Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
Cholesterol as We Age Dr. Claire Arcidiacono, ND Every year you most likely go to your doctor for a physical exam and routine blood work. When you look over your blood work you may notice something called a lipid panel or cholesterol panel. Your doctor …
Fatty Liver Disease By: Noreen Kodula, Certified Natural Health Professional (CNHP) Also known as hepatic steatosis is the excessive accumulation of fat in the liver cells. Having small amounts of fat is to be expected but excessive amounts cause inflammation in the liver, which can …
From a Naturopathic Point of View Part 4
Dr. Claire Arcidiacono, ND
The importance of western and holistic medicine working together!
One of the key pathways to helping people become healthy is learning how to balance both western and holistic medicine. These 2 ways of looking at health are not, nor should they ever be considered to be enemies. Sometimes they may look at situations differently but that doesn’t mean they can’t work together. As a naturopath I see the 2 working together like your left and right hand.
I wrote a blog in this series about why it is important to be in control of certain chronic diseases. In some situations this may mean that in addition to supplements medications may be required to help prevent dangerous complications. For example high blood pressure. Any reading over 180/120 requires immediate attention since it is considered to be a “hypertensive crisis”. One way this is managed is with blood pressure medications. (1) Now I know it can be intimidating to start a new medicine. However in some cases it may be important to prevent dangerous complications. Depending on the type of medications that are used certain supplements may be helpful. I’ll be reviewing a few supplements that are generally helpful for blood pressure at the end of this blog. However, it’s always helpful to speak to a nutritionist and make sure the supplements are the ones that would work best with any medications that you may be taking. Just like with blood pressure having abnormal cholesterol can also have complications. Just like with blood pressure sometimes medications can be needed to help bring levels down to safer levels. Remember you can always seek out a second opinion. (2) Just like with blood pressure I’ll be reviewing some supplements that can be helpful for cholesterol.
In addition to medications sometimes surgeries may be needed for best results. A prime example of this would be joint pain. While in my clinical experience joint pain can be greatly helped with supplements once the joint is “bone on bone” there is little that we do to help with supplements. At that point it can be critical to follow up with your doctor or even get a second opinion. (3) A personal experience with this is in regards to a customer who was in severe pain due to a joint that needed to be replaced. Her doctor indicated that if she didn’t replace the joint she would end up in a wheelchair. After talking with me about a post-surgical protocol she bravely underwent the procedure. Just 2 months after the procedure when she followed up with me it was to let me know that between the surgery and the supplements she felt better than she had felt in years. I was very happy for her.
I want to wrap this up by saying sometimes medications are important to save your life. Years ago I received a call from someone who was bitten by a dog. By their descriptions the bite sounded as though it was likely to be infected. I told them to go to the ER. Over a month later they called me back. They had a severe infection and according to their reports “almost died” and they needed strong antibiotics. In other case’s people will call with questions about situations such as a UTI. This is a great way to work with both holistic and western medicine. Treating a UTI with both western and holistic medicine can help reduce the risk of complications. (4)
Overall as a Naturopath I feel that both holistic and western medicine work best together.
High blood pressure:
Cholesterol helpers!
Our product high light will be Flex Hx!
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Greens Hx part 2 Dr. Claire Arcidiacono, ND In our last blog we were talking about how one of our most popular supplements can be beneficial for our heart. This supplement was Greens Hx and we will be continuing this exciting topic today! So …
Sterols Plus Hx: InVite’s Comprehensive Cholesterol Targeting Formula! Dr. Claire Arcidiacono, ND Our product spotlight is one that that I think is an amazing formula for cholesterol. What is this wonderful formula you ask? Sterols Plus Hx! Sterols plus is a combination of things …
The Good and Bad of Cholesterol
Dr. Claire Arcidiacono, ND
Cholesterol is a topic that gets plenty of attention. Atherosclerosis is another topic that gets a lot of attention. But what are these things? What is the relationship between them? And perhaps most importantly what is their importance in our life?
Now I’m not going to get too in depth with the details of what cholesterol is and isn’t since there is a plethora of information on this topic at invitehealth.com. But I do want to provide some background information. Now you are probably thinking why does this concern me at all? I am young, cholesterol is a concern for the elderly! Unfortunately, this is becoming less true over time and is becoming something that younger and younger people must contend with. So, let’s start with some background information! Basically, cholesterol is a waxy substance that is found in our blood. Now cholesterol doesn’t just wonder around in our blood willy-nilly. It rides on proteins called LDL or HDL. LDL or the “bad guy” is what brings cholesterol around the body. LDL is considered the bad guy because it deposits cholesterol into our blood vessels and this eventually builds up leading to plaque. But LDL isn’t just dropping cholesterol into our blood vessels for no reason! LDL travels the body looking for blood vessel walls that are damaged and it places the cholesterol over this damage like a band aid. Unfortunately it tends to keep piling cholesterol onto this spot and the cholesterol builds up. Over time this becomes the cholesterol plaque that causes us so many problems.
What are some of the things that can damage our blood vessels leading to cholesterol becoming a plaque in the first place? Well there are a number of things that can do this! These risk factors include smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes, lack of activity, poor diet and too much alcohol. Having high cholesterol and abdominal obesity are also risk factors. Unfortunately the only way to know your cholesterol is high is to get blood work. There aren’t signs that would indicate that your cholesterol is too high.
What does HDL do? HDL picks up the excess cholesterol and takes it back to the liver. In simple terms it puts it back into storage. Lastly on your blood work is something called triglycerides. This is another type of fat that increase the risk of heart disease. Now before you start to think that all cholesterol is bad, I want to point out that cholesterol is important for building our cells, making certain vitamins, and even provides the building blocks for hormones and neurotransmitters! Even our brain depends on cholesterol.
What is atherosclerosis? In this disease there are lesions in the walls of our arteries. Now these lesions can lead to our blood vessels becoming narrow due to the buildup of plaque aka cholesterol that has been deposited. Just as an aside plaque is more than just cholesterol, it also contains fat, calcium and cholesterol all combined. Now do you remember my blog on poor circulation? Well atherosclerosis is one of the things that can lead to poor circulation.
The risk factors for atherosclerosis and high cholesterol are very similar. Having high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking and having a poor diet are all risk factors. But why is this important? As I said at the start of this blog cholesterol build up starts very young. It is a prime example of something that you should work on before it becomes a problem. Cholesterol is also a risk factor for almost every type of heart disorder including atherosclerosis, which in turn is a huge risk factor for heart diseases such as poor circulation, coronary artery disease, stroke, heart attack and even kidney disease! So what can you do if have a family history or even personal history of high cholesterol? Turns out there is a lot you can do!
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