Blog - Page 41 of 121 - Lower Cholesterol and Blood Pressure with Lisa Nelson RD

Lower CholesterolEducate Children on Healthy Behaviors to Reduce Heart Disease Risk

Published April 24, 2013

At the American College of Cardiology Scientific Session in March of 2012, information was presented from the University of Michigan Systems showing that children understand the effect of healthy behaviors on overall health.

Project Health Schools, which is a community-University of Michigan System project, measured risk factors for heart disease in middle school children. Measured risk factors included lipid profiles and physical activity before and after receiving education on healthy behaviors. They found that after receiving education the middle school students showed positive behaviors towards improving lipid profiles, LDL cholesterol, and triglycerides. This indicates middle school children are not too young to understand the impact of healthy behaviors and they have the ability to implement changes.

This implementation of healthy behaviors at an early age is critical to lifelong health and reduced risk for heart disease, heart attacks and strokes. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 17% of children and teens are overweight or obese. This is triple the rate one generation ago and puts children at increased risk for health complications just as excess weight impacts adults.
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Posted in Heart Health, Lower Cholesterol | Tagged cardiovascular disease, children, cholesterol levels, education, Heart Disease, heart disease risk, lower cholestetrol, lower ldl cholesterol

Heart Health3 Tips to Naturally Lower Stress to Reduce Heart Disease Risk

Published April 10, 2013

Stress is part of life. There’s no way you can avoid stress entirely. However, if you constantly live with high stress levels it can lead to physical problems. These physical problems may include high blood pressure, angina (i.e. chest pains), arrhythmia (i.e. irregular heart rate) and heart disease.

How Does Stress Increase Heart Disease Risk?

Stress can increase heart disease risk in different ways. First, stress affects you emotionally. This could lead you to make unhealthy food and lifestyle choices, such as overeating, not exercising, and smoking. Stress also causes elevated levels of the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol, which may have a negative impact long term. Research is also finding that stress impacts the way blood clots.

What Can You Do to Reduce Stress?
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Posted in Heart Health | Tagged aerobic exercise, calmaid, Dr. Donald Brown, Heart Disease, heart disease risk, lower stress, naturally lower stress, omega 3 fatty acids, probiotics, quality sleep, reduce heart disease risk, stress, supplements, whole food diet

Lower CholesterolHeart Disease Risk and Cholesterol Levels

Published March 27, 2013

Do you take statin medication? If so, when did your doctor recommend you being statins? Was it when your lab results found your LDL cholesterol levels to be elevated?

LDL cholesterol has been the measure used to determine when lipid lowering therapy is needed…and statins are often the therapy started.

Research is beginning to question if LDL is the best measure for knowing if cholesterol treatment is warranted to reduce heart disease risk.
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Posted in Heart Health, Lower Cholesterol | Tagged cholesterol, hdl cholesterol, Heart Disease, heart disease risk, inflammation, ldl cholesterol, non-hdl cholesterol, statin drugs, statins

Heart HealthWhat Bad Habits Are Increasing Your Heart Disease Risk?

Published March 13, 2013

Annually, the American Heart Association (AHA), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and National Institutes of Health (NIH) publish the latest statistics for heart disease and stroke. The most recent updates found deaths due to cardiovascular disease actually decreased by 33% over the past 10 years and deaths due to stroke were reduced 37%.

This goes to show that a significant amount of progress has been made to improve outcomes for those who suffer heart attacks and strokes. Great news!

What’s not so good news are the increasing risk factors of US adults making them more likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke. Did you know 68% of US adults are overweight or obese? Did you know 32% of children are overweight and 17% of children obese? And according to the AHA, CDC, and NIH, 33% of US adults do no engage in any aerobic leisure time physical activity. If you look around, it’s not so hard to believe that a majority of US adults are overweight and sedentary. Where do you fall?
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Posted in Heart Health | Tagged cardiovascular disease, heart attack, Heart Disease, inactivity, obese, overweight, physical activity, risk factors, stroke, tobacco

Lower Blood PressureLower Blood Pressure More Effectively with Telemedicine

Published February 27, 2013

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 65 million Americans have high blood pressure with approximately 74 percent taking medication to treat high blood pressure.

Research presented at the 61st American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session found internet-based telemedicine to lead to more effective medication prescriptions, improved blood pressure control, and a reduction in cardiovascular risk when compared to traditional, periodic office visits.

Telemedicine to monitor blood pressure refers to patients reporting blood pressure readings more frequently via web-based platforms. This led to more efficient and timely treatment plan adjustments if needed from their health care team.
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Posted in Lower Blood Pressure | Tagged blood pressure, hypertension, lower blood pressure, telemedicine

Lower Blood PressureDo you need to cut back on salt to lower blood pressure?

Published January 30, 2013

Do you need to worry about how much salt you consume in your diet? It has been argued that only those who are “salt sensitive” need to be concerned about decreasing sodium/salt intake to lower blood pressure.

A study published online in Circulation researched how a high sodium diet may lead to hypertension. The study followed over 5000 participants from the Dutch PREVEND study for close to six and a half years. All participants did not have high blood pressure when the study began.

Researchers found high sodium intake to increase serum uric acid and urine albumin excretion. Increases in serum uric acid and urine albumin are two markers of endothelial dysfunction. The endothelium is the inner lining of blood vessels and a dysfunction is an imbalance of the substances that act on the endothelium leading to vasodilation and vasoconstriction.

As serum uric acid secretion increases, risk of developing hypertension increases. Researches found the same to occur as urinary albumin levels increased. The increased risk of hypertension with increased levels of sodium intake was only seen in participants with markers of endothelial dysfunction.

Studies have shown that consuming high levels of sodium for short periods of time to be associated with endothelial dysfunction. Researchers believe that repeat incidences of high sodium intake in the long term may explain rises in blood pressure connected to high sodium diets.
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Posted in Lower Blood Pressure | Tagged blood pressure, endothelial dysfunction, high blood pressure, hypertension, salt sensitive