The conventional wisdom in medicine has always seemed to advise making things lower. Salt, fat, smokes, carbs, cholesterol, BMI, homocysteine, booze, triglycerides, LDL cholesterol, weed, carbs, weight, Hemoglobin A1C, yadda yadda yadda.
Sure, you should keep your HDL cholesterol up, and high fiber is a plus, but everything we're badgered about is supposed to be low. Cut it out! Knock it off! Knock it down! Knock it up! Well, maybe not the last one.
Still conventional wisdom in medicine changes and we can only do our best with what we got.
Here's the latest on keeping things on the down low.
Low salt diets are a good thing if you're a couch potato. Mirkin reports that high blood pressure is linked to salt intake only for those people with unusually sedentary lives. Typically, the obese. If you exercise even moderately, salt seems to have minimal effects on hypertension (high blood pressure). Same goes for sodium. Don't worry so much about the TV dinners as long as you hit the gym once in a while. In fact, he points out exercising athletes who lack salt cramp up and may pass out from hyponatremia if they drink excessive water without salt. Taking low salt to an extreme and without regard to circumstances can be problematic!
Low Cholesterol used to be all the rage, but Mirkin explained that the human body makes more cholesterol than we eat. Cholesterol is so vital to nerve and brain function that the human body can make it out of almost anything. Mother nature / evolution / God took no chances, it wanted our nerves and brains preserved at all costs. Lowering dietary cholesterol wasn't that helpful. As it turned out lowering sugar was more important which brought us to the next enemy...
Carbs. Atkins was only half right. He told us to cut out the demon: sugar. Sugar Busters was a similar diet. Eat protein and fat only and watch your body THRIVE!
Well, kind of. Only with the help of modern pharmceutical industries because you were advised to pound vitamin pills so you wouldn't get scurvy and other nasty junk. We also overlooked the effect of excess protein on the kidneys and bones. Instead, Mirkin recommends going back to carbs. Lots of em. On ONE condition, their packages are bound up in fiber. Go crazy with the veggies and grain kernels. Ixnay on the flour, sugar, and juice. Easy on the fruit. This should keep your triglycerides and LDL cholesterol in check.
Except... when it doesn't. Despite a low carb diet, my LDL is still why too high to be balanced out by my HDL (I was told) and all measures taken to elevate my HDL have been for naught. Fortunately, published research about statins indicates that the reduction in LDL that results is merely a side effect and not the key to preventing heart disease. "High" levels of LDL are common, even in people who don't suffer from heart disease! Instead, the statins interfere with the production of both LDL and Rho-kinase which causes inflammation in the blood vessels. Inflammation was already known to be a risk factor of heart disease. Rho kinase appears to rise due to high blood pressure and smoking." Statins return Rho kinase levels closer to normal. Add it all together, and "current evidence supports ignoring LDL cholesterol altogether," says the University of Michigan's Dr. Hayward. Hooray for me! While exercise didn't move my HDL the way I was told it would, it WILL lower blood pressure and help prevent the heart disease I meant to avoid after all! (If you want to hedge your bets, exercise before meals tends to help HDL levels, Mirkin says.)
While LDL cholesterol may not be as vital as we thought, links to Omega-3 fatty acids and heart health remain. Elevating our Omega 3's tends to mean keeping our Omega 6 intake LOW, right? So we're staying on topic. While I mentioned flax seed in an earlier article, not all Omega 3's appear created equal. The Omega 3's received from eating fish seem to have added benefit and that has translated to an industry designed to deliver fish even to those who can't stand the stuff!
With that little segway, I can leave off until next week...
*DM
Next: Something's fishy: Secretlife's SecretPlot to Kill Me
Fitness Goals:
60 beats per minute resting pulse.
10 minutes hard cycling. (intensity 5 out of 10)
Weights: 3 days - 100 lbs. - 6 cycles of 5,5,5,10 repetitions (2 cycles/day)
Current Fitness Record: (since last entry)
Pulse: 60 beats per minute
6 x < 2 min cycling - average intensity 4 - 65 cycles (Pulse = 126 at last check 2-2008)
0 day - 65 lbs. - 0 cycles
Blood Pressure: 117/72 03-2008
Workout Wingwoman Gingersoul's Goals & Progress: Unknown
RECENT SYMPTOMS : None.
ONGOING SYMPTOMS: Weak, clicking knees, Slight pain in right knee when kneeling and shifting knee to the right. Hyperhidrosis.
DIAGNOSIS: Unknown injury to right knee, possible impact from small stumble onto landing of concrete stairs 2006. Injured knee joints from sprinting.
DRUG REGIMEN: Aspartame. (3 diet sodas daily) Caffeine (three cups of coffee daily. One cola.)ONGOING TREATMENT: Tri-Annual dental visits. Cycling / Spinning for strength training.
PROGNOSIS FOR FOLLOWING WEEK: Slow improvement of knees. Good health.
POTENTIAL TREATMENTS: Fish Oil supplements. Leafy greens. Axillary vacuum curettage.
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