How Inactivity Harms Your Health

I came across this nifty diagram showing how being inactive contributes to illness. Get moving to stay healthy! When you don't move you gain weight, especially around the middle. White blood cells from your immune system move into the fat around your organs. This ignites inflammation everywhere in your body, which leads to insulin resistance and more weight gain, and ultimately diabetes. This raises your risk for heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke. This inflammation also leads to brain issues like dementia, Parkinsons and Alzheimers. Also increased is your risk for cancer. It is worth saying again. Get moving to protect your health!

Vitamin D3 could heal and protect your heart.

A study has been published in the International Journal of Nanomedicine. It shows that Vitamin D3 -- which is made by the body naturally when skin is exposed to the sun -- can significantly restore the damage to the cardiovascular system caused by several diseases, including hypertension, diabetes and atherosclerosis. Vitamin D3 supplements are also available over-the-counter.

Generally, Vitamin D3 is associated with the bones. However, in recent years, in clinical settings people recognize that many patients who have a heart attack will have a deficiency of D3. It doesn't mean that the deficiency caused the heart attack, but it increased the risk of heart attack.  A research team used nanosensors to see why Vitamin D3 can be beneficial, especially for the function and restoration of the cardiovascular system.

The Ohio University team has developed unique methods and systems of measurements using nanosensors, which are about 1,000 times smaller in diameter than a human hair, to track the impacts of Vitamin D3 on single endothelial cells, a vital regulatory component of the cardiovascular system. A major discovery from these studies is that vitamin D3 is a powerful stimulator of nitric oxide (NO), which is a major signaling molecule in the regulation of blood flow and the prevention of the formation of clots in the cardiovasculature. Additionally, vitamin D3 significantly reduced the level of oxidative stress in the cardiovascular system.

Most importantly, these studies show that treatment with vitamin D3 can significantly restore the damage to the cardiovascular system caused by several diseases, including hypertension, atherosclerosis, and diabetes, while also reducing the risk of heart attack. These studies, performed on cells from Caucasian Americans and African Americans, yielded similar results for both ethnic groups.

There are not many, if any, known systems which can be used to restore cardiovascular endothelial cells which are already damaged, and Vitamin D3 can do it. "This is a very inexpensive solution to repair the cardiovascular system. We don't have to develop a new drug. We already have it."

These studies, performed at Ohio University, are the first to identify the molecular mechanism of vitamin D3-triggered restoration of the function of damaged endothelium in the cardiovasculature. While these studies were performed using a cellular model of hypertension, the implication of vitamin D3 on dysfunctional endothelium is much broader. The dysfunction of endothelium is a common denominator of several cardiovascular diseases, particularly those associated with ischemic events.

Therefore, the authors suggest that vitamin D3 may be of clinical importance in the restoration of dysfunctional cardiac endothelium after heart attack, capillary endothelium after brain ischemia (stroke), hypovolemia, vasculopathy, diabetes and atherosclerosis. This suggestion is strongly supported by several clinical studies which indicate that vitamin D3 at doses higher than those currently used for the treatment of bone diseases, may be highly beneficial for the treatment of the dysfunctional cardiovascular system.

Teens with the hearts of old men. A cautionary tale.

Kale, parsley, broccoli, and spinach: according to new research, these leafy green vegetables may hold even more health benefits than previously thought, as vitamin K - found in abundance in all four - may contribute to a healthy heart.

A new study published in The Journal of Nutrition examines the link between vitamin K levels and heart structure and functioning in young people.

Vitamin K plays a key role in blood coagulation and bone health. Deficient levels of the vitamin raise the risk of hemorrhage, osteoporosis, and bone fractures.

In its dietary form, vitamin K is known as phylloquinone, or vitamin K-1. This is abundantly found in leafy green vegetables such as kale, parsley, broccoli, spinach, iceberg lettuce, and cabbage.

The new research suggests that insufficient levels of the vitamin may affect the structure of the heart, leading to a condition called left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH).

The left ventricle is the heart's major pumping chamber, and in LVH, this chamber is enlarged to an unhealthy degree. As the authors of the new study explain, a larger heart can malfunction with time, becoming less effective at pumping blood.

LVH tends to affect adults, but the researchers decided to study this heart structure in young people because cardiac abnormalities that begin in childhood tend to predict the risk of cardiovascular disease in adulthood. They found that teens with the lowest intake of vitamin K1 from foods had triple the rate of LVH of their counterparts who had the highest intake.

Your mom was right…eat your greens.

Here's the study.

Want to really improve your chances of preventing heart disease?

Learn how lifestyle factors cut your risk. Here they are:

1. Not smoking cigarettes 

2. Not being obese (having a B.M.I. less than 30) 

3. Performing physical activity at least once a week. 

4. Having a healthful diet pattern.

Here is what defines a healthful diet pattern. Do at least half of these things: eat more fruits, nuts, vegetables, whole grains, fish and dairy products; eat less processed meats, unprocessed red meats, sugar sweetened beverages, trans fats and sodium.

Every one of the four lifestyle factors was associated with a decreased risk of coronary events.

That’s the first bit of good news. Doing any one of these things makes a difference.

But the effect is cumulative. The researchers divided people into three groups based on these factors. “Favorable” required at least three of the four factors, “intermediate” required two of them, and “unfavorable” required one or none. Across all studies, those with an unfavorable lifestyle had a risk that was 71 percent to 121 percent higher than those with a favorable lifestyle.

More impressive was the reduction in coronary events — heart attacks, bypass procedures and death from cardiovascular causes — at every level of risk. Those with a favorable lifestyle, compared with those with an unfavorable lifestyle, had a 45 percent reduction in coronary events among those at low genetic risk, a 47 percent reduction among those with intermediate genetic risk, and a 46 percent reduction among those at high genetic risk.

What does this mean in real-world numbers? Among those at high genetic risk in the oldest cohort study, 10.7 percent could expect to have a coronary event over a 10-year period if they had an unfavorable lifestyle. That number was reduced to 5.1 percent if they had a favorable lifestyle. Among those at low genetic risk, the 10-year event rate was 5.8 percent with an unfavorable lifestyle and 3.1 percent with a favorable lifestyle. In the other cohort studies, similar relative reductions were seen.

These differences aren’t small. The risk of a coronary event in 10 years was halved. The absolute reduction, more than 5 percentage points in the genetic group at high risk, means that lifestyle changes are as powerful as, if not more powerful than, many drugs we recommend and pay billions of dollars for all the time.

There are important lessons to be learned. These results should encourage us that genetics do not determine everything about our health. Changes in lifestyle can overcome much of the risk our DNA imposes.

Lifestyle changes are hugely important not only for those at low risk, but for those at high risk. The relative reductions in events were similar at all levels of genetic risk.

Remember that changes in lifestyle also reduce your risk of cancer, the number two killer making it clear that a healthy lifestyle has implications for an even greater number of us!

Do you know your omega-3 status?

Many Americans don’t.

Currently, 95.7% of Americans are not consuming enough omega-3 EPA + DHA to reach cardioprotective levels. 1. 

A large and growing body of evidence shows that insufficient levels of omega-3 EPA + DHA may be associated with serious health complications for many Americans. 2.

Low levels of omega-3 are related to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of death among both men and women in the United States. 3.

Harvard researchers evaluated the mortality effects of several dietary, lifestyle and metabolic risk factors in the United States. They found that insufficient levels of omega-3 were associated with serious health complications and nearly 100,000 premature deaths each year. 4.

Don't be a statistic when Omega-3s offer such a wealth of health benefits. Get 500 mg of EPA DHA Omega-3 daily. You can do that by having two fish meals each week that feature salmon, tuna, sardines or other high omega-3 fish.  

If you have heart disease or risk factors that lead to higher risk of heart disease you need 1000 mg of EPA DHA daily. 

Finally if you have elevated triglycerides you should aim for 4000 mg of EPA DHA daily.

Ask your doctor to run a simple blood test, the Omega-3 Index at your next visit. The goal for optimal health is 8%.

1. Murphy RA, Yu EA, Ciappio ED, Mehta S, McBurney MI.Suboptimal Plasma Long Chain n-3 Concentrations are Common among Adults in theUnited States, NHANES 2003–2004.

2.  Kris-Etherton PM, Harris WS, Appel LJ. Fishconsumption, fish oil, omega-3 fatty acids, and cardiovascular disease. Circulation.2002;106:2747-57.

3. Mozaffarian D, Benjamin EJ, Go AS et al. Heart Diseaseand Stroke Statistics-2016 Update: A Report From the American HeartAssociation. Circulation. 2016;133:e38-e360

4. Danaei G, Ding E, Ezzati M et al. The preventable causes of death in the United States: Comparative risk assessment of dietary, lifestyle, and metabolic risk factors. PLoS Med. 2009;6:e1000058