The Number One Cause of Death in the United States
A healthy diet, regular exercise, and the daily use of a broad spectrum, pharmaceutical-grade nutritional supplement program, that includes vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and the essential fatty acids appear to be our best bet for obtaining and maintaining heart, arterial, and cholesterol health, immunological health, skin, liver, brain, and kidney health, glycemic health, increasing energy and possibly increasing longevity.
We KNOW what we SHOULD do, but often don't. We get lulled into a false sense of "health security" simply because we don't "feel" that there's anything wrong with us. However, the majority of people who die of heart disease don't feel anything .... they simply have a heart attack one day, and most die! Actually, more than half of the people who die of atherosclerotic (plaque)-related heart attacks have totally NORMAL LDL cholesterol levels! If that is the case, then there MUST be more to the development of coronary artery disease and deaths from heart attacks than simply a high LDL cholesterol level.
Heart disease kills 725,000 Americans annually, with women accounting for 2/3, or nearly 500,000 of those deaths. After nearly fifty years of cholesterol-lowering medication's failure to significantly lower the death rate from cardiovascular disease, what do we do now? Take a step back, and think about it for a minute. The number one selling class of drugs in the world are cholesterol-lowering drugs, yet the number one cause of death is heart disease. Why? Could lowering LDL cholesterol have very little to do with lowering cardiac death rates? Obviously not. Well, what can we do to maintain heart health, longevity, immunological health, liver, brain, kidney, skin, and all other organ and whole body health? How do we keep ourselves healthy for as long as we can? Is it possible to keep ourselves healthy taking very little medications? Can we stay healthy without any medications? Certainly, that can only be answered on a case-by-case basis by a person's physician.
I would hope that people would think about what the true underlying causes of chronic disease might be, and what action steps they can take so they don't fall victim to premature death, or to the greed of pharmaceutical companies from possible over-prescribed medications.
Our lifestyles choices have almost everything to do with influencing our risk of developing and dying of heart disease, as well as, diabetes, cancer, and almost all other chronic degenerative disease. As a society we are not making healthy choices. We are living longer, yes; but longer with chronic disease and medications.
We have the opportunity to choose what will support us in becoming healthier and what will not. For example, a lack of sleep and an increase of stress will increase the risk for heart disease, as well as cancer, diabetes, and accelerate the aging process. Our lifestyle choices: to exercise or watch TV, and to eat healthy or not; to supplement our diets with a quality nutritional supplement program, or just take a single multi-vitamin, or maybe nothing at all.
The True Cause of Heart Disease, Stroke, and Most Chronic Diseases
Atherosclerosis. or hardening of the arteries, is a disease caused primarily by inflammation. Oxidative damage to the arterial lining from homocysteine, a toxic amino acid complex, is a major risk factor for atherosclerosis, heart disease, and stroke. Homocysteine acts like sandpaper, scratching the lining of the arteries. Oxidized LDL cholesterol sticks to micro nicks along the lining of the arteries, known as the endothelium. (Much like sanding allows paint to "stick" to wood, the nicking of the arteries by homocysteine allows oxidized LDL cholesterol to stick to the endothelium.) Homocsyteine, in combination with other free radicals and toxins, such as stress, pollution, unhealthy food choices (trans fats), cigarette smoke, all oxidize arteries, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides, allowing for damaged LDL cholesterol to stick to the arterial lining. This results in an immune response and inflammation, which causes an elevation of C Reactive Protein (CRP) in your blood.
Oxidation of metal is demonstrated by rust. Oxidation is also demonstrated by an apple that turns brown after it is cut in half and exposed to air; as well as bananas that turn brown as they rot. Rubber bands left in the driveway in the hot summer sun, exposed to UV light, become brittle after a few weeks as the elastic molecules become oxidized. People who excessively tan over years experience accumulative oxidative damage to collagen and elastin fibers within the skin. This leads to skin damage and wrinkles. UV damage to DNA may lead to cancer.
Oxidation occurs every single second of every single day throughout our entire body. Our cells are bombarded, both on the outside and on the inside of the cells, by free radicals. Free radicals, from various sources (including our own metabolism), let alone from toxic chemicals, stress, trans fats, air and water pollution, and cigarette smoke, strip away electrons from cell membranes, hormone receptors (including insulin receptors), lipids (including cholesterol), enzymes, and DNA. Striping away electrons from molecules results in a change in the three dimensional shape of a particular molecule, which alters the function of the molecule. Alter the function of a molecule, and you have damaged that molecule. In other words, the alteration is nothing more than damage. Sometimes oxidative damage results in an alteration to DNA …which may lead to cancer.
Antioxidants, which are produced by our own cells and ingested in the form of vitamins and other supplements, “donate” electrons to electron-seeking free radicals, and effectively neutralize these free radicals. Therefore, antioxidants protect our cells and cellular structures from free radical oxidative damage. Our cells are able to repair themselves and function at their optimum.
This does NOT mean that a person who eats healthy, exercises, and takes nutritional supplements will never have heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, wrinkle, or die. However, it is true that that person who exercises, eats right, reduces stress, and takes quality supplements has a better chance of maintaining heart health, brain health, liver health, colon, lung, kidney, skin, and immunological health than someone who does not take care of themselves. That is common sense.
Just as it is common sense that people who smoke 2 to 4 packs of cigarettes per day (accumulative excessive oxidation) have an increased risk of nearly all chronic diseases compared to those who don’t smoke, those who eat healthy, exercise, and take a full-spectrum, quality nutritional supplements every day would be expected to have better health overall in comparison to the smoker. The difference can be attributed, in part, to the amount of oxidation one is exposed to.
Regarding the number one cause of death, heart disease: of the two major types of cholesterol, HDL and LDL cholesterol, the more important parameter is the level of HDL cholesterol. HDL, or high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, is responsible for clearing out the LDL cholesterol that sticks to arterial walls. Exercise, vitamins, minerals, and other antioxidants, particularly the bioflavonoid and olive polyphenol antioxidants, increase HDL cholesterol levels and protect the LDL cholesterol from oxidative damage, and therefore may do more to maintain heart health than one would ever expect.
LDL cholesterol is not inherently bad. It is necessary for life. It is important for many cellular functions, hormone production, cellular repair, brain function, etc. LDL cholesterol only becomes “bad” when it is damaged, or oxidized by free radicals. Only the damaged, or oxidized form of LDL cholesterol sticks to the arterial walls. So, rather than being so hyper-focused on lowering one's level of LDL cholesterol, wouldn’t it make also make sense to lower the amount of OXIDATION to the LDL cholesterol? If LDL cholesterol is not oxidized, or damaged, then it is less likely to stick to the arterial lining. This is a very good thing in maintaining heart and arterial health.
Cigarette smoke releases toxins and free radicals, which excessively oxidizes LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and arterial walls in proportion to the amount that is smoked. Homocysteine, which itself oxidizes these same structures, is further increased in the blood because cigarette smoking induces its release from the liver. Now there is a combined effect of toxic free radicals from cigarette smoke AND higher levels of homocysteine all oxidizing and significantly damaging LDL cholesterol and the arterial lining. The more and longer one smokes, the more oxidative damage he (or she) sustains, and the greater the risk of developing heart disease, stroke, and cancer.
There are two opposing effects: free radicals (such as from cigarette smoke) and antioxidants! Everything that cigarette smoking would do to harm you, and HOW it harms you, is exactly the opposite of how antioxidants work to help maintain the health of the cells, the DNA, and cholesterol. If cigarettes increase the risk of heart disease, antioxidants do the opposite ...they promote and help maintain heart health. If cigarettes increase the risk of wrinkling of the skin and aging of the body, antioxidants help promote and maintain healthy skin. I am continually updating my health updates on my main website: http://www.laddmcnamara.com/.
Homocysteine is second only to cigarette smoking in its oxidative damage of arterial walls. Thyroid hormone controls the level of homocysteine, but numerous factors play a role in the elevation of homocysteine. Normal aging, kidney failure, smoking, some medications, and industrial toxins all elevate homocysteine levels.
Homocysteine becomes elevated in the blood with a deficiency of the B vitamins—B6, B12 and folic acid. Genetics also play a role. About 12% of the population has an undetected defect requiring higher levels of folic acid than the rest of population to help maintain homocysteine levels in a safe range (below 6.5). Therefore if you have high homocysteine levels (> 7.0) even though you are taking supplemental B complex vitamins, then you may be among the 12% who need more than 1,000 mcg of folic acid per day to keep it at healthy levels. In addition, betaine, also known as trimethylglycine (TMG) helps maintain a healthy homocysteine level.
Vitamins, Minerals, Antioxidants and Essential Fatty Acids: The Real Way to Maintain CardioVascular Health
The answer to maintaining healhty arteries and a healthy heart is to reduce oxidative damage to the LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and the arterial lining so that inflammation is at a minimum. Oxidation and inflammation are effectively neutralized with the use of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and omega-3 fatty acids; and the medical studies show that less oxidative damage and chronic inflammation in the body translates into better heart and immunological health. However, we must do MORE than take nutritional supplements to maintain heart and immunological health; we must eat right, exercise, get adequate sleep, and reduce chronic stress as much as possible. And, it is my opinion that the answer to maintaining heart health does NOT lie in statin drugs as a first line therapy.
The pharmaceutical companies claim that cholesterol-lowering drugs lower the risk of heart disease by 16 - 25%. In fact, statin drugs have been shown to reduce the risk of heart attacks, and death from heart attacks ...but not by the mechanism by which they were designed to work! Statin drugs do in fact significantly lower LDL cholesterol, and in the process they happen to also slightly lower oxidized levels of LDL cholesterol. That is, statin drugs have a modest antioxidant effect. As a matter of fact, cholesterol-lowering statin drugs appear to reduce the risk of heart disease and death from heart disease NOT through lowering LDL cholesterol per se, but because they have a mild to modest antioxidant / anti-inflammatory effect!
To me, if you want an antioxidant effect, use the natural and SAFE antioxidants, which are very potent and powerful at neutralizing free radicals and quenching oxidation and inflammation. The "benefit" of statin drugs (in my opinion) does not outweigh the incredible long-term risks of using them vs. all the benefits derived from vitamins, minerals, other antioxidants, and omega-3 fatty acids. That being said, I recognize that the standard of medical care for patients with high risk factors, such as high cholesterol AND prior "cardiac events" (such as a prior heart attack) is to prescribe a heart attack, and I encourage every person to discuss these issues with their physician.
However, also be aware that the research also shows that with no other risk factors other than a high LDL cholesterol, there is no real benefit to taking a statin drug, and plenty of health benefits to making lifestyle changes: proper diet, exercise, and proper high quality nutritional supplementation.
I have had patients come into my office and place a bag containing 30 to 40 bottles of vitamins and minerals on my desk. The thought of taking numerous pills every day can be quite daunting for many people. Therefore, when I practiced medicine, and even now, my recommendations are for people to take a full spectrum, pharmaceutical brand vitamin and mineral supplement that contains all the essentials that one needs on a daily basis. Of course, there will be other supplements you will want to add to those essential vitamin and mineral foundation, such as omega-3 fatty acids, grape seed extract, and co-enzyme Q10. However, if your essential vitamin and mineral program is broad spectrum and fully balanced, like the one I have been using for more than a decade, then you will be getting most of the supplements (and more) that I have touched on in this short article.
To maintain heart health it is critical to eat right, exercise, reduce stress, obtain adequate sleep, and supplement your diet with the correct nutritional supplements. Most supplements that people buy do not even contain the quantity or purity of ingredients listed on the bottle. The nutrients they are swallowing may not even dissolve, or be absorbed, and if they are, they may not be in the most bio-available condition for the cells to utilize. You need to trust the company that is producing the supplements. You need to trust the potency, purity, and bio-availability of your supplements. We are here to help you with such suggestions. You must discuss all medical conditions with your physician, however, you may need guidance in regard to finding a quality nutritional supplement brand. We have third party verification showing that the products we represent set the gold standard for nutritional quality. Get healthy, and then stay healthy in order to live a long, active life. It is our belief, ....it is our mission to help others live their lives in both happiness and in health.
To get on the top-rated supplements for your health, or to join our team with this home-based business opportunity please contact us today.
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