The Health Plus Letter
November 20, 2008 Vol. 6, No. 27
By Larry Trivieri, Jr. – founder & publisher
http://www.1healthyworld.com
Table Of Contents
New This Issue
Quote of the Day
Fast Fact
Protect Your Heart This Holiday Season
Improve Your Health By Being Good To Your Gut
USDA Rushing Through Dangerous New Rules on GE and Pharmaceutical Crops
Recommendations
Medical Freedom
Contact Information
New This Issue
Welcome to another issue of The Health Plus Letter. As this will be the last Issue of the ezine until December, I’d like to wish all of my US readers a very Happy Thanksgiving (and belated good wishes to my readers in Canada, who celebrated last month.
This week, because I recently found out that more cases of heart disease and stroke occur between Thanksgiving and New Year’s than at any other time of the year, I’m sharing tips on how you can protect your heart during the holiday season. In addition, you’ll find a wealth of self-care information you can use to improve the health of your gut, and therefore your overall health as well.
Finally, in keep with this week’s food theme, I’m alerting you to the plans the US Department of Agriculture has for making it much easier for genetically-engineered and pharmaceutical (yes, Big Pharma is in the food business too!) foods to enter our nation’s food chain. Please read that article and then sign the petition that follows it.
As always, please spread the word about The Health Plus Letter by passing it along to your friends and inviting them to subscribe. And again – Happy Thanksgiving!
Quote Of The Day
“When I repress my emotion my stomach keeps score.”
-- John Enoch Powell
Fast Fact
Nearly half (49 percent) of all primary care physicians in the US would quit their profession if they had other options, primarily “because there's too much red tape generated from insurance companies and government agencies.”
Source: www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/11/17/primary.care.doctors.study
Unabashed Plug
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Protect Your Heart This Holiday Season
The end-of-the-year holiday season that traditionally begins with Thanksgiving and ends with a celebration on New Year’s Eve is meant to be a time of joy and gratitude shared with family and friends. And for most people, that’s exactly what it is. For, others, however, it’s a perilous time that ends up with them either in the hospital or dead.
That’s because the time of the year that begins in late November and runs through January is know by many cardiologists as the season of holiday heart attacks. And with good reason.
According to a study published in Circulation, a leading medical journal that covers cardiovascular health, during the holiday season approximately 33 more people die from heart attack and other types of heart disease compared to the number of heart-related deaths that occur annually between early June and late September. These findings were the result of a 12-year study that examined the death records of over 220,000 people who died during that time period. The study also found that hospital admissions for nonfatal cases of heart disease also rise during the holiday season.
There are a number of related reasons to account for this shocking increase of holiday deaths and hospital admissions due to heart disease. The primary reasons include increased alcohol consumption, eating larger meals, stress, winter flu, and cold weather. Let’s take a look at each of these factors so that you can learn what to do about them.
Increased alcohol consumption: Since people traditionally socialize more during the holidays, it’s not surprising that they also tend to drink more alcoholic beverages during this time too. Family gatherings, get-togethers with friends, and office parties during the holiday season all tend to see a freer flow of alcohol compared to other times of the year. And while research indicates that drinking beer or wine in moderation may actually be good for your heart, this is not true of “harder” alcoholic beverages, or even of champagne, a standard drink during New Year’s Eve celebrations. And excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages of any kind is definitely not healthy.
In addition to the many other health risks excessive alcohol poses, it can cause potentially fatal changes in your heart’s normal rhythm (a condition known as arterial fibrillation), and can also depress heart function and damage the chambers (atria) of the heart itself. People with pre-existing heart conditions have a particularly high risk of suffering a holiday heart attack if they don’t limit their alcohol consumption. Therefore, despite the temptation to unwind with family, friends, or co-workers during the holidays by drinking to excess, discipline yourself and limit your alcohol consumption.
According to the American Heart Association, men should have no more than two glasses of wine or beer each day, while women should limit themselves to one drink daily. That’s especially healthy advice during the holidays. And, in addition, be sure not to drink and drive.
Eating larger meals: Beginning with the Thanksgiving meal, food consumption can increase dramatically for many of us during the holidays. Not only to holiday meals tend to be much larger than normal, the holiday season is also a time when we tend to eat more often. In addition, the holidays are also a time when plentiful supplies of sweet and fatty foods are to be found. Because of these reasons, many people gain weight during the holiday season, and then have trouble shedding it during the remaining winter months, due to the fact that they tend to be less active than during other times of the year.
The reasons for avoiding eating larger than normal meals and unhealthy foods should be obvious to you. Even so, here are some things you may not know about unhealthy eating in relation to your heart.
Whenever you eat a large meal, your brain directs blood to your gastrointestinal tract in order to help your body deal with and digest all the food you’ve consumed. If you suffer from atherosclerosis (arterial blockages that restrict blood flow to the heart), this diversion of blood to your gut can deprive your heart of the oxygen-rich blood it needs, leading to a range of potential heart problems ranging from chest pain (angina) to outright heart attack.
In addition, eating sweet and high fat foods, both of which make for standard holiday fare in many homes, can cause an inflammatory response in your body, as well as a spike in your body’s insulin levels. Both of these reactions can result in heart disease. Sweet and fatty foods can also damage the inner lining of your body’s blood vessels (known as the endothelium) and/or cause them to constrict. This can result in coronary spasms and further restrict the amount of blood that is available for your heart.
Therefore, to protect your heart during the holidays, you need to stick with eating normal sized, healthy meals during the holidays, and avoid sweets and high-fat foods. In addition, you should also limit your consumption of salt, as excessive salt intake can cause high blood pressure and, in some cases, heart failure or a dangerous buildup of fluid in the lungs (pulmonary edema).
Stress: Despite the feelings of increased joy and happiness the holidays are meant to create, for many people the holiday season is a time of greatly increased stress due to various factors such as unresolved family and/or other relationship issues, holiday shopping in crowded malls and stores, increased travel and traffic problems, and, especially in today’s economic times, anxieties about finances. The lack of physical activity that is also common during the holidays can also contribute to and exacerbate stress.
Chronic stress is perhaps the most common risk factors for most of the chronic health conditions faced by our nation today, and has for decades been linked to an increase in heart attacks and other types of heart disease. Therefore, during the holidays, it is especially important that you pay attention to your stress levels and take time each day to deal with whatever stress you may be feeling.
One of the simplest and most effective “stress-busters” is to simply breathe deeply in a relaxed manner for few minutes while sitting in a comfortable position with your eyes closed. By doing this a few times each day you will start to train your body to enter into what is known as “the relaxation response,” a state of physical and mental calm that is very similar to what happens when people meditate. You can also enjoy the benefits of deep breathing at any time, even when you are stuck in traffic or waiting in line at the mall. The key is to breathe in and out through your belly rather than your chest.
In addition to this simple technique, you can also minimize your stress levels during the holidays by making time for yourself, not overextending yourself with unnecessary social gatherings, and avoiding unpleasant conflicts. Staying physically active during the holidays can also do a lot to keep your stress at bay. But perhaps the most important thing you can do to alleviate stress during the holidays (as well as during any other time of the year) is to focus on what the holidays were designed for—feeling grateful. Research has shown that regularly cultivating feelings of gratitude is not only very effective for banishing stress, but also healthy for you in many other ways, including boosting your immune system. So, rather than focusing on whatever causes you stress during the holidays, make a point to look for and appreciate all that you have to be grateful for in your life. By doing so, not only will you experience less stress, you’ll feel great too.
Winter flu: As you probably know, peak flu season runs from December through March, and various scientific studies have shown that the viruses that cause the flu increases inflammation levels in the body. This isn’t surprising since inflammation is one of the ways your body fights off invading germs, including viruses. However, if a virus or other harmful microorganism is able to gain a foothold in your body, inflammation can become chronic and potential cause other problems, including an increased risk of blood clots and destabilization of plaque in the arteries, both of which can lead to heart attack.
To avoid the risk of flu many physicians and other health officials recommend getting an annual flu shot. I personally feel that there are many better and safer options. Especially since even a study published two years ago in the prestigious British Medical Journal shows that the effectiveness of annual flu shots are be exaggerated.
(See: Influenza vaccination: policy versus evidence at: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/333/7574/912.)
Therefore, it’s best if you also take other precautions, such as washing your hands regularly to prevent transmission of cold and flu bugs, eating healthily, exercising, and taking care to provide your body with all of the essential nutrients it needs (a task you can easily accomplish by supplementing with a quality multivitamin/mineral product). Some researchers also advise supplementing with vitamin D, which has been shown to boost immunity, and which is typically lacking in people, especially during winter months due to lack of sunshine and not regularly being outdoors. You can discuss such options with your doctor.
Cold weather: For many people around the country, cold weather can also increase the risk of heart disease. However, in most cases, it’s not the cold weather itself that is the main risk factor. (In fact, the Circulation study I mentioned above only examined the death records of deceased people in greater Los Angeles.) Although cold weather can adversely affect people with pre-existing heart conditions, the main weather-related culprit is actually activity associated with it, such as snow shoveling, especially for people whose lifestyles are otherwise sedentary. Shoveling snow, particularly after a heavy snowfall, if you are not accustomed to physical activity, can significantly strain your heart. Therefore, make it a point not to overdo things. Pace yourself and take breaks and, if you need help clearing your driveway and sidewalk, don’t be afraid to ask for it.
In addition to paying attention to the above holiday risk factors for heart disease, you should also pay attention to any uncomfortable sensations you may experience in your body, as they can be warning signs of a heart attack. The most common heart attack symptoms are pain or pressure in the chest area, pain in the abdomen, difficulty breathing and/or shortness of breath, unexplained fatigue or lack of energy, dizziness, and pain in your left arm or shoulder, or in your back or jaw. Unexplained nausea or vomiting can also be a warning sign. If you experience any of these symptoms, seek medical attention immediately.
Unabashed Plug
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Improve Your Health By Being Good To Your Gut
Last issue I explained why your overall health is so dependent on the health of your gut (your gastrointestinal, or GI, tract). Here are some steps you can take to improve your health by being good to your gut.
It All Begins With the Food You Eat
As with nearly all health-related issues, gut health is extremely dependent on the foods you eat. To improve and maintain healthy functioning of your gastrointestinal tract, you need to follow a healthy diet.
For the vast majority of people, this means eating in accordance to what has become known as the Mediterranean Diet, so named because it is the traditional diet eaten by people in countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. The Mediterranean Diet is the only diet scientifically proven to reduce the risk of the most serious diseases that plague our Western world, including cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. And, because this way of eating avoids all of the processed foods and food additives that are so common in the standard American diet, the Mediterranean Diet also support healthy gut function.
You can find plenty of information about the Mediterranean Diet by conducting a search online, or by reading books on the subject. Briefly put, the main aspects of the Mediterranean Diet include plentiful amounts of legumes (beans), unrefined grains and cereals, fresh, organic vegetables, and olive oil, along with moderate to high amounts of fresh, wild-caught fish, moderate amounts of dairy products (mostly cheese and yogurt, but also including up to four eggs per week), and low amounts of meat and meat products. For dessert, fresh fruit is perferred. In addition, the diet allows one or two glasses of wine each day.
One of the reasons that the Mediterranean Diet is so good for your gut is because of its high dietary fiber content. Dietary fiber is essential for healthy gut function, as well as proper elimination. In addition, dietary fiber helps to keep blood suagr levels in check, thereby preventing both hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and type 2 diabetes. In addition, the diet is also low in unhealthy saturated fats and high in healthy monounsaturated fats.
Beware of Food Allergies and Sensitivities
By shifting to a diet that is primarily Mediterranean-based, you should begin to notice an improvement in your health within a few weeks. However, there is another aspect of your diet that you need to be aware of too, when it comes to healthy gut function: food allergies and sensitivities.
Food allergies and sensitivities can be a factor in a variety of gastrointestinal problems, although many doctors today still fail to screen for them. Common food allergy culrpits are foods such as chocolate, corn, milk and dairy products, peanuts, shellfish, soy and soy products, tomatoes, and wheat, but any food can potentially cause allergies or sensitivities. Therefore, it’s important that you be screened for food allergies by a physician trained in their treatment. To find such a doctor in your area, contact the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) through their website: www.aaemonline.org).
Improving Digestion
Eating healthy foods is only one part of the equation to healthy eating. The second part is good digestion. When the foods you eat aren’t properly broken down, your body has a more difficult time digesting them and assimilating the nutrients they contain. As a result, large, undigested food particles can pass through the linings of your gastrointestinal tract to enter your bloodstream. When this happens, the food particles can cause what is known as “leaky gut syndrome.” Leaky gut syndrome is considered by many holistic health experts to be one of the biggest undiagnosed health problems in the United States today. Once undigested food particles enter your bloodstream, your body’s immune system goes into overdrive as it tries to neutralize and eliminate the food particles. But if leaky gut syndrome persists, this process continues unabated, leading to immune dysfunctions and other health problems, including allergies.
Another major problem caused by improper digestion of foods is nutritional deficiency. This occurs because your body is unable to obtain the full range of nutrients contained in the foods you eat due to the fact that they aren’t fully digested. Chronic nutritional deficiencies can lead to a variety of other health problems, including GI disorders.
There are two simple ways that you can effectively improve your body’s ability to digest the foods you eat. The first step is to chew each bite of food thoroughly, something that most of us fail to do. Ideally, you should chew each bite of food you consume 20 to 40 times, or until the food becomes almost watery. By chewing your food thoroughly, you spare your body from having to expend more energy than normal to begin the digestive process. Some health practitioners maintain that this easy step of chewing food 20 to 40 times per bite is enough alone to eventually create dramatic health improvements.
You can further enhance your body’s ability to digest and make use of the foods you eat by taking digestive enzymes with your meals. Digestive enzymes are a form of nutritional supplements that mimic the enzymes your own body produces in order to digest the foods you eat. Unfortunately, because of a variety of factors, including aging and cooking methods, today many people aren’t producing enough digestive enzymes to deal with the foods they consume. Additionally, because of such internal enzyme deficiencies, the human body has to expend more energy and work harder to accomplish digestion. By taking digestive enzyme, which are available at your local health food store, you can prevent such problems and make it easier for your body to obtain the nutrients it requires from the foods you eat.
Protect Your Gut with “Friendly Bacteria.”
As I mentioned last issue, between 300 and 500 distinct species of bacteria exist within your body’s GI tract, and together there are approximately 100 trillion of them. As I also mentioned, these “friendly bacteria”, form a protective shield that covers the intestinal walls and prevents harmful and damaging substances such as toxins and “non-friendly” bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms, from passing through the GI lining into your body’s bloodstream. Additionally, these friendly flora play an important role in enabling vital nutrients and fluids to pass through the GI lining into the body.
So long as the friendly bacteria are present in sufficient numbers and remain unharmed, the overall functioning of your GI tract will remain intact. However, if the bacteria are subjected to repeated exposure to harmful substances, white blood cells within the GI tract go into attack mode. In cases where healthy bacteria are temporarily exposed to harmful substances, the white blood cells are soon able to resolve the problem by attacking and eliminating these substances. But when chronic exposure to such substances occurs, the effort of the white blood cells to dispose of them can cause the lining of the GI tract to become irritated and inflamed. The end result is gastrointestinal problems that can potentially lead to other health issues.
Unfortunately, today many people lack sufficient amounts of friendly bacteria. There are a number of reasons for this, including the overuse of antibiotics, which kill both friendly and non-friendly bacteria. Steroid medications, such as cortisone and prednisone, also kill off friendly bacteria, as do birth control pills. Other factors can deplete friendly bacteria include food poisoning, poor diet, and over-acidity.
When friendly bacteria become depleted in the GI tract unhealthy bacteria that the friendly bacteria would otherwise hold in check are able to grow and spread throughout the GI tract and, if their spread is unchecked, into the bloodstream, causing or contributing to a wide range of potential health problems, including candiasis (systemic yeast overgrowth, colitis, and irritable bowel syndrome, as well as allergies and autoimmune disorders.
Because of how important friendly bacteria are to gut and overall health, many health practitioners today recommend the use of probiotic supplements to replenish the body’s stores of friendly bacteria. Probiotic literally means “pro-life,” and probiotic supplements contain the most common and important strains of healthy bacteria that naturally occur inside your GI tract, especially the lower colon. For many people the use of probiotic supplements on a daily basis has resulted in significant improvements to their overall health. You can find such supplements at your local health food store. They are safe to use and can be used indefinitely. For best results, seek out a nutritionally oriented physician who is experienced in the use of probiotics so that he or she can advise you on how to use probiotics most effectively.
Get and Keep Active
Finally, there is one other important step you can take to improve your gut and overall health: exercise! Exercise is at least as important as a healthy diet is to overall health, and it can also significantly benefit gut function. That’s because regular exercise has been shown to improve digestion and promote healthy and regular bowel movements so that your body easily and efficiently eliminates wastes created after food is digested. In addition, exercise burns calories and helps to maintain healthy metabolism, both of which supply your body with more energy o perform its many tasks, including those that occur within the gastrointestinal system.
One of the easiest and most effective steps you can take to ensure that you meet your daily exercise needs is to take a 20 to 30 minute brisk walk after lunch or dinner. (For best results, walk after your largest meal of the day.) By getting into the habit of taking a daily walk after you eat, you will soon start to notice improved digestion and more energy.
Conclusion
Now that you have learned these easy-to-apply steps to improve both your gut and overall health, all that’s left for you to do is take action. By applying what you’ve learned before long you will soon be reaping many health benefits, not the least of which will be a healthier gut.
Unabashed Plug
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USDA Rushing Through Dangerous New Rules on GE and Pharmaceutical Crops
[The following is a press release and call to action from The True Food Network and the Center for Food Safety. – LT]
In the waning months of the Bush administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has joined the ranks of federal agencies rushing through new regulations that weaken protections for human health and the environment. USDA has released a proposed rule that would significantly weaken oversight of all genetically engineered crops, and which continue to allow companies to grow food crops engineered to produce drugs and industrial chemicals.
The USDA began this process over four years ago by promising stricter oversight. Unfortunately, improvements considered early on have been dismissed, and the proposed rule now has the same gaping holes as the policy it is replacing, and creates a few new ones, as well. For instance:
USDA has created a huge loophole allowing biotech companies to assess their own crops to determine whether USDA should regulate them. And the criteria are open-ended, very subjective, and will certainly reduce USDA’s oversight of GE crops.
The proposed rules could also allow companies to grow untested GE crops with no oversight whatsoever: “Over time, the range of GE organisms subject to oversight is expected to decrease...,” a move which USDA itself admits will make contamination of conventional/organic crops with untested GE material more likely.
To add insult to injury, USDA has proposed to write into law its “Low Level Presence” policy, which excuses it from taking any action to remove untested GE crops from conventional or organic food, feed and seed. This contamination often occurs through cross-pollination or seed dispersal, and has cost farmers hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales and lowered profits.
USDA rejected options that would have banned outdoor cultivation of pharmaceutical-producing GE (food) crops, the only way to ensure that untested drugs don’t end up in our food, despite strong support from citizens and the food industry.
USDA has refused to propose any controls on pesticide-promoting GE crops, despite increasing pesticide use and an epidemic of resistant weeds that have been fostered by these crops.
Finally, USDA snuck in a last-minute “correction” that bars state or local regulation of GE crops more protective than its own weak rule. CFS strongly opposes such preemptive language that would bar local or state authorities from putting meaningful regulations or restrictions on GE crops in place that best suit their communities. This last-minute change should be cause to extend the public comment period.
The USDA is treading dangerous new ground here. The structure of the new proposal opens loopholes that can be exploited by biotech companies and expose consumers to more untested and unlabeled genetically engineered foods.
After denying requests for an extension to the short comment period given for the proposed rules, USDA’s comment period closes on Monday. Sign our petition to the USDA today and demand stronger—not weaker—regulations for genetically engineered crops!
[You can sign the petition by going to: http://ga3.org/campaign/GMOregs. Please do.]
Recommendations
Books
The novels of Michael Crichton. Michael Crichton was one of my favorite authors, and I was very sorry to learn of his recent passing due to cancer. I first discovered Crichton when I was a freshman in high school and read his first novel, The Andromeda Strain. If you have not read his works, by all means seek them out. You won’t be disappointed.
The Fencing Master by Arturo Perez-Reverte. Perez-Reverte is one of Spain’s most acclaimed living authors, and with good reason. I discovered him a few years ago and have never been disappointed. The Fencing Master is both a mystery, historical novel, and a brilliant meditation on honor and self-respect.
The Mindbody Prescription by John Sarno, MD. This is one of the finest presentations of how the mind (thoughts, emotions, and beliefs) directly influences the body. Simply by reading and understanding the concepts that Dr. Sarno shares, all of which are based on his many years of clinical practice, can go a long way in helping you heal.
I.O.U.S.A. by Addison Wiggin and Kate Incontrera. This book, which expands on the information contained in the film documentary of the same name, is one of the best explanations of why our nation is saddled with so much debt, most of which is entirely ignored by the vast majority of our elected officials. Highly recommended.
Medical Freedom
Please contact and support the following organizations dedicated to protecting our health freedoms.
Citizens for Health - http://www.citizens.org
Alliance for Natural Health – http://www.alliance-natural-health.org (The leading organization fighting to preserve health f/r/e/edom in England and the EU.)
Institute for Health Freedom – http://www.ForHealthF/r/e/edom.org
International Advocates for Health Freedom (IAHF) – http://www.iahf.com
And to learn how corrupt and extensive Big Pharma’s monopoly is, visit http://www.pnc.com.au/~cafmr/online/research/index.html the website for the Campaign Against Fraudulent Medical Research. In particular, read their in-depth report The Pharmaceutical Drug Racket that you will find there.
That’s all for this week.
Health and Blessings!
Larry Trivieri, Jr.
Contact Information: Due to the inordinate amount of spam my email account receives, I no longer use it to receive emails. To contact me, please visit www.1healthyworld.com/contactus
Disclaimer: The Health Plus Letter is a weekly eZine published by Larry Trivieri, Jr. and Library of Health, LLC (dba www.1healthyworld.com) 3 Greenwood Court, Utica, NY 13501. It is made available without charge for information purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for medical care. If you are experiencing a health problem, seek prompt medical attention.
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Legal Notice: The information in this eZine may be freely and widely disseminated so long as full attribution is made as follows: The Health Plus Letter, November 20, 2008, Vol. 6, No. 27. Copyright © 2008 by Larry Trivieri, Jr. All rights reserved.
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