Exercise will make you more fit, but that’s only a small part of the story, according to Philip J. Goscienski, M.D. “Humans are designed for much more physical activity than most of us get,” says Dr. Goscienski, author of Health Secrets of the Stone Age, “and every cell of the body benefits from it. Barely 20 percent of Americans are physically active enough to enjoy those benefits.”
The 80 percent of us who savor the soft life now will have to endure a hard life later, he says. The human body evolved under conditions that involved lots of activity for so many thousands of years that it depends on moderate physical stress in order to function well.
“If we don’t stress our bones with fairly heavy lifting, carrying, pushing and throwing, those bones will become thinner. After all, why should the body maintain a strong, heavy skeleton if it doesn’t need it to support a lot of muscle? Thin bones are fragile, a condition we all know as osteoporosis.” That’s a pretty obvious example, but there are lots of subtle ones.
Most people would be surprised to learn that there is a connection between exercise and gallbladder disease. The more you exercise, the less likely it is that you will ever have to undergo surgery to have your gallbladder removed. In a study of more than 60,000 women, those who exercised 2 or 3 hours a week had 20 percent fewer gallbladder operations than their inactive counterparts.
Calling someone a musclehead is no compliment, but if you maintain your muscle mass with exercise, it’s a good bet that your brain will work better, too. Exercise not only improves short-term memory, it will improve your mood and protect you against depression. Persons who are physically active throughout their lives are less likely to suffer from stroke or Alzheimer’s disease, so that their last decades truly become their golden years.
Ever notice that athletic individuals don’t get colds as often as couch potatoes? Regular, moderate exercise powers up the immune system. That becomes a life-and-death matter in the elderly, few of whom get much exercise. Inactivity results in loss of muscle mass, which diminishes our reserves of protein, a nutrient that we need to form infection-fighting blood cells and antibodies. It’s no wonder that hospital-acquired infection is so common among the senior population. By retiring from physical activity as well as their jobs, they lower their resistance to germs that younger, fitter persons are able to overcome.
You can lower your chances of getting several forms of cancer breast, prostate and colon by exercising throughout life. The reasons are not yet understood, although women who accumulate fat by being inactive raise their estrogen levels, which increases the risk of breast cancer.
From middle age onward, poor sleep patterns and arthritis become annoyances that interfere with lifestyle. Both will improve with regular exercise. Persons who exercise with moderate intensity, such as walking for at least 45 minutes several times a week, fall asleep more quickly and average about one hour more of total sleep than persons who never exercise. Osteoarthritis, which affects more than half of the elderly population, is less painful and limiting among those who engage in exercise that is appropriate for their age and condition.
We haven’t even discussed obesity and type 2 diabetes, but as Dr. Goscienski points out in Health Secrets of the Stone Age, these have now become frank epidemics in Western societies. Both conditions are totally absent in present-day hunter-gatherer populations, whose lifestyle is identical to that of the Stone Age. He notes that the 4-fold increase in the level of obesity in children since the early 1970s can be accounted for entirely by their lower expenditure of calories, not by their increased food intake. Type 2 diabetes is now so common among children that they are suffering from its complications before they reach the age of 30.
Kids and The Low-Carb Lifestyle
Some pediatricians have been prescribing a low-carb diet for a select group of children for decades, and what they have seen is very unsettling. The ketogenic diet was developed more than 80 years ago in order to control seizures that did not respond to the anticonvulsant medications that were available then. There are now dozens of medications that help to control seizures but the ketogenic diet is still used. The good news is that it does stop or slow down the frequency of seizures. The bad news is that it has some unhealthy effects on the heart.
The ketogenic diet is not identical to the Atkins diet. Although it contains very little carbohydrate it also has little protein, and 90 percent of calories come from fat. As you might imagine, keeping a child on this very unpalatable diet is every difficult, and many parents simply give up when faced with tantrums and food-stealing.
In a study done at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, children on a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet developed marked increases of total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, all of which are risk factors for coronary artery disease. These effects persisted for at least 24 months. Children on a ketogenic diet are also at risk of kidney stones, which are usually rare during childhood.
There’s plenty of evidence that low blood sugar levels, an inevitable consequence of a low-carbohydrate diet, produce memory and mood problems, irritability and aggressive behavior. Those who live with diabetic patients are aware that an overdose of insulin causes a severe drop in blood sugar that can lead to seizures or death. It doesn’t take any great leap of logic to conclude that a diet that results in frequent low blood sugar levels isn’t good for the brain. For the developing brain of a child, even an adolescent, it could lead to individual tragedy and social disaster.
There’s no single solution to childhood obesity
What a child eats is only one factor in what is clearly an epidemic of childhood obesity. At any age, weight gain comes from using too few calories as well as eating too many. Computer games, television viewing, lack of physical education classes, reliance on Mom for transportation, disrupted family conditions and fear of crime in urban neighborhoods are just a few of the reasons why physical activity has taken a nosedive among children in the past generation, a period during which type 2 diabetes in children has risen tenfold. Careful analysis shows that almost all the fat gain of modern children is due to their sedentary habits, not to their eating habits.
Diabetes will soon be an intolerable burden
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a report that should have stunned the actuaries of health insurance companies. Of children born in the year 2000, one-third will develop type 2 diabetes as adults. For African-American and Hispanic females that number will be approximately 50 percent.
Who will pay for the health care costs of one-third of our population, a group that will be unable to support themselves because of heart disease, kidney failure, amputation of limbs and blindness? The very fact that modern medicine is able to prolong the lives of these sufferers only adds to the enormous cost of extra decades of survival. Directors of kidney dialysis centers already agree that they are behind in the capacity to treat the present population of diabetics whose kidneys have been destroyed. Yet, this is where our children are headed, as even 6-year-olds are now being diagnosed with the disease.
Healthy nutrition in a free fall
French fries are vegetables in only the loosest possible use of the word, but they comprise 25 percent of the average child’s vegetable intake. The value of a diet that is high in fruits and vegetables cannot be overestimated. Heart disease and cancer are much less common in persons with a high intake of these foods, but on any given day in the United States, 40 percent of children have not eaten a single vegetable. In actual surveys of children’s eating habits, no fruit or vegetable even French fries makes it to the top ten.
High-fructose corn syrup is the only sweetener of soft drinks in the United States. It comprises more than 15 percent of the calorie intake of the average child; it is more than double that among many adolescents. More than simply adding to an already excessive calorie intake, fructose bypasses the usual digestive processes and leads to formation of heart-damaging chemicals and adds to the complications of diabetes.
Eat Like a Stone Ager Without Feeling like One
The word is getting around that the modern dietary lifestyle is one of the reasons why Americans are overweight and burdened by chronic disease. The diet that’s right for us, according to many experts, is what our Stone Age ancestors ate. But is that realistic? Didn’t they eat food raw, and have lots of meat?
“There are loads of misconceptions about the Stone Age,” says physician-author Philip J. Goscienski, M.D. “Sure, they ate most foods raw, but keep in mind that man has controlled fire for more than a hundred thousand years, and not all their barbecues were accidental.”
We eat lots of our vegetables and most of our fruits raw, according to Dr. Goscienski, whose book, Health Secrets of the Stone Age, is due for a January 2005 release. Cooking, on the other hand, releases nutrients that would otherwise be less readily available, such as those in cereal grains and meats, and it gives us a head start on digestion.
Here are 10 foods that Stone Agers would find familiar if they were to drop in for dinner.
1. Lean meat. Remember that animals in the wild enjoy a huge variety of foods, not like farm-raised cattle, hogs and poultry. T-bone steaks from grain-fed cattle that stand around all day contain about 38 percent fat; the meat from active, grass-fed animals contains about 7 percent fat. Lean cuts of range-fed beef are not perfect substitutes for wild game, but it’s a start.
2. Poultry. Back in the Stone Age they could choose from hundreds of different kinds of birds whose meat and eggs provided plenty of nourishment, especially protein. We could have lots of variety too, if we worked at it. Instead, we settle for only two kinds of fowl: chicken and turkey. If you would really like to enjoy something from the Stone Age, try some wild game. You’ll find plenty of sources on the Internet. Search for “wild game meat.” Most meat markets can order pheasant or quail. Duck, goose and Cornish game hen are available at most major supermarkets.
3. Fish and other seafood. This includes lake and stream varieties. Their high content of omega-3 fatty acids may have helped our species become the dominant animal on the planet. Omega-3 fatty acids are essential to the proper development of the brain and eyes, just what slow-moving humans with no claws or fangs needed eons ago in order to survive.
4. Leafy green vegetables. Until humans became skilled hunters, which took them a couple of million years, they were mostly vegetarians, as apes are today. It’s important to recognize that this food group is what our body chemistry was designed for, with its abundance of vitamins, folate, flavonoids and thousands of other nutrients that are essential for optimum health. Of course, they had no salad dressings, which are definitely not health foods, especially when eaten in the large quantities that most of us find so hard to resist.
5. Fruits. Hunter-gatherers, which we all were during the Stone Age, had an enormous, seasonal variety of fruits from which to choose. Of course, these plant products weren’t as large, plump and juicy as the ones in your local market, but without chemical fertilizers, pesticides and other pollutants they probably were a lot more nutritious. They certainly were not as sweet as our commercial hybrids, and they all contained much more fiber than domesticated fruit.
6. Berries. We tend to think of berries and fruits together, but there are some differences. Back in the Stone Age, berries, like fruits, were smaller and less sweet than our highly domesticated varieties. However, they are easy to gather, vary with the season, and are even more richly endowed with antioxidants than most fruits. Nutritionists advise that we eat some variety of berries every day.
7. Nuts. The health benefits of nuts become more apparent year after year. Walnuts, almonds, pecans, hazelnuts and pistachios contain healthy amounts of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, as well as substances that have heart-protective (saponins) and cancer-preventing (squalene) properties. So do peanuts, although strictly speaking they are not nuts, but legumes. The FDA recommends that we eat about 1.5 ounces of nuts a day, which is about 30 almonds, or the equivalent volume (one-third cup) of the other nuts. Depending on the type of nut, that’s about 240 to 300 calories, comprising one-tenth or more of the calories we take in every day, so don’t overdo it.
8. Roots. Folks back in the Stone Age probably got some of the minerals they needed (iron, copper) from the dirt left on the outside of edible roots. A modern Ms. or Mrs. Clean wouldn’t think of serving unscrubbed carrots! All root vegetables, with their abundance of fiber, vitamins and antioxidants, provide healthful substitutes for refined carbohydrates. Think of beets, yams, turnips, parsnips or carrots to replace rice or pasta, neither of which was available during the Stone Age.
9. Mushrooms. Mushrooms are such ancient forms of life that thousands of species populated the planet by the time humans arrived. More than likely, Stone Age people were aware of mushrooms that could kill as well as those that caused hallucinations. The several kinds of mushrooms that we find in the supermarket, fresh or canned, have moderate amounts of B vitamins and small amounts of healthy polyunsaturated fat. Mushrooms are likely to become more popular as their cholesterol-lowering and immune-boosting properties become better known.
10. Grains. I deliberately left this group for last because they are latecomers to the human diet. Before the Agricultural Revolution, which took place roughly 12,000 years ago, grains were not a major food source. Grain harvesting requires cutting tools, a method for removing the seed from the stalk, and storage containers, none of which were available tens of thousands of years ago. Without heating and grinding, humans cannot easily digest most grains. Our ingenuity and skill, however, eventually overcame these problems, and grains (including rice and corn) now constitute more than half the calorie intake of most people throughout the world. As long as these are whole-grain products, they bear at least a little resemblance to what our ancestors ate during the Stone Age.
None of these food items exist today exactly as they did in the Stone Age, but they form a healthy approximation, with good fats, phytonutrients, fiber, vitamins and minerals. A diet that contains only these ingredients is far from boring and is readily available. But be sure to wash those carrots!
Breaking the Breakfast Barrier
Why was breakfast fun when you were a kid? Because Mom made it, it was probably sugary, and you didn’t have to do the dishes!
Now you’re the whole show, maybe for the rest of the family, and there’s just never enough time in the morning to get the kids to school and for you to get what most nutritionists have pegged as the most important meal of the day. You know that sugar coating is not good, that persons who eat breakfast have an easier time maintaining their weight than those who don’t, and a news report just informed you that breakfast-skippers don’t perform as well at school or on the job. What a dilemma!
Can you make a breakfast that’s convenient, quick and healthy? Sure, and here are a couple of examples.
The Thirty-Second Slammer. Atkins it’s not, but it’s quick, healthy and tasty. A cold cereal is still at the top of the list for most Americans, but without sugar it usually tastes like wet cardboard. It takes literally about 30 seconds (I timed it) to slice half a banana or a couple of strawberries, or dump some blueberries or raspberries in the bowl before adding milk. If you can’t take dairy products because of lactose intolerance, the latest soy milks, with their subtle-not-sweet flavors give you even better nutrition.
Sweet, Hot and Easy. Perfect for cold mornings: oatmeal and spice. Not the individual packets, which have way too many calories, but regular (not instant) oatmeal. Pop it in the microwave with a little skim milk, soy milk or other substitute (easy on the non-dairy coffee creamers with their load of trans fat) for about one minute and 45 seconds. Then sprinkle some cinnamon and a few raisins over the top. (Recent studies suggest that about ВЅ teaspoon of cinnamon per day can help to lower cholesterol levels, and might also reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes.) Ignore the longer microwave cooking directions on the box; overheating spoils the flavor.
If you can spare another 30 seconds, try the fruit here, too.
High-Tech Omelette. Non-stick fry pans, egg substitutes and frozen veggies make it a breeze to have a filling, heart-healthy breakfast with no fuss and minimal cleanup. Preheat the pan and pour in the Eggbeaters or something similar. (These are not artificial eggs, they’re egg whites with a little coloring, vegetable oils, tofu, etc.) If you think of it the night before, pour some frozen stir-fry vegetables into a measuring cup (1/2 cup per serving) and let it thaw in the refrigerator. That helps it to cook a little faster in the morning. Besides stir-fry vegetables there are plenty of other choices in the frozen foods section.
When the eggs are partly cooked, toss in the veggies.
Anything that needs cleaning up can go into the dishwasher and you and the kids can be on your way.
Breakfast Au Natural. The ultimate in speed and convenience, but which will likely keep hunger away until lunchtime, it’s nothing more than a few ounces of yogurt to which you add two handfuls of trail mix. The latter will cover the blandness of the yogurt, but choose it carefully. Skip the ones with chocolate chips!
Whither Low-Carb?
Fads fade for a reason. Like pet rocks, low-carb diets will disappear because they just don’t do anything worthwhile. The dropout rate is high about 50 percent because the diets are boring and are unpalatable to most people. More than 90 percent of dieters return to their previous weight within 5 years, most of them even sooner. Minor side effects such as headache, fuzzy thinking, irritability, halitosis and constipation are almost universal among Atkins adherents. Severe side effects are, fortunately, rare.
Physicians are concerned that long-term adherence to a high-fat, high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet may lead to kidney stones, osteoporosis and heart abnormalities. Kidney stones and disturbances of heart rhythm are well-documented complications of the decades-old ketogenic diet (high fat, low protein, low carbohydrate) that pediatricians have used to lower the seizure frequency in children with neurological disorders.
A reputable journal reported in May 2004 that low-carb diets helped people lose weight without causing adverse effects on cholesterol levels. There was joy among food manufacturers, who had already rushed to market low-carb products that covered the spectrum from beer to bonbons. Lost in all this was the cool scientific observation that overweight persons experienced only a moderate weight loss, and that severely overweight individuals lost, on average, only one pound per month during the study year. The cholesterol profiles did, indeed favor the low-carb dieters, but those levels remained high because that’s where they started out. Finally, few journalists revealed that the Atkins Foundation funded one of these studies
Those who can successfully navigate the inconvenience and side effects of the low-carb diet and then maintain a significant loss of fat will gain much benefit. The early weight loss, however, is mostly water. Much of the later weight loss consists of lean body mass, mostly muscle. Long-term success depends not only on careful attention to diet, but also to regular exercise. Those who do not incorporate an exercise routine into their life are destined to gain all the weight back, and then some.
In what direction is the low-carb phenomenon going? First, proponents are already backing away from saturated fat. The South Beach diet recognizes that polyunsaturated (from fish) and monounsaturated (from olive oil) fats are not only acceptable, they are essential to good health. Second, the distinction between refined carbohydrates (white flour, sugar) and whole grains is one that needs to be widely disseminated. Third, the low-fat establishment cannot and must not ignore the overwhelming benefits of fruits and vegetables in the prevention of cancer and heart disease.
The low-carb craze has probably reached its peak, but remnants will persist for a generation or more, and permutations of it will rise episodically like phoenixes among those who are looking for effortless weight loss. Like the phoenix, that is a myth.
Make it a Gainless Holiday
Christmas gain is New Year’s pain! Starting early is the secret to avoiding the typical 10-pound holiday season accumulation of fat. (Come now you didn’t think it was muscle, did you?) Develop a few good habits before Thanksgiving and you’re likely to start 2005 weighing no more than you did before, maybe even less. Here are 5 tips that will help you through the holidays.
1. Set a mental limit now on the food items that are your biggest temptation. Cookies? Make 2 your limit at every holiday affair. Chocolate? Two pieces will probably satisfy your sweet tooth, especially if you eat them slowly, not in one bite. If it will make you feel better, remember that dark chocolate has some beneficial nutrients such as antioxidants and magnesium. If eggnog or other alcoholic drink makes you put on pounds, always ask the host for the smallest glass, and nurse it slowly. It will be easier if you tell yourself that it’s only until the holidays are over. (By then it might have become a good habit.)
2. If you really enjoy baking for holiday feasts, make every batch of cookies half as large as usual. Make fewer varieties. Look for recipes that yield lower calories.
3. Don’t go out to celebrate on an empty stomach. You’re likely to eat more and drink more and indulge in more of those high-calorie appetizers. Eat an apple on the way, or a handful of almonds or walnuts.
4. When you get there don’t hang around the buffet table. The closer you are, the more likely that you’ll half-consciously keep reaching for food while you’re in a pleasant conversation. If it’s an unpleasant conversation, you’ll nosh even more.
5. Make room on your body and rev up your metabolism. You probably won’t have as much time to exercise when the relatives arrive or you travel to them, so get in a few extra exercise sessions before the feasting begins. You might lose only 3 or 4 pounds in a month or two by exercising a couple more days a week, but if your routine includes resistance exercise (and it should) the added muscle will raise your metabolic rate so that you’ll be burning more calories even while you sleep.
You only need to make a few minor adjustments in order to avoid gaining weight at any time of the year. If you can arrive at January 2nd weighing the same, or less, than you did back at Thanksgiving, it will give you a boost of confidence that will spill over into everything that you do.
Unsung Benefits of Breastfeeding
From the Stone Age until just a few generations ago, human infants’ only sustenance was mother’s milk, but modern infant formula seems to be an adequate substitute. After all, infant mortality in Western societies is at historic lows and growth patterns are normal. But is that all there is to it? Could there be other advantages to breastfeeding, both to the mother and to the infant?
Post-delivery stress discomfort. All those hours of labor may be natural, but they are exhausting and stressful for mom. It’s not so easy on baby, either! First, that cushion of fluid suddenly vanishes in a big gush as labor begins. Then comes the big squeeze as the infant is mashed against the opening of the uterus, and through a birth canal that is so narrow that the baby’s skull elongates just to fit through. It takes a day or so before a newborn’s head gets its normal rounded shape back.
Enter endorphins, morphine-like hormones that the body produces, and that relieve pain and stress. Beta endorphin appears in the early milk (colostrum) of mothers who deliver naturally, but there is much less in the breastmilk of mothers who undergo Caesarian section, and who bypass a stressful labor. Even higher levels appear in the colostrum of those mothers who deliver prematurely, and whose infants might have undergone even more stress before and during delivery. Nature thus helps to make the transition from the cozy, quiet womb to the outside world a little easier.
Baby’s suckling helps healing. After a successful delivery, the new mother feels the continued contractions of her uterus as it begins to return to normal size. That shrinking is critical in reducing blood loss after separation of the placenta. The baby that is put to the breast during the first hour or two gets nothing but a few drops of colostrum for its effort, but sucking on the empty breast increases the contraction of the now-empty uterus. That helps to limit the mother’s blood loss, and it could have been a critical factor in primitive humans.
A breast has to grow up. A woman that has never been pregnant may think that her normal-appearing breasts are fully mature, but from a biological point of view, they are not. The normal cycle of breast development begins with adolescent budding, but it does not end until the breast secretes at least some milk. During that interval, especially during the adolescent years, breast tissue is susceptible to toxic agents. That might explain two observations about breast cancer. First, women who smoke during their teen years have a greater risk of breast cancer than those that do not. Second, women who breastfeed are less likely to develop breast cancer, at least in their premenopausal years, as well as ovarian cancer.
Infant formula: how boring! The can of infant formula that Dad plucks off the supermarket shelf on the day of baby’s birth contains exactly the same ingredients as the formula that the infant will receive 2 weeks, 2 months or 12 months later (unless Dad switches brands). That’s not so for breastmilk. Colostrum contains antibodies and live cells that will protect the newborn from infection and help to develop its immune system. Day by day the mother will notice that her breastmilk becomes thinner and more bluish, until by 6 weeks it becomes consistently the same in appearance. Actually, the composition of breastmilk changes every single day until weaning occurs. That’s because the baby’s developing body, especially the brain, has different requirements every day. There are hundreds of components of breastmilk that vary according to the growing infant’s needs, in a sequence that was laid down by Nature hundreds of thousands of years ago.
Thanks, Mom. That was delicious! You won’t find mint-flavored infant formula at the local market, or any with a distinctive flavor. That would never get past the folks at Quality Control. But mother’s milk reflects mother’s diet. In years past, pediatricians advised breastfeeding mothers to avoid onions, garlic or spicy, highly flavored foods. That was the wrong advice, and I was guilty of it. Babies that are exposed to a variety of flavors that come through mothers’ milk take more readily to solid foods than formula-fed infants, for whom every food flavor is new and strange. Think of all the mealtime fussiness that would avoid!
And it will make you feel better. During the first year following delivery, mothers who breastfeed are only half as likely to suffer from depression as those who do not nurse their infants. That is not a minor issue, because approximately 10 percent of women become depressed within the first 6 weeks of delivery. This mental boost may be due to a hormone called oxytocin, which is released during nursing and also causes those contractions of the uterus that I mentioned earlier.
There were no feeding options back in the Stone Age, but the decision to not breastfeed may be unavoidable for some mothers. For those who are ambivalent, these benefits may provide a little incentive.
Mikey Doesn’t Like It!
Let’s give the late Dr. Robert Atkins some credit. Over more than a quarter of a century he made us realize that we can get along with fewer carbohydrates than most of us have become used to. It’s too bad that his weight loss plan has not lived up to its promise. There are some successes, to be sure, but since the beginning of the Atkins Revolution obesity has tripled in adults as well as children.
Physicians who care for children are aware that a high fat, low carbohydrate diet is nearly impossible to maintain. This is the ketogenic diet that they have been using for nearly 80 years in order to limit seizures in their patients. It is exceedingly difficult for parents to keep kids on this diet because of its unpalatability.
Low carbohydrate diets have reached their apogee. In rocket scientist jargon, that’s the point where a missile’s trajectory reaches its highest level and starts heading downward. Makers of low-carb foods are taking a hit, as did their high carb cohorts a few years earlier. Their timing was pretty bad. According to NPD, a research group, the number of Americans on a low carb diet dropped by half, to 4.6 percent, in September 2004.
There are no long-term studies that validate a low carbohydrate diet plan. After more than 25 years, the longest trial described in peer-reviewed medical journals lasted only 12 months. The dropout rate was high among all types of dieters, approximately 40 percent of the weight loss consisted of perfectly good muscle and other lean tissue, not fat, and weight loss was so modest as to be insignificant — it averaged one pound per month. After all, when a person that weighs 250 pounds loses 12 pounds he or she is still seriously overweight. It’s true that such a modest weight loss does lower the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, but not dramatically. Without lifestyle changes that go far beyond carbohydrate control, 90 percent of dieters regain the weight that they have lost, and then some.
What’s the future of low-carb? Diets never seem to die. You will see variations on that theme for the rest of this century. The entire industry somehow ignores the Mediterranean diet, whose original adherents in the Greek islands have been among the longest-lived and heart-disease-free people on the globe. Fifty percent of their calories come from carbohydrates and 40 percent from fat, almost all of that from olive oil. It relies heavily on fruits and vegetables, whole grains and very little red meat. Alas, no money-making potential there!
When Lifestyle Changes Are Not Enough: High Cholesterol May Not Be Your Fault
(NC)-High cholesterol affects more than 10 million Canadians and is a modifiable risk factor for heart disease, the number one killer of Canadians. If you have recently been told that you have high cholesterol, you may have been very surprised. High cholesterol has no symptoms and anyone can develop it regardless of age, weight, gender, race or ethnic background.
It is important to understand that only 20 per cent of your cholesterol comes from the food you eat. The remaining 80 per cent is manufactured in the body by your liver. However, even though you may be eating well and exercising regularly, you may still have elevated cholesterol levels. Do not be discouraged. Sometimes lifestyle changes alone are not enough and your doctor may recommend medication to reduce your high cholesterol.
Treatment Options
The most commonly prescribed medications to lower cholesterol levels are statins, which work by restricting the liver’s production of cholesterol. Statins can significantly lower LDL-cholesterol, raise HDL-cholesterol, and some even lower blood triglyceride levels, another element in determining your total cholesterol level.
When you take cholesterol-lowering medication, you still need to reduce dietary intake of saturated fats and cholesterol, and exercise on a daily basis. It is essential that you take your medication as recommended. Even when your cholesterol levels are reduced, do not stop taking your medication without discussing it first with your physician.
For more information about cholesterol, heart disease, and treatment options, please speak to your physician or visit makingtheconnection.ca or call toll-free 1-877-4LOW-LDL (1-877-456-9535).
– News Canada
Lifestyle changes:
What Are My Treatment Options?
My condition, as determined by my doctorRecommended Treatment
I have higher than normal “bad” cholesterol but low to moderate risk As a first step, your doctor may suggest diet and lifestyle changes. After three to six months, if your cholesterol remains elevated above target, your doctor may prescribe medication.
I have a high risk of heart disease Medication will be considered along with lifestyle changes such as diet and exercise.
I have a very high risk or known heart disease or diabetes Medication, along with lifestyle changes such as diet and exercise, will play an important role in your cholesterol management.
Diabetes & The Foot
People with Diabetes are at high risk from various health problems such as:
Heart Disease
Strokes
Eye Disease – Possible Blindness
Nerve Damage – Neuropathy
Amputation of foot or leg
Kidney Problems
Gum Disease
Loss of teeth
Another health problem associated with diabetes involves the feet, as Diabetes is one of the major causes for lower limb amputation in the year 2004.
Amputation is obviously the last resort concerning problems of the feet, but it is surprising how a small cut or abrasion can lead to such dramatic results in diabetic patients.
Why is the Foot at Risk?
Persistent high blood glucose levels can eventually damage the body’s nerves, causing a loss of sensation (neuropathy). Nerve damage can also cause pain in the legs, arms and hands creating problems in people’s everyday lives. Your GP or Podiatrist should check your feet on a yearly basis, which should include a sensory exam to check for loss of feeling.
Small cuts or abrasions on the neuropathic foot can go unnoticed if daily foot checks are not performed. The cut can easily become infected, which in turn leads to an infected ulceration and could eventually result in the loss of the lower limb. Therefore the importance of daily foot checks, foot care & Diabetes in general cannot be underestimated.
High Risk Factors Leading to Diabetic Foot Ulcers
A small percentage of diabetic patients develop foot ulcerations, some of which may lead on to amputation. The foot is at a higher risk of ulceration if the individual suffers from conditions such as vascular disease or neuropathy. However there are many other factors that can increase risk of ulcers such as: –
Cold feet or absent foot pulses
History of Foot Problems
Foot Deformities
Limited mobility
Poor circulation
Inappropriate shoes
Uncontrolled blood sugar levels
A painless abrasion or corn can steadily progress to a distressing foot ulcer, and if left untreated skin deterioration may occur.
diet body weight health 