Dr. John's Health Matters
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The articles posted here are from various sources who are duly acknowledged. I would appreciate being immediately notified, if any copywritten material needs to be removed. This blog is not intended to replace the qualified advice of a licensed health practitioner. Readers should exercise their own judgment. Enjoy, subscribe, participate and tell others :)
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Posts tagged "blood"
Wednesday, Sep 2nd, 2009 ↓Melons can fight blood pressure →
Sept 2, 2009 (Presstv.com)—Following a diet rich in potassium-rich fruits and vegetables such as melons, commonly found in summer, can help lower the blood pressure.
Potassium chloride had long been used to lower blood pressure levels. A new study, however, finds any increase in potassium intake can also lead to similar results.
According to the study recently conducted at UT Southwestern Medical Center, the high potassium content of certain fruits including fresh melons can help athletes and those suffering from high blood pressure.
Scientists concluded that increasing potassium intake has the same effect as taking potassium chloride.
The US Department of Agriculture officials hence urged adults to get some 4,044 milligrams of potassium from food and beverages each day.
“Melons like cantaloupe and watermelon are particularly high in potassium,” said lead researcher Lona Sandon, adding that one fourth of a cantaloupe contains 800 to 900 milligrams of potassium, roughly 20 percent of the recommended daily value.
Two cups of watermelon contains nearly 10 percent of the recommended daily value.
Dried apricots, avocados, figs, kiwi, oranges, raisins, dates, beans, potatoes, tomatoes and even grapefruit are other good sources of potassium.
Tags: melon blood pressure hypertension vegetable potassium lower prevention treatment fruit cantaloupe watermelon apricot avocado fig kiwi orange raisin date bean potato tomato grapefruit
Diesel Exhaust Is Linked To Cancer Development Via New Blood Vessel Growth →
Sept 2, 2009 (Sciencedaily.com)—Scientists have demonstrated that the link between diesel fume exposure and cancer lies in the ability of diesel exhaust to induce the growth of new blood vessels that serve as a food supply for solid tumors.
The researchers found that in both healthy and diseased animals, more new blood vessels sprouted in mice exposed to diesel exhaust than did in mice exposed to clean, filtered air. This suggests that previous illness isn’t required to make humans susceptible to the damaging effects of the diesel exhaust.
The tiny size of inhaled diesel particles, most less than 0.1 microns in diameter, potentially enables them to penetrate the human circulatory system, organs and tissues, meaning they can do this damage just about anywhere in the body. A micron is one millionth of a meter.
Diesel exhaust exposure levels in the study were designed to mimic the exposure people might experience while living in urban areas and commuting in heavy traffic. The levels were lower than or similar to those typically experienced by workers who use diesel-powered equipment, who tend to work in mines, on bridges and tunnels, along railroads, at loading docks, on farms and in vehicle maintenance garages, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
“The message from our study is that exposure to diesel exhaust for just a short time period of two months could give even normal tissue the potential to develop a tumor,” said Qinghua Sun, senior author of the study and an assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Ohio State University.
“We need to raise public awareness so people give more thought to how they drive and how they live so they can pursue ways to protect themselves and improve their health. And we still have a lot of work to do to improve diesel engines so they generate fewer particles and exhaust that can be released into the ambient air.”
For full article, see link above.
Tags: disesel exhaust air damage risk cancer blood vessel tumor organ tissues circulatory system traffic environmental pollution
Caution on mix of cholesterol-lowering meds →
Sept 1, 2009 (Cbc.ca)—Combining a prescription cholesterol-lowering medication with omega-3 supplements may not be the best approach, a new review suggests.
Statins are medications that prevent the liver from producing cholesterol, which can help reduce the risk of heart attacks. Every year, Canadian doctors write more than 12 million prescriptions for statins, making them the most-prescribed drugs in the country. Omega-3’s are heart-healthy oils that some evidence suggests help reduce the risk of coronary disease.
In the Nov. 3 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, Dr. Mukul Sharma, medical director of the Regional Stroke Centre at the Ottawa Hospital, and his team reviewed five different cholesterol-lowering medications that can be combined as well as omega-3 supplements sold over the counter. They concluded there is little evidence to support mixing them.
Bad cholesterol increase
In one case, the researchers found taking prescription medication with omega-3 had the opposite effect.
“Your bad cholesterol, the LDL, actually goes up,” Sharma said. “There isn’t a benefit in terms of heart disease, stroke or mortality.”
Most cholesterol patients may be better off taking higher doses of one drug instead of multiple medications, since there may be less chance of side-effects and long-term problems developing, he said. People are also less likely to take their medications the more that are prescribed.
For full article, see link above.
Tags: cholesterol increase risk danger LDL prescription cardiovascular blood heart statin medication liver heart attack prevention coronary disease
Surprising Rate Of Recurring Heart Attacks, Strokes Globally →
Aug 31, 2009 (Sciencedaily.com)—Despite many medicines and other treatments for patients with vascular disease, a large international study shows these patients have a surprisingly high rate of recurring events such as strokes, heart attacks and hospitalizations as well as mortality.
Also unexpected: patients in North America (including the U.S.) experienced an above-average rate of these events. Patients in Eastern Europe had the highest rate, and those in Australia and Japan had the lowest.
The results from the international REACH (Reduction of Atherothrombosis for Continued Health) Registry, presented by a researcher from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, examined data for 32,247 patients one and three years after they enrolled in the registry. Patients who had symptomatic vascular disease had a 14.4 percent rate at one year and 28.4 percent rate at three years of having a heart attack, stroke, rehospitalization for another type of vascular event or vascular death. Patients with vascular disease in more than one location of the body had the highest event rate at 40.5 percent at three years.
When projected over the global population who would mirror the patients in REACH, this represents millions of serious vascular events occurring every few years, many of which could be prevented.
“We were surprised by the high rate of these recurring vascular events,” said lead author Mark J. Alberts, M.D., professor of neurology at the Feinberg School and director of the stroke program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. “We know how to prevent vascular disease and the events that it produces. This points to the need for better prevention, better use of medications and a need to develop more potent medications. These are the number one and two causes of death throughout the world.”
For full article, see link above.
Tags: heart attack cardiovascular blood vessel stroke reoccurance rehospitalization disease prevention risk
Exercise beats angioplasty: heart experts →
Aug 31, 2009 (Cbc.ca)—Working up a sweat may be even better than angioplasty for some heart patients, experts say.
Studies have shown heart patients benefit from exercise, and some have shown it works better than surgical procedures. At a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology in Barcelona on Sunday, several experts said doctors should focus more on persuading their patients to exercise rather than simply doing angioplasties.
Angioplasty is the top treatment for people having a heart attack or hospitalized with worsening symptoms. It involves using a tiny balloon to flatten a blockage and propping the heart artery open with a mesh tube called a stent. Most angioplasties are done on a non-emergency basis, to relieve chest pain caused by clogged arteries cutting off the heart’s blood supply.
“It’s difficult to convince people to exercise instead of having an angioplasty, but it works,” said Rainer Hambrecht of Klinikum Links der Weser in Bremen, Germany.
Hambrecht published a study in 2004 that found that nearly 90 per cent of heart patients who rode bikes regularly were free of heart problems one year after they started their exercise regimen. Among patients who had an angioplasty instead, only 70 per cent were problem-free after a year.
For full article, see link above.
Tags: exercise heart attack angioplasty cardiovascular physical activity surgery artery chest pain clogged blood flow prevention
Whey Protein Improves Heart Health →
Aug 31, 2009 (Mercola.com)—A whey-protein-rich ingredient may improve blood vessel function in healthy individuals, reports a new randomized, double-blind study.
Two weeks of supplementation resulted in a 1.5 percent improvement in blood flow. According to the researchers, the whey protein-derived ingredient may work via an angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE)-inhibitory activity.
ACE inhibitors work by inhibiting the conversion of angiotensin I to the potent vasoconstrictor, angiotensin II, thereby improving blood flow and blood pressure.
Sources:
NutraIngredients August 5, 2009Nutrition Journal July 22, 2009; 8:34 [Free Full-Text Article]
Tags: whey protein heart cardiovascular blood vessel supplement angiotensin vascoconstrictor flow
Toxins in Fish Linked to Diabetes →
Aug 27, 2009 (Mercola.com)—A new study of Great Lakes boat captains over 15 years found a correlation between the chemical DDE and diabetes. Those who ate more fish had more DDE in their blood, and were more likely to develop diabetes.
DDE is produced in the bodies of small bottom-feeding fish from ingesting the prevalent pesticide DDT. The chemical transfers to bigger fish when they eat smaller fish and then accumulates in the fat and liver of people who eat lots of what they catch. Charter boat captains tend to catch and eat more fish than the average recreational fisherman.
Exactly how DDE may lead to diabetes is unknown. Another pesticide, Agent Orange, can cause diabetes, but it’s believed to do so in a different way than DDE.
Sources: 
Chicago Tribune August 23, 2009
Tags: toxin diabetes risk fish ddt pesticide blood fat dde liver fisher agent orange
AHA limits sugar intake to protect heart →
Aug 27, 2009 (Presstv.com)—While Americans eat more than 22 teaspoons of sugar per day, the American Heart Association urges individuals to limit their sugar intake in order to remain healthy.
“For the first time we’ve created specific recommendations about the amount of sugars that can be consumed in a heart-healthy diet,” said Rachel Johnson lead author of a report published in Circulation.
According to the report, too much sugar not only leads to obesity but also places the individual at a greater risk of developing diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke.
The new guidelines revealed that women should eat less than 100 calories (equal to six teaspoons or 25 grams) of added processed sugar per day.
The limit for moderately active women aged 51-55 is as low as 5 teaspoons (80 calories) and for sedentary women aged 71-75 is as low as 3 teaspoons (48 calories).
As for men, the permitted sugar amount is reported to be less than 150 calories, equal to nine teaspoons or 37.5 grams.
The new guidelines recommend active men aged 21-25 to eat less than 18 teaspoons (288 calories) and sedentary men aged 46-50 to eat less than 9 teaspoons (144 calories).
AHA officials say that the guidelines are only for “added sugars” used to make foods and drinks rather than the natural sugar found in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, or milk.
They therefore urged food and beverage companies to limit the sugar content of their products.
PKH/HGH
Tags: heart disease cardiovascular disease diabetes high blood pressure hypertension stroke diet nutrition teaspoon calorie processed sugar content limit risk
High Blood Pressure Linked To Memory Problems In Middle Age →
Aug 26, 2009 (Sciencedaily.com)—High blood pressure is linked to memory problems in people over 45, according to research published in the August 25, 2009, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
The study found that people with high diastolic blood pressure, which is the bottom number of a blood pressure reading, were more likely to have cognitive impairment, or problems with their memory and thinking skills, than people with normal diastolic readings.
For every 10 point increase in the reading, the odds of a person having cognitive problems was seven percent higher. The results were valid after adjusting for other factors that could affect cognitive abilities, such as age, smoking status, exercise level, education, diabetes or high cholesterol.
The study involved nearly 20,000 people age 45 and older across the country who participated in the Reasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) Study and had never had a stroke or mini-stroke. A total of 1,505 of the participants, or 7.6 percent, had cognitive problems, and 9,844, or 49.6 percent, were taking medication for high blood pressure.
High blood pressure is defined as a reading equal to or higher than 140/90 or taking medication for high blood pressure.
“It’s possible that by preventing or treating high blood pressure, we could potentially prevent cognitive impairment, which can be a precursor to dementia,” said study author Georgios Tsivgoulis, MD, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.
Research has shown that high diastolic blood pressure leads to weakening of small arteries in the brain, which can result in the development of small areas of brain damage.
For full article, see link above.
Tags: memory high blood pressure cognitive impairment artery brain dementia damage stroke
Tags: supplement metabolic syndrome cardiovascular heart blood pressure extract root obesity cholesterol insulin isoflavone kudzu stroke disease
Green Tea Nutrients Prevent Leukemia →
Aug 25, 2009 (NaturalNews.com) —One of the potent antioxidants found in green tea may slow and possibly even reverse the progress of leukemia.
Scientists have been aware since 1970s that green tea can help fight cancer, as demonstrated by lower cancer rates in countries with high consumption of the beverage. In 2004, a study showed that the naturally occurring tea chemical epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) could actually kill leukemia cells.
In a new study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers from the Mayo Clinic found a significant improvement in the symptoms of cancer patients treated with EGCG extract.
Researcher Tait D. Shanafelt and colleagues became interested in carrying out a clinical trial when they noticed that chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients self-medicating with tea polyphenols actually began showing signs of improvement. They designed a study in which 33 CLL patients were treated with between 400 and 2,000 milligrams of EGCG extract twice per day.
“We found not only that patients tolerated the green tea extract at very high doses, but that many of them saw regression to some degree of their CLL,” Shanafelt said.
Treatment with EGCG led to noticeable decreases in two symptoms of CLL — increased white blood cell (lymphocyte) count and enlarged lymph nodes. Lymphocyte levels decreased by 20 percent or more in 15 of 33 patients, an improvement that lasted for two months in 11 of them. Of 12 patients who began the study with swollen lymph nodes, 11 experienced a 50 percent or greater decrease in swelling.
For full article, see link above.
Tags: green tea consumption prevention antioxidant cancer EGCG kill leukemia cell treatment extract supplement chronic lymphcytic polyphenol improvement white blood cell lymph node swollen swelling decrease survival
Low-carb Diets Linked To Atherosclerosis And Impaired Blood Vessel Growth →
Aug 25, 2009 (Sciencedaily.com)—Even as low-carbohydrate/high-protein diets have proven successful at helping individuals rapidly lose weight, little is known about the diets’ long-term effects on vascular health.
Now, a study led by a scientific team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) provides some of the first data on this subject, demonstrating that mice placed on a 12-week low carbohydrate/high-protein diet showed a significant increase in atherosclerosis, a buildup of plaque in the heart’s arteries and a leading cause of heart attack and stroke. The findings also showed that the diet led to an impaired ability to form new blood vessels in tissues deprived of blood flow, as might occur during a heart attack.
Described in the online version of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the study also found that standard markers of cardiovascular risk, including cholesterol, were not changed in the animals fed the low-carb diet, despite the clear evidence of increased vascular disease.
“It’s very difficult to know in clinical studies how diets affect vascular health,” says senior author Anthony Rosenzweig, MD, Director of Cardiovascular Research in BIDMC’s CardioVascular Institute and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “We, therefore, tend to rely on easily measured serum markers [such as cholesterol], which have been surprisingly reassuring in individuals on low-carbohydrate/high-protein diets, who do typically lose weight. But our research suggests that, at least in animals, these diets could be having adverse cardiovascular effects that are not reflected in simple serum markers.”
For full article, see link above.
Tags: cardiovascualr diet long term weight loss carbohydrate high protein atherosclerosis blood vessel cholesterol disease
Why Low Vitamin D Raises Heart Disease Risks In Diabetics →
Aug 25, 2009 (sciencedaily.com)—Low levels of vitamin D are known to nearly double the risk of cardiovascular disease in patients with diabetes, and researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis now think they know why.
They have found that diabetics deficient in vitamin D can’t process cholesterol normally, so it builds up in their blood vessels, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke. The new research has identified a mechanism linking low vitamin D levels to heart disease risk and may lead to ways to fix the problem, simply by increasing levels of vitamin D.
“Vitamin D inhibits the uptake of cholesterol by cells called macrophages,” says principal investigator Carlos Bernal-Mizrachi, M.D., a Washington University endocrinologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. “When people are deficient in vitamin D, the macrophage cells eat more cholesterol, and they can’t get rid of it. The macrophages get clogged with cholesterol and become what scientists call foam cells, which are one of the earliest markers of atherosclerosis.”
Macrophages are dispatched by the immune system in response to inflammation and often are activated by diseases such as diabetes. Bernal-Mizrachi and his colleagues believe that in diabetic patients with inadequate vitamin D, macrophages become loaded with cholesterol and eventually stiffen blood vessels and block blood flow.
For full article, see link above.
Tags: vitamin d diet nutrition diabetes deficient blood vessel heart attack stroke danger rosk cholesterol atherosclerosis immunity disease
Another Danger from High Glycemic Foods: Research Shows They Damage Arteries →
Aug 25, 2009 (NaturalNews.com)— Anyone interested in healthy and nutritious foods has probably heard that whole grains are far better for you than the processed variety like white bread and sugar-laden cereals. There are several reasons for this, including the fact whole foods tend to be richer in fiber and they also have low glycemic indexes. That means they keep blood sugar and insulin levels steady without wide fluctuations. But a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology concludes there’s another important reason to avoid high glycemic foods like white bread and corn flakes. For the first time, scientists have documented how eating these foods can directly damage artery walls and cause cardiac problems.
“It’s very hard to predict heart disease,” Dr. Michael Shechter of Tel Aviv University’s Sackler School of Medicine and the Heart Institute of Sheba Medical Center, said in a statement to the media. “But doctors know that high glycemic foods rapidly increase blood sugar. Those who binge on these foods have a greater chance of sudden death from heart attack. Our research connects the dots, showing the link between diet and what’s happening in real time in the arteries.”
For full article, see link above.
Tags: damage artery cardiovasculat gylcemic food sugar wall heart blood sugar attack diet
Eat Fat With Tomatoes to Absorb All the Nutrients →
Aug 24, 2009 (Mercola.com)—Tomatoes are a good source of the antioxidants lycopene and beta-carotene. But if you eat a tomato without adding a little fat, your body is unlikely to absorb all these nutrients.
Scientists recruited graduate students to eat bowls of salad greens with tomatoes and various types of salad dressings. The researchers put IV lines into the participants’ veins and drew blood samples before and after they’d eaten the salads in order to get precise measurements of the absorption of nutrients.
When researchers went back and analyzed the blood samples, they realized that people who had eaten fat-free or low-fat dressings didn’t absorb the beneficial carotenoids from the salad. Only when they had eaten the oil-based dressing did they get the nutrients.
Sources: NPR July 27, 2009
