Smoking is the leading cause of preventable illness and death in the United States. More than 400,000 deaths every year (in fact, about 1,200 per day) in the United States are attributed to smoking. At least one-third of these are related to cardiovascular disease. Smoking kills more people each year than AIDS, alcohol (including drunk driving), cocaine, other forms of drug abuse, and accidents combined. Indeed, almost 20 percent of all deaths in the United States are related to smoking, according to the Surgeon General.The toll of this human tragedy is compounded by the immense expense borne by all members of society, smokers and nonsmokers alike, in terms of higher health insurance costs, lower productivity, and higher taxes. Analysis has shown that the cost to each American—every man, woman, and child, whether they smoke or not—is $221 to cover the consequences of smoking in terms of increased health care and insurance and lost productivity. A national financial burden of $37 billion to $50 billion per year suggests that the incentive to reduce tobacco use should be very high on an individual and national basis.*228\252\8*
Archive for the ‘Cardio & Blood- Сholesterol’ Category
Sometimes clotting of blood (thrombosis) inside an artery results in a blockage. A blood clot that forms and stays at its place of origin inside a blood vessel (or the heart) is called a thrombus. A thrombus can partially or totally obstruct the artery and prevent sufficient blood flow.When a blood clot forms in one place but breaks off and travels through the blood vessels to another point in the circulation where it lodges, the resulting problem is referred to as thromboembolism. The actual blood clot is a thromboembolus. A thromboembolus is often referred to simply as an embolus. Emboli can also originate from cancer cells in the circulation (septic emboli), from cancer cells that enter the circulation (tumor emboli), or from fat cells that enter the bloodstream, especially after major bone fractures (fat emboli).A sudden blockage (occlusion)) may occur when an embolus lodges in one of your arteries. Blood clots can originate from the chambers of the heart or can develop in large arteries and lodge in smaller arteries after they break loose. This process often occurs where arteries branch or divide.*193\252\8*
The single action of cutting dairy products out (or dramatically down) could of itself go a long way towards redressing the degeneration of arteries. This means less or no milk, cheese, cream, cream cheese, most yoghurt, and last but by no means least, butter. However, a word about butter, or rather about its rival, margarine.
Butter is far better for you than margarine. Margarine is produced from seeds which are processed to within an inch of their natural lives. Apart from being heated (even so-called
cold-pressed margarines like safflower have to rise in temperature to 45° C) the numerous chemical processes used to purify, process and ‘butter’ the taste inevitably result in additives being present which no body needs.
A small pat of butter a day will not harm, but it is preferable to substitute pure virgin olive oil wherever possible, such as in salad dressings and for frying food (a bad habit in itself). Oil must be cold-pressed and kept cool at all times. Again it is a question of acquired taste, but it is a taste that is well worth developing, because olive oil actually helps the body to deal with unwanted levels of saturated fats.
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Cardio & Blood/ Cholesterol
I vividly recall my first trip to Florida in 1961; I went there with a college classmate to visit his grandparents. We passed many retirement homes, and saw large porches with rows and rows of rocking chairs. Elderly men and women got up in the morning, went out to sit on those chairs, and left only to eat and go to the bathroom. Day after day, rocking their lives away. If that was living to a ripe old age, I thought, I’m glad I have a family history of heart disease!
Well, the times certainly have changed since then. Today my own mother lives in a retirement village in Laguna Hills called Leisure World. In reality, it’s more a city than a village, with five Olympic’ size swimming pools, two golf courses, lawn bowling, tennis courts and horse stables. There’s scarcely a time when you can’t see men and women in their walking/jogging shoes briskly marching along the roads and paths that wind through the area, their arms pumping up and down as they log their daily kilometres.
A while back, doctors rather patronisingly felt that there was little reason to try to influence lifestyles of the elderly. “Let them enjoy their lives, why make them give up their pleasures or make them work,” was the well-intentioned rationale. Well, bunk!
A lot of doctors (though not all by any means) have seen that the elderly are among the best patients. Maybe that’s because they’re more aware of life’s finite limits, and maybe it’s because they have more time to devote to their own care. Whatever the reason, those senior citizens are likely to take every word of advice to heart. We now know that, regardless of age, one can derive benefits—and added years of life, both quantity and quality—by quitting smoking, by eating less fat and cholesterol and by getting more exercise.
Older people who regularly exercise also think better. Dr Louise Clarkson-Smith of Scripps College in Claremont, California found that the more elderly folks worked out, the better their mental fitness. She surveyed 300 men and women aged 55-91 in terms of their physical activity which included heavy housework, gardening, vigorous work and recreational exertion. Those who exercised most scored at the top in tests on vocabulary, memory, reaction time and reasoning.
Ask any older person, and he or she will tell you that one of the worst parts of getting old is the feeling of “losing it” mentally. Here’s a way to forestall or possibly even eliminate that aspect of aging by simply getting out and exercising.
Another all-too-frequent part of aging is the occurrence of diabetes. While there is a genetic component, weight gain along with reduced physical activity seem to trigger the problem. Studies done at Washington University with men and women in their mid-sixties indicates that both low-level and high-intensity exercise can do wonders by reducing triglycerides, raising levels of protective HDL cholesterol and increasing insulin sensitivity which would limit the effects of diabetes.
Effectiveness of the exercise programs was measured in terms of maximal oxygen uptake. During six months of low-intensity training by way of brisk walking, oxygen uptake increased by 12 per cent. After an additional six months of high-intensity training in which participants jogged, cycled or walked on an inclined treadmill at least three times a week, the oxygen uptake went up another 18 per cent.
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Cardio & Blood/ Cholesterol