YOUR HEART - YOUR HEALTH

Dear Friends and Patients,

February is the Month of the Heart, and I wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day filled with lots of heart warming events that will bring you Joy and great Health!

Talking about HEART, and following my January HEALTH AWARENESS Newsletter on Cardio Vascular Health (you can see it in the ARCHIVES on my website: www.montereybaynaturopathy.com ), I want to share my comments on the February 2007 Issue of National Geographic Magazine. The article is called “Healing the Heart” and goes into great detail about the miraculous progress of modern medicine as far as heart transplants and artificial hearts are concerned. It also talks about the discoveries of new genetic triggers and angioplasty, which all contribute, according to the article, to extend the lives of cardiac patients.

I do not deny that such surgeries are remarkable by their degree of high technology, performances, and advanced medical knowledge.  But, I personally believe that these extremely sophisticated surgeries, are only able to save a few numbers of cardiac patients, and are not what medicine should be focusing upon by the spending billions of dollars.

Instead, money should be spent on studies that observe healthy living non-cardiac, non-medicated persons that are able to attain the age of 80 and 90 years old. They should study how these people are living, what they are eating that helps them to prevent Cardio-Vascular Diseases (CVD). Is it their diet? Is it their lifestyle? Do they have high level of HDL (“good” high-density-lipoprotein) cholesterol? And if so, what makes their HDL rise or not?

But no, this is not what research medicine shoots for. Why? Because there is NO PROFIT involved in diet and lifestyle! On the other hand, there is a huge amount of money to be made on medications such as Lipitor
, the number one selling drug- anti-cholesterol medication, and certainly even more money to be made by selling a full cardiac transplant! Not to mention, that once you have been transplanted or even had stints put into your arteries, you are told to stay on cholesterol medications for the rest of your life (even if your cholesterol is at a normal level), plus a regimen of blood pressure lowering drugs and anticoagulant medications. Great! Great! Great! You also have to live on a low fat diet, with egg beaters, fake butter, low fat ice creams, and lean meat. Blood pressure medications make you lose your stamina and pep, but it is attributed to the fact that you are a "cardiac patient", and of course "cardiac patients" are “expected” to be tired because of their weak hearts!  Right?

Your memory and concentration start to decline. But again this is expected… you are indeed a "cardiac patient"!  Then, you may feel dizzy from time to time; you may lose your quality of sleep as well as well as your sexual desire, and feel depressed… So you may be given anti-depressants and sleeping pills…. This story goes on and on!  Unfortunately, this is the case scenario that I hear day in and day out in my practice.

So yes, it is great to be able to make heart transplants, but I would prefer conventional medicine to focus on how to prevent heart diseases in the first place. What is it that makes our arteries clog up leading our heart to lack oxygen? The National Geographic Magazine article also mentions that autopsies / biopsies done on young people in their 20’s (who had died in accidents), already had clogged arteries. What is it that creates diseased arteries at such young ages? Genetic? I don’t think so!  I think that suggesting genetics as a cause of all kinds of diseases such as obesity, diabetes or cardio-vascular diseases is just a good way for pharmaceutical companies to make more money. It is also a cop-out for those people who do not want to make an effort to change their lifestyles.

In my opinion, what clogs arteries is at least 80% related to diet. Again, this is not what you are thinking:  “Oh boy, she is going to tell me to cut out all fats!” NO, the biggest causes of C.V.D are the BAD FATS. These fats are the hydrogenated oils, the trans-fats, and the lipid hydroperoxides. Lipid hydroperoxides are the by-products of vegetable oil processing.  Whenever oil is heated to a very high temperature, then filtered by acids, separated, emulsified, and re-solidified, it creates lipid hydroperoxides. These newly created molecules grab hydrogen molecules, that is why we call them hydrogenated oils. These de-natured oils are extremely dangerous for our bodies and thus to our health. They are irritating to our arteries because they basically
scrape the arteries like sand paper on skin would do, little by little Lipid hydroperoxides poisoning our body’s systems, just as Trans fats do. In fact, they may even be worse because they have a propensity to react with oxygen and iron, thereby forming free radicals. These distortions occur in the factory, the frying pan, and in our bloodstreams.

What are these oils?  They are Soy, Corn, Canola, Cottonseed, Sunflower, and Safflower oils.  You may argue with me that you thought these oils were healthy because they are polyunsaturated! But know that in order to be extracted profitably, these oils must be super heated and processed, even when they say “expeller pressed” they may still be bad, which is the case for most of these commercial oils.

So, I am not surprised that we find clogged arteries in 20 year old men and women, who have been raised on boxed cereals, fat free milk, cookies, and chips, fries… Every one of these so-called foods are loaded with Trans fats and lipid hydroperoxides.

Which fats should you use? The list is short: Real butter (Kerry Gold), Coconut Oil, and Olive Oil.  Period!
  These three oils are not irritating to the arteries. These ARE the fats that our body needs to repair, lubricate tissues (skin, blood vessels, and joints), nourish brain cells, and produce hormones. I implore you: DO NOT stay on a low-fat diet, or you will get depressed, wrinkled, and achy. On the contrary, use plentiful amount of good fats to cook your eggs, sauté your vegetables, and put on your toasts. You will not gain weight. I repeat, you will not gain weight, and you will not clog your arteries. Think about what your ancestors were eating? My farmer grandfather would start his day very early with a fresh garden vegetable soup, a piece of homemade bread spread with nice layer of lard (from his own pigs, of course). For everyday of his peasant working life, that was his breakfast. He didn’t die from heart disease. He had absolutely no illness and was celebrating
the New Year the day before his massive stroke! He was 83! He was on no prescription medication, even if he had some high cholesterol, but never took anything for it. He enjoyed life, food, as well as wine (and even cigarettes, Yuk!).

The difference between my grandfather’s generation and these young 20 year old’s with clogged arteries is their FOOD and their LIFESTYLE.  My grandfather and your ancestors did NOT consume any of the Trans Fats or the Lipid Hydroperoxides
. They ate a traditional meat diet of NO hormone injected meats, NO antibiotics injected meats, poultry, or dairy. They drank raw milk and ate non-pasteurized cheese, and they grew their own grains, fruits and vegetables. Their work was very physical and they worked constantly.  They loved and enjoyed life! It is as simple as this: we have forgotten the basics of a healthy diet and healthy lifestyle and this is what is killing us! This is also what feeds the pharmaceutical industry, hospitals, and makes doctors waiting rooms full. This is an industry that receives billions of dollars from heart transplants, but cannot even begin to tell us the most basic, down to earth methods, of how to prevent heart disease!

Make these simple and down to earth changes in your diet, become physically active, and complement your food intake with the right food based supplements from Standard Process: Cardio Plus: 3X3 per day, Cataplex B: 3X3 per day, and Organically Bound Minerals: 1X3 per day. The chances are that you will keep your perfect heart up and running for many many happy and healthy years and, by following the good examples I have noted, you will not enter into the medical system as a "cardiac patient" as it is the case for millions of Americans.  These Standard Process whole food supplements are available through my office.  Please fee free to give us a call.

GOOD THYROID HEALTH  MADE EASY

Everyone is aware that chlorine in tap water is detrimental to health. But most people don’t realize that they expose their bodies to large amounts of chlorine each and every time they take a shower or a bath! Do you know that the skin is the largest organ of the body? And, did you know that your skin has pores that absorb just about everything of which it comes in contact? This “everything” includes the CHLORINE in your shower and your bath water. And if this is not bad enough, do you know that you also INHALE chlorine vapors (like inhaling chlorine gas) every time you take a shower? This is even more so of a problem if you suffer from Thyroid disorder. The Thyroid gland is extremely sensitive and easily adversely affected by chlorine
. The Rainshow’r® Shower De-chlorinator, a simple, efficient and EASY to install device could probably save millions of people from Thyroid disease, one of the most prevalent and under-diagnosed disorders in America!  After years of exposure to chlorine, the Thyroid will be at high risk of becoming diseased. You can avoid this serious health problem by simply installing a Rainshow’r® Shower De-chlorinator in every one of your showers. You will immediately notice the difference in the softness of your hair. You will see a marked difference in an increase of your natural skin moisture. Speaking of EASY TO INSTALL, ladies, you don’t need a plumber and as a mater of fact, you don’t even need a man to install the Rainshow’r® Shower De-chlorinator
. I invite you to go to www.YourGoodHealthStore.com to obtain all of the product details and, to order your Rainshow’r® Shower De-chlorinator. I have thoroughly tested this product for effectiveness and viability and as such, we stand behind it 100%.

2007 SEMINAR SCHEDULE:

My SEMINAR SCHEDULE through September 2007 is now posted on my web site at www.montereybaynaturopathy.com.  Please feel free to call the office at 831-642-0202 to inquire about our Seminar Schedule and to reserve your place or, simply drop an email to john@montereybaynaturopathy.com.

Yours in Health,

The entire contents of HEALTH AWARENESS are based upon the opinions of Beatrice Levinson, Naturopath, unless otherwise indicated. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked. The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as an offering and sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Beatrice Levinson, Naturopath within the U.S. and Europe. Beatrice Levinson, Naturopath encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional.

©Copyright 2007 Beatrice F. Levinson, Naturopath. All Rights Reserved.  This content may be copied in full, with copyright, contact, creation and information intact, without specific permission, when used only in a not-for-profit format. If any other use is desired, permission in writing from Beatrice Levinson is required.

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