Cholesterol Diet

The good news is there are many lifestyle changes that will lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.

The combination of a low-saturated-fat, total-fat, and low-cholesterol diet, physical activity, and weight control can have many positive effects on overall health.

In addition to lowering the “bad” LDL cholesterol, they can raise the “good” HDL cholesterol.

The body naturally makes cholesterol. Dietary cholesterol is found in foods that contain animal products (butter, milk, cheese, chicken, beef, eggs, etc.). Plant products do NOT contain cholesterol. There are many good things cholesterol does in the body, including:

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Anti-Aging Diet

By Dr. Nicole Sundene

“If I could turn back time….”  name that tune!

The fountain of youth is not that difficult to find. Really it is inside of all of us. It simply starts with making the better decisions when at all possible.

Let’s face it, nobody wants to BE old, nobody wants to LOOK old, and most importantly nobody wants to FEEL old. he bad news is that aging is just a reality of living.

The good news is that to some degree we can reverse the aging process, if not drastically slow it down through better diet and lifestyle decisions. After working eight years in patient care, two of which were spent with a dermatologist I have concluded that the best “preserved” older people are those that exercise, eat right, and have positive mental attitudes.

Botox and collagen will only take you so far, and in my opinion there is no substance that will give you that healthy youthful glow that only proper nutrition and exercise provide. Read more

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Does Your Doctor Know Your Real Blood Pressure?

By Rod Newbound, RN

Tips On How To Be In Better Control of Your Blood Pressure Even When You Go to the Doctor

Are you one of those people who rarely go to the doctor? And when you finally make it in for that annual checkup, do you feel a twinge of anxiety? And what’s the first thing that happens? You walk in for your appointment and you wind up sitting for 20 or more minutes in a room full of sick people. Then, when they finally take you back to the cold exam room, the first thing the nurse does is to make you sit on that high uncomfortable exam table with no back support and you can’t even put your feet on the floor.

After you are subjected to this total lack of normalcy, the nurse (or probably even a lesser trained medical assistant) pops a thermometer in your mouth and proceeds to check your blood pressure and pulse. Unless you ask for the results you most likely won’t even be told. Was it high? Should you be worried?

Why Having Your BP Checked Only at the Doctor’s Office is a Problem

Have you ever thought about the fact your blood pressure can vary significantly during the day depending on your level of stress? And stressors can come in many forms, such as…

• Stimulants like a cup of coffee, a can of Mountain Dew, the latest “power drink” or a cigarette
• Maybe you worked all day before your appointment
• Or you failed to have a restful night’s sleep because you were a bit anxious about the appointment
• Someone cut you off in traffic, or you were late because of road construction
• Your boss just told you you’re working Saturday (and you were planning to go fishing)

And what if the person taking your blood pressure is lazy, or hasn’t the necessary training to understand the importance of being accurate… or worse, just doesn’t really care. Think this can’t happen? It certainly can (and does). When I was finishing up my nurse’s training, I was assigned to shadow the nurse in an OB/GYN clinic. Specifically, I was there to learn more about prenatal care. I watched the LPN take one blood pressure after another as these pregnant women came in for their appointments. The blood pressures she wrote down didn’t vary 10 points in the readings. For this to happen with 16 patients is a statistical anomaly. In other words, the likelihood of all these readings being accurate is very slim.

Because these readings were also in the “normal” range, they were unlikely to be checked by the doctor. And in many health care settings, even abnormal readings are rarely rechecked unless there is another reason. This means you could have a blood pressure reading high enough for your doctor to prescribe a medication that isn’t needed by you in a less stressful situation. Or fail to recognize you have a blood pressure that’s abnormal for you.

Stick around to read the conclusion, “How To Know More About Your Blood Pressure Than Your Doctor”

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What Diet Is Best For You?

Dr. Nicole, what is the best diet?

The best diet is the diet that works for YOU.

The best diet is something that you can healthfully follow for the rest of your life.

The best diet for you is the diet that gives you energy, keeps your health in balance, helps you to be emotionally stable, maintains your religious or spiritual ethics and is sustainable for the environment.

With that being said, I am happy to announce that we have a variety of great diet plans to choose from and follow. If you are new to a particular diet and want some help simply leave your question or request for support in the comments section so that we may assist you with your goals.

Diets for health, wellness and weight loss:

The Whole Foods Diet

The Weight Loss Diet

The Low Glycemic Index Diet: stay feeling full longer, by eating a diet with a high “satiety index”.

Therapuetic Diets:

Allergy Elimination Diet

Anti-inflammatory Diet

Blood Pressure Lowering Diet and Helpful Tips for Reducing Sodium

Candida Diet

Cholesterol Lowering Diet

Diabetes Diet

Detox Diet

The Diet for Depression

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Chocolate Chips Better than Viagra?

Are chocolate chips better than Viagra? According to Journal of Nutrition’s latest September and October issues, chocolate has some pretty exciting therapeutic potential.

If you want to avoid being on “the little blue pill” you should consider taking a daily dose of the little brown pill.

That’s right—50-200 chocolate chips a day may prevent the cardiovascular damage that is a leading cause of erectile dysfunction. ¹

According to recent studies, the flavonoids in dark chocolate naturally enhanced natural nitric oxide levels. The drug Viagra works mechanistically as a phosphodiesterase inhibtor to enhance nitric oxide. Our bodies also synthesize nitric oxide, and nitric oxide works on our blood vessels to dilate them and increase blood flow. With psychogenic etiologies ruled out, erectile dysfunction is typically an issue of blood flow. Increasing blood flow is how Viagra manufacturers have made a fortune.

In September of 2008, Journal of Nutrition published an Italian university study investigating the therapeutic potential of chocolate and found that, “Flavanols from chocolate appear to increase nitric oxide bioavailability, protect vascular endothelium, and decrease cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors….our findings suggest flavanol-rich, low-energy cocoa food products may have a positive impact on [cardiovascular disease] risk factors.”

Now as a women’s health physician, I typically avoid topics such as erectile dysfunction like the plague, so I am going to drop my men’s health commentary today and then run for dear life… Working as a family practice medical assistant for eight years throughout medical school taught me an important early lesson about men’s health. Most men simply DON’T care about cholesterol, blood pressure, atherosclerosis, diabetes, blood sugar, antioxidants or inflammation.

The second you start to nag about this stuff their eyes just glaze over. You can nag and nag and nag about cholesterol and blood sugar lab values, and still no changes will be implemented.

Eventually I realized the secret to men’s health while working as a urology assistant, the only way to get men to care about their health is to hit them below the belt with the facts that matter. Women are typically all about vanity and men are all about virility. These are the motivators I rely on to market and sell my preventive medicine concepts.

Doctors know that all of the aforementioned health issues contribute to erectile dysfunction. But, what most men don’t know is that without a properly functioning cardiovascular system, things below the belt aren’t going to function either.

It’s all about blood flow and elasticity. We would never leave our garden hoses to freeze out in the cold of winter, we instead take the time to properly care for them to insure they don’t harden and become permanently dysfunctional. Although garden hoses cannot auto-repair, our arteries do by making scar tissue, and the similar type of destruction from high blood pressure, cholesterol, inflammation, and diabetes is repaired by the body by throwing down scar tissue and inflammation.

The more scar tissue and inflammation in your arteries the less elastic they are, and thus the narrower their diameter. Blood pressure just continues to escalate and the damage to your arteries continues in a vicious cycle. Viagra and similar medications such as Levitra and Cialis all work to enhance blood flow.

They are designed to promote the elasticity of those frozen old er…stiff garden hoses. Viagra is a phosphodiasterase inhibitor which increases levels of nitric oxide. Nitric oxide causes our blood vessels to EXPAND. Eventually arteries become damaged and hardened to the point where they will no longer respond to nitric oxide. Keep in mind though that a “garden hose” left out in extreme harsh “winter conditions” will inevitably lose it’s elasticity, and the hose will have to be replaced. How many “winters” have you left your body out in the cold, not caring about diabetes, blood pressure, cholesterol, and inflammation? This is why many men with erectile dysfunction don’t find benefit from Viagra. Blood vessel expansion is the premise of which Viagra has made millions.

I am going to instead give away my natural medicine tips for free, and if the Toll House Chocolate Chip Company wants to send me a billion dollar thank you check, they are more than welcome. What is more important to me is that TODAY you feel inspired and motivated to prevent problems that will inevitably occur down the road TOMORROW.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”—right?

If you don’t have erectile dysfunction now wouldn’t you like to prevent it from happening? Medicine’s used to treat ED are expensive, have multiple side effects and drug interactions, and are not as well tolerated as the commercials on television make them out to be.

When I worked as a Urology assistant the main complaint was always headaches and that “it just didn’t work”. Well after a while when disease has advanced too far, no medication will be able to work. Think back to the garden hose example. You want your arteries to be elastic and healthy, not hardened from the “harsh winter conditions” of sub-optimally controlled high blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol.

So why chocolate chips?

Well chocolate chips are fantastic prevention because they are DARK chocolate and the darker the chocolate the more nitric oxide enhancing flavonoids.

A study was done on Italian men and found that Italian men that ate an ounce of dark chocolate had healthier lab markers.

Keep in mind that 50 chocolate chips or roughly an ounce of dark chocolate is the minimum amount needed to prevent disease according to that study.

I weighed them out and found that 48 chocoalte chips= 1oz. But you have my permission to throw in two extra chips for preventive measure!

Another study cited previously, showed therapeutic benefit with 100 grams of dark chocolate which is about 200 chocolate chips! Is this not the best news ever for chocolate lovers?

Remember though that chocolate as a medicine is not free of calories, cocoa butter, or refined sugar. Pure cocoa products are a great alternative as an ounce of chocolate chips have 140 calories. While 200 chocolate chips pack a whopping 500 calories!

But, for those of you that are already eating too much sugar and saturated fat, chocolate chips are a fantastic way to transition to a healthier dessert diet. I know most of you are probably eating fattening desserts anyways (I mean we do have to enjoy life a little bit right?) so dark chocolate chips are a healthier alternative and I like that they conveniently come in little bits that can be savored throughout the day.

But, chocolate chips are not the only foods that contain disease fighting flavonoids. So here is the bait and switch. Most fruits and vegetables are also rich in flavonoids.

Berries are chock full of proanthocyanins, citrus is a fantastic source of hesperidin and rutin, and onions are an excellent source of quercetin. Fruits and vegetables are likely going to prevent the need of Viagra too!

Yes–really this is just a giant strategically planned nag on my part to inspire the consumption of more whole foods, especially those rich in flavonoids. And yes it really was too easy to grab your attention with chocolate chips and Viagra and then turn this in to a fruit and veggie nag. But, my point with this “gotcha” is that preventing disease is where it is at when it comes to ED. Winter is coming, and it is time to think about your preventative plan for your “garden hose.”

A healthy dose of fresh fruits, raw or lightly steamed veggies, raw nuts and seeds, and chocolate will work synergistically to prevent the cardiovascular damage that causes disease.

I think any man suffering with ED reading this article would absolutely agree that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

For diabetics that want to gain the flavanol benefits of chocolate chips, simply enjoy them with a small handful of raw almonds to decrease the glycemic load and increase phenolic compounds (anti-oxidant/anti-inflammatory/anti-cancer). Almonds are also high in fiber, and fiber consumption also is protective to the cardiovascular system. So add about ten raw almonds to your 50 chocolate chips or make a healthy trail mix with your other favorite raw nuts and seeds.

I don’t want to leave women out of this nag, so chocolate chips are good news for women too as Dr. Christiane Northrup in her latest book “The Secret Pleasures of Menopause” also emphasizes the importance of naturally enhancing nitric oxide levels through diet and lifestyle to improve sexual function. Grab the book through Amazon, if you care to learn more about ways to naturally enhance nitric oxide.

Those in need of losing weight should also benefit from this simple chocolate chip tip as eating a few chocolate bits throughout the day should help you feel satisfied for sweets and prevent those binges brought on by extreme deprivation and yo-yo dieting that sets the stage for binge eating.

Stick with me, subscribe to my feed, and I will teach you how to be healthy & enjoy life.

Dr. Nicole Sundene

Want more tips for preventing and treating erectile dysfunction through diet and lifestyle?

Try: Exercise, The Low Glycemic Index Diet, The Anti-Inflammatory Diet, Kegels for Men, Cholesterol Lowering Diet, Hypertension, Low Sodium Diet, Antioxidants, Anti-Inflammatory Diet and subscribe to my feed as we discuss the therapeutic potential of other healing foods and natural supplements for cardiovascular health and erectile dysfunction.

References

1. Grassi D, Desideri G, Necozione S, et al. “Chocolate and Blood Pressure” J Nutr. 2008 Sep;138(9):1671-6.

2. Romina di Giuseppe, Augusto Di Castelnuovo, et al. “Italian Men that eat Dark Chocolate are Healthier” J. Nutr. 138:1939-1945, October 2008

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The Mediterranean Diet

This diet is based on the diet typically consumed on the island of Crete that is high in omega-3 essential fatty acids, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, healthy protein sources (fish, legumes, etc.) and complex carbohydrates. Fat calories account for 35-45% of total calories.

Omega-3 essential fatty acids have the potential to block and prevent all of the steps of the genesis and evolution of heart disease and heart attack: damage to the arterial wall, inflammation, plaque formation via oxidized LDL cholesterol, plaque accumulation, final blockage of the coronary artery and arrhythmia.

They will also assist in reversing the process that may already be advanced.(1)

Clinically speaking, this amounts to lowering blood levels of total and LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, maintaining or raising blood HDL cholesterol levels, improving blood insulin and glucose levels and decreasing blood pressure. Proof of the diet’s efficacy comes from two main studies: the Lyon Diet Heart Study and the Diet and Reinfarction Trial (DART). (2, 3)

In the 1989 DART study in England, two thousand men who were recovering from recent heart attacks were assigned to one of three quite different diets:

1. High fiber
2. Low saturated fat and high in omega-6 oils (standard heart diet)
3. A diet high in omega-3 fatty acids from fatty fish or supplements.

The patients on the high omega-3 fatty acids diet had a 29% lower death rate, which at the time was the greatest reduction in mortality from any heart diet.(4)

In a study of heart attack patients, those on the Mediterranean diet had a 76% lower risk for major cardiovascular events (subsequent heart attack, unstable angina and stroke) compared to a similar group of heart attack patients on a standard American diet.(5)

Concerns regarding the Mediterranean diet are the extra calories from the high olive oil intake, decreased iron and decreased calcium because of decreased dairy intake. Cooking in cast iron pans, consuming foods high in iron, calcium and Vitamin C or supplementing these nutrients will avoid these deficiencies.(6)

Note: The following dietary guidelines may include foods to which some individuals may have allergies, sensitivities or intolerances and in those cases those foods should be avoided. Dietary choices should be made according to your own individual needs.

Consult your physician for nutritional information pertaining to your specific medical condition(s). In the case of patients with heart disease, your naturopathic team will design a comprehensive treatment protocol that will likely include diet, exercise, stress management, supplements and other modalities.

DIETARY GUIDELINES FOR THE MEDITERRANEAN (OMEGA) DIET

• Eat foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids such as fatty fish (salmon, tuna, trout, herring, mackerel), walnuts, canola oil, flaxseeds and green leafy vegetables. Omega-3 fatty acids can also be supplemented.
• Use olive oil and canola oil as your primary fat sources.
• Eat seven or more servings of fresh vegetables and fruits daily.
• For protein sources, rely on fish and vegetable protein including legumes, beans, peas and nuts.
• Avoid saturated fat by choosing lean meat over fatty meat. Eat red meat only a few times a month, if at all.
• Choose nonfat or low fat over full-fat dairy products.
• Avoid oils that are high in omega-6 fatty acids including corn, safflower, sunflower, soybean and cottonseed oils.
• Minimize your intake of trans-fats by avoiding margarine, vegetable shortening, commercial pastries, deep fat fried foods and most prepared snacks, mixes and convenience food.
• Season with garlic, onions, herbs.
• Focus on high fiber from whole fruits, vegetables and whole grains.
• Enjoy a glass of red wine occasionally.

Resources
1. Simopoulos, Artemis P. MD and Robinson, Jo. The Omega Diet: The Lifesaving Nutritional Program Based on the Diet of the Island of Crete. 1999. HarperCollins, NY.
2. Renaud S and Paul T. “Cretan Mediterranean diet for prevention of coronary heart disease.” Am J Clin Nutr, 1995; 61 (supp) 1360S-7S.
3. Burr ML, Gilbert JF and Deadman NM. Effects of changes in fat, fish, and fibre intakes on death and myocardial infarction: Diet and Reinfarction Trial (DART). The Lancet, 1989. September 30, 1989: 757-761.

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