Posts Tagged “ heart disease ”

Written by Gabriela Segura, MD
Saturday, 23 February 2013 05:41
Statin drugs -Big Pharma's Queen of Deception - will make you chronically tired, ill and will make you lose your memory and head for that matter. This are only some of the "mildest" side effects of lowering cholesterol with these drugs.

Statin drugs -Big Pharma’s Queen of Deception – will make you chronically tired, ill and will make you lose your memory and head for that matter. This are only some of the “mildest” side effects of lowering cholesterol with these drugs.

The other day I received a message from a high school friend whom I remember to be brilliant, inspiring and creative. She was just a genius. Recently I learned that she also became a medical doctor and has worked in a public health care system treating elderly people ever since. She sent me a message over facebook frustrated because she found herself in the ridiculous situation of pointing out the obvious to Big Pharma reps and colleagues in a heated argument. Statin drugs – which are used to lower cholesterol – were killing old folks. The elderly are falling and getting some serious fractures at the very best and she was certain it was due to the statin drugs. Here is just SOME relevant information for what is worth, in addition to a 101 as to why cholesterol and its quality is so important for our health. May not doctor find him or herself in the situation of having to argue with a pharmaceutical rep or colleague about his or better judgement of eliminating statin drugs and/or advising high quality fat from animal products which saw us thrive for millennia.

The Stuff of Life

Cholesterol is the one unjustly vilified substance which our bodies can naturally make since it is absolutely essential to our functioning. Cholesterol is so crucial, the liver is careful to produce some 1000-1400 milligrams of it each day. We are told by the “Official Thought-Control Institutions” to eat up to 300 milligrams of cholesterol from our diets. But our liver production of cholesterol is controlled by feedback mechanisms depending on how much we eat. If we eat too much we produce less, leaving much needed liver energy for other important tasks such as detoxification from this most polluted modern world.

So when we eat more fat, our liver makes less, and vice-versa. But if we are hardly eating any cholesterol and we block its production with drugs, then we are literally screwed. That is the real meaning behind the most profitable drugs in the history of the world – statin medications to lower cholesterol blood.

Restricting or eliminating cholesterol overburdens the liver who now has to overproduce it through its enzyme – HMG-CoA reductase from carbohydrates in our diet to make up for the deficit. It is this enzyme the one that is blocked by statins drugs at the expense of depleting our bodies from the so much needed coenzyme CoQ10 – a key nutrient to our heart and overall health. Furthermore, producing cholesterol from carbs yields a bad quality cholesterol profile.

The Side Effects of Reducing a Vital Substance

People typically refer muscle cramps or leg muscle aching while on statins due to lack of energy. Keep in mind that your heart is a muscle as well. Incidentally, the rates of congestive heart failure has spiked during the time statins have been a top seller on the market. The “lucky” ones make it into the heart transplantation list. How about quitting statin drugs, changing your diet, do far infrared sauna and get healed while there is still time?

Coenzyme Q10 – AKA ubiquinone (“occurring everywhere”) – plays an important role in the production of ATP, the fuel which our cells use to everyday life processes and purposes. It is present in every cell of our bodies, especially in the very active cells of our hearts. Depriving the heart of CoQ10 is depriving it of a key thing to work. Low levels of CoQ10 are involved in practically all cardiovascular diseases including angina, hypertension, cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure. It is the ultimate joke that statins, for “heart health”, blocks coenzymeQ10.

Some people have recalled falling sick only after they started statins, while it never happened to them before. Some are far more insightful health-wise than any physician. They point out how they don’t feel the same ever since they were put on statins, so they decide to stop them only to see their health come back again. Read more…

Written by Gabriela Segura, MD
Monday, 20 February 2012 07:26

The size 12 hour-glass figure, an endangered body shape.

If you love old movies, you’ve noticed that women back in the old days tended to have beautiful hour glass body shapes, a la Marilyn Monroe. Nowadays, such figures have become a rarity because women have become “boxy” in shape. Research suggests there are now five times as many “rectangular-shaped” women than those with the classic Marilyn Monroe hourglass shape. Almost one in two British women fall into the rectangle category, a boy-ish body shape where there is little difference between the bust, waist and hip measurements.

According to the CDC, about one-third of U.S. adults (33.8%) are obese and approximately 17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents aged 2 – 19 years are obese. In 2010, no state had less than 20% obesity prevalence. Another statistic tells us that over two-thirds of adults in the United States are overweight or obese.

Two thirds! In the country where the USDA food pyramid and low fat eating has guided food choices for at least two generations!

Worldwide, with the spread of Western lifestyle (including diet), obesity has more than doubled since 1980. In 2008, 1.5 billion adults, 20 and older, were overweight and nearly 43 million children under the age of five were overweight in 2010.

According to MyPyramid.gov, you should be consuming at least 3 oz. of whole grain cereals, breads, crackers, rice, cereal or pasta; ideally 6 oz. A lot of people consuming exactly the recommended amounts see no weight loss at all and might actually see their weight go up.

Could there be a relationship between this dietary advice and the obesity epidemic? Could it be that the root of the obesity problem is due to our health advisers who believe that animal fat causes heart disease and high cholesterol, and that carbohydrates in grains and vegetables are The Healthy Solution? Based on this, it follows that a diet restricted in carbohydrates and rich in fat is going to be discouraged by them. We are supposed to be consuming at least 45% of our calories as carbohydrates where most of it should come from vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. This diet philosophy is dominant in our world today despite the facts cited above, despite the fact that the obesity epidemic has come upon us in lock-step with this dietary philosophy.

The Staff of Life

Of all the grains in the human diet, wheat constitutes the main source of so-called nutrition in the human diet. It is our staff of life. People have wheat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. It is even found in shampoos and medicines and most processed foods. What many people don’t know is that wheat stimulates the appetite because wheat gluten is a morphine-like chemical that creates havoc in our brains. Wheat produces blood sugar surges that trigger cycles of satiety alternating with heightened appetite; it promotes glycation (“caramelization”) in our bodies that is at the root of disease and aging; it activates unbalanced immune responses, and more. Wheat consumption is related not only to celiac disease, but also to neurological disorders, heart disease, arthritis, peculiar skin rashes,schizophrenia and many other conditions.

In Wheat Belly, Dr. Davis describes how wheat strains have been hybridized and crossbred to make the wheat plant resistant to environmental conditions, such as drought and pathogens, and to increase yield per acre. The average yield on a modern North American farm is more than ten times greater than that of only a century ago. This is because during the latter part of the 20th century, an upheaval in hybridization methods transformed wheat into a frankengrain whose safety for human health is highly questionable to say the least. As Dr. Davis argues, small changes in wheat protein structure can spell the difference between a devastating immune response to wheat protein versus no immune response at all. He reports: Read more…

Written by Gabriela Segura, MD
Friday, 28 May 2010 13:44

This study confirms that gum disease is related to heart disease, it is again the inflammatory link. People with periodontitis have a higher than normal risk of heart attack and stroke. People with these conditions have elevated C-reactive protein, a sign of inflammation. Also, people with diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis have a higher risk of developing periodontitis and gum disease. These are all conditions with strong inflammatory components.

If You Don’t Brush Your Teeth Twice a Day, You’re More Likely to Develop Heart Disease

Franca Tranza
BMJ-British Medical Journal
Fri, 28 May 2010

Research paper: Toothbrushing, inflammation and risk of cardio vascular disease — results from the Scottish Health Survey, BMJ.com

Individuals who have poor oral hygiene have an increased risk of heart disease compared to those who brush their teeth twice a day, finds research published today in British Medical Journal. Read more…