What You Should Know About Cholesterol

QUESTION: Why should I be concerned about my cholesterol level?

ANSWER: Heart attacks and strokes are the No. 1 cause of death in the United States. Having high cholesterol levels puts you at greater risk for having a heart attack or stroke. Your risk also is higher if you:

Smoke

Do not exercise

Are a man older than 45 years or a woman older than 55 years

Have high levels of “bad” cholesterol or LDL (short for “low-density lipoproteins”)

Have low levels of “good” cholesterol or HDL (short for “high-density lipoproteins”)

Have diabetes

Have high blood pressure (140 over 90 or higher)

Have a parent, grandparent, brother or sister who had heart disease before age 60

Have a body mass index (also called BMI) of at least 30. Ask your doctor if you don’t know your BMI.

QUESTION: When should my cholesterol levels be checked? ANSWER: Your doctor will decide how often you should be checked, based on your age and risk factors.

QUESTION: What should my cholesterol level be?

ANSWER: Your best cholesterol level depends on other risk factors you may have for heart disease. Your doctor will use your LDL level to decide if you need to take medicine. The more risk factors you have for heart disease, the lower your LDL level should be. If you already have heart disease or diabetes, your LDL level should be less than 100 mg per dL. Even if you don’t have heart disease, it is good to get your LDL level as low as you can.

QUESTION: Can I prevent heart disease?

ANSWER: A healthy lifestyle will lower your risk of having a heart attack or stroke. If you smoke, ask your doctor to help you quit. Daily exercise and a lowfat, low-cholesterol diet also help lower your risk. The Mediterranean diet may lower your risk of heart attacks, strokes and other health problems. The Mediterranean diet is made up of:

What Causes Canker Sores?

Can they be avoided? If you’re lucky, you’ve never even wondered. Some people get them, some people don’t. No one knows why for certain, but recent research indicates that canker sores may result from injury to the soft tissue of the mouth in those who are susceptible. By avoiding injury it may be possible to avoid the recurrence of those nasty, little ulcers that doctors call aphthous stomatitis. Whatever they’re called, they can make for a miserable week or two.

In a study conducted at the National Institute of Dental Research, thirty patients who had suffered from canker sores over periods ranging from five to fifty-five years were tested along with fifteen volunteers who had never had them. After local anesthesia was administered, small puncture would were made in their mouths. Of the susceptible group, thirteen developed canker sores. None of the controls did.

The troublemakers in daily life that might be responsible include hard-bristle toothbrushes, toothpicks, sharp utensils, and hard or sharp-edged foods like peanut brittle. Nuts seem to be a prime offender, but whether as a result of biting down hard on them or because of possible allergy is unclear. Too vigorous dental flossing can cause minor cuts, too. The National Institute researchers also suggest that deficiencies in iron, vitamin B12, or folic acid may lead to injured tissue.

A healthy diet and tender loving dental care are the best means, currently advised, for preventing canker sores.

Robin Westen writes for national magazines about health.

Water Wisdom

When it comes to natural mineral water versus tap water, health expert Alice Kavounas comes down firmly in favor of natural, since it helps replenish vital minerals in the body. But even mineral water should be checked carefully, particularly if you are on a diet.

Kavounas, author of “Water: Pure Therapy,” published by Kyle Cathie, warns that if you are on a low-salt diet, “check labels for the sodium content of the water.” She says one study has shown that drinking 11/2 liters (about three pints) of mineral water with 300 milligrams of salt per liter would equate to eating 11/2 grams of table salt.

But one important advantage of mineral water is that “it can certainly provide more calcium than tap water,” says Kavounas. “If you drank two liters (about two quarts) per day of water containing 121 milligrams of calcium per liter, you would be getting around a quarter of your daily calcium requirement.”

Kavounas notes that mineral water should not be confused with distilled water. Aside from tasting distinctly unpleasant, she says, the distilled variety “robs the body of minerals” and has no supplemental health value.

Watching the Weight Creep Up After Menopause

If you’re a woman embarking on the journey through menopause, you already know that the change of life will be challenging. The good news is that by the end of the trip, the most annoying symptoms, including hot flashes and night sweats, will be gone.

The bad news is that the weight gain that typically accompanies the menopausal transition may be a little harder to shake. If you don’t take measures to prevent it, you could end up with a 10- to 15-pound souvenir.

While there’s little doubt that menopausal women have a tendency to pack on extra pounds, experts believe that hormonal changes aren’t solely to blame. It’s likely that a number of factors contribute to the problem.

Advancing age is one of those factors. The prevalence of obesity in adult women rises significantly with each passing decade, until it begins to taper off late in life.

Studies show that on average, women gain about a pound a year after the age of 40. The greatest increases in weight normally occur during the time of menopause.

As weight creeps up, body composition and fat distribution patterns begin to change. With each passing year, the percentage of body fat tends to increase, while the percentage of lean muscle mass tends to decline.

Loss of lean muscle mass worsens the problem of weight gain, since muscle burns more calories than fat, even when the body is at rest. As muscle tissue dwindles away, the metabolic rate begins to slow, and the body needs fewer calories than it once did.

While pre-menopausal women often struggle with fat deposits around their hips and thighs, much of the newly acquired fat in menopausal women is deposited around the waist. As it turns out, excess fat deposits in the abdominal region are far more worrisome than a little extra padding around the hips and thighs.

Your post pig-out recovery plan

Even if your holiday feast didn’t actually pack on pounds, eating more than you’re used to (especially a lot of fat and sugar) can make you feel sluggish, bloated, and just plain blah. Bounce back with this RD-approved day after recovery plan. (Follow it for 2 or 3 days if you really overdid it!)

6:30 to 7 AM: Wake Up with Water

“Before you put coffee, tea, or food into your body, it’s best to first break your fast with a glass of water with lemon,” says Ashley Koff, RD, a nutritionist in Los Angeles and founder of ashleykoffapproved.com. When you sleep, Koff says, your body isn’t abstaining from only food but water too. “Because many vitamins are water-soluble, having a glass before you eat will help your body better absorb nutrients from food.”

7 AM: Short Walk

This is your ideal fat-burning window, says Koff. A light bout of cardio soon after you wake up and before you eat—a 20-minute walk with the dog, jumping jacks, or running up and down stairs in your home, etc.—taps into your body’s energy reserves.

7:30 AM: Breakfast

All of our experts love oatmeal for breakfast. Have 1/2 cup of uncooked oats or a packet of instant. “Your body digests the fiber slowly, so you stay full for a couple of hours,” says Brooke Alpert, MS, RD, founder of B Nutritious, a private nutrition counseling practice in New York City. For protein, add a glass of fat-free milk, yogurt, or a hard-cooked egg. Or stir some nuts (almonds or walnuts) into your oats. For fruit, Alpert recommends 1/2 cup of mixed berries for vitamins and antioxidants and more fiber. You can also pour a small glass of OJ, which has nutrients like vitamin C, folate, and potassium.

How Giving Thanks Keeps You Healthy

A number of studies in the science of gratitude have shown that giving thanks not only helps you feel better, but improves your motivation to lose weight and exercise regularly. In one study, those who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis had fewer health complaints, exercised more regularly, had an increased sense of well-being, and were more optimistic than those who recorded hassles or neutral life events.

Keeping a “gratitude journal,” then, is one way to help you achieve your health and fitness goals. Here are four more ideas:

Give thanks and get moving. First, give thanks that it’s never too late to improve your health, no matter how old or http://shine.yahoo.com/write/out of shape you are. The easiest way to get started is to do simple floor exercises to get your muscles stretching. Notice how good it feels to send blood into your arms, back, abdomen, and legs. With our clients, we also use very light (2 pounds to start) dumbbell exercises that anyone can do.

Give thanks and rejuvenate. Have you ever been so tired that you were grateful to curl up into your own bed? In one 21-day study, adding a conscious moment of gratitude before your head hits the pillow improved sleep duration and sleep quality. For our fitness clients, we recommend rest as a way to recover and repair from workouts. You can also boost the quality of rejuvenation you get from naps by saying thanks before you nod off.

Give thanks and eat well. Many people think of dieting as punishment. Instead, give thanks for the amazing variety of food you have available to you year round, and how that enables you to go on what we call a “diet discovery journey.” What do you love to eat? How can you make that a healthier choice? Eating well does not have to be restrictive and punitive. Instead, be grateful that you have the power to make small changes — such as eating smaller portions, eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, and processed foods. Aren’t you grateful that you can feel and look better?

Salt & Sodium Leading to America’s ‘White Death’

Centuries ago, salt used to be traded ounce-for-ounce for gold. Unfortunately, salt’s popularity hasn’t ebbed much since then. And its insidious presence in the American food supply is alarming health professionals. No matter how much we try to eat low sodium foods and cook low sodium recipes, the truth is that salt is hidden in everything from pickles to ice cream, salad dressing to lunch meat, and a fixture on most dining tables. Hence the name “white death.”

And deadly it can be. Sodium overconsumption is linked to high blood pressure, which puts people at risk for heart disease and stroke, and this overconsumption is rampant in the U.S. So much so that the Institute of Medicine — at the request of Congress — studied the problem and last month issued a report calling for new federal standards for the amount of salt that food manufacturers, restaurants and food service companies can add to their products. The report asks the food industry to reduce salt voluntarily before the new standards take effect, though no timetable has been set for making the changes.

Americans consume, on average, nearly 3,500mg of sodium a day, according to the American Heart Association, which says that less than 1,500mg a day would be a much healthier amount. The AHA is encouraging manufacturers and restaurants to cut their use of sodium in food products by 50 percent over a 10-year period.

Certified nutritionist Jo Schrubbe of Beulah, Colo., says most people aren’t aware of how much sodium they’re consuming.

Real-life Role Models: Health-care Workers and Healthy Weight

How are we supposed to find the motivation to lose weight when health care workers (who know a lot more than we do about the dangers of excess fat) are generally overweight themselves? Well, some nurses have now taken it upon themselves to buck that trend. Hear these inspiring stories of health care professionals and their weight loss strategies that worked!

At one time in her nursing career, Annie Gosha was working two full-time jobs.

“I would go to one fast-food place for lunch, then to another place to get home-cooked meals, then I worked from 3:30 p.m. to 12 a.m. I got home and ate something, then went to bed, then got up the next morning and ate breakfast, and snacked all through work.”

It was affecting her health, no question, and in time she worried, as these habits became part of her normal life, she could eventually face a life-or-death situation.

But she also knew that her habits could significantly affect the patients for whom she cared. Especially those who were themselves struggling with their weight.

Experts say for decades a troubling trend has emerged of nurses who are either overweight or obese.

In a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, of 307 nurse participants who counseled patients on obesity prevention, 18 percent of the nurses were obese and 34 percent were overweight.

While 53 of these nurses reported that they were overweight but lacked the motivation to make lifestyle changes, 40 percent claimed they are unable to lose weight despite healthy diet and exercise habits.

Kim Kardashian’s Disappointment, and What Failure Can Do to Your Fitness Goals

Poor Kim Kardashian! She was booted off Dancing With the Stars the other night and is taking it pretty hard, according to reports that say she was crying inconsolably backstage after hearing the decision. Her dissapoinment reminded me of what YOU might be facing right now with your fitness goals. Let’s discuss.

There were plenty of reasons for Kim to cry. First, she worked her tail off getting ready for her appearance on Dancing With the Stars–ditching junk food, working out, getting mentally prepared. And on a smaller scale, maybe you’ve had a “Dancing With the Stars moment” too.

Ever work really hard to get fit for something or, gulp, someone, and then it all kind of crumbles? Maybe you sprain your ankle right before your first half-marathon, or get Mono and skip the gym for a month (doctor’s orders) and are forced to put your weight loss goals on hold for what feels like forever. Or maybe, while not super healthy, your weight loss goals were tied up in a guy (as in, you wanted to trim down to get him to go “wow”) but then he hooks up with someone else. The point is, when our fitness goals are tied to outside entities, they can be motivating in the short term, but not alwasy sustaining. But when we want want to get fit for ourselves and nothing else, well, failure can feel more like a bump in the road instead of a roadblock.

Who knows, maybe Kim Kardashian will continue on her eat-right, exercise-often track after the show. But then again, it will probably be easier to drown her sorrows out with some really good chocolate and kick her feet up on the couch. Heck, I think that’s what a lot of us would be tempted to do, me included!

Cardiovascular System Facts

The cardiovascular system facts mentioned below give us an idea about the structure and functioning of the various components like the heart, blood vessels and blood.

The cardiovascular system is an important part of the body which consists of three components: the heart, blood vessels (capillaries, veins and arteries) and blood. The cardiovascular system transports oxygen to different parts of the body, and thereby provides nourishment to the various body parts. The facts about cardiovascular system are mentioned in the following paragraphs.

Cardiovascular System Facts

The following paragraphs deals with facts about cardiovascular system. These facts are subdivided into three parts: the facts about heart, blood vessels and blood.

Heart: The heart is similar to an automatic pump which distributes blood to the different parts of body.

Average weight of the heart in males and females is 300 – 350 g and 250 – 300 g respectively. The size of the heart is equal to that of the fist of a human hand.

The human heart is covered by a layer called pericardium, which is actually a double-walled sac.

The heart is composed three layers, the endocardium (innermost layer), myocardium (middle layer), and the visceral layer (uppermost layer).

There are four chambers in which the heart is divided. They are ventricles (2 in number) and atria (2 in number). Out of the above mentioned chambers, the ventricles discharge the blood while the atria receive blood from different parts of the body which comes through the veins.