Diet Cholesterol and Cardiovascular Disease

High blood cholesterol has been shown to be a leading cause of cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease and stroke. However cholesterol itself is essential to several important processes within the body, including cell membrane structure and function, making of hormones and the digestion and movement of fats to all parts of the body.

So why does an essential compound result in such big problems?

The answer lies in a more detailed understanding of cholesterol, how it can result in high blood cholesterol and the reasons high blood cholesterol results in blood vessel damage.

Interestingly, the body can make all the cholesterol it needs although typically it makes around 2/3rd and the remaining 1/3rd comes from your diet. Further, not all of your diet sourced cholesterol is absorbed and absorption rates vary widely. A range between 20% and 80% is possible with an average of around 60%. Absorption appears to be regulated so that cholesterol levels remain at a constant level within your body.

It is widely thought that high blood cholesterol is the main risk factor for coronary atherosclerosis. Evidence from several major studies suggests that high blood cholesterol causes coronary heart disease (CHD). It’s estimated that it accounts for around half of the increased risk of CHD in a middle aged man with total blood cholesterol of 6.2 mmol.L-1. As your blood cholesterol increases and your HDL-C (good cholesterol) decreases, so your risk of CHD increases.

This is supported by large studies. The MRFIT study followed 360,000 men for six years. It showed that the risk began at levels as low as 4.65 mmol.L-1 and the risk was large. The risk of CHD for the highest 10% is four times that of the lowest 10%.

It is now thought that LDL-C (low density lipoprotein cholesterol) is the most damaging and rather than total cholesterol the better predictor of CHD is the total blood cholesterol to HDL-C (high density lipoprotein cholesterol) ratio.

Contrary to what may seem obvious the level of cholesterol in your diet doesn’t show a significant independent correlation to your risk of CHD. Although it had been shown to be the case in animal studies an analysis of the Framington Heart Study indicated that dietary cholesterol was not a predictor of total blood cholesterol or of LDL-C levels in women.

The problem food in your diet is saturated fatty acids (SFAs). The Seven Countries Studies of over 11,000 middle aged men in 7 countries indicated a strong independent correlation between eating SFAs and CHD.

It’s been found that SFAs in your diet raise total blood cholesterol approximately twice as much as polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) lowered it. Monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) were found to be neutral and dietary cholesterol, like that in egg yolks, has only a comparatively small effect. It is thought that the body adapts to a high cholesterol diet in several ways:

• Reduction of intestinal absorption

• An increase in conversion to bile acids

• Reduction in the amount made in the body

• Changes in LDL-C receptor activity

While the general effect is small some individual’s response is more extreme. Half of this variation is put down to genetic factors.

How Does High Blood Cholesterol Result in Blood Vessel Damage?

Cholesterol can build up on the walls of your arteries. This build up of cholesterol is called plaque and over time it can cause narrowing of the arteries. This is called atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries. The arteries that bring oxygenated blood to supply the heart are called coronary arteries.

Narrowing of your coronary arteries due to plaque can slow down the flow of blood to your heart resulting in a decrease in the amount of oxygen-rich blood it receives. If the heart doesn’t receive enough oxygen then angina or chest pains can result. A complete blockage results in a heart attack and possible death.

Lowering your blood cholesterol level decreases your chance for having a heart attack and may also slow down, reduce, or even stop plaque from building up.

Saturated Fats You Should Reduce

• Animal fat especially fatty meat: salami, sausage meat, minced meats, trim the hard white fat from red meats and remove the skin from poultry.

• Full-fat diary products

Use vegetable oils in cooking instead of animal fat. Good examples include canola and olive oil.

The message is clear. If you want to be healthier then lower your saturated fat intake and exchange it for polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats.

Heart Disease - Diet and Exercise to Live Longer

Do you want to live longer? Everyone wants to live longer. The desire for life is surely one of the most deeply rooted instincts we possess. We all want a life of usefulness and abundance, free from ill health and unhappiness. As we age we become increasingly aware of just how short life is and as Gauguin said “life is a split second”. It’s natural for us to look for ways to increase our longevity. Is it little wonder that health is the number one searched for subject on the internet?

Heart Disease Trends

The years between World War 2 and the 1960’s saw the highest recorded rates of coronary heart disease (CHD) ever measured in the western world. Dietary changes from the 1970’s to the present time have seen a decline in deaths from CHD particularly in the more well-to-do population group. Westernization of the diets in Mediterranean and Asian populations is seeing an increase in CHD from their previously low levels.

The Problem Now

The major problem facing western populations now is our expanding waistlines. In the last 5 years in the U.S. the number of people who are overweight or obese has risen 7-10%. In 2007 65% of the U.S. population is overweight and 30% are clinically obese.

How to Tackle the Problem

There are two things you can and must do to sort out this problem if you are in the high risk category or even if you just want to be more healthy.

• You must control your diet

• You must get active

Controlling Your Diet

Your goal needs to be to eat foods that protect you against CHD and provide you with the essential nutrients that help you optimize your length and quality of life.

Foods that help you achieve this goal are:

• fruits
• vegetables
  
• legumes
• whole grain foods
  
• fish
• nuts
• low fat dairy products
  

To get results you need to substitute the following foods:

• foods high in animal fats

• hardened (hydrogenated) plant fats and oils

• commercially baked products containing these fats

• deep fried foods

With

• Plant oils

• Nuts

• Seeds

• Fish

These will reduce your CHD risk further.

If you already have a high risk of CHD due to being overweight, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, lack of exercise, family history or other conditions then you will need to take an even more focused approach to your daily diet to include the following:

• 8 or more servings of fruit and vegetables

• Large servings of whole grains

• Frequently replace meat and whole fat dairy products with fish and/or legumes

• Eat nuts and seeds regularly

• Usually include low fat dairy products

• You may or may not include small servings of lean meat.
  

Use the following plant oils in cooking but keep the quantites small because they are still high in calories:

• Canola

• Olive

• Soy

• Sunflower

• Or other seed and nut oils

If you have a very high risk of CHD then your diet should be low in saturated fats. In order to achieve this you need to have a higher carbohydrate content from grains, fruits, vegetable and legumes. You should also make sure that your diet is low in refined sugar and flour products and that packaged foods you eat are high in fibre and low in saturated fat content.

These recommendations also help you achieve a healthy body weight.

Get Active

Avoiding weight gain is best achieved by eating a diet low in total energy coupled with regular physical activity. Your increased physical activity can be from exercise or from everyday activities that you include into your routine. There is strong evidence that increased physical exercise results in weight loss, decreased abdominal fat and cardio-respiratory fitness.

As logic would indicate tests support the combination of a low-fat diet plus moderate exercise as a way to produce greater weight loss than either of these actions alone.

Examples of moderate amounts of activity you can fit into your day.

• Walking 30 mins. 3.2 km ( 2 miles)
• Cycling 30 mins. 10-12 km
• Swimming 20 mins.
• Washing and polishing the car 45-60 mins
• Washing windows or floors 45-60 mins
• Gardening 30-45 mins

As with all exercise programs it is sensible to start slowly as this will aid your body to adapt without over taxing it which will in turn assist your ability to increase your activity levels over time.

Consult your health professional before embarking on an exercise program and build up your level of activity gradually. The more overweight and the more at risk you are; the more mandatory this latter advice becomes.

How to Make $1,000's Weekly with a Health Internet Business of Your very Own

Wise Online Entrepreneurs know that the best selling products online are health products and health-related ebooks, books, tapes, newsletter subscriptions, etc.

Now World famous Dr. Suzanne Gudakunst has just released her latest "shocker!" that makes it possible for just about anyone to profit from this fact.

She's making it possible for someone to get a fully-operational online "store" that specializes in "health-related" goods and services.

Literally now anyone can get a complete Internet "health" business in a box!

This complete website has a main product as well as up to 17 separate products that all center around breakthrough health products. And where YOU can earn some really HUGE CASH!

It seems that Dr. Suzanne has really done her homework (especially for YOUR benefit!)

First she correctly determined that according to Forrester Research (which is perhaps the most powerful & accurate online research database to date!) "health-related" products and information is by far the most sought after things anywhere online.

Nope! -- Despite what you might have thought, "sex," "porn," and "UFOs" are NOT the most searched for items on the Internet (but "health stuff" is hands down!)

Second, Dr. Suzanne's "Top Secret Fat Loss Secret" shook the entire World with its release recently - and she's even made a special lead-capture page that you also get central to this amazing site!

Why is this important?

Simple: because Dr. Suzanne's affiliates are making millions right now with what is perhaps one of ClickBank's HOTTEST products (and this same product is the central seller at your new health e-Biz site!)

Third, the site you get also acts as a "database" that never stops growing so that you get 10,000's of customers you can continue to sell to over and over again other things!

Why is this important?

Again, very simple: anyone who's wise online knows that "backend" sales are chief to making long term and extra profits!

Dr. Suzanne's NEW "Health Biz In a Box" complete and fully-operational website you get for next to nothing contains an electronic "Automatic Sales Manager" (like a salesman robot - Ha!) built-in that works to upsell to your list over and over again so that you enjoy additional "automatic" income!

Fourth, Dr. Suzanne health-biz site also includes a complete health-related products Shopping Mall so that your site visitors stopping by are likely to buy at least 1 to up to 17 additional products creating instantly for you up to over a dozen other income streams!

This way you get the "most bang for your buck" so to speak!

As if all this weren't enough, the fifth (and perhaps the very best) thing about this automatic seller is the tiny spokesmodel "Rachel" that literally walks out onto your Health-Biz site and guides your site visitors (like a tour guide) through your entire site and what it has to offer!

Dr. Suzanne carefully tested the site both WITH and WITHOUT "Rachel" and accurately determined that the addition of "Rachel" boosted sites sales by as much as 396% (meaning nearly 4 times as many sales!)

Dr. Suzanne believes that having the spokesmodel adds credibility as well as an informative approach to the site so that it generates a much higher "conversion-to-sales" ration at large.

And ALL these amazing features stand to make YOU very, very rich as you get all of them with your own "Health Biz In a Box" website!

If any of this floats your boat, then I highly recommend you get over to:

=>> http://www.healthonlinehomebusiness.com

...and because rumor has it that Dr. Suzanne may put a ceiling on the number of these Internet "health-biz" sites she's giving out in order to avoid everyone having one and risking market saturation.

Already people securing theirs have had nothing but great things to say about this:

"I'm so happy with mine! ... Having this site professionally set up by Dr. Suzanne's Team for us was the greatest thing we ever did! ... the site literally is just pouring money into our pockets even while we're doing other things, vacationing, and even crashing out!" - Cynthia Conrad, Atlanta, Georgia

"I never knew that making money online could be so easy!" - Richard Bosworth, SLC, Utah

"Health stuff is the real way to make money online easily ... everybody sooner or later has to have it!"
- Carla Dupree, Boise, Idaho

"I'm making about $6,000 a week with mine ... and this after failing on the Net for nearly 10 years trying to sell everything else!" - Jason Herman, San Dimas, CA

"$500 a day is what this biz is shoving in my pocket! I even went out of town for nearly two weeks and my health biz site completely ran itself!" - Michael Sorbowski, Mason, Ohio

As you can see by these people's comments, everyone grabbing their own automatic health-products Internet business is raking in the cash! (And now you can too!)

Just grab yours now simply by going to:

=>> http://www.healthonlinehomebusiness.com

I guess I should have added above that not only do you get all the things I've described thus far, but you also get professional customized set up at no extra charge!

That's right! - Dr. Suzanne's own Team of web experts actually build your "Health Biz" for you so you don't have to!

They:

- design your site

- put all the 17 income streams into place

- install the electronic sales manager for you

- add sharp selling graphics

- add powerful videos

- add several other webpages

- and a complete online shopping mall of health products!

All so that you can earn big income online and while you sell product that help people and that you can be very proud to sell.

So all in all this is perhaps one of the BEST instant online ventures worth your time.

Get your now before the ceiling number is reached and maxed out...

=>> http://www.healthonlinehomebusiness.com

The Nasty Truth About Your Drinking Water!

Here's the truth about your drinking water (and what you can instantly do about it!) ... don’t let it kill you! ...

Today I want to scare you (a lot, in fact!)

Really, I do... Why? ... So that you will take action and take care of yourself using this little "secret" I'm going to give you (that although small, will help you in a really big, big way!)

By now everyone's heard the saying "If you are going to Mexico on vacation have fun, but be sure not to drink the water!"

Why do we say that? Is Mexico a horrible place?

It's nice ... I've vacationed there countless times!

The main reason people say this is because there may be "parasites" or "toxins" in the water we're not ready for, or resistant against. And if we drink it, we may get really, really sick -- even die!

But now here's the scary part:

In the United States the water may be just as "sickening" (and maybe even worse!)

I can already hear a few "patriots" screaming "Let's hang the chick!" (Let's not hang her just yet, shall we?)

Read this excerpt directly from the EPA's website:

"Drinking water, including bottled water, may reasonably be
expected to contain at least small amounts of some contaminants."

Naturally some would argue that this is only reasonable, right?

But here's more ...

"Coliform bacteria are common in the environment and are generally
not harmful. However, the presence of these bacteria in drinking
water is usually a result of a problem with the treatment system
or the pipes which distribute water, and indicates that the water
may be contaminated with germs that can cause disease.

"Fecal Coliform and E coli are bacteria whose presence indicates
that the water may be contaminated with human or animal wastes.
Microbes in these wastes can cause short-term effects, such as
diarrhea, cramps, nausea, headaches, or other symptoms.

"Turbidity has no health effects. However, turbidity can interfere
with disinfection and provide a medium for microbial growth.
Turbidity may indicate the presence of disease causing organisms.
These organisms include bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can
cause symptoms such as nausea, cramps, diarrhea, and associated
headaches.

"Cryptosporidium is a parasite that enters lakes and rivers through
sewage and animal waste. It causes cryptosporidiosis, a mild
gastrointestinal disease. However, the disease can be severe or
fatal for people with severely weakened immune systems. EPA and
CDC have prepared advice for those with severely compromised
immune systems who are concerned about Cryptosporidium.

"Giardia lamblia is a parasite that enters lakes and rivers through
sewage and animal waste. It causes gastrointestinal illness (e.g.
diarrhea, vomiting, cramps)."

Now this last one is nasty. I was stupid enough to drink water while on a golf course in Bali, Indonesia. Twelve months later after several courses of antibiotics and losing 10 lb I finally got rid of these pests. Definitely not the way to lose weight. Having to stop the car every time after being out for a nice meal with friends and vomiting in the gutter is
not my recommended experience.

And how about that part about the parasite "Cryptosporidium" being potentially fatal? (How nice!)

And if you want to read the rest from the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) website, just go here now:

---> http://www.EPA.gov/ogwdw/hfacts.html

Now you're probably thinking "That's just great! Every time I turn around someone or something's out to get me!" right?

While this may be somewhat true, it does NOT mean that you have to allow yourself to become a "victim." (How weak would you be then?)

In fact, my advice to you is that you arm yourself in the same way someone would if they knew they were about to be "attacked" by a dangerous and deadly enemy!

I mean, you wouldn't just sit back and let someone kill you, would you? Or lay a hand on your family, right?

So why allow "little critters" to kill you just because you either can't see them, or because you keep lying to yourself trying to convince yourself they aren't "really" there to begin with?

For natural remedies designed to effectively eliminate these critters you can go to: Sources of parasitic cleanser

Idiot’s Fat Loss Statements Are 4 Idiots

A well known diet product makes the following claim:

“The whole world has gone “low fat” crazy -- and most people think that if they just begin eating low fat foods then their bodies will have less fat too. Sounds logical right? Wrong. You see, the problem with this type of thinking is that there is no “direct” relationship between fat calories eaten and fat tissue on a person’s body. The truth is that your body can convert ANY type of calorie to fat tissue, not just fat calories.”

To say the whole world has gone “low fat” crazy is simply not supported by the facts. During the 20^th century the amount of fat consumed in our diet almost doubled from 20% of our diet to about 35%. In addition each gram of fat contains 9 calories compared to 4 calories in each gram of both carbohydrate and protein. So to state that there is no “direct relationship is pure nonsense.

For example ask yourself. Are you better off eating 100 grams of fat, or 100 grams of protein? Of course from a calorie point of view it’s the latter with the fat providing a whopping 220% more!

What could be a more direct relationship?

The next key issue regarding a low fat diet is the health benefits of reducing the fat levels in your diet. Fats are a subgroup of compounds called lipids which includes fats, oils and cholesterol. The usual distinguishing factor is if the lipid is solid at room temperature it’s a fat and if it’s liquid it’s an oil. Whereas fats and oils are found in both plant and animals, cholesterol only comes from animal products.

Cholesterol is an essential component in making cell membranes, vitamin D and hormones and has an important role in emulsifying fat in the digestion process. The way fats and cholesterol are transported around your body is through a combination of lipids and proteins called lipoproteins. These lipoproteins fall into two categories – low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and high density lipoproteins (HDL).

LDL cholesterol carries most of the cholesterol in your body and is known as the bad cholesterol because it sticks to the walls of your arteries. This can lead to narrowing and eventual blockage and the result can be heart attack, stroke or other nasties. HDL is the good stuff because it picks up cholesterol from cells as it moves around the body.

The biggest factor affecting how much cholesterol you have in your body is your weight and in particular how much excess you’re carrying. Saturated fats in your diet are the chief contributor to your LDL cholesterol level.

Why do people want to lose weight?

Simply because it’s now well recognized that obese people are much more likely to suffer from chronic disease. These include heart disease, stroke, cancer, arthritis, diabetes among other. Is a low fat diet effective in reducing weight and combating chronic disease? This question was answered emphatically years ago!

In his book “The Low Fat Way to Health and Longer Life”,(1958) by Lester M. Morrison M.D. he addresses the impact of a low-fat diet on atherosclerosis – hardening of the arteries. He presents numerous examples including controlled studies of how a low-fat diet improved the life of many of his and his fellow Doctors’ patients.

It boils down to this. You ignore a low-fat diet at your peril!

Breakthrough Weight Loss Secret Revealed!

A new breakthrough secret is all you now need in order to forever shed countless pounds, stay healthy, and add many years to your life!

A lady doctor from Arizona has blown the lid off the best-kept secret in weight loss ever discovered -- and this has the whole diet food and drug industries turned upside down and in nothing less than a torrential uproar.

Her name is Dr Suzanne Gudakunst, and she's marching to the beat of a different drum.

And no, nothing about her "secret" is difficult -- nor does it require that you do something completely out of the ordinary or anything unnatural.

Instead, the Arizonian boasts proudly "...this is something that I caught onto just before 2002 when there was so much research and exploration going around concerning the human colon and digestive system working in harmony with nutritional absorption, and I started doing independent studies just to test things at first ... but which I later expanded on after seeing some fantastic results."

This same woman medical practitioner went on to accurately determine a definitive correlation between harmful plague and parasitic infestations of the human bowel tract, and people suffering chronic obesity -- and who despite intense diet and exercise appeared to be unable to lose any weight whatsoever.

Over the course of six years the Arizona doctor developed a number of natural treatments for the removal of these same harmful, even life-threatening plaques and rapidly reproducing digestive parasites -- and when applied to even worse-case patients suffering extreme obesity (98% of which were in immediate danger of dying) she saw a 100% effectiveness and success rate.

She then borrowed from her research on the severely obese, and applied the same strategies on milder cases of overweight persons -- only to find the same effectiveness and quality results as described above (although the individual weight loss per subject wasn't nearly as much as those obese patients 100 lbs to 200 lbs or more overweight).

So powerful is her secret that she's able to reverse diabetes, rid illness altogether in people suffering from cancer (linked directly to poor diet and overweight factors), as well as an elimination of an entire spectrum of serious and otherwise life-threatening diseases.

Nearly 100% of all her case subjects were told in the alternative by "conventional doctors" that they either had just months or years to live, or they would never live a life anything resembling remotely a "normal" existence -- yet after applying Dr Suzanne's treatments saw a complete contradiction to others doctors' prognoses.

Again, nothing about her secret is unnatural or requires someone to do any major action or modification in their lives.

In fact, her entire treatment is based completely on built-into-nature 'protection agents' scattered throughout the world in the form of select herbs, extracts, and organic constituents, and which can be found in a variety of plants -- but when combined in specific combinations and carefully chosen amounts make for a solution to what is perhaps the world's worst ever plague: OBESITY (and the illnesses and diseases resulting from it -- or at least severely aggravated or exacerbated by it).

Now to everyone else's great gain, whether suffering from just a few extra pounds and inches, to those extremely fat and overweight, this brave, bold lady doctor is releasing to the general public her secret for forever destroying the tight unrelenting closed-fist of obesity's stronghold over the now more than 40% of Americans labeled obese, and others worldwide.

But she's not promising any of us for how long.

Some experts and sociologists suggest that in the bigger scheme of things, the world will never tolerate a discovery of such magnitude, any more than it would be realistic to expect a car that runs on water (even if very real) to ever become commercially available to the general public for day-to-day use.

One well-respected and famous diet & wellness author wrote years ago that if anyone ever "truly unlocked the keys to permanent fat loss, they may actually suffer the same fate as JFK."

It is currently available at:

=> Secret Revealed

...so you may want to head on over there now and get it and before someone or "something" gets it forever yanked out of ever getting in YOUR hand at least.

It's in a very easily readable format and is quickly and readily understood and mastered by anyone with even a 4th grade reading level.

While you're there, why not scroll down and review for yourself the huge successes others are now having with this incredible breakthrough in rapid, massive weight loss and extremely improved and enhanced health, now made freely available to the rest of us?

How to Set Your Weight Loss Plan

In a previous article I discussed how moderate exercise can help you lose 1 lb a week. In this article I will cover how to modify your diet to achieve a further 1 lb a week weight loss.

There are 3 basic steps you need to follow in order to succeed:

1. Set Your Weight Loss Goal

To be effective your goals must be written down. If you don’t write them down; don’t proceed further and waste your time because you won’t succeed.

You must then have a detailed plan of how you will achieve your goal. Your plan needs to be time bound and measurable. A simple example might be: “I will lose 2 lb a week for the next 10 weeks by ... exercise plan ... diet plan. I will weigh myself on the bathroom scales first thing every Sunday morning to track my progress.”

A good starting point in your plan is to ascertain your ideal weight for your height. The difference between where you are now and your ideal weight becomes your weight loss goal. You can then divide your goal by the time over which you want to meet your target.

The last important goal setting factor for success is to review your goal at least daily and create a vivid mental image of your sexy slender self as you will be! Positive self-talk and affirmations have also proven to be powerful psychological tools in persuading your subconscious to believe your goal and act accordingly.

2. You need to know what you are eating. You do this by keeping a diary or small notebook and recording everything you eat and drink for the day. This will be your starting point for improvement. You will later incorporate this process into step 1.

3. You will replace high calorie fatty low nutrition food from the previous day with nutritious low calorie alternatives in a gradual but incremental process by reviewing the information from step 2. By using the 80/20 rule you will focus on the 20% of your food that generates 80% of your calories. Eg. Fast food, high fat, high sugar products.

To start with these foods should be pretty obvious to you so you shouldn’t need to get into counting calories unless you want to be more precise. There is plenty of data available online to find out the calories for each food.

You need to incorporate your plan into your food shopping. There’s no point buying food that’s going to hinder your success or not having healthy food readily available. So forget about the high fat products. Look for alternative low calorie substitutes. You can never go wrong with plenty of fruits and vegetables. Apply the same logic to your drink selections and exclude soda type sugar drinks.

Your plan is your guide but always be on the lookout for easy ways to boost your progress with healthy choices for meals. Remember that once you’ve made a change, it’s a permanent change. The idea is not to starve your body but to actually make incremental improvements to your nutrition.

By retraining your body with healthy nutritious food you will soon be experiencing the benefits of improved health, improved appearance and higher energy.