From The Doctor’s Desk: Wrinkles and Hearts

“If wrinkles must be written on our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should never grow old.” — James A. Garfield, 20th President of the United States.

I read that quote by President Garfield the other day and it occurred to me how important his statement was in my practice of medicine. What causes wrinkles? What causes the spirit to grow old? What can damage the heart? The answer is stress. Stress is not something that just exists. Stress is not just a term used to describe forces applied as in engineering. Stress is real and it affects our hearts. Stress kills.

What impact does stress have on the health of our heart?

• 43% of all adults suffer stress related adverse health effects.
• 75-90% of all visits to primary care physicians are stress-related.
• Stress is directly linked to heart disease according to a new study from University College London.

The interesting thing about stress? It’s not just external. Stress is both external and internal. There is stress of day-to-day life. And then there is the silent physiologic stress. The internal stress occurs in the form of obesity, food sensitivity, and inflammation to name a few.

How is stress affecting you? Ask your heart. Focus on keeping your heart healthy by limiting and relieving your stress this Valentine’s Day. While we can’t always eliminate the causes of stress in our life, we can control how we allow it to affect us!

My recommendations?

• Make good food choices to give your body the right kind of energy that lasts and helps you work and feel better.
• Get regular exercise. It boosts your metabolism, fights fatigue, and even elevates your mood helping you to cope with stress more effectively.
• Take time to meditate and pray.
• Take a break and relax whether it’s a soak in the tub or a good book.

Take care of your heart. That’s the best gift you can give those you love!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Marcia G. Yerman: A New Recipe for Heart Health (huffingtonpost.com)
• Bill Clinton says lack of sleep added to heart problem (ctv.ca)
• Easy Tips for Reducing Stress (dirjournal.com)
• Stress `can cause heart damage’ (telegraph.co.uk)

From the Doctor’s Desk: I Nominate Vitamin D As “Vitamin of the Year”

With all the attention it’s been getting, I think it’s safe to proclaim Vitamin D the vitamin of the year! That attention is certainly deserved. I have been promoting the wellness effects of Vitamin D for several years. And here’s why.

Vitamin D Therapy Is Great For Bone Health.

Vitamin D has long been known for increasing bone health. It increases calcium and phosphorus absorption in the gut and makes bones stronger. It induces osteoclast maturation—that means it helps with bone restructuring and makes bones heal. It increases calcium deposition in bone and makes bones more dense. And it reduces the parathyroid hormone helping to maintain bone strength. But Vitamin D and bone health are just the beginning.

The Rest Of The Story.

Vitamin D’s benefits are not limited to bone health. Vitamin D receptors are located all over the body: in your bones, instestines, brain, breast, prostate, and lymphocytes. Additionally, many cells have active intracellular receptors such as the pancreas, immune cells, nerve cells, prostate, ovaries, and pituitary gland. Vitamin D benefits your whole body. It is very important for your overall wellness.

As Vitamin D is absorbed by the intracellular sites, additional benefits are implicated. Vitamin D provides benefits for all of these conditions:

• Cardiovascular disease
• Hypertension
• Diabetes
• Osteoarthritis
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Depression
• Epilepsy
• Migraines
• Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
• Musculoskeletal pain
• Autoimmune diseases
• Inflammatory Conditions
• Cancer
• Fibromyalgia

Now that you are more aware of how Vitamin D helps your body, let’s talk about how you can get adequate amounts of Vitamin D.

Good Sources of Vitamin D.

Twenty minutes of unblocked sun exposure daily is a natural source of Vitamin D. But pay close attention to your skin during sun exposure. If you have any sign of sunburn, it’s time to get out of the sun. Vitamin D is also readily available as a supplement in the form of drops, capsules and even injections. Injections are occasionally necessary in patients with extremely low levels of Vitamin D.

Is fortified milk a good source of Vitamin D? Unfortunately, no. Fortified milk does not adequately supply your body with the Vitamin D it needs.

In my next post, I’ll discuss Vitamin D insufficiency and its affects on the body.

More articles about Vitamin D:

• 7 in 10 Kids Have Low Vitamin D
• Healthy Nutrition and Vitamin D
• Vitamin_D

Phytonutrients…What Are They?

Phytonutrients are nutrients found in plants that may affect health positively. The health benefits found in these nutrients include decreasing the risk of heart disease and cancer, improving glucose control in people with diabetes, and much more. A few examples of phytonutrients are: carotenoids, flavonoids, lignans, phytosterols and stanols, and some vitamins. Each phytonutrient is found in varying amounts in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes and nuts.

Phytonutrients function by:

• Serving as an antioxidant
• Enhancing the immune system
• Altering estrogen metabolism
• Causing cancer cells to die
• Repairing DNA damage

Eating a wide variety of colorful fruits and vegetables and replacing refined grains with whole grains will ensure you are getting the beneficial effects of these powerful phytonutrients. To learn more, contact our office and schedule an appointment today.

Bioidentical Progesterone Helps Your Heart

President Eisenhower said, “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened”

In my last post, we looked at some new discoveries in science about the truth of bioidentical hormone therapy. Specifically, we looked at the different ways bioidentical progesterone and synthetic progestins affect the breasts. This week I want to look at the different ways they affect the cardiovascular system.

I can hear what you’re probably thinking. “You mean some hormones might have beneficial effects on the heart? That is not what my doctor told me.”

I don’t know your doctor or your specific situation, but I do know about the latest scientific research.

Synthetic hormones increase cardiovascular risks.

One study, the Women’s Health Initiative saw a large increase in the risk of heart attacks and stroke in women who used Provera. This is not at all surprising since synthetic progestins have previously been shown (in the PEPI study) to negate the positive cardiovascular benefits of estrogen.

These results stand in stark contrast to studies using bioidentical progesterone, which has been shown to provide additional cardiovascular benefits.

Here’s some more down and dirty science. First, you need to understand that blood vessel constriction and plaque formation both increase your risk of stroke and heart attack. Bioidentical progesterone reduced blood vessel constriction and plaque formation by 50%, but synthetic progestins actually increased blood vessel constriction and plaque formation.

Wow. I wish President Eisenhower’s words weren’t so appropriate. The truth is easy when everyone believes it; but the truth is hard to follow when so many people seem blind to it.

Here’s the truth: Bioidentical progesterone provides cardiovascular benefits to women.