Balance Your Health

Vitamins Are Not Helping Your Heart Health

I take vitamins every day as a preventive measure and to enhance the way my body works. I am no longer sure whether taking these vitamins can reduce my risk of developing heart disease or having a heart attack because the research results are confusing.

A few years ago several large studies found few, if any, benefits from taking antioxidants except among very high-risk women. I use to believe, and I wrote about that antioxidants might prevent damage caused by harmful molecules called free radicals. I also believed that vitamin B might lower high levels of the protein homocysteine which can damage blood vessels. That's what the medical gurus reported for 20 years and then they changed their mind.

The studies showed there were no differences in cardiovascular events between women taking vitamins and those who received a placebo. Previous randomized trials of folic-acid and vitamin-B supplements indicated that same finding.

I am still taking the vitamins but reduced the dosage because the researchers are not really sure about the results. They do know that certain vitamins, such as C and E, may reduce heart disease risk by preventing low-density lipoprotein cholesterol from producing plaques that narrow the heart's arteries. Yet here too, the evidence between those who take the vitamins and those who do not is not very much.

The major point is if you do not control your other risk factors such as diet, enough physical activity, smoking, high cholesterol and diabetes, it won't matter how many vitamins you take.

However, eating foods that are the sources of antioxidants can be beneficial to reducing the risk of heart disease. That means eating more fruits and green leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds and whole grains, oatmeal, sweet potatoes and wheat germ – all the foods your mother and grandmother kept telling you should eat because they are good for you.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

To your health success.

Ruthan Brodsky

Benefits vs Risks of Aspirin

The most recent recommendation from the medical community regarding taking aspirin is that doctors should carefully consider risk factors before deciding whether to use aspirin to prevent heart attacks or strokes.

Your age, sex, smoking habits, and blood pressure may determine your risk of a heart even but the possibility that aspirin could cause gastrointestinal

(GI) bleeding also must be weighed.

The consensus is that for most people under the age of 80, the benefits of taking aspirin outweigh the risks.

Men age 45-79 are encouraged to use aspirin to reduce possible heart attacks.

Women age 55 to 79 are also encouraged to use aspiring.

These recommendations are for people who haven't had a previous heart attack or stroke.

On the other hand, your risk of bleeding is higher if you have upper GI problems or GI ulcers. Taking any kind of blood thinner also makes you off limits for aspirin.

Bottom line, if you take aspirin to help prevent a stroke or heart attack, have your doctor monitor your blood count to screen for a slow GI bleed.

Source: US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF)

To your successful lifestyle.

Ruthan Brodsky

P.S.  Taking aspirin is a good reminder that whenever we take a medicatiion there is always a side effect - good or bad. Be aware.

The Heart of the Matter in February

Ruthan Brodsky - business and health writer

The plan wasn’t to continue discussing heart disease but I do feel strongly that it’s worth the effort.
The fact is learning more about living healthy shouldn’t be limited to a single month. It’s all those Valentine hearts that remind us that American Heart Month is February.

Have any of you been around someone when they had a heart attack? If so, tell us what happened.

Heart attacks are portrayed melodramatically in the movies - the actor clutches his chest and drops to the ground. More often, the real happening is less obvious. Many heart attacks start slowly as a mild pain or small discomfort. You often hear people say they thought it was just gas. Many have no clue what’s happening.

Sometimes, symptoms come and go, and sometimes the symptoms differ from one heart attack to the next so that those who had a heart attack before don’t recognize their symptoms.
According to the American Heart Association these are symptoms to take seriously:

· Chest discomfort. Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts for more than a few minutes, or goes away and comes back. The discomfort can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness, or pain.

· Discomfort in other areas of the upper body. Can include pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach.

· Shortness of breath often comes along with chest discomfort. But it also can occur before chest discomfort.

· Other symptoms may include breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea, or lightheadedness.

As with men, women's most common heart attack symptom is chest pain or discomfort. But women are more likely than men to experience some of the other common symptoms- shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting, and back or jaw pain.

Learn the signs, but remember this: Even if you're not sure it's a heart attack, checked it out. Minutes matter! Fast action saves lives—maybe your own. Don’t wait more than five minutes to call 911.

Calling 911 is almost always the fastest way to get lifesaving treatment. Emergency medical services staff can begin treatment when they arrive—up to an hour sooner than if someone gets to the hospital by car. The staff is also trained to revive someone whose heart has stopped. Patients with chest pain who arrive by ambulance usually receive faster treatment at the hospital, too.

If you can't access the emergency medical services (EMS), have someone drive you to the hospital right away. If you're the one having symptoms, don't drive yourself, unless you have absolutely no other option.

Again, hope this helps when it's just in case.
Warmly Ruthan

Go Red For Women

I wasn’t going to write about heart disease and women because the information is plastered over the media –printed, radio, TV. It's the health topic for February.

Then again, when I reread the stats that somewhere in America a woman dies almost every minute from heart disease, I thought… Why Not? If this information reminds just one more person about the importance of eliminating the risks of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) then it’s worth it if the rest of us are bored reading it.

Except I can’t see how anyone could find these statistics boring!

Friday, the American Heart Association celebrated National Wear Red Day by encouraging women to wear a red dress, red dress pin, or red lipstick showing their passionate support for Go Red For Women.

Most of us use to think that it was men who had the problem with heart disease. Not so.

Heart disease is the nation's number one killer of women - and men - accounting for 36 percent of all deaths annually. Approximately 460,000 women—or almost one per minute—die from heart disease each year, and an estimated 80 million Americans have one or more types of cardiovascular disease.