Living Well

Slow eating may reduce hunger but not calorie intake

Previous studies suggest that eating speed may affect how many calories the body consumes. But new research suggests that eating speed, rather than caloric intake, may have more of an impact on hunger suppression.

This is according to a study published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Investigators from the Department of Kinesiology at Texas Christian University say that previous research has mainly analyzed the link between calorie intake and eating speed in individuals of a healthy weight.

But this new study looked at the relationship between eating speed and energy intake in 35 overweight and obese individuals and compared the results with 35 individuals of a healthy weight.

New research suggests that eating slowly may reduce hunger but may not have a significant impact on calorie intake.
Both groups were required to consume one meal a day within a controlled environment over 2 days. Both meals were the same for each group, and the energy content (calories) and weight of each meal were measured prior to consumption.

For one meal, both groups were asked to eat at a slow pace. During this meal, they were asked to imagine they had time constraints in which to finish, to take small bites, thoroughly chew their meal and pause and set down their cutlery between bites.

For the other meal, both groups were asked to eat their food at a fast pace. They were asked to imagine they had to finish their meal within a certain time frame, take large bites, chew quickly and to not put down their cutlery between bites.

Slow eating ‘may reduce hunger’
Results of the study revealed that both groups felt less hungry an hour after the slow-eating condition, compared with the fast-eating condition.

Dr. Meena Shah, lead author of the study, explains:

“In both groups, ratings of hunger were significantly lower at 60 minutes from when the meal began during the slow compared to the fast-eating condition. These results indicate that greater hunger suppression among both groups could be expected from a meal that is consumed more slowly.”

Both groups also demonstrated a higher water consumption throughout the slow-eating condition, with 12 ounces of water consumed, compared with 9 ounces throughout the fast-eating condition.

Dr. Shah says the higher consumption of water during the slow-eating condition may have caused stomach distention in the participants and therefore may have affected the level of food consumption.

No impact on calorie intake for obese group
However, when analyzing the participants’ calorie intake, the researchers found that only the subjects of a healthy weight saw a reduction in calorie intake after consuming the meal in the slow-eating condition. The obese/overweight group ate 58 calories less, while the normal weight group ate 88 calories less.

“A lack of statistical significance in the overweight and obese group may be partly due to the fact that they consumed less food during both eating conditions compared to the normal-weight subjects,” says Dr. Shah.

She adds that the overweight and obese participants may have felt self-conscious during the meal, and so it is possible that this may have caused them to eat less.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than one-third of the US adult population is obese. Obesity rates have increased from 14.5% of the US population in 1971-74 to 35.9% of the population in 2009-10.

Dr. Shah notes that with obesity rates continuing to rise, information on how individuals of a different weight approach and consume food may help in the development of strategies to reduce calorie intake.

But she says that findings from this study show that slowing the speed of eating “may help to lower energy intake and suppress hunger levels and may even enhance the enjoyment of a meal.”

Source: medical news today

Strict parenting may reduce teen smoking

Parents who set limits are less likely to have kids who smoke, regardless of their ethnic and racial backgrounds, according to a new U.S. study.

Researchers surveyed middle schoolers from diverse backgrounds and found those whose parents had an “authoritative” and “structured” parenting style were also more likely to be discouraged from smoking by their parents and less likely to become smokers.

“Many past studies have examined broad parenting styles, however this study looked at how specific parenting strategies may help protect youth from cigarette smoking initiation,” said Cassandra Stanton, an assistant professor in the oncology department at Georgetown University, who led the study.

“We also note that unlike many studies in the area that are conducted in largely white middle class samples, this study was conducted in an urban multi-ethnic low-income school district,” Stanton told Reuters Health.

It’s important to identify ways of helping parents prevent kids from starting to smoke, Stanton’s team writes in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology, because the majority of lifetime smokers begin before the age of 18.

Although the number of teenage smokers has declined significantly, one in three young adults reports smoking at least once in the past 30 days, according to a 2012 report by the U.S. Surgeon General.

Past research has found links between low discipline, parental disengagement and increased risk of smoking, Stanton’s team notes. Rates of smoking vary among ethnic groups, with white students smoking daily at a rate twice that of African American and Latino students. However, African Americans and Latinos experience significantly higher rates of smoking-related health complications later in life compared with whites.

To delve deeper into which parenting strategies are effective among a diverse set of families, the researchers recruited 459 eighth graders from two low-income inner-city schools in the Northeast. The students averaged 13-years-old, with 29 percent identifying themselves as Hispanic, 34 percent as African American, 17 percent as non-Hispanic white and 20 percent as other/mixed ethnicity.

The students took a comprehensive survey in class with parental consent. The survey asked about the student’s smoking history and whether the student’s parents smoked. It also asked questions about parenting styles, such as discipline and warmth, and whether the student would receive punishments and discussion of the dangers of tobacco if caught smoking.

The researchers then followed up four years later to assess whether students had smoked.

Stanton’s group found that what they called controlling parenting, which was associated with rule enforcement, curfews and set bedtimes, was more likely than a less strict, more understanding parenting style to go hand in hand with so-called anti-tobacco parenting strategies.

Those anti-tobacco strategies include punishing a child if he or she has been caught smoking and discussing with the child the motivations behind smoking and why smoking is so dangerous. Being on the receiving end of such anti-tobacco strategies was in turn linked to a lower likelihood of lifetime smoking for the student.

The association held regardless of race or ethnicity, which the researchers say should be reassuring because other cultural differences don’t seem to alter the effectiveness of this approach.

It is important for parents to take an active role in protecting their children from developing an addiction to tobacco, Stanton said.

“Setting and enforcing clear standards of behavior and actively monitoring and supervising a teen’s activities are important strategies for protecting youth from risky behavior,” she said.

“To protect youth from experimenting with tobacco and ultimately developing an addiction to tobacco, it is important to talk about the risks of tobacco, as well as set and enforce clear rules and consequences that are specific to tobacco.”

Heather Patrick at the Health Behaviors Research Branch of the National Cancer Institute, who was not involved in this study, believes structure and authority in parenting is an important tool in preventing teens from smoking. However, she cautions, “heavy-handed” parenting can often cause stress and strain in the relationship.

Patrick said smoking cessation interventions should be tailored to different groups to be more effective. “It’s helpful for intervention materials to have images that show a diversity of racial and ethnic groups,” she wrote in an email.

It’s also helpful, she said, for anti-smoking messages to provide examples, “like how to deal with cravings, how to be smoke free when all of your friends are smoking, or how to deal with conflict at home, to connect with the kinds of experiences real teen smokers face.”

Source: US web daily

High blood pressure continues to be a bigger problem in Southeastern US

 

One third of U.S. adults have high blood pressure, but in the southeastern part of the country the rate is well over half, according to a new study that finds too little is being done to reverse the problem.

The Southeast has been called the Stroke Belt because of well-known high rates of cardiovascular disease, including high blood pressure. But that knowledge has not led to changes, nor to a full understanding of the reasons for the population’s high risk, the study team reports.

“The rates have not changed,” though the U.S. has had treatment guidelines for high blood pressure since 1977, said one of the authors, Dr. Uchechukwu K. A. Sampson, an assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

“The number of people who do not know that they have high blood pressure is the same,” he added.

High blood pressure is an established cause of death from cardiovascular disease and accounts for up to 7.5 million deaths worldwide each year, the researchers point out.

To investigate the persistently high rates of high blood pressure in the South, Sampson’s group used a large database with recent information on men and women in southern states covering the years 2002 to 2009.

They focused on 69,000 white and black adults with similarly low income and education levels – to eliminate poverty as a factor – and analyzed what other causes might be contributing to blood pressure problems.

Overall, they found that 57 percent of the study participants had high blood pressure. Blacks were nearly twice as likely as whites to be suffering from the disease, which has no symptoms of its own, but can lead to stroke or kidney damage if untreated.

But the racial difference was seen mainly among women. Fifty one percent of black and white men had high blood pressure, but the rates were 64 percent among black women and 52 percent among white women.

Obesity seemed to be a main driver of the problem, especially among whites, with the most severely obese having more than four times the risk of high blood pressure compared to normal weight men and woman.

Other factors linked to the likelihood of severe high blood pressure included high cholesterol, diabetes, a history of depression and a family history of heart disease.

The numbers Sampson’s group found have not changed from previous studies and that consistency is alarming, he said.

“Are they still the same factors people have found before?” Sampson said. “If they are, that is bad news, then that means we have not done what we should have done in the past few years.”

Of the study participants who knew they had high blood pressure, 94 percent were taking at least one blood pressure medication, which is a good thing, Sampson said. But only 30 percent were taking a diuretic medication that promotes water loss from the body. Diuretics should be one of the first-line medication options, the authors write.

Black people were twice as likely as whites to have high blood pressure without knowing it, Sampson said.

That racial difference did not change even when researchers accounted for differences in income and education, the authors write in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

All of this lines up with what doctors and researchers already knew, Sampson said.

Without specific studies, it’s hard to say why population rates have not gone down, and why so many people still do not know they have high blood pressure, and why so few are on diuretics, he said.

Women may not actually be more predisposed to high blood pressure, Sampson said, but they may be less aware of the risk than men.

Awareness efforts have historically focused on men when it comes to heart and blood pressure problems, but women are equally likely to have problems, he said.

“African American women are known to have a very high prevalence of hypertension and that its onset is significantly earlier than what is seen in white women,” Dr. John M. Flack said.

Flack is chair of the department of medicine at Wayne State University at the Detroit Medical Center in Michigan.

Source: news.nom

Anxiety linked to stroke risk

 

Men and women with severe symptoms of anxiety may have a higher risk of stroke than their more relaxed counterparts, a new study suggests.

“The greater your anxiety level, the higher your risks of having a stroke,” study co-author Dr. Maya J. Lambiase, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, told Reuters Health.

“Assessment and treatment of anxiety has the potential to not only improve overall quality of life, but may also reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as stroke, later in life,” she said in an email.

Dr. Philip Muskin, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center in New York emphasized that the stroke risk identified in the study among overly anxious individuals was not vastly increased.

“What it’s really saying is, you’re a little more likely to have a stroke,” said Muskin, who was not involved in the study. Still, he added, “I would like to be a little less likely (to have a stroke) in my life.”

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S., but few studies have looked at psychosocial factors other than depression or psychological stress or distress, that may contribute to a person’s risk of stroke.

Yet, Lambiase and her colleagues point out, anxiety has been linked to increased cigarette smoking, alcohol abuse and physical inactivity – all of which are known to increase stroke risk.

To investigate the association between anxiety and stroke, the researchers analyzed data from 6,019 men and women who were enrolled in the First National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 1971-1975 and followed for about 16 years.

The participants were interviewed at the start of the study to determine the presence and severity of any anxiety symptoms, and stroke events were identified by examining hospital or nursing home discharge reports and death certificates.

A total of 419 strokes occurred throughout the study period, but the risk of stroke was higher among those who reported greater anxiety symptoms, including excessive feelings of worry, stress and nervousness, at the initial interview.

Overall, anxiety was linked to a 14 percent higher risk of stroke relative to participants who were not anxious, Lambiase and her co-authors report in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.

But stroke risk also appeared to rise in line with increasing severity of anxiety symptoms, the results suggest.

The link between anxiety and stroke risk remained even after the researchers took into consideration other factors that may have influenced cardiovascular health, such as alcohol use, physical activity and smoking. After those adjustments, men and women with higher levels of anxiety were 33 percent more likely to experience stroke than those with fewer anxiety symptoms.

Similarly, the link between anxiety symptoms and increased stroke risk remained when the researchers accounted for study participants’ age, gender and symptoms of depression.

The researchers didn’t analyze the reason for the connection between anxiety and stroke, but they speculate multiple factors are likely to be involved. These could include unhealthy coping behaviors people with anxiety indulge in as well as overactivation of the sympathetic nervous system, which controls fight-or-flight responses, such as the release of stress hormones.

“People with high anxiety levels are more likely to smoke and be physically inactive, possibly explaining part of the anxiety-stroke link,” Lambiase said. “Higher stress hormones, blood pressure or sympathetic output may also be factors.”

“However,” she added, “future research is needed to determine the precise mechanisms whereby greater levels of anxiety increase a person’s risk for stroke.”

Dr. Muskin acknowledged that the study findings do point to a greater risk of stroke among overly anxious people, “but there are things you can do about that,” he said.

Noting that “anxiety predicts bad health behaviors,” Dr. Muskin cited the importance of stopping smoking and starting to exercise. He also described the importance of meditation and proper breathing techniques, which he teaches in his private practice with patients.

“Doing nothing leaves you at a higher risk (of stroke),” he said, but breathing exercises have “a psychologically beneficial effect,” with no harm and no addicting qualities, he told Reuters Health.

source: yahoo news

Patient doing well with French company’s artificial heart: report

A 75-year-old Frenchman was feeding himself and chatting to his family, more than a week after becoming the first person to be fitted with an artificial heart made by French biomedical company Carmat, one of his surgeons said.

“He is awake, feeding himself and talking with his family. We are thinking of getting him up on his feet soon, probably as early as this weekend,” Professor Daniel Duveau, who saw the patient on Thursday, told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper.

A more detailed account of the patient’s health would be made public on Monday, the paper wrote.

Heart-assistance devices have been used for decades as a temporary solution for patients awaiting transplants, but Carmat’s bioprosthetic product is designed to replace the real heart over the long run, mimicking nature using biological materials and sensors.

It aims to extend life for patients suffering from terminal heart failure who cannot hope for a heart transplant, often because they are too old and donors too scarce.

 

The artificial heart, which can beat up to five years, has been successfully tested on animals but the December 18 implant in a Paris hospital was the first in a human patient.

Three more patients in France are due to be fitted with the device. The next operation is scheduled for the first weeks of January, the newspaper reported.

In this first range of clinical trials, the success of the device will be judged on whether patients survive with the implant for at least a month.

The patients selected suffer from terminal heart failure – when the sick heart can no longer pump enough blood to sustain the body – and would otherwise have only a few days or weeks to live.

Artificial hearts thus fuel huge hope amongst patients, their families, and investors. Shares in Carmat have risen more than five-fold since floating on the Paris exchange in 2010.

Duveau told the JDD that Carmat’s first patient was very combative and confident with his new prosthetic heart.

“When his wife and his daughter leave him, he tells them: ‘See you tomorrow!’ All he wants is to enjoy life. He can’t wait to get out of the intensive care unit, out of his room, and out of uncertainty.”

Source: Fresh News

How meditation helps overcome addictions

Rehabilitation therapies that use meditation are likely to have a higher success rate when it comes to helping trying to overcome addiction. This is the conclusion of a new survey of animal and human studies by a computer scientist who used a computational model of addiction, a literature review and an in silico experiment. The findings of the survey — by computer scientist Yariv Levyof the University of Massachusetts Amherst, neuroscience researcher Jerrold Meyer, and computer scientist Andrew Barto — has been published in the latest issue of the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry. “Our higher-level conclusion is that a treatment based on meditation-like techniques can be helpful as a supplement to help someone get out of addiction. We give scientific and mathematical arguments for this,” said Levy, who was a doctoral student when he undertook the survey.

According to Levy, the survey aimed to use learnings from existing animal and human studies to better understand addiction and seek new approaches to treatment. The researchers explored the allostatic theory, which describes changes in the brain’s reward and anti-reward systems and reward set points as substance misuse progresses. They used two existing computational models, one pharmacological and a more behavioural-cognitive model for the study. The allostatic theory says that when someone takes a drug he or she stresses the reward system and it loses its equilibrium state. “We smoke one cigarette and go out, come back in again, and out with another cigarette, always trying to return to equilibrium,” Levy says. “The reward system tries to change its structure with neural adaptations to get back to equilibrium. But if I continue to smoke, even with such adaptations, I can’t make it back. Equilibrium is broken as long as I continue to smoke.”

As the reward system is stressed, the anti-reward system steps in and says, “I’ll try to help,” and the person enters what is known as an allostatic state. Other brain structures are affected by the addictive substance, impairing the addict’s evaluation of drug use compared to other reinforcers, Levy said. To bind the two theories and test how they could work together in silico, the authors follow three virtual case studies, each representing a different trajectory of allostatic state during escalation of cigarette smoking. “This investigation provides formal arguments encouraging current rehabilitation therapies to include meditation-like practices along with pharmaceutical drugs and behavioural counseling,” the authors wrote.

Source: Oman daily Observer

Health Benefits of Tropical Fruits

The tropics is blessed with sunshine all year long along with abundant rainfall and some of the most popular fruits in the world. Read on to find out about their health benefits as well.

Passion fruit

Passion fruit is packed with antioxidants, minerals, vitamins and fibre. It can act as a pain reliever and sedative. It can help with digestion, lowering cholesterol and blood pressure.

Citrus fruit

Vitamin C from citrus fruits along with furocoumarins and limonene help prevent many types of cancers and nutritional deficiencies like scurvy. Citrus fruit juices may reduce the risk of certain kinds of kidney stones.

Banana

Banana is a good source of vitamins B6 and C, manganese, potassium and fibre. It can help maintain normal blood pressure and heart function and protect you from ulcers. It also aids in digestion and improve eyesight.

Avocado

Oleic acid from avocados helps to lower the total cholesterol levels and even increase the high density lipoprotein levels in the body. Moreover avocado also provides a good dose of fibre. Try an avocado dip or guacamole in your burger instead of other fat-loaded dressings.

Cantaloupe

Cantaloupe is packed with two important antioxidants; vitamin C and vitamin A. The pro-vitamin A in cantaloupe promotes your lung health, protects your vision and vitamin C helps to fight against infection and boosts your immune system.

Kiwi Fruit

Vitamin C from kiwi protects the body from any oxidative damage and phytonutrients from this fruit protects the DNA.

Papaya

Papaya is an excellent source of vitamin C and vitamin A, E and K. All these antioxidants along with the fiber in papaya surely promote good health and ward off a variety of diseases and conditions.

Pineapple

Bromelain from pineapple offers potential anti-inflammatory and digestive benefits. Pineapple is also a good source of manganese, ascorbic acid and thiamin which play a role in antioxidant defences and energy production.

Mango

Mango can lower cholesterol and help fight some cancers. It helps in digestion and elimination. Green mango juice helps cool down the body and prevents sun stroke during summer.

Source: Zee news

13 Evidence-Based Medicinal Properties of Coconut Oil

 

Fat-burning: Ironic, isn’t it? A saturated fat which can accelerate the loss of midsection fat (the most dangerous kind). Well, there are now two solid, human studies showing just two tablespoons a day (30 ml), in both men and women, is capable of reducing belly fat within 1-3 months.

Brain-Boosting: A now famous study, published in 2006 in the journal Neurobiology of Aging, showed that the administration of medium chain triglycerides (most plentifully found in coconut oil) in 20 subjects with Alzheimer’s disease or mild cognitive impairment, resulted in significant increases in ketone bodies (within only 90 minutes after treatment) associated with measurable cognitive improvement in those with less severe cognitive dysfunction.

Clearing Head Lice: When combined with anise spray, coconut oil was found to be superior to the insecticide permethrin (.43%).

Healing Wounds: Coconut has been used for wound healing since time immemorial. Three of the identified mechanisms behind these healing effects are its ability to accelerate re-epithelialization, improve antioxidant enzyme activity, and stimulate higher collagen cross-linking within the tissue being repaired.

Coconut oil has even been shown to work synergistically with traditional treatments, such as silver sulphadizine, to speed burn wound recovery.

NSAID Alternative: Coconut oil has been demonstrated to have anti-inflammatory, analgesic and fever-reducing properties.

Anti-Ulcer Activity: Interestingly, coconut milk (which includes coconut oil components), has been shown to be as effective as the conventional drug sucralfate as an NSAID-associated anti-ulcer agent.

Anti-Fungal: In 2004, 52 isolates of Candida species were exposed to coconut oil. The most notorious form, Candida albicans, was found to have the highest susceptibility. Researchers remarked: “Coconut oil should be used in the treatment of fungal infections in view of emerging drug-resistant Candida species.”

Testosterone-Booster: Coconut oil was found to reduce oxidative stress in the testes of rats, resulting in significantly higher levels of testosterone.

Reducing Swollen Prostate: Coconut oil has been found to reduce testosterone-induced benign prostate growth in rats.

Improving Blood Lipids: Coconut oil consistently improves the LDL:HDL ratio in the blood of those who consume it. Given this effect, coconut oil can nolonger be dismissed for being ‘that saturated fat which clogs the arteries.’

Fat-Soluble Nutrient Absorption: Coconut oil was recently found to be superior to safflower oil in enhancing tomato carotenoid absorption.

Bone Health: Coconut oil has been shown to reduce oxidative stress within the bone, which may prevent structural damage in osteoporotic bone

Source: Real farmacy

Black Seed – ‘The Remedy For Everything But Death’

 

This humble, but immensely powerful seed, kills MRSA, heals the chemical weapon poisoned body, stimulates regeneration of the dying beta cells within the diabetic’s pancreas, and yet too few even know it exists.

The seeds of the annual flowering plant, Nigella Sativa, have been prized for their healing properties since time immemorial. While frequently referred to among English-speaking cultures as Roman coriander, black sesame, black cumin, black caraway and onion seed, it is known today primarily as black seed, which is at the very least an accurate description of its physical appearance.

The earliest record of its cultivation and use come from ancient Egypt. Black seed oil, in fact, was found in Egyptian pharoah Tutankhamun’s tomb, dating back to approximately 3,300 years ago.[i] In Arabic cultures, black cumin is known as Habbatul barakah, meaning the “seed of blessing.” It is also believed that the Islamic prophet Mohammed said of it that it is “a remedy for all diseases except death.”

Many of black cumin’s traditionally ascribed health benefits have been thoroughly confirmed in the biomedical literature. In fact, since 1964, there have been 458 published, peer-reviewed studies referencing it.

We have indexed salient research, available to view on our Black Seed (Nigella Sativa) page, on well over 40 health conditions that may be benefited from the use of the herb, including over 20 distinct pharmacological actions it expresses, such as: – Analgesic (Pain-Killing)

– Anti-Bacterial

– Anti-Inflammatory

– Anti-Ulcer

– Anti-Cholinergic

– Anti-Fungal

– Ant-Hypertensive

– Antioxidant

– Antispasmodic

– Antiviral

– Bronchodilator

– Gluconeogenesis Inhibitor (Anti-Diabetic)

– Hepatoprotective (Liver Protecting)

– Hypotensive

– Insulin Sensitizing

– Interferon Inducer

– Leukotriene Antagonist

– Renoprotective (Kidney Protecting)

– Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha Inhibitor

These 22 pharmacological actions are only a subset of a far wider number of beneficial properties intrinsic to the black seed. While it is remarkable that this seed has the ability to positively modulate so many different biological pathways, this is actually a rather common occurrence among traditional plant medicines.

Black seed has been researched for very specific health conditions. Some of the most compelling applications include:

Type 2 Diabetes:

Two grams of black seed a day resulted in reduced fasting glucose, decreased insulin resistance, increased beta-cell function, and reduced glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) in human subjects.

Helicobacter Pylori Infection:

Black seeds possess clinically useful anti-H. pylori activity, comparable to triple eradication therapy.

Epilepsy:

Black seeds were traditionally known to have anticonvulsive properties. A 2007 study with epileptic children, whose condition was refractory to conventional drug treatment, found that a water extract significantly reduced seizure activity.

Source; Healthy life

15 Cholesterol myths busted

 

Myth #1: High cholesterol is only a concern for men- not women.

Women have estrogen on their side to help keep cholesterol levels within the normal range. However, after menopause this advantage is gone. Men over 45 and women over 55 are at higher risk for elevated cholesterol.

Myth #2: High cholesterol is genetic and there is nothing you can do about it.

While genetics definitely play a role, diet and lifestyle choices have a significant impact on cholesterol levels. Having a family history of high cholesterol means you need to take preventive steps and be more proactive to keep your levels within normal.

Myth #3: Cholesterol can only be successfully lowered with medication

When you learn you have high cholesterol it’s important to investigate the cause. Frequently if you correct the cause your cholesterol levels will return to normal. Possible causes of high cholesterol may include poor diet, lack of activity, infection, mental stress, and physical stress (such as surgery).

Myth #4: Taking cholesterol lowering medication means I do not have to change my diet or be more active.

Cholesterol medications can help lower cholesterol levels only so far. By making heart healthy diet and lifestyle choices you’ll increase the effectiveness of your medication.

Myth #5: Food is heart-healthy if it says “0 mg cholesterol”

The Cholesterol portion of the nutritional label refers to dietary cholesterol, which is only one of the things found in food that can cause your cholesterol to go sky-high. Saturated fat (found in animal foods and dairy products) and trans fats (found in packaged foods) appear to have a far greater impact on low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the so-called bad cholesterol that causes atherosclerosis, than dietary cholesterol.

Myth #6: Kids can’t have high cholesterol

Research has shown that atherosclerosis—the narrowing of the arteries that leads to heart attacks—can start as early as age eight. The American Academy of Paediatrics guidelines on kids and cholesterol recommended that children who are overweight, have hypertension, or have a family history of heart disease have their cholesterol tested as young as two. Children with high cholesterol should be on a diet that restricts saturated fat and dietary cholesterol, and exercise more are also recommended.

Myth #7: Food is heart-healthy if it says “0 mg cholesterol”

The Cholesterol portion of the nutritional label refers to dietary cholesterol, which is only one of the things found in food that can cause your cholesterol to go sky-high. Saturated fat (found in animal foods and dairy products) and trans fats (found in packaged foods) appear to have a far greater impact on low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the so-called bad cholesterol that causes atherosclerosis, than dietary cholesterol.

Myth #8: Cholesterol is always a bad thing

When most people hear “cholesterol” they think “bad.” The reality is more complex. High cholesterol can be dangerous, but cholesterol itself is essential to various bodily processes, from insulating nerve cells in the brain to providing structure for cell membranes. The role of cholesterol in heart disease is often misunderstood. Cholesterol is carried through the bloodstream by low-density and high-density lipoproteins (LDL and HDL). LDL, known as bad cholesterol, and not the cholesterol it carries per se, is responsible for atherosclerosis.

Myth #9: Low cholesterol is always a sign of good health.

Although low levels of LDL cholesterol are usually healthy, a new study reports that people who develop cancer typically have lower LDL in the years prior to diagnosis than those who don’t get cancer. People with low blood cholesterol are also prone to various infections, suffer from them longer and are more likely to die from an infection.

Myth # 10: There are no visible symptoms of high cholesterol.

Some people with high cholesterol develop yellowish-red bumps called xanthomas that can occur on the eyelids, joints, hands, or other parts of the body. People with diabetes or an inherited condition called familial hypercholesterolemia are more likely to have xanthomas.

The best way to tell if your cholesterol is too high is to have it checked every three years, starting at age 20, or more often, if advised by your healthcare provider.

Myth # 11: It’s okay to stop taking your cholesterol medication once you get your numbers down.

If you stop taking your cholesterol medication, your bad LDL cholesterol might bounce back to where it was when you started. When your cholesterol goes back up, so does your risk of heart attack and stroke. While there’s no “cure” for high cholesterol, it can be managed successfully. Managing cholesterol successfully takes a lifelong commitment to your health—including taking your medication every day.

Myth # 12: High cholesterol isn’t a problem for thin people.

Thin, overweight, or in-between, everyone should have their cholesterol checked regularly. While overweight people tend to have high cholesterol from eating too much fatty food, those who don’t gain weight easily need to be aware of how much saturated fat they eat.

Myth # 13: Switching from butter to margarine will help lower my cholesterol.

Margarine, like butter, is high in fat—and all fatty foods should be eaten in moderation if you have high cholesterol. Most margarine contains saturated fat, a major food factor in high cholesterol. The recommended choice is a liquid vegetable oil that doesn’t contain any trans fat (hydrogenated vegetable oil).

Myth # 14: There’s no need to have your cholesterol checked until you’re middle-aged.

Even children—especially those with a family history of heart disease—can have high cholesterol levels. Getting cholesterol levels checked at an early age is a good idea.

Myth # 15: All your cholesterol comes from food.

Most of the cholesterol inside you doesn’t come from the food you eat, but from your body’s natural processes.

 

Source: healthy eating