Medicrit – Medicare

Archive for March, 2010

If you are one of the millions of people trying to decrease their risks of heart attack and stroke having a bad cholesterol definition is an important piece of the puzzle. In fact without having a bad cholesterol definition there is little chance that an individual could effectively control cholesterol. After all, would an adventurer go on a long journey without a compass. I think not, unless he was content with walking around in circles all day. Therefore having an understandable bad cholesterol definition will be your compass in the a jungle filled with artery clogging beasts. Now why don’t we get down to business.

Bad cholesterol is a general term describing two different classifications of lipoproteins (lipid carriers); very low density lipoproteins (VLDLs) and low density lipoproteins (LDLs).

*VLDLs are the second stage of cholesterol development which all starts with chylomicron molecules which are formed from food processed by the intestines. Their job is to transport triglycerides from the liver to the fat cells. VLDL are very fatty molecules and some believe that VDLDs and their cargo of triglycerides is a bigger threat to artery health than LDLs. Very low density lipoproteins are a combination of cholesterol and triglycerides. Specifically they are about 60 percent triglycerides, 30 percent cholesterol, with the other ten percent being undetermined.

*The truth be told if you asked 5 people to provide a bad cholesterol definition at least 4 and possibly 5 of them would only name LDL. Low density lipoproteins are formed after our fatty friend VLDL drops off his load of triglycerides. Their function is to transport cholesterol to various cells. These molecules play a very important role in cell health among other things. Only when too much LDL is present do they pose a threat. These molecules contain at least 50 percent cholesterol and less than ten percent triglycerides.

It becomes clear while both VLDL and LDL are closely related, they are as different and night and day, and certainly any detailed bad cholesterol definition must include them both. Ironically controlling these blood lipid characters is not easy task but just as the lion trainer is able to keep from getting eaten alive so can you keep these beasts from clogging your arteries.

VLDL/triglycerides are difficult to control and believe it or not it seems that consuming polyunsaturated fats along with a moderate exercise routine is the best way to tame this beast. The most obvious choice of polyunsaturated fats are omega 3 fatty acids found in supplements and cold water fatty fish.

LDL/cholesterol can be effectively controlled through a low saturated fat diet, moderate exercise for 30 continual minutes 5 days a week, managing weight effectively, and staying away from cigarette smoke.

Now you have a bad cholesterol definition that when combined with a little willpower can help you reduce your risk of heart disease. Additionally, some struggle with their willpower from time to time and may need a little extra boost to keep those fatty cholesterol lions from eating them alive. If you fall into this category and are looking for a safe and effective alternative to prescription cholesterol medications, or just a helping hand, nutural cholesterol reduction supplements just might be an option worth considering.

Exercise is one of the best and most effective ways that you can help ease your anxiety naturally, without pills and other potentially addictive or dangerous medications. The primary reason exercise works so well as a coping strategy is that it releases endorphins (the “feel good chemicals”) to the brain and gives your mind a healthy boost of serotonin. This is the same way that many SSRIs work, which are commonly prescribed for both anxiety and depression. Additionally, exercise puts you in control of your body and is a proactive approach in treating your health.

Most anxiety disorders have one critical component in common – control. People who are worried about losing control are often those who are the most anxious, and those types of control based worries n/f fears can easily lead to more serious disorders, or even panic attacks. While most people accept the fact that control is not necessarily in their hands at all times, those with anxiety cannot accept this fact or give up their sense of perceived control of their circumstances or world around them. They feel that they need control in order to function. The feeling of a loss of control can send them into a downward spiral that launches a full anxiety attack.

Rich Presta, the author of several self-improvement programs for individuals struggling with anxiety and phobias such as the fear of driving which can be found at http://www.DrivingFear.com, had this to say, “Control is an illusion. We’re in actual control of very little except our own thoughts and reaction to those thoughts. Our jobs, the economy, or children, and even our health, are not under our control, but our INFLUENCE. The distinction is slight, but important.”

While we cannot control everything that happens in our lives, we do have control when it comes to our bodies, and we can exercise as a means of gaining mastery over our bodies and to a great degree, our mind as well. Exercise and physical fitness helps alleviate anxiety by working out the stress that you are feeling as well as raising endorphins that send messages to your brain. What can be better than that?

In the morning, you can perform cardiovascular exercises. This may include running, jogging, stair climbing and even elliptical workouts. Whatever you can do to get the old ticker working will do just fine when you are exercising to treat anxiety. This will not only help you mentally, but physically as well. It will burn off calories to keep you looking good at et beach in the summer and keep your heart in good shape so you have greater overall health.

Prior to going to bed, you may incorporate some Pilates exercises or even some Yoga. These are stretching exercises that will relax you as well as keep you in good shape. You can be relaxed and feel ready for a good night’s sleep when you are practicing these exercises at night, it’s an excellent habit get into to get to sleep easily and can do wonders for insomnia brought on by anxiety. You do not have to attend Yoga classes to learn the moves and you do not have to contort your body into all sorts of impossible shapes. The main thing is that you learn how to stretch and relax.

By incorporating exercise into your life to treat anxiety and depression, you do not only boost your mood and relax your body, you give yourself something to concentrate on, instead of concentrating on yourself. An exercises routine will take away the troubles that you have in your mind and give you something else on which to focus. It truly a wonderful and effective treatment for anxiety and depression.

Quercetin is a Bioflavonoid. Recent research found that quercetin performs a protective role in controlling a gene protecting LDL cholesterol oxidation. The gene Paraoxonase 1 (PON1) takes care to protect low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol to reduce or eliminate the oxidation process. This gives the heart protection from the oxidation of LDL because of the role PON1 is plays by blocking cholesterol’s heart damaging process. PON1 is an important and major anti-atherosclerotic protein component of the positive cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol.

In this new research project, the objective of the research was to study how quercetin regulates (PON1) expression in rats. Two groups of rats were involved in the study. The quercetin rats were fed quercetin for 4 weeks and gained an increase of 35% in (PON1) expression in the liver. The quercetin rats, when involved in PON1 serum activities, had an increase of 29%. It was also found that the activity of homocysteine thiolactonase (HCTL) (this enzyme is involved in breaking down homocysteine; and this is important because homocysteine is an amino acid suspected in heart disease), had an increase of 23%.

Quercetin, additionally, appeared to help HDL in offsetting the negative effects of LDL because it took longer for the LDL to oxidize when it was exposed to the plasma HDL from group-fed quercetin compared to the HDL from the control group.

At the completion of the study, the scientists expressed the study’s accomplishment as data derived from the research shows quercetin has an anti-atherogenic result that strengthens PON1 gene expression and its protective ability against LDL oxidation.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a Doctor and do not give medical advice; this is a news report and cannot substitute for the advice of a medical professional.

My mission is to educate as many people as I can about Resveratrol and Quercetin. I believe both of these supplements are showing amazing promise in the research being conducted in such areas as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, obesity and also the brain. Both display another great set of advantages, low in cost and no side effects.

The subject of drug abuse is one that usually brings to mind images of people shooting up, cocaine, alcohol abuse and what have you. These are all clearly areas where people suffer from addiction, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t more subtle forms you have to watch out for. Most parents, for instance, don’t realize cough medicine is commonly abused by kids in their early teens.

You are probably wondering who would abuse cough syrup and why? The answer is Dextromethorphan. It the is the active ingredient in most cough syrups and acts as a cough suppressant. If taken in larger than recommended dosages, however, it produces hallucinations. Admittedly, one has to drink nearly up to a bottle of cough syrup, but it is becoming a common problem in schools and one parents know almost nothing about. This is particularly true since many families by large amounts of it in warehouse stores along with vitamins, food and what have you.

Why would kids abuse this compared to other drugs? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, most parents are clueless that it is even an issue, so getting caught really isn’t a huge deal. After all, would you even bat an eye if your kid walked by with a bottle of cough syrup in it? Probably not.

The second reason for abusing cough syrup has to do with being caught. Not only do most parents not think much of their kids walking around with it, but Dextromethorphan doesn’t show up as a noted infraction in drug tests. This means your child can abuse it without fear of any trip to the doctor revealing what they are doing.

The third reason for abuse is very prevalent in schools today – it is cool. Cough syrup is the word of the mouth choice these days with schools across the country reporting as much. This means there is peer pressure to try it and, as we all remember from those days, peer pressure means a lot. If you overhear your child talking about cough syrup or “DXM”, sirens should start sounding in your head.

Cough syrup might seem like the least of one’s problems when it comes to chemical abuse, but clearly that is not the case. Ah, just what parents need. Another product to watch out for.