Babies who are breastfed have lower cholesterol as adults, researchers say.  It should be noted that breast milk itself is full of cholesterol.  Infant formulas actually tout themselves as "low cholesterol" as if that were somehow healthier, despite the facts that infants who breastfeed have lower rates of allergy and asthma and less cardiovascular risk. 

We must remember that cholesterol is a necessary part of each of our cells, and that consuming it as an infant is crucial to normal nervous system development.  Additionally, cholesterol that we consume as part of a healthy diet does not adversely affect our health!  Cholesterol is only a problem when our our metabolism spins out of control due to an unhealthy lifestyle and the liver starts to create unhealthy cholesterol ratios.  Please read my Cholesterol Article for more information on the subject.

Read the study. 

I've written in the past about the traditional Chinese supplement, Chinese Red Yeast Rice.  A new study has shown that this natural remedy decreases the risk of "major coronary events" (ie. heart attacks) by 50%! 

The authors stated that "The decrease in these events found in the present study appears to exceed those reported with statin monotherapy in a similar trial of Western patients enrolled in the Cholesterol and Recurrent Events and other statin trials."  In other words, Chinese Red Yeast Rice works better than the statins.  High dose, purified fish oil (available in my store) also works better than statins.

If you are at risk for heart disease, talk to your holistic doctor about using fish oil and red yeast rice--it could save your life! 

Read about the study here. 

You can read more about Red Yeast Rice in my article on the topic—click here. 

You can read more about fish oil and heart disease here.  

Read more on the side effects/down side of statins on my cholesterol page here. 

I recently had a patient tell me that she attended a health screening and was told to eat less olive oil and avocados.  The idea, apparently, was that these are both high sources of fat, and that fat causes you to become fat and increases your risk for heart disease.  This completely blew my mind, because it flies in the face of all the evidence on the subject.  I wanted to comment on it here to be certain that no one believes advice like this!

Here are the facts:

Just adding avocados to the daily diet for 7 days provided the following results in people with high cholesterol:

• 17% reduction in total cholesterol
• 22% reduction in LDL cholesterol
  
• 22% reduction in triglycerides
• 11% increase in HDL cholesterol

These changes are better than any drug I know, and they taste great!  If you've read my Cholesterol Article, you know that the 2 most important numbers in your cholesterol panel are your triglycerides and HDL's.  You want relativley high HDL's and relatively low triglycerides.  That makes avocados an ideal treatment for cholesterol imbalance!  The researchers attributed the beneficial changes to the high monounsaturated fat content of avocados--the same type of fat found in olive oil.  Olive oil is attributed with a host of benefits too long to list here including decreases in diabetes, heart disease, dementia, chronic pain, and improvements in cholesterol.

The authors of the study conclude: "High lipid (fat), high monounsaturated-avocado enriched diet can improve lipid profile in healthy and especially in mild hypercholesterolemic patients, even if hypertriglyceridemia (combined hyperlipidemia) is present."  In other words, eating a diet rich in fats from avocados and olive oil helps your cholesterol levels--eat your olive oil and avocados!

Read the study here.

A recent article in The New York Times does an excellent job outlining the problems with our current conceptions about cholesterol:

"The National Institutes of Health financed a handful of studies to determine whether these ''cholesterol fractions'' could predict the risk of cardiovascular disease. In 1977, the researchers reported their results: total cholesterol turned out to be surprisingly useless as a predictor. Researchers involved with the Framingham Heart Study found that in men and women 50 and older, '''total cholesterol per se is not a risk factor for coronary heart disease at all.'''  From the NYT article.

If you have concerns about your cholesterol read the full article--its very informative.  I have written an in depth article on cholesterol that goes into how to interpret your tests and what to do about it--you can read it here.

I’ve been writing since 2003 on the negative effects of statin drugs.  An article in today’s New York Times confirms everything I’ve written—it begins:

“For decades, the theory that lowering cholesterol is always beneficial has been a core principle of cardiology. It has been accepted by doctors and used by drug makers to win quick approval for new medicines to reduce cholesterol.  But now some prominent cardiologists say the results of two recent clinical trials have raised serious questions about that theory — and the value of two widely used cholesterol-lowering medicines, Zetia and its sister drug, Vytorin.”

The article goes on to highlight how in both of those studies the drugs killed more people than using no drugs.  This is not surprising, since this has been a theme in most published studies on statins, the papers usually go like this:

This is a study on our new drug—we gave our drug to 100 suckers, and followed a similar population of 100 who did not take the drug.  In the drug group 7 people died, in the none-drug group 3 people died.  The increases in death in the drug group were due to suicide, sudden cardiac death, and cancer.  All of these disorders have been linked to statins in the literature, but we don’t think our drug caused these things.
Conclusion:  Our drug did lower LDL cholesterol—we think that LDL cholesterol alone is related to heart disease even though the literature does not support this hypothesis.  Since our drug lowered LDL cholesterol and we think this reduces heart disease risk, we will spend 4 billion dollars in the next year educating doctors as to what a smashing success this trial has been.

The disgusting truth is that that is not an exaggeration—do a search on my site for “statins” and read more of the research yourself.  The other disgusting truth is that the doctors buy the hype—without carefully reading the studies.

While the Times article only highlights the two drugs mentioned—I think we will see the truth coming out on all statin drugs soon.

Read my Cholesterol Article here—it shows how to read your numbers, what they really mean, and what to do about it naturally.

Read the New York Times article here.

Flu and cold season is upon us, and I hope you are keeping in mind my past blogs on the potent effect of Andrographis Paniculata in the treatment and prevention of these pesky problems (if not, read them here, then buy it here in my store—I haven’t had a cold or flu in 2 years since using this stuff!).

A new study shows more benefits from Andrographis.  Researchers found that it both has an antiplatelet effect and a vasorelaxive effect.  This means that blood vessels are able to relax—lower blood pressure and decreased likelihood of blood vessels going into spasm around a clot as happens in a heart attack, and that the blood is less likely to form a clot in the first place. 

Check out the abstract here.

Being exposed to a lot of noise at work can be a factor in causing High Blood Pressure, researchers say.  This new study examined automobile workers who were either exposed to high noise levels at work or low noise levels.  The high noise workers had much higher tension in their blood vessels (hypertension), as well as less y'ascular compliance--that means that the vessels were less elastic and more reactive to stressors.  That, my friends, is a recipe for a heart attack or stroke!

From a chiropractic perspective this makes sense--in "high noise workers" there is simply more input to the auditory system than it is designed to handle on a regular basis.  This creates an excess tone in the nervous system resulting in nervous system stress--also known as a sympathetic response--resulting in "hyper--tension".  

If you are in a situation where you cannot avoid being exposed to noise I suggest 3 things to alleviate the ill-effects:

1.  See a chiropractor--specific chiropractic adjustments inhibit the sympathetic nervous system and bring you into balance.
2. Exercise vigorously and regularly.
3. Meditate.  Chronic stress creates hormonal changes that affect your brain--these have been shown to be halted and reversed by meditation.

Link to the study here.

Another study demonstrates the efficacy of Chinese Red Yeast Rice in lowering cholesterol safely.  The study involved giving people with high cholesterol 600mg of red yeast rice twice daily for 8 weeks.  All cholesterol values improved dramatically.

Red Yeast Rice is an extremely safe product (read more about it here) from which the statin drugs were derived.  While statin drugs are riddled with side effects, side effects are extremely rare with red yeast rice.  Read this article on red yeast rice, then read my cholesterol article here...and don't forget your fish oil!

Read the study here.

Several studies have shown cinnamon to lower blood sugar levels in diabetics.  A new study shows just how this delicious herb works.  The results, published in this month's American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, demonstrate that cinnamon actually slows the passage of food through the stomach.  When you take 6 grams (about 1/4 teaspoon) of cinnamon with your meal, you slow the rate at which the food goes through your stomach and significantly lower blood sugar.  Prior research has shown as much as a 25% drop in blood sugar in diabetics after 6 weeks of using cinnamon daily.

Another very powerful herb for treating diabetes is an Ayurvedic herb called Gurmar.  Here is a link to an extract of Gurmar called ProBeta--its an excellent herb to use in conjunction with cinnamon to lower your blood sugar naturally! 

Link to the study. 

A new study shows that the popular diabetes drug, Avandia, is associated with a 43% increased risk of heart attack, and a 64% increase in cardiovascular death!  Reading the report, it is frightening to realize that the paper is the result of combining 42 existing clinical trials of the drug--in other words, the research has been around for quite some time, but the drug has continued to sell like hot pancakes.  The research analyzed by the article dates back to 2000, and continues through 2007.  That's scary stuff, and one more reason to do your own research and consult a holistically minded doctor before beginning drug use.

In contrast, several studies over the years have shown that proper nutrition and supplementation, an exercise program, and stress reduction can control about 70% of type 2 diabetes cases.  I ran a 6- week lifestyle modification program last year and the results were phenomenal--people required less or no medication by the end of the 6-week program.  As type 2 diabetes rates continue to skyrocket, we need to remember that most cases are lifestyle related--by building health from within, most people can control the disease.  Medications do drop blood sugar levels, but they do not necessarily reduce suffering and death in individuals with type 2 diabetes.

Here is an article highlighting some of the most powerful supplements for treating type 2 diabetes.  Here is an article on the role of omega-3 fatty acids in treating type 2 diabetes.  Here is a link to our exercise page.  Here is a link to the greatest article on controlling cholesterol (and type 2 diabetes) on the planet.  If you are interested in learning more about diabetes, click here to request a copy of my "Lifestyle Intervention for Type 2 Diabetes" book.  Learn, Enjoy, and Act!

Read the original study here.