Preventive Measures That Can Improve Your Heart Health

Around 700,000 people in North America die from heart attacks each year. The most common cause of heart attacks is a blood clot caused by coronary artery disease (CAD). Yet, as bad as CAD is, heart attacks from narrow arteries and blood clots are not the only conditions that cause heart disease. Many heart diseases exist and are preventable with just a little care.
Common conditions
High blood pressure
The most common cause of heart disease in North America is high blood pressure; it affects 73 million people in the U.S. alone.
High blood pressure may be caused by:
Disease in the blood vessels that cause them to narrow
Imbalances in the kidneys, lungs and liver
Cardiomyopathy – a disease of the heart muscle
How to help: Keys to reducing high blood pressure are found in the 10 Essentials. Some people can reduce their high blood pressure simply by practicing deep breathing. Other techniques include increasing fruits and vegetables, and increasing fiber and water while reducing sodium.
Coronary artery disease
Coronary artery disease (CAD) occurs when plaque builds up inside a blood vessel of the heart. CAD affects over 16 million people in the U.S. It leads to angina pectoris – pain caused by poor blood flow to the heart muscles – and is associated with heart attack.
How to help: Coronary artery disease responds well to a low-fat, high-fiber diet of mainly fruits and vegetables. Stress reduction and daily exercise are also effective therapies in combating CAD. Almost all heart specialists recommend Omega-3 oils such as those in OmegaPrime as effective tools in combating CAD.
Congestive heart failure
Congestive heart failure (CHF) and related forms of heart failure may affect over five million people in North America. It is strongly related to diabetes and obesity. Among the most common triggers in CHF is obstructive sleep apnea. Sleep apnea builds up blood pressure in an attempt to get oxygen to critical tissues such as the heart and brain.
How to help: Most people with CHF respond to treatment for sleep apnea, treatment with CoEnzyme Q-10 (CoQ-10), and the other suggestions already mentioned. Common remedies
Body weight and blood sugar control
Achieving and maintaining optimum body weight and blood sugar control are two suggestions that always top the list of remedies for all forms of heart disease. The Leanology program can help you meet those objectives. Leanology is much more than a “diet plan” – it helps you make the necessary lifestyle adjustments through nutrition and activity to help you reach and maintain a healthier weight.
Nutrients
OmegaPrime can help reduce the “stickiness” of blood to protect against clots and may slow down the process of plaque formation. One or two grams are enough to help protect against heart disease, but much more is needed if the heart is already diseased.
CoQ-10 offers significant benefits to the heart. It should be taken at bedtime to reduce the impact of sleep apnea on the heart and brain.
Antioxidants such as Vitamin C and resveratrol (found in Super Antioxidant Complex) are also best taken at night, then again in the morning.
Special proteins found in garlic and other antioxidants such as bilberry (found in VisionGuard) can help improve lipids such as cholesterol while opening the tiniest blood vessels in the legs, hands, eyes, ears and brain.
In the end, many of the problems with heart disease can be protected against or even solved with the tools we have readily at hand (always follow the advice of your healthcare provider for your personal condition).

Protect Yourself from Stress, the Silent Killer

Stress is an engineering term. It describes the forces that try to tear a structure apart such as weight, wind, temperature and pressure. In humans it is much the same: Certain pressures try to tear us apart. Sometimes these stresses come from inside of us; sometimes the pressures tearing us apart come from the outside.

Homeostasis is a gift that humans and other living creatures possess but bridges and buildings do not have. Homeostasis is the force that moves resources from our reserves to wherever they are needed to combat stress.

Where stress begins
Stress is caused by change – any change. Change requires us to rearrange our priorities to meet new circumstances. Stress can also be the same circumstance over time because time itself is change.

An easy way to conceptualize stress is to say it comes from inside of us and outside of us. Some examples:

Stress from inside
Hunger
Aging
Time pressure
Stress from outside
Air pollution
Water pollution
Noise pollution
Stress is the accumulation of all the things that pull us apart.

Homeostasis
The antidote to change is homeostasis. The Greek word “stasis” means to stand still or to stand equally. It describes a point where the tug-of-war balances out and motion ceases. Homeostasis is the ability of living organisms to adjust their internal environments to create balance. Of course, people can adjust their external environments as well (at least to some extent).

Just imagine all of the stresses pulling you apart every day: gravity, temperature, emotional upsets and expectations, etc. What balances that tug-of-war? The 10 Essentials for Health and Wellness!

Nutrients and nurturing
A body and mind deprived of proper nutrients and nurturing will be more prone to disease. “Disease” is the joining of two words. “Ease” is the freedom from difficulty, hardship or effort. “Dis-ease” is the opposite of ease: the things that make life more difficult and hard. It is also the abnormal functioning of the body or mind when the balancing forces of homeostasis fail to meet the demands of change.

The 10 Essentials create a reservoir of energy to combat the destructive forces of stress. For example, the simple act of breathing deeply can reduce the level of toxicity in our body and therefore reduce the state of imbalance.

Vitamins and minerals
Nutrients create a bulwark against stress as well. A reservoir of vitamins and minerals can help protect you from deficiency. Nutrient deficiency means specifically that you lack the nutrients you need to meet the stress imposed on your system. Without nutrients you will be weakened and you will lose the tug-of-war with stress. You will develop disease.

Adaptogens
Specific plants called adaptogens help pull us back into balance. Adaptogens help us adapt no matter what the situation is – no matter where stress tugs at our body and mind. A recent conference of psychiatrists and psychologists demonstrated that a single adaptogen (Rhodiola rosea) was as effective at reducing emotional stress as several popular medications.

Another paper published by the University of Toyama in Japan demonstrated that in animal models, the adaptogen Eleutherococcus senticosis hindered the brain plaque associated with Alzheimer’s disease. It even helped slow some of the brain damage. Given the safety of adaptogens and the extreme nature of this stress-related disease, supplementing with these nutrients should be a daily routine for anyone concerned about the possibility of Alzheimer’s.

Conclusion
Stress pulls us apart. Homeostasis struggles to put us back together. Disease is the result of an imbalance between stress and homeostasis. Nutrients and nurturing support homeostasis and help build a bulwark against stress – the silent killer!

What Causes Bad Breath?

One of the most common complaints among people today is poor digestion. This becomes even more distressing when personal issues like poor digestion develop into social issues like bad breath. The signs and symptoms of digestive imbalance are important as we learn to listen to our body.

Learning to listen
Imagine you had to write a book describing in detail how the ecology of our earth functions – how the rain cycle works, photosynthesis, biodiversity, seasons, and so on. Now imagine you could use only 100 words. Would that be a challenge? Absolutely!

Your body has only a few words in its vocabulary. See how many you can name:
Fatigue
Pain – sharp or dull
Bleeding
Constipation or diarrhea
You get the picture. Your body must communicate an infinitely complex system with just a few “words” in the form of symptoms. So, we need to listen carefully when our body speaks to us.

The heartbreak of halitosis
Digestion begins when we feel the sense of hunger and anticipate satisfying our needs with certain foods we crave. When we see and smell those foods our anticipation is heightened and we begin to secrete digestive juices in preparation for eating. Our mouth may water; this is because digestion begins in our mouth when we chew food and mix it with saliva.

It is important to thoroughly chew our food in order to neutralize the carbohydrates found in absolutely everything we eat. One reason why some people have bad breath (halitosis) is because they just don’t chew their food well enough to neutralize the carbs. It may also be the sign of a more serious health condition.

Slow down when you eat. You will enjoy your meal more, have sweeter breath and digest your food better.

Vitamins and digestion
Our intestines are teeming with trillions of bacteria – most of them friendly! These bacteria are needed to help us utilize our vitamins and minerals. The vitamins and minerals from our food are often not in the form we need them. They must be converted through several steps in order for us to get the benefit from them.

A good example of this is B-12.
Vitamin B-12 must first bind with protein and be digested in the stomach with pepsin, which is a combination of enzymes and acids.
B-12 must be “tagged” for identification by another stomach protein called intrinsic factor. When B-12 reaches the small intestines, certain friendly bacteria begin to convert this complex. So now we have B-12, intrinsic factor, protein and bacteria all combining to prepare our vitamin for transport into the liver.
When B-12 reaches the liver it is bound to fiber and secreted through the bile back into the small intestines. More bacteria break down the vitamin into even smaller fractions.
This is repeated several times throughout our digestive cycle until the bacteria and fiber ferment the B-12; once the B-12 is fermented it can be absorbed by the liver. This may take up to three weeks.
Any imbalance in this system will result in indigestion of B-12. Any sign of indigestion or imbalance is a major red flag, warning that you are not digesting your vitamins, especially Vitamin B-12.

These signs can include:
Excess acid
Bloating
Gas
Diarrhea
Constipation
Bad breath

Take care of your digestion by eating nutritiously.
Be sure to include:
Water
Fiber
Probiotics
Vitamin B-12
Proteins
Healthy carbohydrates
Healthy fats

Remember, your digestion can also be impaired by stress. So consider ways to reduce your stress, and supplement your diet with adaptogens to protect digestive health from stress. And don’t forget the joy of eating. Joy is really a sign of acceptance. Acceptance is essential for emotional health as we learn to listen to the subtle language of our body.

Take Control of Your Health

Eat slowly
Chew your foods to liquid
Combine your foods correctly
Eat high-fiber, high water-content fruit and vegetables:
5 servings for children
7 servings for women
9 servings for men
Supplement with probiotics like Digestive Complex
Add fiber to your diet to reach 35 grams minimum
Help reduce stress and increase acceptance!