STOP WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING.

~~      February is Heart Health Month, and in honor of that, our theme here at Upper Perk, and the Center for Nutrition and Wellness is Cardio-Vascular Health and Wellness. Let's get your attention and set the stage by reviewing some statistics from the CDC. Did you know that about 600,000 people die each year of heart disease, and that in 2009 more than half of those deaths were men? Of that number more than 385,000 deaths were directly linked to coronary artery disease. That means that the blood vessels that supply the heart become blocked, so that the life giving blood supply to the heart muscle itself is compromised. Better than simply looking at statistics, if you know anyone who has had "open heart surgery" or a "coronary bypass surgery", or has had a "stent" implanted into a coronary artery then you know someone who is in this statistical group. Every year 715,000 Americans die of a "heart attack". Of these individuals, 525,000 were first-time heart attack victims. The other 190,000 individuals had one previous heart attack. Coronary artery disease alone costs the U.S. economy $108.9 billion per year.
     So what is being done about these dismal statistics? Well first of all the good news is that we are seeing a slight decline in these statistics. According to the American Heart Association the death rate from Cardio-vascular disease (CVD) between 2000 and 2010 declined 31.0%. The number of CVD-related deaths per year declined 16.8%. This all sounds wonderful and it is, but even with this positive change statistically, the sad truth is that 1 in 3 deaths in the United States in 2010 was due to CVD. That means that over 2,150 individuals will die of CVD today. That equates to one every 40 seconds. Sadly, about 150,000 of these lives ended in 2010 before the age of 65. This is an extremely sad statistic considering the fact that the average life span in the U.S. today is 78.7 years. As I tell all my patients, and those who have attended one of my Focus Health Seminars, we are living longer today than ever before. Unfortunately our "Functional Life Span" is significantly less than 78.7 years, and by some estimates is as short as 64 years.
     What then are we doing about this unfortunately high statistic? Well I will leave the medical treatments to those in that world. We all know what they are though, and they are geared at controlling numbers on a lab report or in a medical record. Let me just take a moment to give you some headlines from some of the research studies that I have read recently. From our friends up north a study from the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal finds that the use of Warfarin, a commonly used blood thinner in atrial fibrillation patients, causes strokes. I will have more on this study in an upcoming article. My intent in this article is not to debate the value or lack thereof in utilizing these forms of treatment. My goal is to look at the real underlying CAUSES for this statistical conundrum. And I know that I will sound like a broken record with my recommendations, but the truth is always difficult to debate, and always stands the test of time. Let's look at those pillars one at a time again. You MUST "Eat Right"! Just what does that mean to you? It means that you must discard the old grain-based diet that is killing you and move to a vegetable and fruit based diet, which incorporates limited quantities of meat, particularly beef. Also remember that virtually all of the meat that you purchase today is both antibiotic and hormone laden.
     You must also "Think Right"! We all know that stress is a killer. You must improve your stress levels with such things as meditation and yoga. If you need help on this you can visit our web site and pick up my Focus Health Seminar "Stress and how it is Killing You". This will help you to understand how stress affects you physiologically and causes many of the things that drugs are prescribed in an attempt to deal with medically after they occur.
     You know that you must "Move Right" as well. You need to exercise! You need to get out, move around, and "get the juices flowing". Remember that when you exercise you are using all of your muscles including the "heart muscle".
     And now for the forgotten component of the "Heart Health" Pillars of Health, that all-important "Sleep Right" component. That's right, you must "Sleep Right"! In a research study performed at Brigham and Women's Hospital and published recently in the journal Circulation, found that individuals who had difficulty falling asleep and those having "non-restorative" sleep were both associated with a higher risk of mortality, particularly mortality related to cardiovascular disease. You see, the body heals and regenerates while you rest. If you don't give the body sufficient rest/sleep you will not live a long and Healthy life! This is an irrefutable fact which medicine is coming to recognize. Sufficient means 7 to 8 hours each and every night.
     The other supplemental component that I cannot emphasize enough to you is that your blood vessels need to be able to produce enough of a molecule called "Nitric Oxide" in order for the vessels to "relax" and not remain in an overly constricted state. The problem with this is that the body needs enough of the raw materials needed to produce this Nitric Oxide. What is the raw material, you might ask? It is an amino acid called "Arginine". The problem is that most Americans don't supply the body with enough of this substance. That is why I use ProArgi 9+ in both of my practices. It supplies sufficient quantities (5 grams) of free form Arginine with other constituents such as Vitamin D, in a dose of 2500 IU's. Why is vitamin D so important? Well, you see a recent study from the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg demonstrated that a deficiency in vitamin D is directly related to fetal and non-fetal cardio-vascular events. We have all bases covered with ProArgi 9+.
     Please take this information and make one or more changes this year so that you do not become one of the statistics that I quoted at the outset of this article. Oh, and, as I said earlier the truth is powerful, and what I have outlined is the logical truth regarding the way that we all need to deal with this life threatening "controllable" disorder, which is controllable by each and every one of us every day. You all just have to start walking the talk. You see having knowledge and information is only a small component of the change that is necessary. Applying that knowledge and information is the only way that you will generate the change that is necessary!!!