Healthy Living News: Health Updates

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Title: Healthy Living News: Health Updates

Author: Mellanie True Hills, The Health & Productivity

Revitalizer (SM)

Category: Health, Women's Health

Copyright: © 2005 by Mellanie True Hills

Line Length: 60 characters

E-mail: mhills @ mellaniehills.com (remove spaces)

URL: http://www.mellaniehills.com

Article URL:

http://www.mellaniehills.com/healthylivingv2-2.htm

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ARTICLE

Healthy Living News, v. 2, no. 2, January 20, 2005

In this issue you'll find the following health updates:

1. Cancer Surpasses Heart Disease--Don't Let This Fool You!

2. C-Reactive Protein (CRP), Statins, and Heart Disease

3. Statin Drugs Over-the-counter?

4. New 2005 Dietary Guidelines

5. Red Wine and Your Heart

6. Shocking, Yet Not So Surprising

7. Wear Red

8. What Are Your Health Goals for 2005?

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1. Cancer Surpasses Heart Disease--Don't Let This Fool You!

According to new numbers from the American Cancer Society

(ACS), in 2005 more people under the age of 85 will die

of cancer than of heart disease. While the death rate from

many cancers is decreasing due to decreased smoking and

progress in treating those cancers, the number of cases for

other cancers is growing due to our increasingly unhealthy

diets and our overweight epidemic.

Does this mean that you should forget about heart disease

and just start focusing on fighting cancer? Not at all, as

both are very serious issues. However, the American Heart

Association notes that the ACS estimate only compares cancer

deaths to the number of heart disease deaths, and excludes

the other closely-related cardiovascular diseases. Heart

disease, stroke, and the other cardiovascular diseases

together still take two out of every five of us (40%), and

largely stem from the same issues that lead to cancer.

Leading a healthy lifestyle is the best way to prevent all

these serious and deadly diseases, and you can save

yourself if you know how. (You'll find lots of crucial

life-saving information in A Woman's Guide to Saving

Her Own Life, at http://www.saveherlife.com).

2. C-Reactive Protein (CRP), Statins, and Heart Disease

We've discussed the promise of C-reactive protein (CRP)

testing (http://www.mellaniehills.com/healthyliving3.htm).

Just what does C-reactive protein (CRP) testing do? It's

a simple blood test that indicates high levels of

inflammation or infection in the body, which may indicate

potential heart disease, stroke, colon cancer, or other

diseases. CRP may soon become more important then

cholesterol testing in foretelling your risk of heart

disease, especially since half of those having heart

attacks have normal cholesterol.

Several new studies just published in the New England

Journal of Medicine showed that medications that reduce

the levels of C-reactive protein in heart patients can

also reduce their risk of heart attacks and cardiac death.

One of those studies found that patients on statin drugs

to lower their cholesterol not only saw a drop in their

bad cholesterol (LDL) levels, but also saw a drop in their

CRP readings and in the number of heart attacks they

experienced. The next step in this clinical trial is to

determine if healthy patients experience the same results.

Though CRP is not a formally-recommended test, if you have

risk factors for heart disease it might be prudent to ask

your doctor about CRP testing. If a CRP test shows that

you have high inflammation numbers, you must do something

about your risk factors immediately.

Coincidentally, there has been recent evidence that

alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), found in soybean oil,

flaxseed, nuts, and leafy green vegetables, can decrease

CRP levels, and other testing has shown the impact of

vitamins in decreasing CRP. (See A Woman's Guide to Saving

Her Own Life for more details about CRP, including the

impact of diet and vitamin supplements on CRP.)

3. Statin Drugs Over-the-counter?

The FDA just turned down a drug company request to sell

statin drugs over the counter. Over-the-counter sales

appear inevitable as this has been approved in the United

Kingdom, but doing so now in the US might be premature.

Statins are tricky and should only be taken under a

doctor's watchful supervision due to the possibility of

liver, muscle, and other problems that can happen with

some statins.

4. New 2005 Dietary Guidelines

The USDA just released the new 2005 Dietary Guidelines,

replacing the old 2000 USDA Food Pyramid that had been

under attack for being obsolete due to advances in

nutritional science. The new guidelines are far more

complex and don't lend themselves easily to a pyramid so

we've yet to see how they will be visually displayed.

The new guidelines focus on determining your daily calorie

requirements and balancing that by getting 30-90 minutes

per day of physical activity, depending upon whether you

wish to maintain or lose weight. (By the way, this

30-90 minutes is already under attack.)

There is also a more intense focus on the number of

servings of specific foods required to get needed vitamins

and minerals. Eating vegetables is important, but just got

more complex due to the breakdown of vegetables into five

groups, with recommended servings per week for each group.

In addition, the guidelines recommend that half of your

daily grain intake should be whole grains.

You can find the detailed 2005 dietary guidelines at

http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/document/

(or use my distilled and simplified recommendations from

them in A Woman's Guide to Saving Her Own Life).

5. Red Wine and Your Heart

The latest issue of Circulation, a journal of the American

Heart Association, provides an interesting look at

Red Wine and Your Heart (http://circ.ahajournals.org/

cgi/content/full/111/2/e10?etoc) that is based on a

review of the existing scientific literature.

Data from 51 studies showed a 20% decrease in heart

disease risk when 0 to 2 alcoholic drinks were consumed

per day, and light to moderate alcohol consumption was

associated with an approximately 20% reduction in

(ischemic) stroke risk.

Is red wine better? The results conflict--some studies

showed up to a 32% heart disease risk reduction while

others showed no such beneficial effect, leading

researchers to surmise that factors such as diet, exercise,

or socioeconomic status might have been at work.

However, red wine's chemical composition (alcohol and

polyphenolic compounds, such as flavonoids and resveratrol)

appears to help maintain healthy blood vessels. Regular

alcohol consumption also appears to increase good (HDL)

cholesterol by about 12%, and to carry away the bad

(LDL) cholesterol so that it doesn't deposit itself in

the blood vessels. In addition, those who consume light

to moderate alcohol have less of the proteins that

encourage blood clots to form.

In spite of all this evidence, the researchers concluded

that the evidence is still insufficient as light alcohol

consumption has also been frequently shown to contribute

to cardiovascular disorders and recommending alcohol use

is risky due to other alcohol-related health concerns.

The American Heart Association recommends discussing this

with your physician, as do I. But it's good to know the

facts behind what we so frequently read.

As an aside, the effect of alcohol on the brain is also

being studied. A newly-released study of more than 11,000

nurses that was led by Harvard Medical School researchers

definitively linked alcohol consumption and the brain with

their finding that one drink or less per day prevents

cognitive decline in women. Presumably, the same would

apply to men, but requires further study.

6. Shocking, Yet Not So Surprising

A study found that cardiologists in New York don't always

perform emergency angioplasties on patients that come to

the emergency room with heart attacks because they don't

want to hurt their physician scorecard rankings.

Seventy-nine per cent of those responding said that their

decision had at some time been influenced by knowing that

their statistics would be made public. This is just one

more reason to be extremely proactive about your own health.

(The New York Times)

7. Wear Red

February is National Heart Month, and February 4 is

National Wear Red Day. Wear red to raise awareness that

heart disease is not only the number 1 killer of men,

but also of women. Call 1-888-MY-HEART to receive your

free red dress pin and wear it with pride. For more

information, go to http://www.americanheart.org/

presenter.jhtml?identifier=3017091

Men, please wear red, too, to show your support for your

wives, mothers, sisters, daughters, friends, and

employees.

8. What Are Your Health Goals for 2005?

Don't forget—please send me what health goals you've set

for 2005 and how I can help you reach them. Please take

a moment to e-mail me to let me know at mhills @

mellaniehills.com (remove spaces). I'd love to know:

* Do you make New Year's resolutions? Do you keep them?

* What are your goals or resolutions for 2005?

* How can I help you reach them?

* How will you pamper yourself this year?

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A Woman's Guide to Saving Her Own Life

(http://www.saveherlife.com) includes the secrets to how

I easily lost 85 pounds and how you can lose weight, too.

It's not just for women. Save yourself and your loved ones.

Get off to a great start for 2005!

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Please, take care of yourself.

Wishing you health, happiness, and longevity,

Mellanie True Hills

Copyright 2005 Mellanie True Hills. .

About the Author:

Mellanie True Hills (http://www.mellaniehills.com),

The Health & Productivity Revitalizer(SM), is a

speaker, consultant, coach, and author of 'A Woman's

Guide to Saving Her Own Life'. Read two chapters online

at http://www.SaveHerLife.com