Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
According to the CDC, heart disease is the leading cause of death in both men and women in the United States. In this episode, Jerry Hickey, Ph. discusses the importance of Aged Garlic for overall heart health.
In today’s episode, Jerry Hickey, Ph. discusses the importance of fish oils in your diet, specifically krill oil in the support of heart health.
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Today, doctors know of many factors that contribute to heart disease and the risk of heart attack. The Framingham Risk Score developed from the Framingham Heart Study takes into account a number of these risk factors to help estimate your risk of a heart attack over the next ten years. A separate study by German and English researchers published in the British Journal of Nutrition shows that Cocoa improves the Framingham Risk Score.†
Consuming this powerful superior that is rich in Flavanols over a 30 day period made significant improvements to important risk factors such as blood pressure, circulation, and cholesterol in 100 healthy middle-aged men and women. It improved Flow Mediated Dilation, meaning that when the heart pumped blood, the blood vessels reacted more appropriately – opening up for improved circulation. This takes a great deal of pressure off of the heart; if blood vessels do not adequately open, the heart must pump harder to force blood up to the brain and down to the legs.†
Cocoa and Heart Health
In a different study, a review of 19 randomized clinical trials by researchers at Harvard, Brown, and Emory University’s, Cocoa was found to improve insulin sensitivity, boost HDL-good cholesterol, reduce triglycerides, which is one of the greasy fats that contributes to heart disease, and cocoa lowered dangerous inflammation in the heart and arteries. This is all great news, since cocoa is loved by so many, but researchers caution that the flavanols in cocoa can be lost or diminished when cocoa is processed into chocolate. This is due to a process called dutching that adds sugars and milk fats commonly found in your favorite chocolate bars.†
Interestingly, a number of large recent studies indicate that many people who suffer a heart attack have normal or even low cholesterol and often these heart attack sufferers are taking cholesterol lowering medications. The common cause here appears to be inflammation in the blood vessel walls and the heart. You can have a test to see if you have this sort of inflammation as part of your blood test; it is called hs-CRP. Once again; this superfood is able to help curtail this form of inflammation according to human clinical trials.†
Cocoa has been shown to reduce hsCRP in a number of studies, and elevated hsCRP is a major cause of heart attacks. A large, long-term study from researchers in Boston and Stockholm of over 1,000 heart attack survivors over an eight year period shows that consuming cocoa flavanols reduced their risk of dying from a future heart attack by 44% and that was if they consumed the cocoa just once a week. If they consumed the cocoa more than once a week it reduced their risk by a powerful 66%.
This is a linear, dose-related response; the more frequently cocoa was consumed, the lower their risk of dying making this a strong result from a well-powered study. Well-powered means the study included many heart attack survivors and they were followed for a long enough time; eight years on average.
The Impact of Pollution on Your Heart
Another source of inflammation is pollution. Pollution from cars, trucks and buses, contains millions of tiny particles. These tiny particles, referred to as fine particulate matter, when inhaled are easily diluted into our blood and when passing from the lungs into the heart and circulation trigger inflammation in the circulatory system. Research from the University of Missoula, Montana have found that Cocoa reduces this inflammation within as little as 9 days. Again showing value for protecting the heart.†
According to research having a serving of cocoa as little as twice a week has real benefit for the heart. One caveat; don’t mix cocoa into milk; milk seems to offset the benefits of cocoa for reducing circulatory inflammation; mix it in water or unsweetened almond beverage.
That’s episode two! Stay tuned for tomorrow’s episode.
A new study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology suggests that regular toothbrush may keep heart failure and atrial fibrillation at bay.
You may want to take a closer look at your eating habits, as a new study says there is a likelihood of increased heart health conditions with late night eating.
Often used to treat high blood pressure and other cardiovascular conditions, beta-blockers are medications that help to block the effects of the hormone epinephrine, also known as adrenaline. This causes your heart to beat more slowly and with less force in order to lower your blood pressure. Beta-blockers also help to improve blood flow through your veins and arteries.
But beta-blockers have been shown to often trigger or exacerbate psoriasis. A new study from scientists at the University of Bonn and Freie Universität Berlin have found a possible cause for this.
According to the study, it appears that beta-blockers can interfere with the breakdown of defective cell components. “In return, the cells release messengers that trigger immune-mediated inflammatory reactions.”
The scientists studied an active substance called propranolol and found that the inflammatory side effects are probably due to a combination of two factors: “Propranolol is both fat-soluble and slightly alkaline,” explains Prof. Dr. Günther Weindl from the Pharmaceutical Institute at the University of Bonn.
It’s fat-soluable property enables it to cross biomembranes – thin, fat-like membranes that enclose the cell. Its alkalinity ensures that propranolol becomes positively charged in an acidic environment, meaning the substance can no longer return through the membrane.
This is problematic, as the cells use bubbles from the biomembrane as a ‘recycling bag’, removing defective proteins and decomposing enzymes which break down and release the individual building blocks back into the cell, acting as a natural recycling plant. But because the enzymes can only do their work in this ‘perfect recycling, slightly acidic’ environment, when a propranolol molecule randomly finds its way through the membrane into the “bag”, it is positively charged and trapped. This causes it to accumulate and disrupts the processes in the cell. As a result, according to scientists, it “releases inflammatory messengers, in particular the so-called interleukin-23, which is mainly secreted by immune cells. The consequence are the observed skin problems.”
The researchers now hope to further investigate how exactly these processes are related at molecular level.
Jerry Hickey, Ph. Scientific Director and Pharmacist at Invite Health has developed a Drug-Induced Nutrient Depletion Chart to better help you understand what depletions are happening in your body when you are on a prescription drug.
According to this chart (which can be found by clicking here), beta-blocking drugs including Atenolol, Corgard, Lopressor, Tenormin, Toprol XL, and Metoprolol may deplete Coenzyme Q10, Chromium and/or Melatonin. Here’s why –
Beta-blockers have been shown in numerous studies to block the production of Coenzyme Q10 in the liver. “In just a year’s time, this can result in an over 40% in reduction in serum and cellular levels of CoQ10, which may further result in fatigue, weakened muscles, lethargy, and overall lack of energy.”†
Chromium is a mineral that has been shown to support healthy metabolism and blood sugar already within a normal range. When on a beta-blocker, taking this mineral may offset the drop in HDL, shown in a early study performed by the School of Public Health. The study showed, two months of chromium supplementation resulting in a “clinically useful increase in HDL cholesterol levels in men taking beta-blockers.”†
Melatonin helps to mediate your circadian rhythm, or more commonly known as your ‘Sleep/Wake cycle”. It is produced in the pineal gland mainly at night but beta-blockers can cause sleep disturbances, which impact this cycle. Findings from the Department of Medicine’s study on the influence of beta-blockers on melatonin release indicate that “beta-blockers decrease melatonin release.” This can impact your quality of sleep, your mood, and even your immune system.†
Resources
University of Bonn. “Why beta-blockers cause skin inflammation: Possible cause of a known phenomenon.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 7 November 2019. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191107122632.htm>.
Lukasik, Robert J., DCN, FACACN. “Statin, Beta-blocker, Diuretic Drug Induced Coenzyme Q10 Deficiency. <https://www.rejuvenation-science.com/coq10-depletion>
School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina. “Effects of chromium supplementation on serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in men taking beta-blockers. A randomized, controlled trial.” US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, 1991. <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1683196>