Syndrome X, Metabolic syndrome...

Metabolic syndrome is a combination of medical disorders that increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and diabetes.[1] It affects a great number of people, and prevalence increases with age. Some studies estimate the prevalence in the USA to be up to 25% of the population.[2]

Metabolic syndrome is also known as metabolic syndrome X, syndrome X, insulin resistance syndrome, Reaven’s syndrome, and CHAOS (Australia). A similar condition in overweight horses is referred to as equine metabolic syndrome; it is unknown if they have the same etiology.

Signs and symptoms

Symptoms and features are:

Fasting hyperglycemia — diabetes mellitus type 2 or impaired fasting glucose, impaired glucose tolerance, or insulin resistance;

High blood pressure;

Central obesity (also known as visceral, male-pattern or apple-shaped adiposity), overweight with fat deposits mainly around the waist;

Decreased HDL cholesterol;

Elevated triglycerides;

Associated diseases and signs are: elevated uric acid levels, fatty liver (especially in concurrent obesity), progressing to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, polycystic ovarian syndrome, hemochromatosis (iron overload); and acanthosis nigricans (a skin condition featuring dark patches).

The description continues at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolic_syndrome

Other links:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/reverse_syndrome_x.htm

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/syndrome_x_education.htm

http://www.syndromexassoc.org/Home.asp

http://www.syndromexassoc.org/Treatment.asp

[Via http://myoblast.wordpress.com]

This Week - on the Liberation Wellness Hour - Julie Burns - Eat Like the PROS!

Julie H. Burns, MS, RD, CCN is founder of SportFuel, Inc. and Eat Like the Pros® – an integrative nutrition consulting firm and Organic Meal Delivery service, both located in Western Springs, IL. Past and current clients include the Chicago Blackhawks hockey team, Chicago White Sox baseball team, Chicago Bears football team, Chicago Bulls basketball team, Northwestern University’s varsity teams, Next Level Performance and individual pro and elite athletes. Julie regularly provides nutrition guidance to coaches, athletic trainers, amateur athletes, and health care professionals. As a mother of teenage active triplets, she is often asked to address mother’s groups, parent associations, and other lay audiences. Julie also consults with food and public relations companies. Julie previously served as Director of Research at the Chicago Center for Clinical Research, a former affiliate of Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center, where she specialized in cardiovascular experimental nutritionals and pharmaceuticals. She has served as an adjunctive faculty appointment at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in the Department of Nutrition. Julie is a regular presence on Chicago-area network and cable television and is frequently quoted in major newspapers and magazines. She co-edited the second edition of Cardiovascular Disease: Nutrition for Prevention and Treatment, a manual for health professionals, by the American Dietetic Association (ADA). She has published articles in major medical journals, and authored a brochure for the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) based on their Position Stand on Exercise and Fluid Replacement. Julie’s sports nutrition chapter contributions include a Sports Beverage chapter for Macroelements, Water, and Electrolytes and Basketball: Power Jam Nutrition, in Sports Nutrition: A Guide for the Professional Working with Active People-3rd edition.

The Liberation Wellness Hour Radio Show can be heard each week on Saturday at 12noon EST on

Liberty Works Radio Network, on BlogTalkRadio.com/LiberationWellness, and on Zubeo

The Shows Website is LiberationWellnessHour.com

[Via http://liberationwellnessblog.com]

High cholesterol? It could happen to you...

In 2005–2006, 16% of adults had serum total cholesterol levels of 240 mg/dL or greater (high cholesterol). The good news is that generally, for Americans 20 years of age and over, cholesterol levels are declining. However, this decline was seen for men 40 years and over and for women 60 years and over, with little change between 1999 and 2006 for all other age-sex groups.

What may be most disconcerting is the fact that many U.S. adults may not even know they have high cholesterol, with data from the 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey finding that 8% of U.S. adults had high cholesterol but had never been told by a health care provider that their cholesterol levels were high. For more data concerning high cholesterol, see the NCHS Data Brief on High Cholesterol. For more information on combating high cholesterol, visit the CDC Webpage on Cholesterol.

[Via http://nchspressroom.wordpress.com]

Why you should eat eggs, Egg baked potato, and Slooow south western chicken

I am a big proponent of eating real eggs.  They are basically natures perfect food, I mean think about… they are life waiting to happen.  Most people think that eggs are awful for your cholesterol and you should only eat the whites.  This is a fair assumption, but there has been a lot of research disproving this myth.  Check out this article from Men’s Health:  

Whole eggs contain more essential vitamins and minerals per calorie than virtually any other food. They’re also one of the best sources of choline, a substance your body requires to break down fat for energy. In addition, eggs provide lutein and zeaxanthin, antioxidants that help prevent macular degeneration and cataracts.

However, you’ve probably been told at one time or another to avoid eggs because they’re high in cholesterol and fat. This is the same thinking that led to low-fat diets—and a mindset that has probably made us a lot fatter over the past decade. It’s simply a leftover recommendation from the low-fat legacy that was never forgotten.

In a recent review of dozens of scientific studies, Wake Forest University researchers found no connection between egg consumption and heart disease  

Read more: http://www.menshealth.com/mhlists/saturated_fat/Eggs.php#ixzz0dmaYNnJM  

  Pretty cool, I think.  Our grandparents probably grew up eating eggs, bacon, and toast with real butter every morning.  Yet, they didn’t have an obesity epidemic like we face now.  There were no such thing as Pop-tarts back then.  I won’t start on why I think saturated fats are actually good for us and that its all the trans fats, added sugars, and filler preservatives in our foods that are killing us… but I just wanted to give some background for Egg Potato! I realized at the end of the day, last saturday, that I had really hadn’t had any healthy fats in my diet for the day.  I decided I would include an egg with dinner, and I figured since we eat hash browns and eggs, I would just bake an egg in a potato. I started by cooking the potato in the microwave and then moving it to the oven to get crisp.  About 8-10 minutes before I was ready to eat, I pulled out the potato, made a well, and cracked an egg inside and put it back in the oven for that time.  

Pre-baked and split

  

Egged

  

Baked--a little too long, you really want the yolk to be runny

  

As noted in the caption, I baked mine just a little bit too long.  I love my yolks runny, and that way I could have mixed it up with the potato which I wasn’t able to do as well.  Oh well, next time.  Also, don’t forget to season!  Same as you would an omelete or a baked potato– I used garlic, onion, chili powder, and ranch seasoning.  

I also took another go with the slow cooker, making some South Western chicken concoction.   Here’s what I used:  

• Like 3(?) chicken breasts
• 2 Spicy low-fat andouille chicken sausages
• Good amount of black bean salsa
• 1 can of a corn, okra, and onion soup
• 1 can green chiles
• Garlic, onions, and chili powder

Southwest Chicken ingredients

  

It came out well!  Could have used a little more spice though.  What would give it that, does anyone have any ideas?  

Cooked it on high for about 4 hours:  

Simmerin'

  

So again, let me know if you have any fitness or nutrition questions you would like me to discuss, or dishes you want to see me cook!  

[Via http://feerlessfood.wordpress.com]

Peanut Butter and Jelly

If Chloe had her way, she would live on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  She loves them and if I dare to give her cheese instead, she just won’t eat it!  To get her to eat cheese, I may put in on the side!  She will eat soup with her PB&J and I have found various other creative things to add to her staple diet of PB&J sandwiches, which incidentally is only a lunch time obsession!!

Every lunch time I have something to feel guilty about… if I do give her what she wants, then she is not getting a very healthy meal, if I don’t, I have an unhappy bunny on my hands.

As well as the PB&J battle, there is the cereal battle.  How many of you out there have kids that want to eat cereal for dinner?  How many of you would like to confess that you have taken the easy option and given them cereal for dinner?  I have!!

And thus we have the topic for today’s post… “Healthy Eating”.

I have a desire to feed my kids healthy, wholesome, meals every time they sit at the table, I have come to the conclusion that in order to do that I would have to spend considerably more money in the grocery store, shop 3 or 4 times a week to keep things fresh and be constantly cooking.  (As super healthy meals tend to take longer to cook, than a 15 minute frozen pizza!)  Now I love to cook so that would not be a problem for me, however, that may be more realistic when all the kids are in school!  I do cook every night of the week, we do eat out a little but an average week is me cooking a simple dinner every night.

So since waiting for them all to be in school is not an option, I have to commit now to make the change, I have a cookbook buried somewhere that I will dig out and as of today, (after we have eaten the pizza in the fridge…) I publicly announce that my family will be healthy eaters from now on!!

With that said, I want you to join me, or if you are already a healthy eating family, will you help me?  I am going to start a recipe page, please feel free to contribute your favorite healthy recipes, and we can comment after we have tried them.

Almost one in six American children and teens are overweight, according to the U.S. Surgeon General’s office, which also warns that 70 percent of overweight teens will grow into overweight or obese adults. Overweight children are now increasingly at risk for type 2 diabetes, a disease formerly associated only with adults. Kids carrying extra pounds may also have a higher risk of developing low self-esteem or depression.

“Were now seeing an epidemic of type 2 diabetes mellitus in children,” said Dr. Brenda Kohn, a pediatric endocrinologist at the New York University Medical Center. She noted that other disorders, such as high cholesterol, are also on the rise in heavier youngsters.

From U.S. News and World Report Website.

1 in 5 U.S. kids has high cholesterol

Thu, Jan 21, 2010 (HealthDay News) — Twenty percent of U.S. children and teens have abnormal lipid levels, an indication of too much bad cholesterol, too little good cholesterol or high triglycerides, federal health officials report.

These abnormal levels can raise the risk for heart disease, which is the leading cause of death in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

BabyCenter.com

And so it is with these worrying facts that I will leave you for today, lets do this together and though I can’t promise to never make another peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich ever again, I can certainly feel more relaxed doing it, knowing she has had her veggies the night before!

Happy cooking!

[Via http://lindathakur.wordpress.com]

High Cholesterol and Heart Disease - Part II

In the previous post regarding the topic of high cholesterol, I presented the idea that cholesterol is not dangerous or might not even be a cause of heart disease. Several researcher and reports have suggested this. How then, did the idea that cholesterol must be lowered through low-saturated fat diets and statin drug use get started if there was not enough evidence to support it?

Apparently it started when butter became more expensive than margarine after WWII. At the same time it was discovered that oil could be expressed from cotton seed, a useless by product of the cotton industry, and became profitable, with the company Norton Simon becoming the biggest cotton seed oil producer. The milk industry at that time was diverse and powerful and thus began the marketing campaign by Norton Simon to convince the public that margarine was better than butter and divert profits to their product. This campaign was started by a small group of businessmen around 1946 involved in vegetable oil firms. These men formed a front group, called the American Health Foundation about 1970. The chairman happened to be David Mahoney, the President of Norton Simon. Associations were quickly formed between this Foundation and othe tax-supported organizations like the National Cancer Institute and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBL), including the FDA. With the help of these prominent organizations the Foundation went on to disseminate information on how saturated fat from foods like butter were dangerous.

To continue their promotion of their claim they needed to show that cholesterol in the diet (from butter) lead to heart disease. They latched on to a Russian study done in 1913 that fed large amounts of cholesterol to rabbits who died of heart disease. They completely ignored the fact that rabbits are vegetarians and are not designed to handle large amounts of animal fats. Despite this omission, and the existence of evidence to the contrary,  the study has been repeatedly used to promote this connection and used to establish historic precedence.

Not only did the vegetable oil companies develop the myth to benefit profits, soon the pharmaceutical companies realized that they could get a share of the pie too by developing a drug that would lower blood cholesterol levels. This proved to be a very successful money making campaign for the pharmaceutical companies. But they didn’t stop there. They needed to determine a point at which doctors should prescribe the drugs.   As you probably know these guidelines have been revised, despite the fact that 50% of people with heart disease have “normal” cholesterol levels. The more people they could get into the “high” category, the bigger their profits. Coincidence?

Perhaps not,  considering that Lead Discovery, a UK company that helps companies optimize drug discovery and product pipelines stated in a report that:

“…Those drugs (cholesterol lowering statin drugs) are one of the most widely-prescribed and most lucrative sectors of the pharmaceutical industry, with total revenues exceeding $26 billion in 2008. Importantly, the world statins market is poised to undergo a period of rapid and dynamic change, with the generic statin sector growing particularly strongly in the years ahead.”

Next it reveals its advice to companies to best reach the profit goal:

“Importantly, there are opportunities for companies to raise sales by maximizing patient compliance and accessing new patient groups. Statins: The World Market, 2009-2024 examines strategies for increasing patient compliance there. The report has detailed interviews with key-opinion leaders in this important field. Full interview transcripts are provided – you will not find this information anywhere else.”

This market research is taken seriously by statin drug producers such as Pfizer and Merck who would have to pay £6999 to get the full report and details on how to increase profits. And no wonder, considering Pfizer’s Lipitor is the biggest statin seller, at $11 billion. Merck’s Zocor, about to lose U.S. patent protection, is No. 2 at $4.2 billion.

The report goes on to outline steps to take regarding patient compliance including use of more tests, increase in patient contact and the use of information technology. For obvious reasons, I was not able to find out the details of their recommendations, so I can only infer as to what the above steps may entail. It seems that companies would profit most by focusing their resources on those that disseminate medical information to patients; doctors and media.  And the reason they need to focus on patient compliance is that it turns out that patients prescribed statin drugs stop taking them after about 3 months, many claiming undesirable side-effects such as muscle pain and memory loss. But instead of improving it to reduce side effects, drug companies have realized it would be more cost effective to spend more money on tactics to convince patients they are safe and necessary. One way they do this is by perpetuating the myth that cholesterol is highly dangerous.

So how do they get this message across to patients? How would a company make sure that the patient feels like the consequences of not taking their drugs are worse than the potential dangers of the drug? The obvious route would be increase the frequency that the patient receives their message and through increased testing, as outlined in the report. This is done through the media and through a patient’s doctor. Where do the media get its medical information? Many report on research they find in medical journals, even though few medical journalists are trained to interpret them accurately. Because of this, they often rely on the interpretations of research that is published in position statements or articles made by major health organizations like the American Heart Association or the American College of Cardiology. I have pointed out in previous posts that this avenue of information is actually full of conflict of interests, with corporations often influencing the information. This route would be an obvious one for major statin producers like Pfizer to use in order to increase patient compliance by the dissemination of misinformation about the dangers of high-cholesterol. Consider this: Pfizer is a big donor to the American College of Cardiology and in 2002 was a member of its “Diamond Heart Award by donating $750,000 or above. Pfizer was the leading sponsor at its 2001 meeting in Orlando, FL, forking over $822,000 for the meeting.” (Wall Street Journal, 6/15/01).

Physicians also use these organizations as their source of information which they use to convince patients to take statin drugs. However, it turns out that peer-reviewed research is not their main source of information. A report in the journal Family Practice concluded that for new drugs “The most important sources (of information) were the pharmaceutical industry [49 percent], in particular the company representative, non-peer-reviewed literature, the mass media, and, to a lesser extent, hospital colleagues. Peer-reviewed literature or independent drug information sources were rarely significant at this stage.”

So it seems clear that the flawed information you ultimately receive regarding high-cholesterol is delivered to you in calculated ways with the aid of a myriad of organizations including your physician, to ultimately boost profits received by the pharmaceutical companies.

[Via http://activelypolitical.wordpress.com]

Practicing What We Preach

Let me be straight with you. I constantly struggle to keep my weight where I want it to be. Never mind that I know what to do to take off 20 pounds and keep it off. Like a lot of my friends, this time of year I find my clothes are more snug that I would like for them to be.

I have a strong motivator, and I’m not talking about that phenomenal personal trainer that is my other half. The strongest motivator for me is a family history of cardiovascular disease. My doctor checks my cholesterol level four times a year.

If you follow this blog, one of the topics you will find is my personal challenges coping with weight control. I will cover some of the tips that have worked for me, and welcome your thoughts and observations in response. We’ll get into tactics to help you eat well when you travel, how to avoid injuries when you begin a fitness program, and some of the fun stuff we are doing at the gym to keep it fresh, etc..

And from time to time you may find posts from Don Oliver himself and from other folks at the Do Fitness staff.

I hope you’ll find some insight or inspiration to help you on your path to health and fitness.

[Via http://dofitness.wordpress.com]

Overcome Cholesterol with natural Products for health Care without Pharmaceutical Drugs

Can a natural health to really combat cholesterol?

There are two types of cholesterol in the human body. Generally defined as can Augood, or AT, Aubade, AU.

That sounds like two thirds of the West, not to fight for good and evil to death, but the winner gets the spoils. The key to a level of cholesterol in the body to maintain a balance between good and bad cholesterol, a cholesterol level generally strong.

To preserve this balance, you have the bad LDL cholesterol and HDL, good cholesterol, known to have a greater proportion.

There are arguments that are considered “good” cholesterol, and therefore each patient will be considered individually to assess the risk of heart disease and cholesterol. In this way the patient to the overall effect can be evaluated by your condition.

If values are considered too high, your doctor may prescribe drugs such as stations, niacin or resins. Stations are usually the drug of choice for high cholesterol.

The problem is that stations may limit the production of an enzyme called Q10, which is an important source of energy for the heart. This is one reason why, if it was a risk for high cholesterol, early intervention in a natural approach to the levels of the winery.

One way to lower cholesterol naturally by exercise. We burn a lot of energy during exercise. Once it runs out of sugars and proteins, the body has no choice but to turn fat into fuel.

In accordance with the advice of your doctor, you should at least twenty minutes of each meeting, which is at least three times a week. She as better to start slowly and increase your endurance.

Another possibility is to food, foods rich in soluble fiber fabric. Examples are beans, grains, fruits and vegetables. This is important, because fiber binds cholesterol in the intestine, and rinse each time he calls nature.

Food may also help provide food diet rich in animal fat and cholesterol.

For those that can be eaten like rice, substitute red yeast rice. A study by the Center for Human Nutrition has shown that this assistance, which is regularly lower than the production of LDL consume.

Instead of medication for cholesterol levels, some companies in the post, with the additions that are considered effective are finding.

The first is called inositol, which is time released niacin. Studies show that taking this regularly reduce LDL cholesterol and the number of HDL in the human body.

The extra second is called Policosanol. It’s almost the same as inositol and limits the amount of LDL cholesterol in the blood.

Finally, there is an additional “bio Lipitor. The interesting part of this paper is to make the ingredients in red yeast rice, inositol, policosanol, and extracts guggal rubber.

It is clear that treatment options for natural health products available that can play a role in reducing cholesterol. What followed this advice; you should consult your physician before starting a new system and not taking prescription medications without the consent of the physician.

[Via http://tutorial405.wordpress.com]

water. who knew?

Really, people – you have no idea how I never thought I’d be writing this . . . which is exactly why I’m writing it. 

I grew up being told to drink 8 glasses of water a day and I pretty much did that.  We drank water or juice at my house – almost never soda.

At some point I got derailed.  I decided I hated water and that it tasted like “liquid steel”.

Then I used the differing opinions about water intake to validate my resistance:  “8 glasses of water a day is a myth“, “drink 10 glasses of water a day,” “you can drink too much water!” etc.  I also whined about how far away the water cooler was, how many times I’d have to trudge to the ladies’ room, how nocturnal “loo” visits interrupted my sleep and presented a health hazard.

In the past several months, Wendy Battles has enthusiastically encouraged water drinking, which got me up to a glass a day . . .  maybe . . . when I saw her tweets . . . 

Then, as you know, my doc told me I had a total cholesterol count of 258 and gave me 6 weeks to “get religion” about my health or start taking Lipitor.  During the course of my research and planning my JUST SAY NO TO LIPITOR program, I read that dehydration can contribute to high cholesterol (or at least doesn’t help).  Besides, excess weight is a contributor to high cholesterol and drinking water reportedly aids in weight loss.  That meant I had to give up my refusal to drink water or wonder if I did everything possible to avoid cholesterol medication.

Day 1.  I drank 2 whole glasses of water. 200% more than usual.

Day 2.  I experimented with simply doubling what I’d done the day before.  4 glasses of water imbibed.

And so it went until I found myself having drunk (drunken? . . . drank?) 8 glasses in a single day.

To combat the gripes listed above, I got a lovely, cobalt-blue 16 oz. glass so I could I’d feel the victory of having consumed “2 8-oz. glasses” with every refill while minimizing trips to the water cooler and drank most of my water before 6 or 7 pm to avoid sleep interruptions.

While I don’t get retested for my cholesterol until January 20, I have lost weight; but that could be because I now also eat breakfast daily, never going more than 3-4 hours without a healthful snack, cut out all the junk, and exercise more.  

So, what’s that got to do with water?  Nothing.  Here’s what does:  my ability to distinguish thirst from hunger and my unwillingness any longer to ignore my body’s signals.   Those are BIG!  I’d been ignoring my body for so long I couldn’t even tell if I was hungry or thirsty, both of which I mostly ignored until I could stand it no longer and sat down with a big bucket-o’something-unhealthy.  I’m back in tune with my systems and that certainly has me feeling healthier and more grounded. 

Do I know whether I need 4 glasses or 10?  Nope and I probably don’t even care.  I’m doing all I can to avoid cholesterol medication and actually feel better for it.  We’ll see what the doc says next week, but now that I’ve turned the faucet on, I won’t be turning it off again.

“When the well is dry, we know the worth of water.”  ~Benjamin Franklin

[Via http://vintageawesome.wordpress.com]

MMS - Nouvelles de Janvier 2010

Bonjour,

En cette période de grand froid je vous rappelle que le MMS fournit des munitions au système immunitaire pour combattre les microbes.

Vous verrez qu’en prenant une dose journalière de MMS (4 à 6 gouttes avant le coucher) vous vous sentirez plus en forme et pourrez prévenir tous les maux provoqués par le froid et la fatigue. Finit grippes, angines, rhumes et autres infections ORL et pulmonaires !

ACHETEZ DU MMS

Pensez aussi qu’à long terme, avec une utilisation régulière, c’est contre les maladies chroniques que vous serez protégés !

En effet nous avons vu en 2009 que le MMS à des effets positifs, voir curatifs contre :

- les diabètes http://lemineralmiracle.com/maladies_diabetes_mineral_miracle.html

- les arthrites http://lemineralmiracle.com/maladies_arthrite_mineral_miracle.html

- le choléstérol http://lemineralmiracle.com/cholesterol_mineral_miracle.html

- la sclérose en plaques http://lemineralmiracle.com/maladies_scleroses_mineral_miracle.html

- les cancers http://lemineralmiracle.com/maladies_cancers_mineral_miracle.html

- les problèmes de dents et gencives http://lemineralmiracle.com/dents_gencives_mineral_miracle.html

- la maladie de Lyme http://lemineralmiracle.com/maladies_lyme_mineral_miracle.html

- les métaux lourds http://lemineralmiracle.com/metaux_lourds_mineral_miracle.html

- les hépatites http://lemineralmiracle.com/maladies_hepatites_mineral_miracle.html

ACHETEZ DU MMS

Ne ratez donc pas cette chance d’avoir une meilleure santé et de visiter moins souvent votre docteur !

J’ai reçu plusieurs courriels me demandant une version Française de la notice envoyée par le fabricant. Celle-ci est disponible depuis toujours à cette adresse : http://mmsglobe.com/Traduction_notice_MMS.pdf

ACHETEZ DU MMS

Il y a aussi ce document très interressant de Jim Humble ; « Comprendre le MMS » qui est disponible ici :

http://lemineralmiracle.com/Comprendre_le_MMS_traduction.pdf

Je vous souhaite à nouveau une belle et heureuse année 2010, et une bonne santé grâce au MMS !

Il y a encore beaucoup de documents à traduire sur le MMS et je m’y attellerai dès que possible, et aussi j’espère que j’aurai la possibilité d’aller visiter Jim cette année.

Merci et bonne chance,

David

ACHETEZ DU MMS

[Via http://hibouk.wordpress.com]

On Plant Sterols

Plant sterols have been shown to lower blood cholesterol levels, depending on how much you eat. They block the ability of the body to absorb cholesterol back into the body and as such it passes harmlessly out of your system. Plant sterols can lower total cholesterol by an average of 10 percent. You can get plant sterols from the foods such as nuts, seeds and legumes, bread and cereals, fruit and vegetables (but in small amounts). If you have high cholesterol and need to lower it you will find it very difficult to get enough in by these foods alone. In order to have a cholesterol lowering effect you will need 2 to 3 grams of plant sterols per day. This means 2 to 3 serves of plant sterol enriched foods per day, and these are now available in many supermarkets.

One serve of plant sterol enriched food is equivalent to:

* 2 teaspoons of plant sterol enriched margarine spread

* 1 cup of plant sterol enriched breakfast cereal or 2 breakfast biscuits

* 1 cup of plant sterol enriched milk

* 1 200-grams tub of plant sterol enriched yoghurt

[Via http://everylittlethingunderthesun.wordpress.com]

Can You Be Overweight and Still Be Healthy?

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

The idea that people can be overweight and yet still quite healthy began gaining scientific and popular credence some years ago, fueled by the publication of a number of studies showing that men and women who were a few pounds overweight but physically active had less risk of developing cardiac disease than people who were of normal weight but sedentary.

Some scientists and doctors began speculating that healthy people who were sporting extra pounds didn’t necessarily need to worry about losing weight. As one researcher told a reporter in 2004, “If a fat person or obese person has normal blood pressure, if their total cholesterol and glucose levels are normal and they are healthy, there is no reason they should necessarily have to lose weight.”

But several new studies are raising questions about that comforting notion at a very inopportune moment, with the holiday overindulgence season barely behind us. In the most recent of these studies, published online on Dec. 28 in the journal Circulation, Swedish researchers examined medical records reaching back 30 years for a group of more than 1,700 middle-aged men in the city of Uppsala.

The men were measured and tested when they reached the age of 50 and then periodically for the next 30 years. They were categorized into groups based on their body-mass indexes and metabolic profiles, a good marker of overall physical health and fitness. Some were normal weight; some overweight (meaning they had a body-mass index of 25 or above); some obese (a B.M.I. greater than 30). In each of these groups, some had normal metabolic profiles, while others were afflicted with a variety of conditions known collectively as metabolic syndrome. A diagnosis of metabolic syndrome means that you suffer from three or more of these conditions: impaired ability to handle blood sugar, high blood pressure, elevated blood fats, low HDL (“good” cholesterol) and a large waist circumference.

To no one’s surprise, the Swedish researchers found that being overweight or obese and having metabolic syndrome was quite unhealthy. Overweight men in that group had a 74 percent higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease by the time they turned 80. Obese men with metabolic syndrome had a 155 percent higher risk. Even being of normal weight, if you had metabolic syndrome, was dangerous. Men in this group, with normal girths but poor cholesterol and blood-pressure readings, had a 63 percent higher risk of developing heart disease than normal-weight men without metabolic problems. In other words, you don’t want to have metabolic syndrome, even if you’re thin.

More startling, though, was the study’s finding that being overweight with no evidence of metabolic syndrome left you at significantly higher risk for heart disease than if, with the same metabolic readings, you were not overweight. Men who were overweight (not obese) with healthy blood pressures, cholesterol readings, blood glucose levels and so on, still had a 52 percent higher risk of developing heart disease within 30 years than men who were normal weight and had similar metabolic profiles. That risk rose to 95 percent among obese men who didn’t suffer from metabolic syndrome.

The researchers did not report on the activity levels or exercise practices of any of the men, but typically more-active people have healthier metabolic profiles and vice versa. The findings did make it clear that although being fat and having healthy blood work puts you at less risk of cardiac disease than someone who is thin and has lousy metabolic parameters, the extra pounds still leave you with at least a 50 percent greater risk of developing heart disease.

“Previous studies have put forward the existence of a ‘metabolically healthy’ subgroup” of overweight people “who are at no increased cardiovascular risk,” Johan Arnlov, Ph.D., an associate professor at Uppsala University and the study’s lead author, said in a statement. But “if you follow them long enough, you find out there appears to be no such thing as metabolically healthy” extra poundage. (To assess your B.M.I., plug your height and weight into this calculator from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.)

Another recent large study found somewhat similar results among women, although it looked at activity levels, not metabolic profiles, to assess health and fitness. That report, published in 2008, used data on almost 40,000 women enrolled in the Women’s Health Study. Its authors found that women with a higher B.M.I., even if they were active, had an elevated risk of coronary heart disease compared with women engaging in an equal amount of activity who were of normal weight. Being fit, for the thousands of women under consideration here, lessened but did not fully mitigate the health problems associated with being fat.

Then there are football players, a group — particularly the linemen — who would seem to be advertisements for hefty-size health and fitness. But according to a study presented in October at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology, when scientists studied current N.F.L. linemen, they found that those athletes had a significantly greater incidence of metabolic syndrome than a group of less-bulky professional baseball players.

Why body size and composition should affect someone’s risk for heart disease and metabolic problems even if their body is otherwise apparently healthy remains a contentious issue. Some researchers, including the authors of the Women’s Health Study-based report, say that fat is itself a tissue with unhealthy properties. Fat can release inflammatory molecules, which increase the risk of diabetes and heart disease. Fat may also interfere with muscle function, as an article published this week in the Journal of Physiology points out, referring to several newly published studies.

“The fit or fat issue has unbelievable levels of complexity,” says Tim Church, M.D., Ph.D., the director of Preventive Medicine Research at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. Perhaps being active affects how fat cells operate in a heavy person. Age plays a role, too, he says, as do genetics. The very categorization of fatness using B.M.I. is a gross oversimplification, he adds. “You can’t just say being overweight” is unhealthy, he says. “Nothing is that simple.”

So what can we take away from the most recent studies? If other scientists replicate the findings of the Swedish and Women’s Health Study-based reports, the message is clear if disconcerting: being overweight, even if you have sterling blood-cholesterol levels or a firm commitment to exercise, does increase your risk of heart disease, and you should probably try to lose the extra pounds.

“Some researchers have suggested that a heavy person without other risk factors didn’t need to lose weight,” said Johan Arnlov, M.D., Ph.D., the lead Swedish researcher, in a statement. ‘Our data does not support this notion.”

It pains me, but I’ll be tossing out my last Christmas cookies now.

Good luck, healthy girl!

[Via http://hecticlifehealthygirl.wordpress.com]

Man, this 'butt' sure wont make you Hard!

Hmmm… those college days… you liked that pretty girl… but how do you impress her? How do you show her how manly you are? Yes, pop comes the cigarette out of your pocket, you imagine yourself as SRK, lean against your bike and then just as she passes in front of you, you let that smoke ring fly out of your lips and give her a flirty smile! Well fortunately or unfortunately, the girl gets impressed by you. Days follow and you quite get a grip on her just as that filthy 3″ butt strengthens its firm grip between your fingers. Well you two become so close, whisper sweet nothings in each other’s ears and one day the romance builds up leaving both of you in bed! Okay now the time comes when the man in you is put to test. You try and try but the bloody thing doesnt go up! Your girl looks at you with surprised eyes and before you can do anything… BANG!!! The door slams behind you! Your dream of becoming a macho Dude  just turned into a dud!

Okay let me come to the point. Impotence or Erectile dysfunction is the inability to maintain an erection while having intercourse. The other ill-effects of smoking are very well known by those who smoke, but recent medical research shows that smoking is one of the leading cause of impotence in men. Well you will ask me how???

In order to maintain an erection, the blood supply to the penis should be adequately maintained. Smoking constricts the blood vessels of the body, thereby reducing blood flow. As a result, many men find themselves unable to maintain an erection. 20% of impotent Smokers are also believed to have abnormally low blood pressure. This reduces the flow of blood to the penis. Low blood pressure is caused by atherosclerosis, the build up of fatty deposits, especially in penile area. This is thought to be engendered by arterial injury caused by smoking! Atherosclerosis decreases the calibre of your blood vessels reducing the amount of blood reaching your tool!

When your penis is erect it is because blood gets trapped inside it, once it enters and then there is no easy way out before you ejaculate. Now cigarettes have nicotine in them which dilates or open up these valves even before you let your passion unfold, frustrating both you and your partner leaving your head low, just as your dick!

So how do you avoid this embarrassment? One of the best ways to treat impotence is to prevent it in the first place. Stop Smoking! Yes, i know it is easier said than done, but there has never been a better time to stop than now. There are numerous aids available to help you quit this life-threatening and embarrassing habit, including patches, gums and medications. Think about it! Sticking that butt in your mouth will never make you a man than holding your lovers face in your hands, filled with content and deeply satisfying love… Enjoy your love life…

[Via http://openupyourminds.wordpress.com]

Make your choice Cholesterol Supplements

An active lifestyle and a balanced diet is what should make people with and without high cholesterol levels is a priority in their list. Actually it is not only the danger of it, but there is more of a healthier lifestyle through exercise and to prevent your life in danger. Some people who have high cholesterol treat high cholesterol, while others prefer the cholesterol-lowering supplements.

One of the most famous> Cholesterol-lowering products is the red yeast rice has been used in China and Japan for many years before it was introduced in the United States. E 'was shown to reduce the amount of LDL or "bad" cholesterol in the body. The red yeast rice is found in many drugs of cholesterol. In some ways it is more efficient and, of course, as it reduces levels of LDL and triglycerides, without the side effects that are the statins. An important as their effect on the liverlong term.

Policosanol is an extract that comes from sugar cane. This excerpt is actually being studied in medicine and has been shown to lower bad cholesterol and raise good through the control of the liver in the manufacture of the substance. The studies to lower cholesterol up to 20 percent less than shown.

Extracts of green tea and artichoke, have the same advantages. While the polyphenols in green tea has its active ingredient, the artichoke, which Cynarinaaccelerates the excretion of cholesterol from the body.

Retrieved Guggulipid is demonstrated in the treatment of a number of complaints. India is a proven formula for ages. Products with berberine also help with the Oregon grape and barberry, that this substance.

Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish and fish oil can be found, are also among the list of supplements are safer and more popular cholesterol. Flaxseed oil also contains omega-3 fatty acids, and is a safe choiceIn addition to fish.

Plant sterols and stanols, a reduction of LDL cholesterol, but no effect on HDL cholesterol or good cholesterol. But studies show that people taking more medications, and improvement stanols and sterols.

Some products are tested, while others are still in further studies will be tested for its effects. However, if you have high cholesterol, you should integrate a cholesterol without informing your doctor.Thus the doctor knows what you are taking, and you can see if it is mixed well and improve your health is not in conflict with other drugs may require that he and cause other health problems.

[Via http://reducecholesterols.wordpress.com]