find and kill game. Sometimes they had to run down their prey.

Sometimes, they attacked them with knives and axes, using the power of their own muscles to take down a wild beast.

At the same time, gatherers searched hills and forests for edible plants and berries. They dug roots with their bare hands. And if wolves attacked, these Neolithic hunter-gatherers either ran or fought.

Their bones grew stronger, and their muscles and tendons become powerful on diets that were high in animal protein and on lifestyles that involved running, jumping, twisting and turning daily. And not one shred of archaeological evidence revealed the presence of osteoporosis in any of these prehistoric populations.

Their lives of daily activity broke down bone cells and replaced them with more and stronger cells. This idea also explains why serious athletes have stronger bones than do weekend warriors.6,7

When farming was invented, it changed everything.

While it helped sustain larger populations, farming didn't challenge bones like hunting or gathering.

The bones of average humans – thanks to the Agricultural Revolution and the advent of diets that were lower in animal proteins and higher in processed cereals – became thinner and more porous than those of their hunter-gatherer ancestors.

Millions of years ago, our primitive ancestors came out of the trees and we evolved to become masterful endurance runners. They could not rival lions or antelopes in terms of speed – but over time, human bodies and bones developed the ability and strength to outrun any animal in their African environment over long distances.

We were "built" to run and jump for long periods. But, today, we mostly sit.

As a result, we have become puny weaklings, compared with our hunter-gatherer ancestors. And our bones are getting weaker and weaker with each generation.

But with the right kind of exercise and the right diet, we can rebuild our bone-strength and we never have to worry about being afflicted with osteoporosis

In the past, I have told you how to stay strong with my anti-aging exercise system. It's called PACE, which stands for Progressively Accelerating Cardiopulmonary Exertion. The system features focused bursts of activity that help you replace many of the challenges that civilization has taken away.

[That style of whole body interval cardio that you start at a very easy level but very gradually increase in intensity to higher levels IS well worth doing.  And, it will help make your bones strong.  But slow rep strength training is far more effective as a bone builder.  The ideal is to do both each week.  (I do my slow rep strength training mostly on Tuesdays and Saturdays and my PACE style exercises on Weds, Fri, and Sunday for example.)]

But you can't depend on exercise alone to keep your bones strong. Your bones will continue to deteriorate as long as you eat the average American's diet.

Big Ag's grains, oils and sweeteners turn your blood into a low-grade acid and your body into a sugar factory.

This dilute acid leaches the calcium from your skeleton faster than your body can replace it.

And all those sugars and refined carbs have made our nation fat, slow and tired, with all accompanying health crises – obesity, diabetes and numerous cancers, to name but a few.

So if you want stronger bones, eat like a caveman.

Here are some dietary tips I give my patients, who worry about their bones or have already developed osteoporosis and want to reverse the condition.

For a start, eat lots of protein. Many nutritionists dislike meat because it can tip the blood's pH to the acidic side.

But hunter-gatherers overcame this problem without realizing it – they wolfed down big slabs of steak along with quantities of fruit and vegetables.

[I added this emphasis. And it’s critical to know that they tended to eat 6 to 10 servings or even more A DAY of mostly vegetables.  Research has shown that eating that many vegetables each day is the most health supporting and health protective single thing you can do!]

Modern humans have essentially messed up nature's plan. Today, we often serve meat with other acid-promoting foods, like white bread, cheese, fries and soda.8,9

The most nutritious protein comes from grass-fed livestock, wild game and wild fish.10

To keep nature's balance, always load up on vegetables with your protein. The alkaline nutrients from these plants balance the acid in the meat.11,12

Our Neolithic ancestors consumed the equivalent of seven to nine servings of organic fruits and vegetables each day. 

Be sure to serve up root plants, like beets, radishes, turnips and rutabagas. By the way, kale and collard greens provide loads of calcium.13,14  [Once again,  I added that bolding!]

Eliminate or cut down acid-makers, like cereal grains, soybeans, oily cheeses, vegetable oils, salts, sugars, syrups, coffee, energy drinks and carbonated soft drinks.

Leave processed and packaged foods off your grocery list. Many of these contain acidifiers, like pesticide-laden, genetically modified foods, trans-fats and hydrogenated fats. They also have saturated fats and omega-6 fatty acids – so my advice is to stay away from them.”

So there you have it.  If you don’t want to get or keep osteoporosis, these are the things to do and not do.

Of course if you have bad osteoporosis, it’s important to avoid broken bones by adding the foods and supplements and STOPPING the things that cause if for a few weeks first.

And, they to use really, really light weights for the slow rep strength training and add weight more slowly at first.

Osteoporosis CAN be prevented -- and unless it’s virtually terminally bad, it can be reversed  albeit slowly at first.


These are the techniques that make that happen.

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Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Two books that get Results….

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 2-24-2015

One problem with the things that work for permanent fat loss --
and for improving and protecting your health
is that mixing how to do things with most of the very large number of reasons why and other ways to do it that I like to include, can make it hard to read or act on.

1.  What if there was an easy to read and short book on fat loss that people actually used and lost weight on and tend to keep their lost fat off too?

Would that interest you?

There IS one!

2.  What if there was an easy to read and short book with most of the state of the art discoveries in how to improve and keep your health?

Would that interest you?

There IS one!

This post is about these two books.

1.  What if there was an easy to read and short book on fat loss that people actually used and lost weight on and tend to keep their lost fat off too?

Would that interest you?

There IS one!

The Fast Metabolism Diet: Eat More Food and Lose More Weight    by Haylie Pomroy                       Hardcover - April 9, 2013  $15.45

My boss who is less health oriented than I but who wanted to lose about 15 or 20 pounds of fat and preferred to have it stay off so he wouldn’t have to do it over every year, saw this book.

Her promise is that if you follow her advice almost to the letter for 28 days, your metabolism will speed up,
you’ll lose fat weight during the month,
and you can resume your old eating style somewhat without gaining the fat or the weight back–
because with your metabolism sped up instead of slowed down like traditional eating way less does,
the weight will stay off.

Her metabolism repair theory may even be correct at least in part.

But the most important reasons this works include:

IMMEDIATELY stopping all fattening foods and drinks and additives and ingredients;

Only eating organic fruit and some vegetables and health OK proteins in small meals often enough you never get hungry;

And doing it with the encouraging knowledge that other people have indeed succeeded in losing five to 20 pounds in that 28 day period.

Her plan makes sure you get enough fruit and good tasting foods you don’t feel too deprived and enough food that YOU DO NOT feel hungry.

That’s truly the key.  You don’t feel deprived psychologically. So you keep doing it. And, since you always get enough to eat and don’t feel hungry, your failsafe famine response stays totally asleep!

Exactly right!

More people may start and take her advice than do so for writers like me who say you need to keep the lifestyle upgrades permanently. 

They may not feel able to do that or be willing to do that.  But 28 days that will end, they feel they can do.

But what happens apparently is what happened to me.  They think, you know I’m not hungry doing this and the fat came off as promised; and the food is decent now that I’m used to it.

Then they realize they don’t want the fat back or risk getting it back so they may have a treat meal occasionally.  But they DO mostly stay on her program!

It’s a have your cake and eat it to approach that is very appealing backed up by a plan that has all the proven ingredients in it -- and NOT in it-- to cause permanent fat loss!

Best of all, the people who have done it have indeed lost weight they have kept off!

If that’s what you need too, by all means buy her book and do the 28 day program!

2.  What if there was an easy to read and short book with most of the state of the art discoveries in how to improve and keep your health?

Would that interest you?

There IS one!

The New Health Rules: Simple Changes to Achieve Whole-Body Wellness
by Frank Lipman M.D. and Danielle Claro 
– January 6, 2015  Hardcover

 They have almost everything that’s the best current research and easy to use tips.

Their book leaves out all the hundreds of pages of why each thing is so that I tend to write--  
  and just says what the start of the art is now,
what it can do for you to use each point,
and a few tips on using these new rules and STOPS!

 That makes it very easy and quick to read and an easy to use a guide to reread and keep with you.

They did a GREAT Job!


Plus it’s a perfect follow up or companion for the first book!  

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Monday, February 23, 2015

My monthly fatloss report....
Today's Post:  Monday, 2-23-2013
This month’s report is a mixed review with some positive and some negative events to report.
I both gained some leverage and lost some. 
That status seems like AND IS where I’ve been stuck for some time!
My hope of course, is that I’ll gradually make progress by relentlessly continuing the things that have lost and kept off the fat I no longer have;
Having the things I’ve added get traction and gradually help lose some more fat;
-- AND find things with more leverage that work well when I try them -- and then keep doing them also! 
(See the news at the end of this post.  I have found a new way to remove extra belly fat that might work!  And, I found a previous post with another one that was tested to work that I’d forgotten about!
And, there is yet a third one this month! 
I can’t yet afford the first two. 
But I’m being forced to do a version I can afford of the third one, because it is essential to protect my health!)
A.  Here’s my immediate progress section first:
As I suspected, about a pound and a half of the two pounds I gained last time was just that day and was not typical either before or after
The news this month is likely temporary too; but it IS GOOD for the pounds I lost!
In addition to losing the extra pound and a half, I lost four more pounds!
So I’m now only 4 pounds over my goal weight!
What happened?  And why might it be temporary?
We moved!  And, I may have burned as many calories in those two days carrying boxes and small items almost nonstop for one day and part of a second than I do normally in TWO weeks of exercising. 
I don’t think I’ve eaten enough more to change that. (It helps to eat in a very patterned way so that extras and additions stand out.  And with one exception, that didn’t happen! Plus that one exception happened BEFORE I weighed myself.)
It might be temporary because over a few weeks my appetite regulation might add much of that fat back. But it might not too!
BUT, my waist, THIS TIME, went UP by from ¾ of an inch to nearly an inch!
I have two possible explanations for that:
1.  While my amount of exercise went up hugely during our move, so did the amount of unrelieved stress I was under even though our move did go surprisingly well.
So if extra stress did cause me to release way more cortisol and that causes more fat to get deposited on my belly as it does for other people I may have lost fat elsewhere and added that much to my belly fat!
2.  Two or three months ago I wrote:
“Apparently, the progress in my new PACE or high intensity cardio session of 5 sets I added of abdominal exercises -- both toned my muscles and tightened them up or maybe added some of the three pounds over the last two months as muscle.
I’ve now gone from 14 reps to 90 of the 98 reps I plan for each of the new 5 sets!
Clearly it has helped me to gain muscle instead of fat.  I may well be burning 300 calories or more each week than I was a few months ago.”
Since we moved and slightly before, everything is so changed and cramped, to get to work on time, I’ve had to almost eliminate that whole extra cardio program!
I clearly CAN ramp back up to the whole thing at full strength.  And, I think I will once I become more skilled and efficient in our new location.
I’d better; because I’ve had to scrap my fourth high intensity variable cardio session as there was not room to keep my Nordic Track.
3. I have kept up the added vegetables.  I’m actually doing well with maintaining it each week!
Losing enough more fat to cut it from my belly fat as I want to do will mean adding even more vegetables than I eat now as Vitamix drinks.
Several months ago I bought and read a book that suggests that both adding even more vegetables AND taking one week in four where I also eat less of many other foods – other than vegetables, may produce net and sustainable fat losses.
I’m still limited in what I can do now.  BUT, I am on the right track and will do what I can get to now and plan for much more when I can.

(Possible change in this one!  See the last piece of news at the end of this post!)
4.  As I mentioned above, one of the continuing good news stories is my strength training.  The progress is still VERY slow but if I continue getting stronger every week or two AS I HAVE BEEN for the past several months and continue for another few years and am able to add back more safe to do leg exercises and make that progress with them, I will keep adding muscle when most people 15 years younger than I lose that much muscle or even more in the same time period!
a) Much to my great shock, I’ve actually gotten stronger on a few upper body exercises despite the disruption from our move!  Hooray!
b) Did have a small setback on healing the stress fracture in my left foot.  This is understandable from the need to carry so many boxes and focus more on getting the job done than being careful with it.  I’ll just pause my rehab a week or two longer.  I’ll get it healed and strong again eventually. It was already a several month project.  So adding a week or two won’t make that much of a change.
c) Overall, my muscles LOOK a bit bigger, particularly my arms and shoulders; and though my middle is still fat, my thighs have some definition and are clearly hard and toned.
So even though I’ve not gained enough muscles in size or weight to increase how much they weigh and the calories they burn as I’d like to do ---  After another year or so, I may gain a pound or two of muscle at an age when most people lose 5 pounds of muscle instead!
5.  It’s just a matter of time too to the day I can get and use the Vitamix to boost my vegetable intake enough to lose some fat that way.   
And, I did just find out that removing a few things for a week once a month may enable me to lose fat that week every month.
And, by maintaining the extra vegetables all month, that plus the continuing improvements in my exercises may really get me there.
So the conclusion is that despite being hammered more than usual by outside negative influences, I’m still maintaining most of my efforts that lost fat for me to begin with.  AND, I’m still adding promising new things that are working already or might work.
AND, I plan to both continue doing that and have even more in the pipeline for as soon as I can manage to add them.  
B.  New recently & this month:
1.  One of the health emails I got had a new supplement that you had to pay to get and get information on that promised to almost wipe out the effect of stress on abdominal fat.
This sort of thing usually is smoke and doesn’t work in practice. 
But it WAS a potential solution to the exact problems I have.  If true, it would enable me to lose as much as the entire 24 pounds of belly fat I’m still carrying.
I then looked up the information that WAS in the ad on Google to see if there was more information elsewhere for free.
Here’s what I found: 
The effect may in fact be real but not enough by itself to do more than half the job without adding a safe way to boost my level of growth hormone closer to my youthful levels.
(And the existing supplements using it have other ingredients to help it boost heart health which I’ve already done.  So not only are those likely a bad fit for me, they might not be entirely safe as my heart indicators have almost gone past optimum now!)
However, this class of active ingredient is in lemon and orange peel. 
And, at Whole Foods I can get the organic lemons and oranges that would make them safe to add to my Vitamix drinks often enough to at least lose 12 pounds of belly fat.
This is VERY interesting to say the least. 
Last month while eating at a restaurant, I got a fish dish and ate most of the lemon rind.  I found this easier and far less sour than eating the main part of the lemon!
And, I got some organic lemons and an organic orange at Whole Foods to try in the next few days. I was also able to eat the peel for those with no trouble eating them.  But the set up was a bit more time to do than I have had since.
I suspect that I need the Vitamix to add enough EVERY DAY consistently enough to do much. 
And I think I may be more in need of the safe growth hormone boost I don’t yet know how to get.
But I’m experimenting with what I can do by eating a few each week.
If it only helps me cut 3 pounds of belly fat instead of gaining them in the next few months, I’ll be very pleased.
(Our preparation for moving into a smaller space PLUS the flu derailed my plan to add this every day since my last report.
But when I can get back to it, not only it may have the effect in the study and cause some belly fat loss, I may be able to eat the organic lemon or orange rinds instead of a slice of Irish grass fed cattle cheese that has more calories.  So it might also help me lose a pound or so overall.)
Then when I do add the Vitamix and more frequent consumption, I may lose another 9 pounds of belly fat.
The other possibility is that adding back the two faster recovery supplements might enable me to do more on my strength training and get some growth hormone boost and lose more belly fat from that.
2.  Wow! I’d forgotten a post I’d written on a natural compound that acts as if it was an anabolic steroid but has NONE of the expense or lack of safety or side effects of anabolic steroids!
Ursolic acid is the compound.  It seems to make the growth hormone and fat removal hormones you already have much more effective. 
This was so true in the tests, it looks like it may make you stronger, your muscles bigger, and make you less fat even without exercise.  (This was thought by the researcher to be possibly a way to help cancer survivors and people in nursing homes who can’t currently exercise maintain to their muscles.)
Needless to say when added to a decent strength training program, it likely would be a massive help.
A month’s supply of the supplement costs $89.95!  So it was out of reach for me at the time and now.  But there is some in Brewer’s yeast and the oregano and basil I add several days a week to my dinners.  I’ve been making do with that small amount as what I could then and now afford. (The richest source is red apple peels.  But it is extremely hard to get apple peels – even those listed to be organic – that haven’t been sprayed with something you’d not want to eat tons of.)
BUT, now I’ve been reminded, I will try the supplement when I can afford it!!
3.  There are two vegetables that when juiced at the level of the Vitamix, cause drops in blood pressure comparable to the drugs for high blood pressure or even better but which have ZERO side effects if the vegetables are organic!
a)  Celery for those not allergic to it, has an ingredient that does this.  But in order to work, you need to eat the celery itself to get the ingredient in massive and affordable doses AND along with the cofactors in the celery it needs to work!
b)  Juicing beets also has a similar effect with a big extra work out boost!
It seems that to get the boost in nitric oxide that relaxes your blood vessels and improves the health and flexibility of your endothelium, the insides of your blood vessels, you need to get nitrates from vegetables in contact with the saliva in your mouth.

The workout bonus is that besides the much better blood flow, this also may boost growth hormone levels after your workouts!
In fact, beet juice has been tested to show performance enhancement!!
So, I’ve long planned to add this one!
But I’ve no funds yet for the Vitamix for either one.
c) Here’s the brand new news!
I’ve got to make do with what of this I can do with our existing blender if I want to avoid taking drugs that will ruin my quality of life because our recent move’s stress drove my blood pressure up enough it will harm my kidneys if I don’t do that OR get it done with this!
And, I CAN afford the organic celery!  Plus, I CAN afford the nitrates plus not have to have the mess of beets!  The superfood dark greens like kale and cabbage and water cress I already should be eating more of ALSO have that level of nitrates.
I plan to have a positive report on that next time!

So, the conclusion is that some of what I’m doing and will keep doing is working.  I’ll keep doing them all!

And I have several planned improvements likely to work and these new and very promising things that might – one of which I’ll try before next time.

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Friday, February 20, 2015

Resveratrol ALSO protects brain and memory....

Today's Post:  Friday, 2-20-2015

Short post today but an important one.

1. A researcher found that, resveratrol, a compound in red wine seemed to activate the same sirtuin gene that caused lightly fed animals and people to live longer.

Later research was mixed when they studied this effect.

But the researcher found that if resveratrol was eaten or taken as a supplement with the micro nutrients also in red wine and grape juice and other dark blue or purple fruit, the antiaging effect did happen.

(In supplements, it’s also important to only get resveratrol in the natural trans-resveratrol form. 

The better news is that if you get the important co-factors by eating or taking extracts of fruits like purple grapes or blueberries or bilberries or dark red cherries or cranberries, 100 mg a day of trans-resveratrol may be enough to get the effect.  And Source Naturals sells trans-resveratrol in 100 mg capsules.)

2.  Follow on research DID confirm that resveratrol even by itself does have heart protective effects. And, it’s likely that adding the cofactors increases the effect also. 

3.  Eating organic fruit once or twice a day from that list massively slashes your risk of both ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes.  In fact, it cuts the incidence of ischemic strokes well and cuts the risk of hemorrhagic strokes about double that!

Since some mental decline and memory loss is caused by small stokes some of which people didn’t feel, this suggests that taking resveratrol and eating those fruits might also protect your brain and memory.

Research found that the brain and memory protective effect of resveratrol may be even stronger than that suggests!

Medical News Today had this recently:

Compound found in grapes, red wine may help prevent memory loss
http://mnt.to/l/4tqh
A compound found in common foods such as
The lead researcher from the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine said this:

"The results of the study were striking,"

"They indicated that for the control rats who did not receive resveratrol, spatial learning ability was largely maintained but ability to make new spatial memories significantly declined between 22 and 25 months.”  [Apparently that is old age for rats.]

“By contrast, both spatial learning and memory improved in the resveratrol-treated rats."

He also “…. said neurogenesis (the growth and development of neurons) approximately doubled in the rats given resveratrol compared to the control rats.

The resveratrol-treated rats also had significantly improved microvasculature, indicating improved blood flow,
and had a lower level of chronic inflammation in the hippocampus.”

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Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Genes and preventing heart disease, part 2....

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 2-17-2015

Recap from part one on Thursday, 2-12-2015:

These things are true regarding the effect of genes on heart disease:

1.  Even with bad genes if you do enough of the more powerfully protective things, you can lower your risk of heart disease to very low or extremely low.

(My heart indicator blood tests show I've done just that. This time we cover what I did to do that.)

(2. Genetic tests exist for whether or not you will find a lower fat diet protective.)

(3. Genetic tests exist that show statins are not only very harmful for everyone but for the majority they are almost not heart protective at all.  However some at least get a bit of protection.  You can tell which group you are in for a $150 genetic test.)

    The first part of what I did to protect my heart as well as I have and why was in part one:

4.  Even with "bad genes" from a strong family history of heart disease I slammed down my risk to extremely low.  Studies on the things I happened on show results such that if you do them all too, you are very likely to get the same effects,
When I was younger I ran for exercise because it was found it was a good stress reliever and resilience builder by Kenneth Cooper who researched for the US Air Force if that was true as was commonly believed and what the minimum weekly requirement was.
He found the most effective and time efficient way to do that was to run about 6 miles a week at about an 8 minute per mile pace or faster.

Then some runners who ran a good bit longer than that began to die while running or just afterwards.

(We now know that while running it's critical to have periods where you coast or slow a bit when you need a rest break when running longer than few minutes because constant high level stress on your heart for over a few minutes is directly harmful.)
At the time though I realized I'd best find out what to eat that was protective for your heart.
I was already doing shorter runs without pushing myself too much with bursts of speed at the end of each quarter mile.  I ran four mornings a week.)
And, except for using sugar on my oatmeal, I ate a relatively heart protective diet after I read up on it.

I already avoided packaged treats and snacks and didn't drink soft drinks which, looking back on it, was the most protective thing I did.  It included oatmeal and oat bran which are high in soluble fiber.

Plus I took niacin of 300 mg a day from Whole Foods.

Then I added chromium of 200 mcg and cut way back on sugar and switched to no sugar applesauce when my doctor said my fasting glucose of 115 was way too high.  (It certainly was!  But I didn't know that then.) That worked and dropped my fasting glucose to 89 likely due in part from cutting way back on sugar plus my regular exercise.

My triglycerides were about 150 and my HDL was about 55 and my LDL was about 130.
Since there was a good bit of family history of heart attacks in my father's side of our family, quite possibly a genetic trait I'd inherited, and I found out 130 was still moderate rather than the very low risk I wanted.  Given the family history, I decided to drive my risk down to very low and have succeeded enough to reach an extremely low risk!

I already avoided packaged treats and snacks and didn't drink soft drinks which, looking back on it, was the most protective thing I did.  It included oatmeal and oat bran which are high in soluble fiber.

Plus I took niacin of 300 mg a day from Whole Foods.

Then I added chromium of 200 mcg and cut way back on sugar and switched to no sugar applesauce when my doctor said my fasting glucose of 115 was way too high.  (It certainly was!  But I didn't know that then.) That worked and dropped my fasting glucose to 89 likely due in part from cutting way back on sugar plus my regular exercise.

My triglycerides were about 150 and my HDL was about 55 and my LDL was about 130.

Since there was a good bit of family history of heart attacks in my father's side of our family, quite possibly a genetic trait I'd inherited, and I found out 130 was still moderate rather than the very low risk.  Given the family history, I decided to drive my risk down to very low and have succeeded enough to reach an extremely low risk!

Here’s what I’ve done since then that I ran out of time to cover last time:

Here’s what I did to lower my LDL from 130 to 106 after that:

1.  The first thing I did was to double my niacin intake from one tablet of 300 mg of niacin from Whole Foods to two a day. 

(I already know niacin lowered LDL cholesterol.  I’ve since learned that it also boosts HDL and lowers triglycerides; so it cuts the amount of small particle LDL that causes heart disease!  As a result, taking niacin cuts the rate of deaths from heart disease and deaths from all causes goes down by as much as 19%.  Statins do neither!

And, I found that by taking the 300 mg each day after breakfast and one after lunch minimized or eliminated flushing!)

And, I finally found an article that showed that 300 mg of “no flush niacin”, insositol hexaniacinate DOES slowly release 250 mg of niacin.

(Drug like time release niacin of as little as 500 mg of niacin can cause health problems. 

Because it is much more gradual and has no chemicals or plastics to slow the niacin release, insositol hexaniacinate does not.

So I added the 300 mg capsule size of insositol hexaniacinate also from Whole Foods.  I took and still take one with breakfast and one with dinner. That gives me 500 mg a day of niacin.

So, before I was taking an effective total of 300 mg of niacin a day.  After that change and ever since, I’ve taken an effective total of 1100 mg of niacin a day. 

(Above that can cause health problems in some people.

And it sometimes doesn’t go well if you take niacin with statins.  But I stopped at 1100 mg a day of niacin.

 And I know better than to take statins which are a much less effective and more dangerous substance to take!

2.  The second thing I did was to remember that Dr Kenneth Cooper found that the sterols added to margarines DID prove effective at lowering LDL.

By then I knew better than to ever eat any kind of margarine!  But I suspected you might be able to get just the sterols in a supplement.

I was already taking saw palmetto to slow BPH and reduce its effects.  And, saw palmetto contains sterols.

Then I found the Beta Sitosterol since renamed Cholesterol Balance from Natrol.  It’s inexpensive and each tablet is 300 mg.

And, I added three of those a day.

After a few weeks of that I got an LDL reading of 100 and later I got one of 106.

3.  That was much lower risk than 130; but I kept checking every few months to be sure it didn’t go back up.

Then much to my great astonishment it went down to 76 and then 73!!

I’d added a capsule of curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric each day because of it’s proven record of strongly preventing Alzheimer’s disease.

And I’d added about a half tablespoon of powdered ginger mixed into water each morning as an injury and inflammation preventing tonic without the harmful side effects of aspirin or acetaminophen or an NSAID -- and for the mild warmth after I drank it!

Then I read in Dr Dean Ornish’s book Spectrum that turmeric and curcumin ARE known to lower LDL.  And, I already knew that turmeric and ginger are botanic cousins with overlapping effects.

Not that the drop from 100 to 106 to 76 & 73 was greater than the drop from the niacin and sterols and added to it!

And, the 73 to 76 is lower than people often get to by taking statins to do it but then suffer that bad side effects!

Hooray!

4.  I knew that garlic raised HDL which is protective and that taking or eating garlic  increased the health and responsiveness of your arteries.  AND, I’d read that taking garlic along with the amount of vitamin C I already was taking, 2100 mg a day, had been shown to reduce plaque in the blood vessels.

But I’d nothing about it because raw garlic is messy and slow to mince and serve if you don’t have the tools of a chef and do it every day – plus your breath reeks of it the next day.

But then I read and posted on the study that found that the 300 mg a day of deodorized garlic capsules I was already taking did every bit of that when tested in people who took 1200 mg a day of the deodorized garlic.  So out of curiosity, I jumped my intake of Kyolic deodorized garlic from 300 mg a day to 1200 mg a day and got retested.

I’d already done so many things to boost my HDL it was 100 before; and it still was.

And, I’d also done enough other things to lower my triglycerides from 150 to 37.

But after the increase in deodorized garlic, my LDL went to an astonishing 59!

And, my triglycerides went to an equally astonishing 22!

Before I added the extra deodorized garlic my risk was already down to very low.

Much to my great shock, it’s now down to extremely low!

5.  Of course this was added to years of doing vigorous exercise most days of every week. And studies show that every year in a row you do that, your HDL goes up and your triglycerides and LDL go down.

And, I don’t smoke and avoid second hand smoke!

6.  And, I’m not done. 

Besides slashing even real sugar and even whole grains, in part for fat loss, I’m working to increase my intake of vegetables to six or more servings a day.

THAT has been shown to cut your risk of dying from all causes by 43% and 24/43 of that is from the drop in the risk of dying from any kind of heart disease!


If I can get my risk that low with my family history, genes may make a difference, but we know enough things that lower heart risk most of those genes fail to be powerful enough to keep you from protecting your heart!  

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