Lack Of Vitamin D Could Spell Heart Trouble

Lack Of Vitamin D Could Spell Heart Trouble: "ScienceDaily (Dec. 2, 2008) — Vitamin D deficiency—which is traditionally associated with bone and muscle weakness—may also increase the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). A growing body of evidence links low 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels to common CVD risk factors such as hypertension, obesity and diabetes, as well as major cardiovascular events including stroke and congestive heart failure..."Vitamin D deficiency is an unrecognized, emerging cardiovascular risk factor, which should be screened for and treated,"...Vitamin D deficiency also alters hormone levels and immune function, which can increase the risk of diabetes, a major contributor to CVD...patients with vitamin D levels below 15 ng/ml were twice as likely to experience a heart attack, stroke or other CV event within the next five years compared to those with higher levels..."We are outside less than we used to be, and older adults and people who are overweight or obese are less efficient at making vitamin D in response to sunlight," said Dr. O'Keefe. "A little bit of sunshine is a good thing, but the use of sunscreen to guard against skin cancer is important if you plan to be outside for more than 15 to 30 of intense sunlight exposure."...

In the absence of clinical guidelines, the authors outline specific recommendations for restoring and maintaining optimal vitamin D levels in CV patients. These patients should initially be treated with 50,000 IU of vitamin D2 or D3 once weekly for 8 to 12 weeks. Maintenance therapy should be continued using one of the following strategies:

• 50,000 IU vitamin D2 or D3every 2 weeks;
• 1,000 to 2,000 IU vitamin D3 daily;
• Sunlight exposure for 10 minutes for Caucasian patients (longer for people with increased skin pigmentation) between the hours of 10 a.m. to 3 p.m."

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Broccoli Could Reverse The Heart Damaging Effects Of Diabetes

Broccoli Could Reverse The Heart Damaging Effects Of Diabetes: "ScienceDaily (Aug. 26, 2008) — Researchers have discovered eating broccoli could undo the damage caused by diabetes to heart blood vessels...a broccoli compound called Sulforaphane. This compound can encourage the body to produce more enzymes to protect the vessels, as well as reduce high levels of molecules which cause significant cell damage...Past studies have shown that a diet rich in vegetables – particularly brassica vegetables such as broccoli – is linked to decreased risk of heart disease and stroke...The results of the study showed that Sulforaphane reversed this increase in ROS by 73 per cent...Sulforaphane activated a protein in the body called nrf2, which protects cells and tissues from oxidative stress by activating protective antioxidant and detoxifying enzymes. The study showed the presence of Sulforaphane in human microvascular cells doubled the activation of nrf2..."

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Fishy diet may protect against clogged arteries

Fishy diet may protect against clogged arteries - Yahoo! News
2008.07.28
"A diet rich in oily fish, which contains omega 3 fatty acids, may be why middle-aged men in Japan have fewer problems with clogged arteries than white men and men of Japanese descent in the United States...Japanese men living in Japan had twice the blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids and lower levels of atherosclerosis ... "The death rate from coronary heart disease in Japan has always been puzzlingly low," said Akira Sekikawa... Japanese eat about 3 ounces (85 grams) of fish a day on average, while Americans eat fish perhaps twice a week. Nutritional studies show that intake of omega-3 fatty acids from fish averages 1.3 grams per day in Japan, compared to 0.2 grams per day in the United States..."

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Regular Walking Protects The Masai -- Who Eat High Fat Diet -- From Cardiovascular Disease

Regular Walking Protects The Masai -- Who Eat High Fat Diet -- From Cardiovascular Disease: "ScienceDaily (July 20, 2008) — Scientists have long been puzzled by how the Masai can avoid cardiovascular disease despite having a diet rich in animal fats. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet believe that their secret is in their regular walking...their results show that the Masai not only have a diet richer in animal fat than that of the other subjects, but also run the lowest cardiovascular risk, which is to say that they have the lowest body weights, waist-measurements and blood pressure, combined with a healthy blood lipid profile...What sets the Masai lifestyle apart is also a very high degree of physical activity. The Masai studied expended 2,500 kilocalories a day more than the basic requirement, compared with 1,500 kilocalories a day for the farmers and 891 kilocalories a day for the urbanites. According to the team, most Westerners would have to walk roughly 20 km a day to achieve the Masai level of energy expenditure...The scientists believe that the Masai are protected by their high physical activity rather than by some unknown genetic factor..."

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Herbal Remedy Pau d'Arco (Tabebuia impetiginosa) may reduce Obesity

Herbal Remedy Reduces Obesity And Heart Disease?:
"ScienceDaily (July 8, 2008)
With unprecedented levels of obesity across the Western world, and incidence of associated heart disease, cancer and diabetes rising, there is a major drive to find new treatments. Scientists from Germany have recently discovered that extracts of a traditional herbal remedy derived from Tabebuia impetiginosa can act to delay the absorption of dietary fat in animal models...Dr Roos and his team have shown that Tabebuia extract can reduce levels of triglycerides, a breakdown product of fat, in rats after they have been fed a fatty meal. "This result shows the extract may have a potential use in treating obesity,"...Although it is clear that Tabebuia extract can act to inhibit the absorption of dietary fat, the scientists have not yet identified the exact compounds within the extract that are responsible for the effects."

If you buy Pau d'Arco make sure you are buying it from a sustainable source. The tree is in danger and the rampant logging of the tree has also aided in rainforest destruction... so choose carefully. Nature's Way claims to be good on these counts. I have no connection with them.

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Red Wine's Resveratrol May Help Battle Obesity

Red Wine's Resveratrol May Help Battle Obesity: "ScienceDaily (Jun. 16, 2008) — Resveratrol, a compound present in grapes and red wine, reduces the number of fat cells and may one day be used to treat or prevent obesity...Past research found that resveratrol protected laboratory mice that were fed a high-calorie diet from the health problems of obesity, by mimicking the effects of calorie restriction...In the cell-based study, they found that resveratrol inhibited the pre-fat cells from increasing and prevented them from converting into mature fat cells. Also, resveratrol hindered fat storage. Most interesting, according to Fischer-Posovszky, was that resveratrol reduced production of certain cytokines (interleukins 6 and 8), substances that may be linked to the development of obesity-related disorders, such as diabetes and clogged coronary arteries. Also, resveratrol stimulated formation of a protein known to decrease the risk of heart attack. Obesity decreases this substance, called adiponectin..."

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Cocoa for Diabetes?

Cocoa for Diabetes?: WebMD
2008.05.27
"Compounds in Cocoa Could Help Ward Off Heart Complications...Patients who drank the high-flavonol cocoa for one month had their blood vessel function improve from severely impaired to normal. Drinking the low-dose flavanol cocoa did not result in any significant changes in blood vessel function...dietary flavonols might have an important impact as part of a healthy diet in the prevention of cardiovascular complications in diabetic patients..."

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The next big drug for athletes?

Fatigue relief drug's heart hope BBC News
2008.02.12
"...A Columbia University team found fatigue following exercise is caused by calcium leaking inside muscle cells. They formulated a drug to plug the leaks, and successfully used it to relieve fatigue in exhausted mice...They also believe that calcium leaks are responsible for severe exhaustion in heart failure patients...It had previously been thought that fatigue following intense, sustained exercise such as marathon running was due to the accumulation of lactic acid in the muscles...The latest research pinpoints a tiny leak inside the muscle cells as the culprit. The leak - which allows calcium to seep continuously inside the muscle cells - weakens the force produced by the muscle and also turns on a protein-digesting enzyme that damages the muscle fibres. The researchers found the leak was present in the muscle of mice after an intense three-week daily regime of swimming, and in human athletes after three days of intense cycling. The Columbia team had previously identified the same leak in the muscles of animals with heart failure...The researchers gave their experimental drug to mice before the animals started a three-week regime of swimming. Without the drugs the animals were exhausted after three weeks, but those that received the drug were still energetic at the end of the exercise programme, and their muscles showed less signs of damage... "

More research is needed, but this might be amazing for some heart disease patients. And could be amusing to see endurance athletes claiming after busted for the improper use of this drug... that they were using it for heart disease.

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From And For The Heart, My Dear Valentine: Broccoli

From And For The Heart, My Dear Valentine: Broccoli - ScienceDaily
2008.01.24
"...Das and colleagues now report evidence on that topic from animal studies. They gave broccoli extract to lab rats for one month and measured its effects on the rats' heart muscle. Compared to a control group that ate a regular diet, the broccoli-fed animals had improved heart function and less heart muscle damage when deprived of oxygen. Broccoli's heart-healthy effects are likely due to its high concentrations of certain substances that seem to boost levels of a heart-protective protein called thioredoxin, the researchers note.

The article "Broccoli: A Unique Vegetable That Protects Mammalian Hearts through the Redox Cycling of the Thioredoxin Superfamily" is scheduled for the Jan. 23 issue of ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry."

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Exercise and alcohol fights heart disease

A few drinks a day and exercise limit heart disease Reuters/YahooNews
2008.01.09
"...People who neither drink nor exercise have a 30 to 49 percent higher risk of heart disease than people who do one or both of the activities, the researchers said in the European Heart Journal...The main finding is there seems to be an additional beneficial effect of drinking one to two drinks per day and doing at least moderate physical activity...Several major studies have found that light to moderate drinking -- up to two drinks a day on a regular basis -- is associated with a lower risk of heart disease, and some have also found this leads to a lower risk of some cancers...teetotallers who exercised at least moderately were able to reduce their risk of heart disease, an important finding for people who abstain because of religious beliefs or other health issues such as pregnancy, the researchers said. People who had the lowest risk of dying from any cause were physically active, moderate drinkers while those at highest risk were the physically inactive, heavy drinkers, the study found..."

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Omega-3 Fatty Acids Protect Against Parkinson's

Omega-3 Fatty Acids Protect Against Parkinson's, Study Says - ScienceDaily
2007.11.26
"...Analyses revealed that omega-3 fatty acids--in particular DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), a specific type of omega-3--had replaced the omega-6 fatty acids already present in the brains of the mice that had been given omega-3 supplementation..."This demonstrates both the importance of diet on the brain's fatty acid composition and the brain's natural inclination for omega-3 fatty acids," observes Calon. Since concentrations of other types of omega-3's had remained similar in both groups of mice, researchers suggest that the protective effect against Parkinson's comes essentially from DHA...Another conclusion to be drawn from this finding is that a brain containing a lot of omega-6 fatty acids may be a fertile ground for Parkinson's disease. These fatty acids, abundant in foods rich in either vegetable oil or animal fat, are already under suspicion for their role in the body's inflammatory response, cardiac disease, arthritis, and Alzheimer's. In a balanced diet, the ratio between omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids should be 4 to 1. However, the average Western diet contains 10 to 20 times more omega-6's than omega-3's..."In North America, the average intake of DHA is between 60 to 80 mg a day, while experts recommend a daily minimum of 250 mg,"..."

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Vitamin D may slow aging

Vitamin D 'may help slow ageing' BBC News
2007.11.08

"A King's College London study of more than 2,000 women found those with higher vitamin D levels showed fewer ageing-related changes in their DNA...after adjusting the results for the age of the volunteer, women with higher levels of vitamin D were more likely to have longer telomeres in these cells, and vice versa...Professor Brent Richards, who led the study, said: "These results are exciting because they demonstrate for the first time that people who have higher levels of vitamin D may age more slowly than people with lower levels of vitamin D..."This could help to explain how vitamin D has a protective effect on many ageing-related diseases, such as heart disease and cancer"...Another of the study's authors, Professor Tim Spector, said: "Although it might sound absurd, it's possible that the same sunshine which may increase our risk of skin cancer may also have a healthy effect on the ageing process in general"...it was possible that vitamin D might not be delaying the shortening of telomeres, but that another factor which did this might alter the way the vitamin was created and metabolised by the body"


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High-fat Atkins diet damages blood vessels

High-fat Atkins diet damages blood vessels: study on Yahoo! News
2007.11.06
" The high-fat Atkins diet can cause long-term damage to blood vessels, as well as some of the inflammation linked with heart and artery disease...In contrast, low-fat regimens such as the South Beach and Ornish diets lowered cholesterol and appeared to benefit artery function, they said...."It really is the Atkins diet that is the worst," Dr. Michael Miller, director of preventive cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, said in a telephone interview..."The Atkins diet caused the LDL levels to go up by about 7 percent, whereas in the Ornish and South Beach diets ... they went down 7 to 10 percent."..."


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Boiled Peanuts Pack Big Antioxidant Punch

Boiled Peanuts Pack Big Antioxidant Punch - ScienceDaily
2007.10.29
"...Studies have shown that peanuts contain powerful antioxidants called isoflavones which may reduce the risk of cancer, diabetes and coronary heart diseases. Although the effect of processing on the isoflavone content of legumes has been extensively studied, there has never been such a study on peanuts...Lloyd Walker and colleagues evaluated the effect of boiling and oil- and dry-roasting on peanuts. They found that boiled peanuts - South Carolina's official snack food - contained up to four times more isoflavones than raw peanuts or oil- and dry-roasted ones..."

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Chemical In Red Wine, Fruits And Vegetables May Stop Cancer, Heart Disease, Depending On The Dose

Chemical In Red Wine, Fruits And Vegetables May Stop Cancer, Heart Disease, Depending On The Dose - ScienceDaily
2007.10.30
"In the study, French scientists describe how high and low doses of polyphenols have different effects. Most notably, they found that very high doses of antioxidant polyphenols shut down and prevent cancerous tumors by cutting off the formation of new blood vessels needed for tumor growth...At relatively low doses, the French researchers found that the same polyphenols play a beneficial role for those with diseased hearts and circulatory systems by facilitating blood vessel growth. The amount of polyphenols necessary for this effect was found to be the equivalent of only one glass of red wine per day or simply sticking to a healthy diet of fruits and vegetables containing polyphenols. This diet is known as the "Mediterranean Diet."..."

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Whole grain cereals cut heart failure risk

Whole grain cereals cut heart failure risk: study - Yahoo! News
2007.10.22
"...men who ate a bowl a day of whole grain cereal had a 28 percent lower risk of developing heart failure over a 20-year study..."Eating half a cup to a cup of whole grain breakfast cereal may help lower your blood pressure. It may help lower your risk of diabetes and heart disease," said Dr. Luc Djousse...The more fiber the cereal contains, the more likely you are getting the right type," he added...He suggests looking for 4 grams of fiber or more per serving..."

Bit lazy of the writer not to even ponder the mechanism of action. There's still debate on this and it would be nice to include an update.

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Why Garlic Is Good for You

Why Garlic Is Good for You - WebMD
2007.10.15
"...red blood cells process compounds from digested garlic and turn them into the cell messenger hydrogen sulfide (H2S), which relaxes blood vessels and increases blood flow. Therefore, eating garlic may increase our natural supply of this vital chemical and play a role in reducing the risk of heart disease...Previous studies on garlic’s health effects have produced mixed results. For example, some studies of garlic have found few benefits, but others have been shown to lower the risk of heart disease...But researchers say if further studies confirm these findings, testing the ability to produce hydrogen sulfide may be used to standardize garlic supplements to produce greater health benefits..."

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Depression, Aging, And Proteins Made By A Virus May All Play Role In Heart Disease

ScienceDaily: Depression, Aging, And Proteins Made By A Virus May All Play Role In Heart Disease
2007.10.04
"Researchers here have linked an increase in two immune system proteins essential for inflammation to a latent viral infection and proposed a chain of events that might accelerate cardiovascular disease...The findings also suggest that chronic depression may play a key role in starting the cascade that can lead to the buildup of plaques clogging coronary arteries...

Ronald Glaser, a professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics at Ohio State University , said, “To me, this suggests a new way of thinking about how these diseases develop. We carry around these latent herpes viruses in our bodies virtually all our lives and periodically they can hurt us, inducing biological events that could lead to an increased risk of atherosclerosis.”

Glaser, head of Ohio State's Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research, has focused for years on Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), one of eight different herpesviruses that can remain dormant in the body for a lifetime...

As the immune system ages, the levels of IL-6 in the body increase in the blood. Some of that IL-6 is created by immune cells called macrophages that rush to the site of an infection or injury. Earlier work by the team also showed that increases in psychological stress and depression can substantially raise the levels of IL-6 and TNF-a in the body.

Increased stress and depression can also trigger the latent virus to reactivate and begin reproducing inside cells

The researchers also knew that as Epstein-Barr virus begins to multiply in cells in the body, it produces a protein called dUTpase that, in turn, can stimulate macrophages to make even more IL-6.

The more IL-6 levels rise in the body, the greater a person's risk is for disease,” Glaser said, adding that IL-6 increases, as well as depression, have been associated with cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and type-2 diabetes..."

Clearly a vicious cycle. One answer would be truly effective, broad brush antivirals. But they don't exist yet. So how would one ramp down IL-6? Omega 3's. Ring any bells? There has been recent speculation that some forms of unipolar depression are the result of immune dysfunction. Could it be that some of that immune dysfunction is caused by "latent" viruses like Epstein-Barr? And that for some people fish oil is somewhat effective for depression because it addresses elevated IL-6 levels? And of course fish oil has proven effective at combating heart disease, osteoporosis and type-2 diabetes. Connections...

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Three drinks a day ups breast cancer risk

Three drinks a day ups breast cancer risk: study - Yahoo! News
2007.09.27
"Three or more drinks a day, whether beer, wine or spirits, boost a woman's risk of breast cancer as much as smoking a pack of cigarettes...In what the researchers said was one of the largest studies to investigate links between breast cancer and alcohol -- found that alcohol itself and the amount a person consumed were key rather than the type of drink...Breast cancer is the second most common cancer killer of women, after lung cancer. It will be diagnosed in 1.2 million people globally this year and will kill 500,000...Other studies have shown that light- to moderate alcohol use can protect against heart attacks, though Klatsky said other mechanisms were probably at work.The heart protection likely comes from alcohol-induced "good" cholesterol, reduced blood clotting and decreased diabetes risk. But for breast cancer, the ethyl alcohol found in all booze likely ups the risk..."


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Lack of "good" cholesterol always poses heart risk

Lack of "good" cholesterol always poses heart risk - Yahoo! News
2007.09.26
"The amount of "good cholesterol" in the blood remains an important marker for heart disease regardless of how much "bad cholesterol" is lowered..."It means doctors can't ignore a low HDL even if they're treating people with statins. They need to attack the HDL as well, if the HDL remains low,"...Doctors have known for years that HDL, or high-density lipoprotein, protects against heart attacks and stroke, probably by cleaning up the bad low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, known as LDL..."become lean and become very active. That's probably as effective as anything we have at the moment. But most people who try don't succeed," Barter said. "The biggest frustration is that we don't have the magic bullet like we do for the LDL."...Barter said aggressively lowering levels of bad cholesterol probably reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke by 40 to 50 percent. Having a drug that brought up HDL levels would likely cut the remaining risk by half.

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