• Apr17

    How to Prevent Heart Attacks

    Posted in: Arthritis, Diabetes, High Cholesterol, Hypertension, Obesity and Weight Loss, Refuel, Stroke, Wellness and Health

    Two views of why heart disease prevention does not work well: one, personal responsibility is not given the attention it deserves.

    And two, physicians are not trained or incentivized to advise patients to stop smoking, improve their diet and become fit…maybe because people don’t think they can make a real difference in their own health. Which is wrong: it is *never* too late to start.

    Both of these commentaries are tragic.

    People need skills they don’t have, and don’t have easy access to: preparing, choosing and shopping for food well, improving mindset, productivity and sleep, and optimizing the home, work and mobile environments for the best lifestyle choices.

    Health care begins at home…not in the doctor’s office. Too often, it ends in the hospital, where we manage disease intensively. At which hospitals excel.

    What I want to do professionally over the next 5 years is help people like those in these videos—people at risk for or with chronic disease (heart, stroke, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, arthritis, hypertension, many cancers)–avoid the hospital. And avoid the Heart Attack Grill.

    The key is to make caring for yourself–and lifestyle–as fun as a vacation. My first step: helping men, and the women who love them Refuel.

     
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  • Jan4

    How Losing Weight Helps Your Heart. Are You Actually Overweight?

    Posted in: High Cholesterol, Hypertension, Obesity and Weight Loss, Wellness and Health

    The first big JAMA study of the new year (Happy New Year!) implied that you can be overweight or barely obese, and not die early because of it.

    In between the lines: yes….in that population. Why?

    Because they get medical care right away!. Because they get sicker sooner! Because their pre-diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol gets screened for and picked up and treated!   And because being sick–like with cancer, immune disease, and heart disease–can make you less fat, because you feel sick!

    Plus, looked at internationally (as this study did), people of lower weight were often malnourished and sickly, and in some cases, starving.

    So much for “spinning the data.”

    Here is what you need to know about who is actually overweight, and why weight loss treats heart disease.

    74% of men and 68% of women in the U.S are overweight or obese, and the rest of the world is rapidly catching up.  Most men and women don’t know where they fall. You can measure your body mass index (BMI), measure your kid’s BMI, or just look below: for both men and women:

    If you’re 5-foot-10-inches, normal is 132 -167 pounds; an overweight is 172- 202 pounds, obese is 209- 236 pounds; severely obese starts at 243; morbidly obese starts at 278.

    If you’re 5-foot-5-inches, normal 114-144; overweight 150-174; obese is 180-204; severely obese starts at 210; morbidly obese starts at 240.

    Weight loss helps your heart because it lowers your blood pressure and your blood lipids including triglycerides and LDL cholesterol; it helps you metabolize sugar more efficiently; it improves insulin sensitivity; and it reduces inflammation. And inflammation probably causes heart disease.

    Not to mention makes it easier for the heart to pump blood where it needs to go!

    No one said it was easy to lose weight and keep it off: crappy, cheap, alluring high-calorie low-nutrient foods are everywhere. Produce is not as cheap or accessible as highly processed food. People often don’t have sit down meals, and motivation is a very weak leg on which to stand.  What you need is a plan, accountability, self-monitoring and the right foods for you.

     

     
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  • Aug11

    Basic Food as Medicine

    Posted in: Food FAQ's, High Cholesterol, Media, Wellness and Health

    I had the privilege of speaking with Joe and Terry Graedon, founders of The People’s Pharmacy, on their syndicated NPR show (free podcast here) broadcast today)!, about how we’re trying to make your health and health care awesome with the right food.

    Their questions made me think about why it’s so important to help people wherever they are starting.

    For example, I love farmer’s markets. I give market tours, I know many farmers personally, I created a PBS DVD library on how to eat healthy (available for a donation to PBS, which I support) and I love to cook locally grown foods.

    But most people buy food shipped into supermarkets, and are worried and time-pressed about cooking.

    So it’s become more important to me to show how to buy and cook any broccoli, even bad broccoli (as Mark Bittman writes) than to search out the most pristine, tight head. Or to explore the wonders of the youngest broccosprouts (highest in sulforphane, and patented by Johns Hopkins).

    Getting people to cook more–and people are catching up and catching on–is the key to helping them lose weight. Especially men.

    Thousands of people (according to my Dear ChefMD e-mail!) want  to change their cholesterol, blood pressure, back pain, constipation, irritable bowel, heart disease and diabetes.  And those who have have great stories.

    So if you were going to stock a kitchen medicine chest, like the one I describe in the ChefMD book, and you wanted just 10 foods instead of the 50 I name, what would they be and why? Here are mine:

    Broccoli: detoxify carcinogens, reduce estrogen levels

    Chilies: faster metabolism, better control of diabetes

    Dark Chocolate: lower blood pressure, improve insulin sensitivity

    Cinnamon: lower LDL cholesterol, improve insulin sensitivity

    Fish: fewer heart attacks, fewer strokes

    Garlic: less stomach, colon and rectal cancer; lower blood pressure

    Nuts: lower cholesterol, improve satiety

    Walnuts: protect brain cells, protect interior arterial linings against junk food

    Wine (sensibly): raise HDL (healthy) cholesterol, reduce risk of heart attack, peptic ulcer disease

    Yogurt: lower risk of antibiotic related diarrhea; reduce irritable bowel syndrome symptoms

     
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  • Dec2

    Statins on Sale: Is Generic Lipitor a Bargain?

    Posted in: High Cholesterol, Vitamins and Supplements, Wellness and Health

    The most popular Rx’d drug in America, Lipitor, went generic this week as atorvastatin. Lipitor sales were $8.7 billion last year, and 3.3 million people take it. If you have insurance, request the generic. Watch your copayment drop from $25 per month to a generic copayment to $10.

    If you don’t have insurance and pay out-of-pocket, your cost will go from ~$150 a month to maybe $15, in about 6 months.

    But is Lipitor a bargain at 90% off? Yes and no.

    Yes: if you have diagnosed heart disease, statins prevent one death for every 48 patients treated for 3 to 5 years. I recommend them.

    No: if you don’t have heart disease, statins taken daily, as directed, prevent one heart attack (a nonfatal one) for every 60 patients treated for 4 years.  Because the reason to improve cholesterol is to prevent heart attack and death from heart disease.

    Statins do cause many extra costs: liver testing every 3 months, worries about calf and thigh pain and myopathy, and for a few unfortunates, rhabdomyolysis: basically, liquid muscles and kidney failure.  Lipitor especially interacts with beer, wine, chapparal, comfrey, grapefruit and St. Johns wort.  And antifungal meds, calcium channel blockers, cyclosporine, niacin, fibrates and digoxin.

    What could you do instead?

    You could take an effective dietary supplement, like Cholest-Off or Benecol Smart Chews (Caramel). You could read about lowering cholesterolt in Controlling Cholesterol for Dummies, or learn what the Wall Street Journal and New York Times advise, highlighted on this blog.  You could discover other ways to save on prescription drugs.

    Maybe smartest of all, you could check your own cholesterol, at home, with CardioChek…minimizing statins and taking control of your own health.  Because you are your own best investment.

     
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  • Aug23

    It’s Time for Some Q and As

    Posted in: Diabetes, Food FAQ's, High Cholesterol, Vitamins and Supplements, Wine and Tea

    I am taking a short break from farming activities (avocados, anyone?) and newsletter writing to answer some reader questions. You can also post these on Facebook or Google Plus and I will try to answer there.

    Q.  I am wondering if you think it is a good idea to minimize the cheese, chicken and fish animal proteins? The research I have read suggests that the positive qualities of those products can be found in plant based foods, and without the saturated fat, cholesterol or mercury.  My understanding is that type 1 diabetes has been linked to the casein in cows milk when given to infants, and that animal protein may be related to auto-immune diseases.

    A: In general, yes, about animal proteins–moderate more than minimize.

    I think most of the problem is in overprocessing and some of the hormones and toxins with which they are raised/to which they are subjected, instead of the saturated fat and cholesterol.

    Cholesterol in food (unless you eat 2# of shrimp or 3 egg yolks daily) doesn’t raise cholesterol in the blood.

    Most saturated fat probably raises the risk of heart disease but food is a mix of nutrients, and I think its source is the main thing.

    The other question is harder: type I diabetes has been linked to casein, but so has latitude, and the confounding factor may be vitamin D levels: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19100644.

    Infants exposed to casein early in life may be at increased risk for diabetes, but the data are not conclusive.

    So I would not avoid milk because of diabetes risk, but I would want to know where the milk came from, whether the cow received rBGH, growth promoters and so on.

    Of concern, Japanese cattle recently ate radioactive rice straw; whether it harms people to eat radioactive milk is unknown, except in high doses…but the yuck factor is pretty high.

    Q.  Hi, I saw you for the first time on PBS yesterday and was intrigued. I recently lost my job and health insurance and figured since I eat everyday, I might as well eat better. It has to be cheaper than healthcare insurance. I’m Mormon and don’t drink alcohol. Is there a non-alcoholic drink that has the benefits of wine?

    A.  Red grape juice, pomegranate juice and other dark fruit juices do provide many of the benefits of wine.

    However, alcohol raises HDL, which juices do not, but they do provide tannins, flavonoids and anti-inflammatory chemicals which are helpful with inflammation.

    Q:  You seem to be looking at and using a variety of ways to share your information to as many people as will listen. Which I think is fantastic. Have you considered a weekly or monthly conference call for people using a service, like go-to-meeting.com, where you can have interactive discussions or presentations?  I have no clue what is required on the presenter’s part, however.

    A: I have thought about it and like the idea. I’ll send out a poll to newsletter subscribers and ask if they would like that, and how much it should cost.

    I think I would likely use Skype (Kris Carr uses it for her coaching, apparently) and I think it would be fun.  Let’s see!

     
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