A person’s weight has more bearing on his predisposition to developing high blood pressure than his current fitness level, Texas study says.

In a new study from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, researchers established a concrete link between a person’s weight and the incidence of high blood pressure.

It appears that exercising is not enough to keep blood pressure down, because according to Susan Lakoski, MD, obese or overweight individuals are still at high risk for hypertension if they do not get their weight down, despite of their continued efforts at being physically fit.

What does this mean?  According to the researchers, the main target when you want to lower your blood pressure is to get your weight down with your best efforts.

It’s not enough that you get some minutes of exercise per week, though this has not been discredit.  What the researchers are saying is that you have exert every healthy effort to keep your weight down and keep it from going up.

Weight, according to the Texas study, takes precedence to physical activity when it comes to determining the risk for developing high blood pressure.  According to the CDCP, nearly 1/3 of all adult Americans suffer from high blood pressure.

Half of those who suffer from high blood pressure are within the 55+ years range, which means more and more of our seniors are at greater risk of suffering from stroke, coronary heart disease and other dangerous medical conditions.

According to the study’s data, it appears that only the people within the normal weight range experience palpable blood pressure benefits when they exercised.

The bottom line?  People should focus on getting their weight within the normal range and start moving.  Because obesity and a sedentary lifestyle can increase mortality and risk for many negative health conditions, including heart problems.

Natural ways to keep your blood pressure down

If you have high blood pressure, follow these guidelines to naturally keep your blood pressure down:

1. It would do your heart a world of good if you quit smoking today – because cigarettes have been proven to contribute to the development of hypertension in both men and women.

2. If you are presently overweight, cut down on fatty foods and start exercising to lose the extra pounds.

3. Exercise 30 to 40 minutes everyday.  Experts recommend 150 minutes of exercise for both men and women for general wellness.  Regular exercise is also a general preventive for many diseases and negative health conditions.

4. Cut down on your coffee intake, as caffeine has been shown to increase blood pressure.  Limit your intake of regular coffee to 1 to 2 cups per day to reduce your caffeine load.  Substitutes to coffee like green tea are a good idea, because green tea only has half of the caffeine content of regular coffee.

5. Reduce your salt intake, because sodium directly increases a person’s blood pressure.  More than 2,300 milligrams of the stuff per day can cause your blood pressure to spike.

6. Control your stress level, because stress can cause hypertension and can also affect your mental health in the long term.  Relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, yoga, stretching, meditation and aromatherapy are options that you can explore when it comes to de-stressing.

7. Natural supplements like fish oil, garlic, hawthorn and folic acid have been known to reduce oxidative stress of the heart and the other organs in the body, which may help in your overall effort to reduce your blood pressure.  Coenzyme Q10 or Co-Q10 has also shown great promise when it comes to protecting the heart and reducing a person’s blood pressure.

Sources:
familydoctor.org
newsmaxhealth.com
altmedicine.about.com

Senior individuals with low levels of vitamin D are more likely to develop metabolic syndrome, which increases the risk for diabetes and heart diseases.

Researchers from the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam state that insufficient amounts of vitamin D in seniors may be one of leading causes of metabolic syndrome.

The study involved 1,300 respondents (men and women) over the age of 65. A staggering 50% of all the respondents had vitamin D deficiency. Thirty-five percent of this segment of the respondents of the study had metabolic syndrome.

According to Dr. Marelise Eekhoff, co-author of the metabolic syndrome study, the findings of the study is significant because metabolic syndrome actually predisposes a person to other degenerative conditions like adult-onset/type-2 diabetes and heart problems.

Universal medical problem

In another study published in the medical journal Diabetes in the United States, it was found that 40% of elderly Chinese persons had metabolic syndrome because of the same vitamin deficiency.

In earlier animal studies, it was observed that test animals that had vitamin D deficiency had difficulty in producing and secreting insulin, which is necessary for the breakdown and utilization of blood glucose.

Dr. Eekhoff states that logically, increasing vitamin D in the body through supplementation and proper exposure to natural sunlight can help prevent metabolic syndrome and all of the medical maladies associated with the condition.

Getting enough of the vitamin

The National Academy of Sciences recommends that every person have at least 200 IU of vitamin D everyday to reduce risk of disease and to promote general wellness. For maximum benefits, 800 IU to 1000 IU can be used safely; the upper limit for vitamin D supplementation is 2000 IU everyday.

The following may cause vitamin D deficiency:

1. You don’t get enough vitamin D over a very long period of time (e.g. for years).

2. You don’t go outside to expose yourself to natural sunlight regularly.

3. Darker skins have reduced capacities to produce vitamin D.

4. Your kidneys are unable to help manufacture the vitamin naturally. This problem is more common in seniors than in younger individuals.

5. The digestive tract is unable to absorb available vitamin D in the body.

6. Obesity can also reduce the body’s capacity to use vitamin D, since fat cells leech the available vitamin D. People with a BMI of thirty or higher often have vitamin D deficiency.

Dire consequence of vitamin deficiency

What happens when you don’t have vitamin D? Here are just some of the problems associated with vitamin D deficiency:

1. Vitamin D deficiency, according to recent research, has been linked to higher risk of high blood pressure and other heart-related problems.

2. Vegetarians who shun dairy products and eggs may be at risk for vitamin D deficiency. If you are a vegan, you can easily supplement your diet with vitamin D by taking small amounts of fish liver oils.

3. The most common problem associated with not getting enough vitamin D is rickets, which cause soft bone formation and a deformed skeletal system.

4. Older adults may suffer from cognitive impairment if they lack sufficient vitamin D.

5. Children with low levels of vitamin D are predisposed to severe forms of asthma.

6. The risk for nearly all types of cancer increases with vitamin D deficiency, including breast cancer (according to one US study) and colorectal cancer.

7. Children vitamin D deficiency may suffer from slow growth.

8. According to Michael Holick MD from the Boston Medical Center, extreme vitamin D deficiency predisposes a pregnant woman to deliver via caesarean section (C-section).

9. In a study headed by researchers from the SUNY Upstate Medical University in New York, insufficient amounts of vitamin D in women can cause pelvic floor disorders and urinary incontinence.

10. Persons recovering from post-traumatic brain injury with vitamin D deficiencies are more at risk for chronic fatigue, says a study from Rijnstate Hospital in The Netherlands.

11. According to researchers from the Heart Institute of the Intermountain Medical Center, people with low levels of the vitamin are 77% likelier to die from a stroke.

12. Type 2 diabetics suffering from poor blood glucose control may be suffering from vitamin D deficiency, as well.

Sources:
nutraingredients.com
mayoclinic.com
webmd.com
webmd.com
webmd.com
webmd.com
webmd.com
sciencedaily.com
sciencedaily.com
sciencedaily.com

Regular intake of table sugar and fruit sugars have been linked to increased blood pressure, study says.

Based on a new study from the National Health & Nutrition Examination Survey, regular intake of table sugar or fruit sugars can increase a person’s risk of doubling his risk of dramatically increasing his systolic blood pressure above the 160 mark. Normal systolic blood pressure should be no more than 120.

Growing body of evidence

According to one of the researchers, Michael Chonchol MD from the University of Colorado in Denver, systolic blood pressure really is the determining factors when it comes to determining health outcomes.

Though more research is needed for a more conclusive statement regarding the connection between sugar intake and high blood pressure, the American Heart Association has already released a formal statement that said that an emerging body of studies is pointing at the potential lead role of sugar in high blood pressure.

As such, people should limit their intake of food with added fruit sugars or table sugar to reduce their risk of developing hypertension.

Lowering blood pressure naturally

You don’t have to be dependent all your life on heart medications. If you want to lower your blood pressure naturally today, you can do that. Follow our steps on lowering your blood pressure naturally:

1. Eat foods that are high in soluble fiber, fruits, anti-oxidant rich vegetables, low-fat dairy products (such as yogurt and skim milk) and low in saturated fat.

Limit your intake of red meats as well and limit your intake of processed foods and frozen deserts to reduce your sugar intake. It is also recommended that people reduce their intake of soda and other sugary drinks to limit your intake of corn syrup and similar sweeteners.

2. Salt intake should be no more than 2,400 milligrams daily. Check the labels of your food products at home to check just how much sodium is going into your body whenever you eat dinner or snack on a bag of chips or cookies.

Some sports drinks also have sodium added (as ‘electrolytes’). This form of sodium can also raise your blood pressure. If you think your regular diet is sodium-rich, you have to balance your body’s chemistry by adding more potassium to your diet.

Potassium-rich foods include bananas, avocado, etc. When you are doing your grocery shopping, choose low-salt alternatives to regular processed foods.

When cooking food at home, always add salt at the end of the cooking process so you would need to add only a very small amount (if it all). The healthier alternative would of course to replace salt with spices and non-salt based flavorings.

3. Exercise at least thirty minutes every day (for a total of 150 minutes of conventional/traditional exercise every week). Weight loss equivalent to 10 pounds can already produce dramatic reductions in blood pressure.

Three types of exercise are recommended for weight loss and blood pressure reduction efforts: stretching, cardiovascular exercises (also known as aerobic exercise) and strengthening exercises. Remember, there are three phases for every exercise: warm-up, conditioning and cool-down.

4. Alcohol consumption should also be reduced to two drinks everyday or less (or none!). Women should have no more than one drink per day to control blood pressure. One serving is equivalent to twelve ounces of regular beer, five ounces of wine (any type of wine) or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof liquors.

5. You have to lower your cholesterol level too, if you want to permanently reduce your blood pressure. You can do this by eating more fiber, exercising more and avoiding foods that have been loaded with saturated fats. You can also stock up on potent antioxidants known as polyphenols by drinking green tea. Nuts are also rich in antioxidants and can naturally lower your bad cholesterol level.

Sources:
nytimes.com
webmd.com
webmd.com
webmd.com
webmd.com
webmd.com

According to a European study, calcium is good not only for the bones of postmenopausal women, but also for their hearts.

In a very recent study presented in the Annual Congress of European League Against Rheumatism, researchers discovered that low levels of calcium  translated not only to weaker, less dense bones for postmenopausal women but it also predisposed the latter to high blood pressure.

According to the researchers, women with low calcium levels were forty-three percent more prone to developing degenerative bone conditions such as osteoporosis.  The same percentage applies to a woman’s risk of eventually developing hypertension.  According to Maria Manara, one of the key researchers, their study establishes the coordinates that associate low intake of calcium with heart problems and bone problems.

Further benefits of getting enough calcium

The RDA for calcium is 990 to 1,000 mg per day for individuals between the ages of nineteen and fifty, according to the National Institutes of Health.  Doses exceeding 2,500 milligrams per day may interfere with the body’s ability to absorb other nutrients.

Here are some more reasons to love your calcium supplements and low-fat dairy products:

1. According to a study published in the American Journal of Epidimiology, taking calcium reduces one’s risk of dying from a sudden heart attack.

2. Taking calcium along with the mineral magnesium may help reduce the risk of males from dying of different causes, including heart problems and certain cancer.

3. Combined with vitamin D supplementation, calcium may also help prevent the onset of prostate cancer.  According to another study, the same potent combination can also help stop colorectal cancer in its tracks.  According to Emory University researchers, laboratory tests show that the two nutrients are capable of normalizing intestinal cells.  The study made use of 2,000 mg of calcium, combined with 800 international units of vitamin D.

4. Based on a study published in Obesity Reviews, regular intake of calcium may help in weight loss efforts. Studies show that calcium increases the amount of fat excretion.  According to Arne Astrup, a researcher from the University of Copenhagen, calcium may also prevent folks from regaining the weight they have already lost.  It was noted that people who had formerly low calcium levels will have enhanced benefits from calcium supplementation.

5. Enough calcium ensures that your muscles will contract and relax efficiently whenever you are on the move.  Calcium deficiency can cause problems like muscle pain and cramps.

6. Having problems with premenstrual syndrome?  Adding calcium to your daily supplementation may help improve the symptoms of PMS.

7. Sufficient calcium also ensures that your teeth will remain firmly anchored in your gums.

Sources:
nutraingredients.com
nutraingredients.com
nutraingredients.com
nutraingredients.com
vitamins-nutrition.org

Smoking cessation plus exercise can improve the male sexual function and also improve the urinary health of both males and females.

In a recently concluded study presented in the annual conference of the American Urological Association, researchers pointed to a vital link between smoking, exercise and urinary health.

The study involved two thousand individuals (males and females). The respondents were interviewed about their smoking habits and were also given questions regarding their urinary health.  It was found that individuals who smoked were three times more likely to urinate frequently.

Also, these individuals are also 2.7 times more prone to experience sudden urges to go to the bathroom to urinate.

In a related study performed by US researchers from South Carolina, it was found that men who exercised more had experienced improved sexual function.  The two studies, if taken together, point to an age-old medical adage: folks have to stop the smoking habit and begin a healthier habit – exercise!

More reasons to love exercise

Here are even more reasons to love exercise:

1. Exercise reduces the risk of mortality from chornic, degenerative health conditions.

2. Exercise reduces the chance of developing of type 2 or insulin-dependent diabetes.

3. Exercise can help control the blood pressure, even the blood pressure of people already have cardiovascular problems.

4. Exercise can help reduce the probability of developing one of the top killers worldwide: colon cancer.

5. Exercise helps improve your mood and also helps people ease out of anxiety and depression.

6. Exercise improves balance, coordination and also strengthens the bones and muscles, therey reducing the risk of fractures from falls.

7. Exercise is also an excellent means of losing weight.

8. Exercise make the body and mind more fit. If you are physically and mentally fit, you would be able to perform better at work or in school.

9. Exercise reduces the risk of stroke.

Exercise may also reduce the risk of breast cancer and loss of bone mass (osteoporosis) – two common problems of women over the age of 45.

Sources:
aolhealth.com
nutristrategy.com
www2.gsu.edu
medicinenet.com

Interferon gamma-1b is a deadly drug with a deadly side effect: death.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before:  A drug’s been taken off the market because it’s been found ineffective.

I know, I know, you’ve heard it before, but humor me.

The latest ineffective drug is called interferon gamma-1b.  This drug – with a rather appropriate name given its “interfering” side effects – was believed to help treat people with a deadly lung disease.  As it turns out, though, the only thing this drug does is “interfere” with the body’s internal processes, churning up a veritable smorgasbord of side effects like those found in people who get the flu (fever, chills, fatigue, etc.).

The deadly lung disease the drug was supposed to treat is called Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.

IPF is a condition that afflicts approximately 200,000 Americans – usually those between the ages of 50 and 75 – and is diagnosed among people whose breathing patterns are severely altered due to the scarring of lung tissue.  This scarring of lung tissue severely restricts normal oxygen flow, thus adversely affecting the brain and all of the body’s internal processes that rely on oxygen (which is pretty much everything in the body).

Because of this, the prognosis for IPF sufferers isn’t good.  People with it usually die within five years of diagnosis.  What’s worse, there’s no known cure.

The best way to avoid it is through preventive measures, like keeping your blood pressure low, not smoking, and exercise (three conditions believed to cause IPF include hypertension, lung cancer and heart failure).

These preventive measures take on additional importance after a study that involved injecting 826 people with either a dose of interferon gamma-1b or a placebo.  What they found was that more people died after being injected with the interferon – the very drug that was supposed to treat the IPF – than people who were injected with the placebo (15 percent to 13 percent).

And among those that didn’t die, those injected with the interferon were more likely to suffer from flu-like symptoms.

The study was 64 weeks long and participants were injected with the ineffective dosage three times a week, 200 micrograms per dose.

The study’s full details are published in the online version of the world renowned British medical journal The Lancet.
I think this study speaks for itself.  It also speaks to the cause that natural health advocates like me have devoted our lives to:  Pharmaceuticals are ineffective – they’re only side-effective.

Diseases like this, unfortunately, aren’t treatable through natural methods; preventive measures need to be taken to avoid it.

This study demonstrates just how important preventive measures are in maintaining natural health – because pharmaceuticals won’t be your saving grace.  If more people came to this realization, I have no doubt we’d see less disease, for people would start living a life where diseases rarely lurk.

Source:
health.msn.com
nhlbi.nih.gov

Proper amount of sleep may bring blood pressure levels down

With the recent release of my book The Blood Pressure Miracle in stores across the country and the amount of work I’ve done recently to promote it, my attention is immediately grabbed whenever I see a headline that links anything to high blood pressure.  And so it was when I read this recent report that links sleep to high blood pressure.

Lacking a good night’s sleep can sometimes be attributed to the person; in other words, the person is not getting enough sleep simply because he or she isn’t biding their time well and chooses to stay out late or stay up late.  But for others, like the 70 million Americans who are affected by a chronic sleep disorder, it’s an unfortunate part of their reality that they must cope with night in, night out.

While tossing and turning is certainly inconvenient and frustrating, leaving people cranky and testy the next morning, it frustrates blood pressure levels as well, according to a new study that investigated the links between high blood pressure and sleep.

The study involved approximately 600 middle-aged adults of varying ethnicity and gender and was spread out over a five-year period.  The University of Chicago researchers tracked these men and women over the years, noting the average amount of sleep they got each night and keeping track of their blood pressure levels throughout the process.

The results?  Pretty galling.

I say “galling” because we all know that we ought to be getting seven to eight hours of sleep a night, the eighth hour being the most important hour for proper thinking and memory function.  We know this, yet only one percent – one percent! – got the recommended eight hours of sleep.  The majority of those involved in the study got around six hours of sleep a night (which is estimated to be the average amount the average American gets).

And as the researchers showed in their study, there was something of an inverse relationship between the hours slept and whether that person developed high blood pressure.  For instance, when researchers compared people who got six hours of sleep with those who got an average of five hours of sleep, the five-hour folk increased their risk of hypertension development by 37 percent!  One hour difference had that big of an impact!

The researchers say that more studies need to be done before it can be said with any definitiveness that more sleep can bring blood pressure levels down, as there are lots of variables that go into high blood pressure development (e.g. diet, exercise, ethnicity, family history, etc.).

In times like these, it can be just plain hard to sleep, even if you don’t have a sleep disorder.  In a poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, one-third of Americans lose sleep every night because of the country’s current economic situation.

Thinking about anything distressing is a nightmare for sleep.  Do your best to put all distressing thoughts out of your mind when your head hits the pillow by thinking “happy thoughts,” like lying out on the beach, or a particularly pleasant past experience.  Here are three other tips to follow, as suggested by National Sleep Foundation:

• Exercise, but don’t exercise too close to bedtime.  Exercise tires the body physically (conducive to sleep) but it revs up the brain (not conducive to sleep).

• Caffeine’s fine to drink in moderation, but not around bedtime.  Not even a little.  Put the lid on caffeine at dinnertime; keep it limited to a morning cup or in your afternoon brew.

• Just as a handyman can’t function without his tool belt, Mr.  Sandman can’t be summoned without a quality bed.  Your sleeplessness may be a function of improper “tools.”  Try out a new mattress.

Sources:
msnbc.msn.com
sleepfoundation.org

The last time I wrote about the Mediterranean diet – the diet that evokes thoughts of ocean and sand, yet is built on the brick-and-mortar foundation of fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, and sea-faring protein sources – I talked about a huge study that showed how strict adherents to it reduced their risk of the country’s most pernicious diseases, like Alzheimer’s , cancer , Parkinson’s , and heart disease – America’s leading cause of death.

Well, you can now add another deadly disease the Mediterranean diet’s leaves in its wake:  hypertension.

As most of you know, I’ve written extensively about high blood pressure.  Hypertension runs in my family, and it took me several years to develop a program aimed at lowering high blood pressure that avoids the life-long cycle of having to take medications.

The proven techniques and strategies are compiled in my book, The Blood Pressure Miracle .  Some of the strategies I talk about relate back to diet, with many of the foods I suggest straight out of the Mediterranean diet playbook.

So this latest study really substantiates much of what’s already been substantiated in my book (and substantiated by those who’ve given it rave reviews on Amazon.com).  But it never hurts to have more evidence supporting natural health solutions – particularly for the skeptics and naysayers of natural health, for whom it takes an act of God to convince them of its efficacy.

The latest study comes out of the University of Navarra, hailed widely as one of Spain’s top private universities.  The researchers there analyzed data collected from approximately 8,500 middle-aged men and women (average age:  41).  They found that those men and women whose diets consisted of primarily fresh fruits and vegetables and limited doses of olive oil consumption (less than 15 grams per day) were at a reduced risk for hypertension than those who didn’t follow similar eating patterns.

Doesn’t get much simpler than that, does it?

The study’s full findings are published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition .

Just as hypertension is a huge problem in America, it’s just as big a problem throughout the countries that make up Europe.  In the UK, for instance, it’s estimated that one in three Britons have high blood pressure, and one out of those three doesn’t even know it.  In Germany, the prevalence of high BP is even higher than it is in America, as a 2003 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the prevalence of hypertension was highest in Germany and lowest in America (when comparing the prevalence rate among six European countries to Canada and the United States).

Hypertension is not just figures given to you by your doctor, where you either have it or you don’t, and that’s that.  Because if you have hypertension, you’re often forced to confront a boatload of other health issues, be them intensely private (e.g. sexual), to intensely serious (e.g. heart disease).

It doesn’t have to be that way, though.  Whether it’s taking proactive steps to avoid hypertension from the get-go, to implementing the steps needed to get those numbers down from where they are now, hypertension does not have to be a part of your life.

And it all starts with diet.

Sources:
foodnavigator.com
bpassoc.org.uk
cat.inist.fr