The beginning of February means Valentine’s Day is approaching and with it our attention turns to matters of the heart. Last year I attended two excellent seminars on the heart. The last one I attended was presented by Dr. Michael Gaeta in December 2015 which was his synopsis of Mark Anderson’s Back to School for Doctors 2015 presentation along with his own special insights from his over 25 years of practice. Some interesting tidbits of information and my summary articles are in the first feature article below.

In a related story just this last week, the Express from the United Kingdom featured an article illustrating how the conventional medicine solution of taking a statin for heart health has been linked to an increased risk for diabetes. You can read that article by clicking here: http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/639586/Statins-doubles-diabetes-study-drug.

Last month’s newsletter featured several articles about what to eat and how to exercise. I noticed that I have changed a few ideas about the top foods to eat, so I have written a new article to summarize which I call “The Road to Better Health Starts with Food.” You can link to it here: https://brwellness.com/nutrition-news/?p=661.

Many of you have asked about my trip to Argentina. It was fantastic, once we got there! It was great to meet and be with Susana’s family and to meet some of her closest lifelong friends, to spend time on the beach, relax, and to see the city of Buenos Aires. Some of you were following the adventure on Facebook. There was a bit of drama with American Airlines. If you want some entertainment you can read the details below!

Dr. Michael Gaeta and Heart Health

Here’s a few of the tidbits Dr.Gaeta shared that I thought were of interest to pass along.

One half of all deaths in the United States are caused by clots. This includes heart attacks and strokes. Thus preventing clots can go a long way in life extension. The solution to preventing clots is a natural substance called rutin. Rutin is part of Vitamin P, which is part of the Vitamin C complex. Vitamin P stands for permeability. It is the collagen formation factor. We need collagen for tissue and vascular integrity. Collagen keeps the body tissues strong. It is the “glue” that holds them together. Plaquing occurs when there is low collagen. Plaque is made from calcium and cholesterol. It is placed where there is inflammation in the body. Damage to the vasculature has caused inflammation. There is not sufficient collagen to repair, thus in comes the plaque.

For more detailed information regarding heart disease and stroke and rutin I encourage you to see my heart health series of blogs.

Part 1 – Introduction and Heart Rate: https://brwellness.com/nutrition-news/?p=390
Part 2 – Rhythm of the Heart: https://brwellness.com/nutrition-news/?p=449
Part 3 – Toning the Heart: https://brwellness.com/nutrition-news/?p=529

More tidbits:

One third of the United States population is diabetic or pre-diabetic. 90% of those who are pre-diabetic are unaware. Two-thirds of US adults are overweight and one-third of US children are overweight.

Synthetic vitamins have been shown to increase the risk of death by 8-16%. This is why I use food based vitamins in my practice.

Since statins have been in use the studies show that cardiovascular disease risk has gone down (as the drug companies will point out), but..all death mortality has increased. There is a 43% increase in the cases of diabetes if they are taking statins. The bottom line – the statin is causing something else to kill you before heart disease!

The ideal spread for blood pressure is 40 points. That is where the traditional 120/80 comes from. The bigger the difference between the two numbers, the greater the stress is on the arteries. Interestingly enough, one-half of strokes take place in people with normal blood pressure. Since that is the case it puts into question the concept that high blood pressure causes strokes.

For the full blog article on tidbits from Dr. Gaeta click here: https://brwellness.com/nutrition-news/?p=658.

If you’d like to learn more about Dr. Gaeta, here’s a link to his website: https://michaelgaeta.com/

The Road to Better Health Starts with Food
With the New Year upon us many of us make the resolution to be healthier. In most cases that is interpreted as losing weight. Many of us will join the gym and begin to exercise. For some that will be sufficient as the last few holiday pounds come off. However, to ensure better health in the long term that is not the solution. The road to better health starts with food and drink – what we are putting into our body.

My purpose in this article is to be straight forward and make it simple. Here are the foods I recommend you eat on a regular basis, unless of course you are allergic. These foods emphasize what lacks in many American diets – vegetables and fruit for vitamins and minerals to fuel our metabolism, healthy sources of protein to build our bodies, and healthy fats that are sources of Omega 3’s and vitamins A, D, E, and K. If you want more details about these foods see my blog and other nutrition resources.

For the rest of the article click here: https://brwellness.com/nutrition-news/?p=661.

American Airlines – Not A Healthy Company
While Argentina was great I have nothing good to say about American Airlines. In summary we missed connections, were delayed over 12 hours, and after all that our bags did not arrive with us. And the worst part of all is they really did not seem to care. For my mental health and for your amusement you can read all the details and the back and forth communication.

While I know it has nothing to do with my health. The stress of the whole ordeal with American also was not healthy. My experience and the customer rankings that were in a recent Wall Street Journal article I reference suggest you can make a better choice of who to fly with and I would encourage you to do so.

Here’s a link to information from that article: http://www.chron.com/business/article/Wall-Street-Journal-names-the-best-and-worst-6759326.php

My complaint letter, truly one for the ages!! https://brwellness.com/nutrition-news/?p=663

Their non-customer oriented response, basically a form letter filling in my name and dates: https://brwellness.com/nutrition-news/?p=665

My response back, telling them I was not satisfied with their offer: https://brwellness.com/nutrition-news/?p=667

And their final short and sweet back to me telling me to get lost: https://brwellness.com/nutrition-news/?p=669

I have since filed a complaint with the FAA and they have forwarded that to American. Hopefully I’ll get a more customer focused person.