Posts Tagged ‘calcium’

For Our Men: Important!!!

August 19th, 2015 Lynn

Heart disease is the number one cause of death in both men and women. Women receive a warning system as they age if there are imbalances, infections and/or inflammation. It’s called perimenopause and menopause. Symptoms vary from women to women and unlike common beliefs, hot flashes, inability to sleep, weight gain are not normal, but rather warning signs. Men, however, don’t receive a warning system per say. Or do they? I just recently listened to an excellent podcast by Dr. Joel Kahn, a holistic cardiologist. What he had to say is extremely important. I urge you to read this thoroughly and to share this with your loved ones.

Don’t wait for chest pain or a mild heart attack to seek help. There are other early warning symptoms that must be explored:

  • Erectile dysfunction is an indication of vascular issues and can be a predictor of heart disease. There’s a strong correlation between erectile dysfunction preceding heart disease.
  • Baldness can indicate clogged arteries.
  • Calf cramps may indicate that blood is not flowing below the heart.
  • A vertical ear crease has been correlated with heart disease.
  • Poor sleep habits (less than 7 hours per sleep per night) increases risk.
  • A poor diet.

If you feel that you or your loved one is showing these risk factors, then please read further.

What tests have been traditionally conducted? An EKG/ECG, which is commonly recommended, recognizes only electrical activity of the heart and identifies latent stages of advanced heart disease. Alllow me to emphasize, an EKG doesn’t recognize early stages and is not enough. An exercise stress test: looks for lesions… but if 40 to 60% of the lesions are narrowed, it will be missed. In other words a stress test picks up the worst of the worst. Cardio lite is nuclear ingested and involves loads of radiation providing great inaccuracies…false positives and missed populations.

It’s important to look at the actual arteries to find out if they are blocked.

There are two extremely important tests that offer early detection of heart disease. The first is a coronary artery scan. This will show if 99% or more of arteries are damaged. There are three main arteries that pump blood in and out of the heart. The heart arteries are deep and small. Calcification (bone like material in arteries also referred to as plaque) contains 20% of calcium and show up easy in XRays. The test involves a cat heart scan (quick and informative) and is available in every clinic across the country. Nothing is injected into the blood stream and the radiation exposure is 1 SMV compared to the cardiolite which is 12-15SMV’s. The ideal result is “0” based on a formula. A result of 1-99 increases the risk of heart disease by 50% more than patients with 0. This test is not necessary to repeat more than every 10 years. The Coronary artery calcium screen costs about $100 to $150 per test but is unfortunately not covered by insurance.

The second is a CMIT test ultrasound of the carotid arteries in the neck under the skin. CMIT stands for Carotid Intima-Media thickness. This neck ultrasound checks the thickness of the artery…compared to age. This is the earliest way to know the age of your arteries (are they older or younger than your chronological age). Based on these results a program can begin and this ultrasound can be repeated 6 to 12 months to monitor. The results will show: less than 25th percentile suggests a low risk, 50 -75th percentile offers average thickness and over 75th percentile in thickness of the arteries suggests the highest risk. A middle aged person is .6 to .7 micrometers. For ever .1mm increase in the CMIT results, the risk for heart disease increases by 10 to 15% and the risk of stroke increases by 13 to 18%. The cost again is not covered by insurance but ranges from $150 to $250. Unfortunately it is not as widely available.
Other necessary tests that are recommended by Dr. Kahn and are widely available are:
1. Advanced Cholesterol panel
2. High Sensitivity C Reactive Protein

Let’s continue to be proactive in health.

“The best time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining”. 

Be well,

Lynn

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Why all the supplements?

June 2nd, 2013 Lynn

pillsThere is much discussion about supplements these days: what supplements to take; do they contradict each other; is it really necessary to take supplements? 

It has become more present that the foods we eat today are not the same foods that our ancestors ate 100 years ago.  Seeds have been genetically modified, the soils have been contaminated, whole foods have become refined foods, pesticides have become in mainstream use and fast food is more popular than ever.    Over time our whole foods have become depleted, lacking in nutrients and vitamins; what the body needs 24 hours a day to function optimally. 

What about the fortified foods you ask? Fortified foods have been supplemented by the Food and Drug Administration to meet minimum requirements as determined by the FDA.    And yet with all of the fortified foods being consumed approximately 70% of Americans are Vitamin D deficient, for example (per Joseph Mercola, MD).  As Edward Giovannucci, MD, Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at Harvard University states:

‘Milk alone is unlikely to be an adequate source of vitamin D. True, milk is fortified in the U.S. (it is not fortified in most countries). Each glass of fortified milk should contain about 100 IU of vitamin D (but on average, it may contain only 50 IU). So someone would have to drink at least 8 glasses of milk per day to get 800 IU of vitamin D. Moreover, most experts now conclude that 1,000 to 2,000 IU per day of vitamin D may be what we need for optimum health.’

I’ve recently read 1000IU’s per 25 lbs is the recommended dose of Vitamin D3 (per Dr. John Cannell of the Vitamin D Council).  This means that a 150 lb person would have to drink anywhere from 60 to 120 glasses of milk per day.  Get the picture? And this is only vitamin D we’re talking about.  I’ll save B Vitamins, Vitamin A, K,C and others for another time.

So what to take? Here are suggestions:

  1.  Find out what you’re deficient in.  Discuss with a practitioner what your needs are.
  2.  Avoid the ‘one size fits all approach’ with a multi-vitamin until you know what your body needs.
  3.  Purchase supplements from only reputable, quality manufacturers.  Many supplements are stuffed with fillers that are unneeded and can even be damaging depending on the individual.

Each and every one of us an individual.  Be sure to be supplemented like one.

Be well,

Lynn

 

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