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Toxic
Blood Syndrome
by Mark Swircenski
Cardiovascular disease remains the
number one killer of Americans today, and we all associate cholesterol
with heart disease. However, if your cholesterol levels are in the
normal range do not become complacent. Half of all patients who have
heart attacks have normal levels of cholesterol. It seems that other
risk factors may be even more important than cholesterol.
In the October 19, 2000 issue of The New England Journal of
Medicine, three articles were published showing that the presence of
blood indicators of inflammation are strong predictive factors for
determining who will develop coronary artery disease and suffer
cardiac-related death.
The advanced risk factors that contribute to coronary artery
disease are what I call Toxic Blood Syndrome (TBS) and are emerging as
powerful prognostic indicators to determine risk. TBS essentially
causes blood to thicken, become sticky and clot. It also causes
inflammation of blood vessels and buildup of plaque. These risk
factors are:
 | C-reactive protein (CRP)
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| Homocysteine
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| Fibrinogen
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| Lipoprotein a, or Lp(a)
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| Insulin |
Most doctors and even many cardiologists do not commonly check for
these risk factors because they may not be aware of their importance.
This is unfortunate because there are simple methods to reduce these
risk factors.
C-REACTIVE PROTEIN (CRP)
CRP has been shown to be twice as effective as a standard cholesterol
test in predicting heart attacks and strokes. CRP is a blood protein
that is a marker of inflammation occurring in the body. When coronary
blood vessels are damaged, the resulting inflammation causes the liver
to begin producing this protein. A normal CRP level should be negative
to very low, so any elevated reading may mean trouble in the coronary
arteries. In a recent study of postmenopausal women, those with the
highest levels of CRP were 4.4 times more likely to have a heart
attack as compared to those with the lowest levels.
Inflammation is a major player in the development of coronary
artery disease because it damages the endothelium (the inner lining)
of the blood vessels. The body then tries to repair this damage by
forming deposits of plaque in the damaged area, which can lead to
blockages. Inflammation can be due to chronic gum disease, bacterial
infections such as chlamydia or helicobacter pylori, and possibly even
viruses like herpes simplex and others. CRP may be elevated years
before heart disease sets in.
Aspirin is an anti-inflammatory and can lower CRP. However, it
makes more sense to find out what may be causing the inflammation and
to eliminate the source. Also, there are more natural methods that can
be used to reduce inflammation instead of, or in addition to, aspirin
(see lowering fibrinogen risk).
HOMOCYSTEINE
Homocysteine is an amino acid derived from protein metabolism. It is
naturally found in the body. When levels are too high, it can cause
irritation to the endothelium of the coronary blood vessels.
Homocysteine often causes the initial lesions on arterial walls that
enable LDL cholesterol and fibrinogen to accumulate and eventually
obstruct blood flow. Homocysteine damages cells directly by causing
oxidative stress and also contributes to the oxidation of LDL
cholesterol.
Even when cholesterol and triglyceride levels are not significantly
elevated, homocysteine alone has been demonstrated to promote
atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and thrombosis (blood
clots). I consider levels above 9 to be unhealthy. An excess of
homocysteine is like having a silent killer lurking in your
bloodstream.
Recent research shows that women who have both elevated
homocysteine and high blood pressure have 25 times the incidence of
stroke or heart attack. Nutritional supplements such as folic acid,
B-6, B-12 and trimethylglycine can neutralize homocysteine.
FIBRINOGEN
Fibrinogen is an inflammatory component of blood coagulation, which if
elevated can cause heart attack or stroke by several mechanisms,
including increased platelet aggregation, hyper-coagulation, and
excessive blood thickening. Studies reported in The New England
Journal of Medicine show that those with elevated fibrinogen were
twice as likely to die of a heart attack. An acceptable range for
fibrinogen is less than 300 mg/dl; anything over 360 is undesirable.
If your level is elevated, here is what you can do:
Lowering Fibrinogen Risk
Although blood levels of fibrinogen are influenced by genetics, the
most important contributor is smoking. In fact, half of all
cardiovascular risk can be attributed to smoking! If you smoke and
have other risk factors for heart disease such as elevated fibrinogen,
you are on the path to an early grave. Smoking cessation can
dramatically reduce your risk of heart attack!
Other measures to lower clotting risk from elevated fibrinogen are
low dose aspirin and other more natural alternatives that can be used
to make your blood less likely to clot. Blood-thinning alternatives to
aspirin include Omega-3 fatty acids (found in salmon or fish oil
capsules), garlic, ginger, bromelain, gingko biloba, vitamin E, and
turmeric. Consult with your doctor if you have been advised to take
aspirin or other prescription blood thinners such as Coumadin, before
taking any of these natural alternatives.
Lp(a)
Another toxic blood component is Lp(a) or lipoprotein (a), a strong
predictor of early heart disease. It was reported in a recent issue of
the medical journal Circulation that those with high levels of Lp(a)
are 70 percent more likely to have a heart attack then those with
lower concentrations.
Lp(a) is a "sticky" small cholesterol particle that
causes inflammation and clogging of blood vessels, and is mostly
genetically determined. Modifying Lp(a) is not easy, but can be done.
High dosages of nutrients like Coenzyme Q10, vitamin C, L-carnitine,
and niacin or niacinamide can be useful.
INSULIN
Excess insulin causes diabetes, heart disease and premature aging.
Insulin is a storage hormone produced by the body to lower blood sugar
by sending it into the cells. Over time, excess blood sugar and
insulin stresses the system and the cells become less responsive. This
condition is known as insulin resistance.
Excess insulin promotes smooth-muscle growth in blood vessel walls,
which contributes to the formation of plaques. Artery walls become
thickened and stiff, causing blood pressure to rise. Insulin
resistance may contribute to as much as 60 percent of heart disease we
find in women and 25 percent in men.
Signs of insulin resistance How do you know if you are insulin
resistant? Ideally, fasting levels of insulin should be below 10.
However, other telltale signs of insulin resistance include weight
gain, (especially around the abdomen), elevated triglyceride and low
HDL levels.
Insulin levels can be lowered by medication, but I prefer diet,
exercise and weight loss. I usually recommend a diet that consists of
40% low glycemic carbohydrates, 30% lean protein, and 30% healthy
fats. Insulin resistance is a major problem and lowering insulin
levels is a goal for improved health and anti-aging.
Do You Have Toxic Blood Syndrome?
A massive body of evidence suggests that nutritional supplements
combined with appropriate lifestyle, diet, and exercise can prevent
and even reverse cardiovascular disease. Whether my patients have
symptoms of cardiovascular disease or not, I recommend that they:
| Start eating like our early
ancestors, the caveman, by ingesting more cold-water fish, lean
protein, legumes, healthy fats, fresh fruits and vegetables.
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| Take optimal amounts of
vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants.
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| Accumulate 30 minutes of
moderate activity daily, such as walking, and do strength training
two to three times weekly.
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| Reduce stress.
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| Maintain hormones at youthful
levels through a program of diet, exercise, stress reduction and,
when appropriate, natural hormone replacement using bio-identical
hormones. |
If you want to know what your risk for heart disease is, don't just
rely on cholesterol measurements. Ask your doctor to check for the
advanced risk factors of heart disease discussed above.
Mark Swircenski
PA-C, has a medical practice at Alaska Family Wellness Center. He
is board certified in Anti-Aging Medicine and Primary Care. To contact
Mark, call 561-9444 or e-mail markswircenski@hotmail.com
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Understanding
Blood Pressure
Bethany
Buchanan
What
is your blood pressure? Most people don’t know or haven’t really
given the matter much consideration. However, maintaining a normal
blood pressure is one of the more important preventive steps we can
take to longevity.
What
is ‘normal’ blood pressure?
Normal
blood pressure is anything lower than 120/80. Anything higher than
that can spell trouble! It is important to check your blood pressure
regularly, especially as you become older.
Why
do we get high blood pressure?
I
have several patients in their forties who are the picture of
health: they are height/weight proportionate; they exercise, don’t
smoke, and eat well, but still have high blood pressure. The reason
for their elevated blood pressure is often not because of hardening
of the arteries. Rather, it may be stress, or genetic, or maybe
it’s heavy metal exposure. Frankly, it can sometimes be hard to
find discover exactly why someone has high blood pressure. Ninety
five percent of the people who have high blood pressure have
“essential hypertension,” which basically means the cause is
unknown.
Being
a provider in the field of alternative medicine, I consider it my
job to find out the ‘why’ behind health problems. Most providers
in traditional medicine are more concerned with the accurate
diagnosis, followed by the approved and helpful treatment. My
educational background is conventional medicine, and I can tell you
that we aren’t trained in the ‘why’ behind health problems.
When it comes to blood pressure, the ‘why’ is hard to know and
often goes unanswered. Treatment becomes everything.
What
do the numbers in a blood pressure reading mean?
The
first number, the systole, represents how much pressure is the in
the artery. The analogy I use is a hose hooked up to an outdoor
faucet. If you have a brand new hose, you don’t have to turn the
water on that hard to get the desired pressure out the other end.
However, if the hose is old, junked up or has some kinks in it, you
have to really turn the water on hard to get the pressure to come
out the other end. Arteries have thick walls; they can usually
handle this pressure for a while. But arteries become arterioles,
which become capillaries. Capillaries are fragile; they are super
thin with single-celled walls. If there is too much pressure coming
out from the arteries, it can blow out those thin capillaries. As a
result, there are a few “end organs” that are affected by this:
the brain, the eyes, the penis and the kidneys. Untreated high
systolic blood pressure (anything greater than 14O) can lead to a
stroke, poor vision or blindness, impotence and kidney failure.
The
bottom number, the diastole, measures the amount of relaxation the
heart muscle gets in between beats. To understand this, hold out
your arm and do a bicep curl, bringing your hand up to meet your
shoulder. Now, do a few curls, each time letting your bicep relax
between curls. Pretty easy, huh? You could probably do that for a
long time without your bicep getting tired. Now, do curls without
letting your bicep relax in between, like crunches. Within 10
seconds, your bicep becomes fatigued. An overworked bicep is going
to get pretty big pretty fast. This is what high diastole does to
your heart. The consequence of your heart not getting a chance to
relax in between beats leads to a bigger heart. This is called
cardiomyopathy. A bigger heart is going to pump less efficiently. If
cardiomyopathy continues, it turns into congestive heart failure (CHF).
CHF is when the heart doesn’t pump effectively enough to get the
blood out into the system, and so it backlogs. It can backlog in the
lungs, and in the feet. This is why diuretics (pills that pull out
extra fluid) are often recommended to people who have heart
problems.
Does
our blood pressure change with age?
Definitely!
When I tell some patients that their blood pressure is high, many
respond with surprise, saying that they have never had high blood
pressure before. Well,
this may be because high blood pressure is something that happens
when you are older.
Poor
lifestyle choices will lead to an earlier onset of high blood
pressure. Think of it as nature’s way of paying you back for not
taking care of your self. Risk factors for having high blood
pressure include smoking, being overweight, a sedentary lifestyle
and poor eating habits (hydrogenated oils, processed food). If your
siblings or parents have high blood pressure, then it is even more
likely that an unhealthy lifestyle will catch up with you—and
usually at a younger age than you expect.
When
is it time to make some changes?
Right
now! Healthy changes can prevent the onset of cardiovascular
disease, which is just as common in women as it is in men.
Cardiovascular disease kills, which is why I treat blood pressure
with medication. Many people believe that once they get started on
medication they are on it forever. This isn’t true. If you lose
weight and incorporate healthy eating, exercise and supplements into
your life, you may lower your blood pressure. Then, often suddenly,
your medication will make you dizzy because the dose is too high.
This is when it is time to lower the dose or stop the medication
altogether, along with sincere congratulations.
What’s
the bottom line?
Check
your blood pressure regularly. If it is high, visit a conventional
health care provider and get on medication. Then, explore the
alternatives, and make it your new life goal to get healthy and off
the medication.
Bethany
Buchanan is a Family Nurse Practitioner working at
Avante
Medical
Center
. She has a strong background in allopathic and alternative
medicine. She can be reached at 770-6700.
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How to Reduce High Blood
Pressure Naturally
According to the
American Heart Association, nearly one in three adults in the United
States has high blood pressure (also known as hypertension). If that’s
not amazing enough, consider this: an astonishing 1/3 of those people
don’t know they have hypertension! Indeed, people can have high
blood pressure for years without experiencing any symptoms at all.
Hypertension is most common in those who have twenty
pounds of excess body weight and have high stress families, careers or
lifestyles. If you think you may be leaning toward high blood
pressure, taking action now could prevent you from having to live on
drugs the rest of your life. In fact, by starting early you can create
your own protocol for blood pressure management.
Begin with your
diet. This is the fastest way to reduce and eliminate high blood
pressure. Consider eliminating fried foods as well as calorie-laden
but nutritionally-dead foods. At the same time, begin to increase the
amounts of raw food and pure water that you consume. Raw foods include
fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds. Not only will these foods lower
your blood pressure, but are beneficial to your overall health.
Additionally, increasing your intake of garlic,
potassium and magnesium can also help. (Foods high in potassium and
magnesium include almonds, molasses, and soy. Some fruits such as
bananas, watermelon and grapes are also a good source.) Garlic has
many beneficial properties that improve overall health in addition to
lowering blood pressure. For example, consumption of garlic may reduce
blood clot occurrences in many individuals. Some research studies have
also found that garlic lowers the triglyceride levels as well as
strengthens the heart.
The value of
exercise! Regular exercise programs are known to reduce high blood
pressure. If you are already exercising, know that you are reducing
your chance of not only high blood pressure, but heart disease as
well. Good for you! Find a way to exercise every day that works for
you, and try to include aerobic exercise that gets your heart rate up.
Those who exercise as little as 20 minutes a day show huge gains in
health management.
Don’t forget
stress reduction. Most folks already know that decreasing stress is
nearly synonymous with decreasing blood pressure. Learning deep
relaxation techniques or basic meditation can be of great benefit.
Additionally, many water therapies may be helpful. To learn the
basics, try a class; it makes it much easier to learn and instill the
habit of daily meditation.
So, what have you got to lose--other than weight,
stress, and high blood pressure? Begin today by investing in your
health! You may also want to ask your health care practitioner about
homeopathic and herbs to support your protocol.
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Preventing
Strokes
by
Jackie Kosednar
If you are
concerned about your blood pressure or stroke risk, there are many
ways to naturally prevent stokes and aid in stroke recovery. Regular
bodywork like massage, chiropractic or acupuncture can make dramatic
improvements in your health by relieving stress and helping you
achieve greater balance. Indeed, there are many natural remedies for
addressing chronic or disease conditions in the body as well as for
preventing disease altogether.
Here are some
ways to avoid strokes, improve circulation and control blood pressure.
Lifestyle
Eating a healthy diet is probably the most effective way to make sure
you never have a stroke. When you build your house on good land and
with good materials you get a quality house that doesn’t develop
problems or wear out very fast. The same is true of the body. We truly
are what we eat! The body is also a machine that needs fuel to keep
running and rebuild itself. Your body can protect you from developing
high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity, and just
about everything when you feed it high quality food and get plenty of
exercise.
Eating
Healthy
Eat small portions more often. Why? Because eating more than the body
requires forces your metabolism to store the extra calories, thus
increasing your body weight.
Eat your food
as alive and as whole as possible. This means that all processed,
canned, and sugary foods have to go—for the rest of your life. Our
ideal regular diet should consist of fresh fruits; fresh, raw or
lightly cooked vegetables; whole grains and organic meats.
Avoid all
saturated fats and white sugar. Cook
with olive oil. Actually, while cooking with it is beneficial, olive
oil is best consumed raw. It
can be sprinkled or sprayed on foods for flavor, or used in salads.
Up your
water intake
Drinking 8 to 10 glasses of purified water a day helps keeps the blood
clean and hydrated so that it can work at top efficiency. Every cell
in your body needs fresh water.
Cut down on
salt intake
Salt makes the body retain fluid. This, in turn, increases blood
pressure. Try to eliminate sources of excessive salt from your diet,
such as pickles and chips. Use natural sea salt. People who live in
cold climates need less salt. They perspire less, losing less salt
through sweating.
If you
drink alcohol, do so in moderation
It has been suggested that wine may actually help reduce stroke risk.
But don’t drink more than 1 to 2 glasses of wine per day. Like
anything else, alcohol should be consumed in moderation.
Lose Weight
and Exercise
Healthy eating will automatically slim you down. The more overweight
you are, the more you are at risk for stroke and heart disease. Eating
less quantity and more healthy quality is the most effective way to
make sure you never have a stroke.
Weight loss is guaranteed when combined with physical activity.
Exercise alone lowers chance of a stroke. The goal is not a diet, but
a lifestyle change that keeps you healthy and aging gracefully for the
rest of your life.
Next time you
look at a nice pile of french fries or a big piece of cake, ask
yourself if you want to wear that on the walls of your arteries. Know
and understand your cholesterol levels. Again, if you follow a healthy
diet, cholesterol will lower itself.
Remedies to
Prevent Stoke and Improve Circulation
All remedies should be muscle tested to make sure they are compatible
with your body and that they make you stronger.
Make sure your remedies are organically produced by a reputable
company. Your health practitioner may have professional supplements
with herbal and naturopathic combinations that are superior. Be sure
to ask.
If you are on
medical drugs, don’t take any of these supplements without asking
your medical provider. Some remedies thin the blood and/or increase
circulation. Drugs also affect the chemistry of the body and can
nullify the effect of some natural remedies, thus defeating your
purpose.
Cayenne
pepper contains an active ingredient called capsaicin that has the
ability to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels as well as
preventing heart diseases and stroke.
Garlic
contains high amounts of antioxidants and elements that help to
improve blood circulation and strengthen the heart. Remember: don’t
use if you are taking medication unless you first consult your health
provider.
Hawthorn
berries normalize and support the heart and help to lower
cholesterol.
Ginger
is another herb proven to have anti-clotting abilities. It has the
same function as garlic.
Blueberries
are one of the richest food sources of natural antioxidants readily
available. Did you know that blueberries have more than twice the
levels of other berries to help prevent heart disease and stroke?
Ginkgo
Biloba is an herb that has the ability to increase the oxygen
content to the brain and other bodily tissues. It also helps people
think better.
Willow Bark
is the ingredient from which modern aspirin derives. It has shown an
ability to prevent heart attacks as well as relieve pain.
Butchers
Broom is an herb said to strengthen veins, arteries and
capillaries.
Natural
Vitamin C from Rose Hips contains a substance called rutin, also
known to strengthen arteries and veins.
You
can find more information on-line or from your health practitioner on
how to make life style changes and find supplements to ensure you stay
in good health!
Jackie
Kosednar
is a hypnotherapist, energy medicine practitioner, human design
consultant, spiritual counselor, and the publisher of Alaska Wellness
Magazine. Contact: 272-2469, wellness@gci.net
or www.jackiekosednar.com
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