Fruits that Fight Heart Disease

 

Fruits that Fight Heart Disease

 

The next time you are at the grocery store, seek out a selection of colorful berries to add to your shopping cart. Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries are an easy, delicious way to protect your health. Berries can be found year-round, either fresh  or frozen – you can even grow your own, and including them in your diet is effortless. They taste great and can be eaten for breakfast in oatmeal or added to a smoothie, tossed into a salad at lunch, or blended into a nutritious “nice” cream for dessert after dinner.

 

These vibrant, health-promoting fruits are rich in fiber and cardioprotective antioxidant phytochemicals. Antioxidants, both from the diet and naturally produced by the body, are critical for your health as they protect against oxidation and minimize damage to your cells from free radicals. Free radicals are unstable molecules with unpaired electrons that can potentially damage genetic material and other cellular components. Accumulated free radical damage over time ages the body and contributes to chronic diseases, including heart disease and cancer. Antioxidants slow or stop the reactions of free radicals, neutralizing them.

 

Berries: More than Antioxidants

Some dietary antioxidants, like vitamin C, work in the body primarily as antioxidants. The antioxidants in berries are different: The major antioxidant phytochemicals in berries are anthocyanins, in the class of flavonoids. These phytochemicals are concentrated in the skins of berries, give rise to their deep colors, are thought to have a number of benefits that are unrelated to direct antioxidant effects.

 

Flavonoids do have antioxidant activity; however, their most powerful health benefits are thought to be due to their other biological effects. Berries and their flavonoids have been found to decrease oxidation of LDL cholesterol which helps prevent the production of atherosclerotic plaque, increase blood antioxidant capacity, decrease adhesion of inflammatory cells to vessel walls, and improve blood pressure regulation.

 

Higher anthocyanin and berry consumption is associated with lowering an inflammatory marker called C-reactive protein, suggesting that berries may curb inflammation. The phytochemicals in berries also may enhance nitric oxide production in blood vessels, which helps to properly regulate blood pressure. Studies have shown that high flavonoid intake is associated with an up to 45 percent reduction in risk of coronary heart disease. Nurses’ Health Study II data showed that young and middle-aged women who ate three or more weekly servings of blueberries or strawberries had a 34 percent reduction in heart attack risk compared to those who consumed a smaller amount of berries over the 18-year follow-up period. Furthermore, berries also have anti-cancer effects and provide protection against diabetes and cognitive decline with aging.

 

Berries Are Superfoods

Long-term studies measuring berry or flavonoid consumption suggest that all these cardiovascular benefits of berries add up to longevity value, according to the reduced risk of all-cause mortality observed in these studies.

 

Berries are the fruits with the highest nutrient-to-calorie ratio and an important component of a high-nutrient diet; I consider them to be superfoods. Along with greens, beans, onions, mushrooms, and seeds, berries .  These are foods you should eat every day, and they should make up a significant portion of your diet to promote health and longevity and to fight chronic disease.

 

One thing is for sure: It is clear these small packages of sweetly tart fruits have an amazing capacity to benefit our health. They are an important component of a high-nutrient diet. Eat some berries daily to provide your body with protection against free radicals, inflammation, heart disease, and cancers.

 

 

Health and Wellness Associates

Archived: JF

312-972-WELL

Suncreen lotions are killing you and your family

 

Compelling evidence: Slathering on toxic sunscreen and avoiding the sun could jeopardize your health and shorten your life

According to a June 2014 article featured in The Independent (UK), a major study conducted by researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden found that women who avoid sunbathing during the summer are twice as likely to die as those who sunbathe every day.

The epidemiological study followed 30,000 women for over 20 years and “showed that mortality was about double in women who avoided sun exposure compared to the highest exposure group.”

Researchers concluded that the conventional dogma, which advises avoiding the sun at all costs and slathering on sunscreen to minimize sun exposure, is doing more harm than actual good.

That’s because overall sun avoidance combined with wearing sunscreen effectively blocks the body’s ability to produce vitamin D3 from the sun’s UVB rays, which is by far the best form of vitamin D.

In the USA, vitamin D deficiency is at epidemic levels. Ironically, vitamin D deficiency can lead to aggressive forms of skin cancer. A ground-breaking 2011 study published in Cancer Prevention Research suggests that optimal blood levels of vitamin D offers protection against sunburn and skin cancer.

Additionally, vitamin D protects the body from diseases like multiple sclerosis, rickets (in the young), tuberculosis, inflammatory bowel disease, type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus and Sjogren’s syndrome.

According to the Vitamin D Council, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham recently reported that “lack of sun exposure may lead to cognitive decline over time.”

Please call us for using Vitamin D correctly for YOU.  Everyone of us is different than everyone else, and you need a personal healthcare approach to your healthcare,

A dissident dermatologist

Bernard Ackerman, MD, (deceased 2008) was one of the world’s foremost authorities on the subject of skin cancer and the sun, sunscreens and melanoma skin cancer risks.

Below are Ackerman’s views excerpted from an article in The New York Times (July 20, 2004), titled “I BEG TO DIFFER; A Dermatologist Who’s Not Afraid to Sit on the Beach”:

The link between melanoma and sun exposure (dermatology’s dogma) is unproven.There’s no conclusive evidence that sunburns lead to cancer.There is no real proof that sunscreens protect against melanoma.There’s no proof that increased exposure to the sun increases the risk of melanoma.

A 2000 Swedish study concluded that higher rates of melanoma occurred in those who used sunscreen versus those who did not.

Sunscreens: Cancer-Causing Biohazards

Elizabeth Plourde, PhD, is a California-based scientist who authored the book Sunscreens – Biohazard: Treat as Hazardous Waste, which extensively documents the serious life-threatening dangers of sunscreens not only to people but to the environment as well.

Dr. Plourde provides proof that malignant melanoma and all other skin cancers increased significantly with ubiquitous sunscreen use over a 30-year period. She emphasizes that many sunscreens contain chemicals that are known carcinogens and endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDC).

Environmentally, she notes: “In areas where there has been much exposure to ED [endocrine disrupting] chemicals, coral and other sea populations have died off and the prevalence of dual-sexed fish has risen.”

Dr. Plourde’s research on mice and sunscreen exposure also showed increases in both pup and maternal mortality as well as reproductive issues in subsequent generations.  Meaning that the chemicals in sunscreens are damaging your DNA, and you are passing down this DNA break to your children.  Many children who use sunscreen are developing life threatening diseases, and life long medical problems by the age of 30.

Additionally, the book documents how sunscreen chemicals have polluted our water sources including oceans, rivers and municipal drinking water. Worse yet, testing revealed that 97% of Americans have sunscreen chemicals in their blood!

Please share with family and loved ones.  If you have concerns about your personal healthcare, please call us.

 

Health and Wellness Associates

Archived

312-972-WELL