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Inflammation as a predictor of heart disease.

Why Cholesterol Levels Are Not the Best Predictor of Heart Disease

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Individuals with higher-than-normal cholesterol levels are commonly prescribed statins in the hope of reducing their risk of heart disease or stroke. Yet, medical research indicates that statins actually have very limited usefulness in preventing heart disease unless the patient already has a personal history of the disease. This may be due, in part, to the fact that cholesterol is just one of a series of factors that put an individual at risk.

Furthermore, statin use over a prolonged period has been linked to an increased risk of Type II Diabetes. A  study published in spring 2015 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, cited this connection among healthy adults at baseline.

In the study – Statins and New-Onset Diabetes Mellitus and Diabetic Complications: A Retrospective Cohort Study of US Healthy Adults – researchers looked at a pool of 25,970 adult patients defined for the purposes of the study as “healthy” (i.e., free of heart disease, diabetes, and other severe chronic diseases). From this pool, 3351 statin users and 3351 non-users were propensity score-matched based on 42 baseline characteristics. The results were striking: statin users were almost twice as likely to develop diabetes, more than twice as likely to develop diabetic complications, and slightly more likely to become overweight/obese than their counterparts.

Recent studies continue to confirm the link:

Statins and the potential for higher diabetes mellitus risk
Statin users have an elevated risk of dysglycemia and new-onset-diabetes

Inflammation as a predictor of heart disease

Inflammation is a much more reliable predictor of one’s risk of developing heart disease than cholesterol and is easily measured by looking at a patient’s C-reactive protein (CRP) levels. What’s also heartening (pun intended) is that inflammation can be reduced dramatically by making modest lifestyle changes.

Statins do have a place in treating heart disease, but before medical practitioners prescribe a statin whose side-effects can range from an increased risk of developing Type II Diabetes to muscle pain or weakness, headaches, sore throat, sinusitis, nausea, and liver problems, it makes sense to first look at alternative, natural, and inexpensive ways of lowering inflammation in the body.

Here are 5 steps that you can take immediately to reduce inflammation in your body (and reduce your risk of heart attack and stroke):

  1. If you smoke, stop. Smoking unquestionably raises the inflammatory factors in the body and dramatically increases your risk, not only for heart attack and stroke but also for cancers.
  2. Eliminate inflammatory foods and add Omega-3’s to your diet. An anti-inflammatory diet is one that eliminates fatty and fried foods (especially foods containing trans fats and saturated fats) and includes plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Omega-3 fatty acids, found in a wide variety of fish, olive oil, and nuts, help reduce inflammation in the body and are also effective in treating arthritis, depression, ADD, and ADHD.
  3. Exercise regularly. Regular exercise (ideally 10,000 steps per day if it is possible) has been shown to reduce inflammation in the body and with it, the risk of developing a great number of diseases. If you have limited options right now as many of us do, think creatively. Exercise could be doing your own stairs throughout the day, yoga, bodyweight exercises, even your own living room dance party!
  4. Meditate daily. Meditation helps reduce inflammation by improving the regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. This axis is responsible for regulating the blood pressure and heart rate, as well as the body’s production of cortisone, an anti-inflammatory hormone.
  5. Make every effort to improve your sleep. More than ever people are having difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. A healthy & regular nightly sleep pattern allows your heart rate to slow down and your blood pressure to drop, reducing stress on the heart. Lack of sleep compromises the normal functioning of your immune system, and long-term sleep deprivation causes your body and brain to be in a chronic state of inflammation. This not only increases your risk of heart disease and stroke, but can also increase the risk of obesity, chronic pain, ADD, depression, and anxiety.

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Is Your Medication The Root Of Your Chronic Pain?

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5 Pills That Might Be Hurting You

By Julia Westbrook

It’s time to stop ignoring the aches and pains and finally live a healthy life.

More Americans are suffering from chronic pain than have diabetes, according to a panel of researchers at the National Institutes of Health. While 29 million people are diagnosed with diabetes, the panel estimated that 100 million Americans live with chronic pain.

While the statistics are staggering, the scary truth is that, despite the apparent universality of pain, there isn’t nearly enough research on safe, effective treatments.

“We learned that sufficient clinical research doesn’t exist to show physicians how best to treat chronic pain in adults, many of whom suffer from multiple health problems,” said panel member and founding director of the Indiana University Center for Aging Research, Christopher Callahan, MD.

Instead, our medical system is heavily reliant on painkillers, both over-the-counter and prescription, despite the fact that, according to the panel, clinicians recognize that pain narcotics aren’t the solution for long-term pain treatment. (Here are 5 reasons over-the-counter painkillers are a bad idea.)

Gary Kaplan, DO, author of Total Recovery: Solving the Mystery of Chronic Pain and Depression, explains that medication—either for treating pains or treating other conditions—can be at the root of chronic pain. “Because of the powerful, short-term effectiveness of many drugs, we’re beginning to experience polypharmaceutical problems, where patients end up taking one drug to treat the side effects of other drugs,” he explains.

“The rough guideline I give my patients about taking medications is this: A drug has to work better than the side effects it creates,” he says. “If it doesn’t, get rid of it.” Of course, it’s important to do so under the supervision of your doctor, he adds.

While it’s easy to tune out the side-effect disclaimer on pharmaceutical ads, you may want to talk to your doctor if you’re experiencing chronic pain and are taking one of these prescriptions:

Statins

Statins are commonly used to lower cholesterol. “They can be the cause of cataracts and unexplained muscle pain. Some studies show they may increase your risk of developing diabetes,” says Dr. Kaplan.

Diet can have a big impact on cholesterol. Consider eating avocados, as research has shown that they’re a food that helps lower cholesterol.

Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs)

In the ultimate irony, your painkiller might be causing you more discomfort. “More than 70 percent of people chronically taking NSAIDs—such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), naproxen (Naprosyn), diclofenac (Voltaren), and aspirin (Bayer, Bufferin)—will get ulcers in their small intestines, creating a permeability problem (aka leaky gut syndrome),” says Dr. Kaplan.

Leaky gut is associated with all kinds of painful issues, including food sensitivities, joint pain, headaches, and psoriasis.

Antibiotics

Speaking of your gut, taking antibiotics may be causing more painful inflammation than the infection itself. “Multiple treatments of antibiotics for any reason can profoundly change the gut flora,” says Dr. Kaplan. “Those changes can then damage the intestinal tract enough to create leaky gut syndrome, which will result in inflammation and activate the microglia.”

While he doesn’t dismiss the lifesaving importance of antibiotics, Dr. Kaplan recommends balancing their use with a probiotic supplement. And be sure to support a your gut bacteria with healthy foods.

Opioids

Another counterintuitive finding: Dr. Kaplan says that opioids can heighten your sensitivity to pain. “Additionally, these painkillers—such as codeine, hydrocodone (Vicodin), morphine (Avinza), and oxycodone (Percocet)—can lead to depression, constipation, and sexual dysfunction,” he says.

Instead of popping a pill for your pain, consider meditation as an effective treatment.

Sleeping Pills

Sleep is so important for your health, but popping a pill to get there isn’t the answer. “A chronic reliance on any type of sleeping pill—such as zolpidem (Ambien), eszopiclone (Lunesta), or zaleplon (Sonata)—can, in the short term, make it hard to focus and, in the long run, even shorten your life span,” says Dr. Kaplan. Plus, you might be missing key warning signs of sleep apnea.
Article reprinted from www.RodaleNews.com, Jan/2015