High blood pressure is common, especially as we get older. It often leads to more serious conditions like strokes and heart disease, which is why you shouldn’t ignore it. The first recommendation you’re likely to hear from your doctor if your blood pressure is high is to reduce the amount of salt in your diet. But sodium is just part of the problem and it doesn’t affect everyone equally. In fact, high sodium intake is not as big a risk factor as you — or your doctor — may think.

There are numerous other reasons for high blood pressure including stress, obesity, and genetics. But for the most part, doctors are often guessing. In many cases, they don’t know what causes high blood pressure in their patients. No one does.

Several newly published studies can help us understand other causes of high blood pressure that can lead to solutions and a healthier heart. These solutions are safe enough for anyone to try. But if you’re taking medications to reduce your blood pressure, don’t stop taking them without discussing this first with your doctor. The tips I’m giving you today can be taken along with any meds you might be taking.

It’s not just salt

Let’s begin by asking why some people can lower their blood pressure by simply reducing their sodium intake while others can’t. The answer is found in an extensive study that spanned 15 years and followed nearly 3,000 participants. The prestigious Archives of Internal Medicine published this study. The lead researcher was Dr. Paul Whelton, who is an expert on high blood pressure. He’s published more than 400 papers on the subject! The size and scope of this study, along with the expertise of the research team, makes it particularly relevant.

These researchers found that sodium alone was not the culprit. In fact, people with the highest sodium intake were found to be only 20 percent more likely to have strokes and heart disease than those with the lowest sodium intake. That’s a small risk.

They found that high sodium was much more of a problem when your potassium level is low. A combination of low potassium and high sodium resulted in a 50% greater risk for high blood pressure and associated cardiovascular-related illnesses. The reason is that potassium has the opposite effect as sodium. So the more potassium-rich foods you eat, the less effect sodium will have on your blood pressure.

Potassium is easy to find in a healthful diet. You may be able to get enough of it from your food to lower your blood pressure if you eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, dairy, and fish. Be sure to include some of these high-potassium foods every day if your blood pressure needs lowering: sweet potatoes, potatoes, yogurt, tuna, bananas, tomato sauce, and oranges. If you don’t eat enough of them, you can take potassium supplements found in any health food store.

How much sodium and potassium are ideal to lower your blood pressure? According to a panel of experts at the Institute of Medicine, a healthy adult should consume no more than 2,300 mg of sodium a day and 4.7 grams of potassium. A typical multivitamin contains 99 milligrams of potassium. This is how much you should take if you eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. If you don’t eat a diet rich in fruits and veggies, you need to take up to 300 mg daily. You also need to choose foods marketed as “low in sodium” and don’t add salt or soy sauce to your foods.

One warning. Some vegetables, like celery, are naturally high in sodium. It’s not just the sodium added to foods that counts. You can check the sodium and potassium content of your favorite vegetables on the Internet or in a book like Nutrition Almanac (Kirschmann and Kirschmann, McGraw-Hill). For more complete information on potassium, including its effect on blood pressure, get a copy of Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Potassium But Were Too Tired to Ask by Betty Kamen, PhD (Nutrition Encounter, 1992). It’s worth tracking down.

The virus/blood pressure connection

As I said earlier, though, sodium isn’t the only cause of high blood pressure. A common virus also can lead to high blood pressure and heart disease when you eat a popular high-cholesterol diet. This diet is one many women are eating to lose weight and it’s another reason why some people on the same diet get high blood pressure while others don’t.

CMV is a virus that causes a lot of problems on its own, including mononucleosis and severe infections in transplant patients. But when you add it to other risk factors for heart disease, it can both raise your blood pressure and lead to atherosclerosis.

Here’s an explanation of the cholesterol/
virus connection

In a study conducted at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital associated with Harvard Medical School, researchers gave mice one of two diets. They put some mice on a standard diet and gave the others a high-cholesterol diet. After a month on these diets, the researchers exposed half of the mice to the CMV virus. The mice exposed to the virus developed high blood pressure. The healthy mice didn’t. But the CMV-infected mice on a high cholesterol diet had another significant complication. They not only developed high blood pressure; they also progressed to atherosclerosis.

How did this happen? Researchers explain that the CMV virus activates an enzyme that causes inflammation in vascular cells. This leads to high blood pressure. And high blood pressure often leads to heart disease. Once more, inflammation is the culprit.

There’s no way to get rid of a virus once it’s in your body. But you can inactivate it. You can do this by continuously supporting your immune system. Begin by staying well hydrated. Drink plenty of fluids throughout the day — more than you did when you were younger. Why? Hormonal and other physiological changes result in a reduced ability to absorb liquids. The older we get, the more liquids we need. This includes soups, vegetables, tea, and juices as well as water.

Get eight hours of sleep every night you can. I have written several articles on how to do this. They include taking melatonin, using a LiteBook (800-791-3395) to help your body make melatonin, and steps to take before going to bed.
They’re all available to you on my website. And be sure to read the article on blue light glasses in this issue. They can also help you get the sleep you need.
Eat a diet low in animal fats and sugars, and use some stress reduction techniques, such as meditation or tai chi exercises, every day. Then, find a good immune support supplement and take it twice a day to keep it circulating in your system.

There are many supplements on the market designed to support immunity. My favorite, based on how well it’s worked for me, my patients, and friends is MycoPhyto Complex (available from Advanced Bionutritionals at 800-791-3395), a combination of medicinal mushrooms. What makes this a superior product in my opinion is that the mushrooms grow on immune-enhancing herbs. I always keep an extra bottle or two in my cupboard in case I’m exposed to colds or flu.

If you have, or suspect you have, inflammation, turmeric and other herbs have anti-inflammatory properties. They could prevent high blood pressure or lower it if your pressure is already high. The best natural formula I’ve found is Reduloxin (also available from Advanced Bionutritionals 800-791-3395). Take it for three months and then recheck your blood pressure. And let me know how it works for you.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (2009, May 16). “High Blood Pressure Could Be Caused By A Common Virus, Study Suggests.” ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 18, 2009.

Does High Cholesterol Cause Osteoporosis?

You may think of cholesterol as primarily being associated with heart disease and stroke. If so, you haven’t heard the latest news. One type of cholesterol can contribute to osteoporosis. It’s the worst kind of cholesterol of all, and you may be getting too much of it. If so, I’ve got a solution for you.

I’ve explained in past articles that high total cholesterol is not necessarily a risk factor for heart disease. I’ve also explained that in spite of this, the statins most doctors prescribe are often a dangerous and unnecessary treatment. And I’ve talked about “good” (HDL) vs “bad” (LDL) cholesterol and what each one means. You can read these articles on my website.

LDL cholesterol is responsible for some cholesterol-related problems, but not all LDL is the same. When you take a closer look, you see that the worst, most harmful kind of LDL cholesterol is called oxycholesterol.

Oxycholesterol is oxidized cholesterol. And it’s the worst kind of cholesterol. It’s so bad, it doesn’t just cause heart disease. It also contributes to osteoporosis.
Here’s why. When high levels of fatty acids in cholesterol get exposed to free radicals, it oxidizes them. That’s when they damage your bones. Researchers at UCLA (University of California Los Angeles) discovered this when they tested the T-cells in mice that they put on a normal or high-fat diet. The mice on a high-fat diet had higher amounts of oxidized cholesterol, and their T-cells actually stimulated the production of a chemical that destroys bone.

It’s normal for our bodies to make small amounts of this chemical. But when your body makes too much of it over a long period of time, it can break down your bones faster than they can rebuild. That’s what happened in this mouse study.

But that’s not all.

Oxycholesterol also raises total cholesterol levels and causes more atherosclerosis than cholesterol that isn’t oxidized. So, the issue isn’t high cholesterol. It isn’t even LDL cholesterol.

The health risks from cholesterol come from high levels of oxidized LDL cholesterol. And you can reduce your levels of this heart- and bone-damaging chemical by modifying your diet.

How does cholesterol become oxidized?

Oxycholesterol forms by a reaction between fats and oxygen when you heat
fat-containing foods. All you have to do for your body to make oxycholesterol is to eat foods high in fats, like any heated meat. This includes chicken, as well as burgers and steaks. So keep your intake of meats low — like they do in Asian countries — where small amounts are eaten to enhance the taste of rice and vegetables. Don’t make meat the focus or major portion of your meal.

You’ll find the greatest amounts of oxycholesterol in fried and processed foods. Do you remember not so long ago when trans fatty acids were in the news?
Food manufacturers added them to processed foods, such as cookies, crackers, and cakes because they improved their texture and taste. Trans fats also added stability to the product so it could stay “fresh” longer on shelves and in your cupboard. Most restaurants cook their French fries and other deep fried foods in margarine, Crisco, or other trans fats.

The problem is that when researchers scrutinized trans fats, and they found that they are so harmful that they had to ban them from processed foods. Trans fats are the most unhealthful fats you can eat. And guess what? They are a form of oxycholesterol. So are partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.

The oxycholesterol solution

Earlier, I promised you a solution to the harmful effects of oxidized cholesterol. It’s a two-part solution that just takes a bit of vigilance and a few dietary changes.

The first is obvious. You have to reduce your intake of all foods with oxidized cholesterol — but especially fast foods and deep fried foods. This means reading labels of every bottle of salad dressing and every package of corn chips, cookies, and other snack foods. You have to choose your foods wisely.

Don’t order fried foods in restaurants. I know this isn’t always easy, but I’ve found a way around it. I like French fries, but don’t order them. Instead, when a friend does, I eat from one to three of theirs. This isn’t enough to trigger oxidation and it satisfies my taste buds.

The second part of the solution is to eat more foods high in antioxidants. Researchers think that an antioxidant-rich diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables blocks the oxidation that leads to oxycholesterol.

Don’t forget to use plenty of herbs and spices. Many of them, like turmeric, curry powder, rosemary, and oregano are high in antioxidants. If you want to boost your antioxidant intake, you can add a formula like Reduloxin (800-791-3395), which contains many of these herbs. A healthful diet containing nuts, seeds, and whole grains also lowers oxycholesterol.

You’ve known that these foods support good heart health. Now you know how and why they protect your bones as well. Isn’t that enough motivation to modify your diet and get rid of all the unhealthful fats you can?

If you’re taking the easy way out and relying on statins to lower your cholesterol, I have another reason why you should lower your consumption of unhealthful fats. Scientists don’t know whether statins lower oxycholesterol. But they do know that these dietary changes do. So don’t think your statins are going to stop heart disease. There’s no proof that they do.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/161802.php

This Simple, Inexpensive Solution to Insomnia Improves Digestion and Prevents Dementia

Even if you feel rested in the morning, six or seven hours of sleep a night isn’t enough. We’re learning that the length and quality of your sleep not only affects your energy, it also has a major impact on your health.

For instance, women who undergo chemotherapy for breast cancer commonly experience insomnia. Their disturbed sleep worsens as they have more immune-destroying treatments. And researchers have identified poor sleep as a cause of nighttime high blood pressure that can eventually damage the heart.

Insomnia affects many areas of your health from digestive problems, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and indigestion to dementia. And if your immune system needs support, sufficient sleep should be first on your “to do” list.

In fact, most of us lack sufficient sleep. The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) says that nearly 60 out of 100 people in our country either can’t fall asleep or don’t get a good night’s restful sleep. One-quarter of insomniacs take medications to help them sleep. And these medications have side effects.
Studies are finding that we need at least eight hours of restful, uninterrupted sleep — every night.

I’ve found a natural solution to insomnia that’s both easy to use and downright cheap. You probably haven’t heard about it yet. It’s something that helps your body make melatonin — and it’s not a supplement.

Melatonin regulates your sleep cycle

Melatonin is a hormone made in your brain from a neurotransmitter, serotonin, and vitamin B6. It controls your sleep cycle and slows down your body in the evening, getting it ready for a good night’s rest. It also lowers your blood pressure.

The idea is to have sufficient melatonin at night to help you sleep, and less in the day so you feel alert.

Our bodies produce less melatonin as we age. And many pharmaceuticals rob us of even more melatonin. This is another reason why you don’t want to depend on drugs to sleep. In addition to sleeping pills, many other drugs, including beta-blockers and pain medications, will reduce melatonin. So, of course, will any drugs that deplete vitamin B6, such as antibiotics, estrogen hormones, and birth control pills.

But drugs aren’t the only problem. If you read at night before going to bed, you should know that reading with a low-level incandescent bulb will reduce your melatonin by 50% in just 39 minutes! But when you block out light’s blue rays, your body actually makes more melatonin.

The glasses that help you sleep

The solution to your insomnia may be as simple as wearing glasses that block out blue light rays for an hour or two before you go to bed. It couldn’t be simpler — or less expensive.

Blue-blocking sunglasses are usually sold simply as regular sunglasses, but not all sunglasses block out all blue rays. There are a few blue-blocking sunglasses on the market, but none I’ve found that block 100% of blue rays are as effective and inexpensive as the Big Blue model from Maximum Eye Wear (www.maximumeyewear.com, 360-648-3036). They’re just $12.00. And after I talked to the folks at Maximum Eye Wear. They agreed to give you free shipping if you give them this code: womenshealth.

If you don’t mind reading or watching TV through these glasses — they turn everything yellow, simply wear them for an hour or two before bedtime. Be sure to wear them until you get into bed, and replace any blue nightlights with red ones. Even a small exposure to blue lights, such as the light in your electric toothbrush, can stop melatonin production.

What about melatonin supplements? They work, of course, but you’ll be paying for them over and over. Ultimately, they’re more expensive than these glasses. And personally, I’d rather find a solution that’s not another pill!

One final note: If you’re not sleeping well and you take any pharmaceuticals, pick up a copy of pharmacist Suzy Cohen, RPh’s book Drug Muggers (www.dearpharmacist.com 352-620-2025 between 9:00 and 5:00 ET Monday - Friday) or ask your pharmacist to see whether or not your drugs are depleting you of melatonin.

NUTRITION DETECTIVE

Improve Your Memory Through Technology

In addition to speaking with researchers and health experts, I continuously search for good quality scientific studies on the Internet. This occupies my time for an hour or more nearly every day. Believe me, I’m no techie. But I have learned how to use the Internet to get some of the best available information on many of the topics I write about.

For those of you who have resisted using computers, or for anyone who thinks this “surfing” is a waste of time, let me assure you that it’s not. Researching topics on the Internet can actually improve your memory.

A team of scientists at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) made an interesting discovery. They found that surfing the Internet can improve your brain activity. According to this study, seniors who surfed the Internet for just seven days in a two-week period changed their brain activity patterns. They also stimulated parts of their brain that rule reasoning and decision-making.

For this study, the researchers took brain scans of all participants while they surfed the Internet. Then they gave the participants specific questions on various topics to research. They had them do this for an hour a day, seven out of 14 days.

At the end of two weeks, they scanned their brains again. And they asked them to answer different questions on different topics. The new Internet users had new activity in the areas of the brain needed for working memory and making decisions. Their brain activity was just like the study participants who had been using the Internet regularly before.

The results of this study indicate that we can improve our brain function in a matter of days, not months or years. If you use a computer mostly to keep in touch through e-mails, consider looking up topics that interest you on the Internet.

And if you know someone who doesn’t use a computer and is worried about retaining their memory, show them this article. It’s time to use it or lose it. Computers can cost as little as $200 with free Internet servers. This is a very small investment for a relatively large — and immediate — return.

By the way, I found this interesting study on the Internet.

Moody, T.D., H. Gaddipati, G.W. Small, and S.Y. Bookheimer. “Neural activation patterns in older adults following Internet training,” Poster Session 382.3/GG2, Human Cognition and Behavior: Aging Studies, Presented Monday, October 19, at Neuroscience 2009 in Chicago.

LETTERS

Q: I recently read that licorice is not good for hypertension. I noticed that the digestive supplement you suggest, Integrative Digestive Formula (IDF), contains licorice. Is it safe to take or do you have a digestive supplement that does not have licorice? — B.M., e-mail

A: It is true that an excessive use of licorice raw herbal extract may raise blood pressure, cause water retention, headache, and potassium loss. However, for persons on high potassium, low-sodium diets, this should not be a problem. And IDF does not contain the raw extract which can cause problems.

If you have high blood pressure, you shouldn’t take glycyrrhizinated licorice. But EcoNugenics, the manufacturer, processes glycyrrhiza out of the licorice root. So this product doesn’t cause the metabolic problems, such as hypertension. IDF uses de-glycyrrhizinated licorice (DGL) Root. DGL has been studied for its healthful effect on peptic ulcers and bleeding stomach ulcers. What this means is that using de-glycyrrhizinated licorice eliminates any side effects possible with other licorice preparations.

The bottom line is, IDF is safe for anyone with hypertension.

Q: What is your opinion of HCG for weight loss? — M.M., e-mail

A: HCG stands for a hormone, human chorionic gonadotropin. The HCG diet program begins with getting injections or taking oral supplements of this hormone. This, of course, means finding a doctor who uses this method of weight loss in his or her practice. In addition to taking this hormone, a doctor needs to monitor your health closely. It’s not safe to use any hormones to lose weight.

The second part of this program is severe. You need to limit your diet to no more than 500 calories a day. This is the equivalent of eating one or one-and-a-half small meals a day. Anyone who eats only 500 calories will lose weight. But there’s a huge problem with this approach because the weight you lose is likely to come back as soon as you increase your caloric intake.

You see, when you eat what’s called a “very low calorie diet” like this one, your body adapts to it. As soon as you return to a sensible diet that’s higher in calories, you gain your lost weight back.

What’s more, a very low calorie diet contains limited fats — including the beneficial omega-3 fats found in fish, flax, and walnuts. It’s difficult to get all the nutrition you need from 500 calories.

I’ve talked about numerous safer and more effective weight loss programs in the past and have even written a book on the subject (Overcoming the Legacy of Overeating, Lowell House, 1999 — now out of print). Many of the tips in this book can be found in past newsletter articles. You can find them on my website at www.womenshealthletter.com.

I'd like to hear from you

I’m always looking for topics that interest you, and help you find do-able solutions to various health problems. Since I can't speak with you in person, I invite you to send a brief request with one or two topics you may not have seen recently. Write clearly, and send it to the address below.