High Triglyceride

Let Food Be Thy Medicine

Thursday, August 19, 2010 by Jan Sinatra

Dr. Sinatra has long believed in the famous words of Hippocrates, the Greek physician of

centuries past who is now recognized as the “Father of Medicine.” Hippocrates employed food to assist his patients in healing their physical ailments. With all our high tech medical approaches and complex pharmaceutical agents, it is amazing how much we have forgotten that simple approach!

After years of applying nutritional solutions to the myriad faces of heart disease—high blood pressure levels; chronic hypertension; high triglycerides; elevated L(p)a; angina; and heart attack and stroke—Dr. Sinatra has finally answered his patients’ many requests for a book that they can have as a reference at home. His research and personal experiences with his family, friends, and cardiac patients has continually impressed my husband that Hippocrates was so right on—and provided the foundation for this effort.

Dr. Sinatra has collaborated with former pro athlete and health editor Jim Healthy, as well as recipe queen Rebecca Bent to write Bottom Line’s The Healing Kitchen. The Healing Kitchen is a strategic resource for making healthy grocery selections and healing meal planning guidelines, as well as specific recipes to assist you in selecting the right healthy foods to meet your specific health and fitness needs.

Subscribers to Heart, Health, and Nutrition have been reading Dr. Sinatra’s take on which foods, herbs, and supplements can help with their cardiovascular problems (not to mention cancer and other diseases caused by inflammation) for many years. Now all that information and more is the basis for this one reference to help guide you to foods that can heal your body.

For instance, the omega 3 essential fatty acids—especially those found in squid and fish oils—assuage cardiac arrhythmia, lower blood pressure levels, reduce LDL cholesterol levels, and even prevent plaque rupture.

Garlic is a potent blood thinner and, like onions which are rich in quercetin, helps you prevent the oxidation of LDL cholesterol. Garlic and onions are both superb foods for lowering blood pressure levels. And, speaking of hypertension, Dr. Sinatra also recommends sardines and wakame seaweed as natural blood pressure lowering foods.

And that’s just the beginning! Did you know that the right diet can help alleviate your migraines headaches, or that non-inflammatory foods can heal your arthritis?

Foods can also protect women from menopausal symptoms, as well as heal and protect us from cancer. The lutein in tomatoes along with pumpkin seeds and other fine herbs and spices can help men with their prostate concerns. From heart disease and diabetes to sleep and sex, The Healing Kitchen will educate you about natural, tasty remedies for many of the illnesses that afflict the 20th century.

If you are looking to use simple, healthy foods, herbs and spices to get your body back on track, and keep it there, you will love this book!

For more information on healthy heart nutrition or some of Dr. Sinatra’s famous recipes, visit his Web site at www.drsinatra.com.

Four Common Heart Risk Factors For Women

Wednesday, August 4, 2010 by Stephen Sinatra

There are four key heart risk factors that affect women more than men. They include:

Diabetes. Diabetic women have a higher risk for heart disease than diabetic men. This is because the incidence of diabetes and its complications (including heart disease) is much higher in women. If you are a diabetic woman, your risk for heart disease is five to seven times normal, compared with a risk of only two to three times normal for a diabetic man. For you, proper heart sense means you should increase your physical activity and adhere to good cardiovascular nutrition to maintain a healthy body weight.

Overweight. Women have a higher heart disease risk from being overweight than men do. Studies indicate that being only 20 pounds overweight doubles a woman’s risk of heart disease. If you are overweight, I don’t want you to go on a diet. Instead, get physically active—it’s your most powerful weapon against fat—and eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, and lean poultry. That’s the “Dr. Sinatra” way to safe weight loss.

Cholesterol. Women have a higher risk for heart disease than men if they have low levels of HDL (“good”) cholesterol. For men, high levels of LDL present a greater risk, but for women, research indicates that a low HDL, not a high LDL, is the more significant risk factor for developing heart disease. The good news is that HDL is sensitive to factors such as smoking, obesity, and lack of exercise. So you can easily increase your HDL cholesterol by quitting smoking and dropping excess weight through a combination of healthy heart nutrition and physical activity.

High Triglycerides. When you get your cholesterol checked, also have your doctor check your level of triglycerides, which are another type of blood fat. A high triglyceride level (above 200 mg/dL) is more dangerous for women than for men, especially if you are a diabetic. Diabetic women with high triglycerides are up to 200 times more liekly to develop heart disease. A healthy triglycerides level can be obtained through exercise and weight control.

Though you should take the above risk factors very seriously, I want you to keep in mind that you can substantially reduce all of them. There are no secrets to doing this. Healthy eating, weight control, and regular physical activity are your weapons for keeping heart disease at bay.

For more information on heart risk factors or other cardiovascular problems for women, visit www.drsinatra.com.

48 Hours After a Heart Attack

Wednesday, July 7, 2010 by Stephen Sinatra

Time is of the essence when you’re dealing with a heart attack. The best chance for survival and optimum recovery occurs if you are treated within two hours of the onset of symptoms.

At the hospital, things will move quickly. Up to 50 percent of the time, sudden death is the first symptom of heart disease, so any patient who survives the first two hours after a heart attack has passed a significant milestone. However, even with the best of medical care, 10–12 percent of those who survive the initial attack never leave the hospital (they die in the days following).

When it’s time for a patient to be discharged from the hospital, close caregivers should be present for any medical instructions because patients frequently don’t remember details. In fact, patients sometimes fail to recognize hospital staff members when they return for follow-up visits—that kind of psychological side effect is common during times of shock and trauma. At home, one of the biggest challenges that patients and loved ones face is a sense of day-to-day suspense. Many patients say they feel like they are just waiting for the other shoe to drop. These feelings are normal.

While I hope you’ll never need this information, I want you to be aware of it. I also want you to recognize common heart risk factors so that you can avoid ever being victim to heart attack or other cardiovascular problems. The key is prevention, which includes good cardiovascular nutrition, the ability to control high blood pressure, and maintaining healthy cholesterol and healthy triglycerides levels.

For more information on heart attack and stroke, heart risk factors, or other cardiovascular problems, visit www.drsinatra.com. While there, sign up for FREE e-letters or subscribe to Dr. Sinatra’s monthly newsletter, Heart, Health & Nutrition.

Sugar Equals Poor Cardiovascular Nutrition

Thursday, June 10, 2010 by Jan Sinatra

Just this year, Dr. Sinatra wrote in his newsletter Heart, Health & Nutrition about a study from the Journal of the American Medical Association showing that diets high in added sugars raise the levels of blood fats and increase cardiovascular disease risk. Specifically, people who ate about 20 percent of their daily calories in the form of sweeteners of any kind were much more likely to have lower HDL good cholesterol levels and higher triglyceride levels.

In the study, Emory University researchers surveyed about 6,000 adults and determined that average sugar intake was 16 percent of daily calories—21.4 teaspoons, about 359 calories. These findings also support guidelines released last year by the American Heart Association recommending that men keep their daily intake of added sugars below 150 calories (10 tsp.) and women limit themselves to 100 calories (6 tsp.).

I found the study perhaps most interesting for what it didn’t say: that sweeteners contribute to higher blood viscosity, a major overlooked component of cardiovascular problems. Research shows sugar stokes inflammation and increases C-reactive protein (CRP), and the added calories also contribute to weight gain and abdominal body fat, in turn, generating more CRP.

An earlier 2001 Harvard study found ultra-high CRP levels among women who ate large amounts of high-glycemic carbohydrates (ones that break down into glucose more quickly), such as potatoes, cereals, white bread, muffins, and white rice. Those women also tended to be overweight. So go easy on the sugar and limit your intake of foods that contain added sugar. Your body, especially your heart, will thank you.

For more information on healthy heart nutrition, visit www.drsinatra.com.

Prevent Blood Clots by Reducing Fibrogen

Monday, June 7, 2010 by Stephen Sinatra

Arteriosclerosis, or narrowing of the arteries, is the most common cause of heart disease, but in women younger than 45, we see more heart attacks caused by improper blood clotting that can be triggered by high fibrinogen levels.

Too much fibrinogen, an inflammatory product of blood coagulation, can make the blood clot too fast.

High fibrinogen levels aren’t the sole province of younger women. At age 57, one woman went to her doctor with signs of unstable angina. She had bypass and angioplasty, followed by drugs to help her maintain healthy cholesterol, as well as other conventional treatments.

Nine years later, she had a second heart attack and underwent a cardiac catheterization to reopen some of the grafts that had closed. In her mid-60s and depressed about the recurrence of her heart disease, she came to see me seeking alternative ways of minimizing her cardiovascular problems and healing her heart.

I prescribed a fish oil (EPA-DHA) supplement to promote “slippery” blood platelets and help improve blood circulatin by neutralizing her fibrinogen and triglyceride levels. I also put her on my PAMM diet, my cardiovascular nutrition plan that includes much lower levels of carbohydrates (to combat her insulin resistance), plus healthy fats and garlic. I also recommended that she exercise to help her lose weight.

If these measures failed to support these critical blood parameters enough within three to six months, she agreed to go on natural estrogen therapy. Estrogen is important because fibrinogen levels rise with falling estrogen. Recent research suggests that estrogen replacement therapy can significantly reduce plasma fibrinogen levels.

The most important contributor to high fibrinogen levels is cigarette smoking: Smoking is just about the worst thing you can do for your health. According to research, almost half of all heart risk factors can be attributed to cigarette smoking.

While there may be some variations among laboratories, an acceptable range for serum fibrinogen is less than 300 mg/dl; anything over 350 mg/dl is considered undesirable.

For more information on heart risk factors and how to prevent them, visit www.drsinatra.com.

Dr. Sinatra Book: Arthritis Interrupted

Thursday, May 27, 2010 by Jan Sinatra

Dr. Sinatra has been busy the last year or so collaborating with Jim Healthy on a book designed to help people navigate the tough waters of living with arthritis. While arthritis seems so out of the realm of a cardiologist, you may be surprised to learn that, like most cardiovascular problems, inflammation is a major culprit at the root of arthritis.

The motivation for Dr. Sinatra to do this book is personal. After playing high school football, as well as “wrestling” his way into a college scholarship on the mats (along with four more years of wrestling), and skiing moguls as an adult, Dr. Sinatra has his own personal collection of injured and arthritic joints. As for Jim Healthy, he too has dealt with joint aches and pains secondary to his life as a semi-pro football player and athlete extraordinaire.

I like to refer to this book as a couple of “good ole boys,” Monday morning quarterbackin’ as they sit rocking in their chairs on the front porch—and sharing with you what they have learned through research and direct experience. Actually, a better picture is these two silver haired, hunky ex-jocks riding exercise bikes in tandem as they banter new ideas and approaches to share based on what has worked for their own bodies.

As I said earlier, arthritis and cardiovascular problems share a common cause: inflammation. Inflammation is a culprit behind the myriad faces of heart disease:

high blood pressure levels;
cardiac arrhythmias;
high LDL cholesterol levels;
high triglycerides;
elevated L(p)a; and
heart attack and stroke….just to name a few.

The medical suffix “--itis” literally means INFLAMMATION. Unchecked, many of these “-itises” can not only wreak havoc in terms of overall health and localized pain, the chromic inflammation over time can lead to infection…and no one wants THAT! It must be intercepted, and these football-playing cronies know all about interceptions!

To reduce the inflammation, and therefore alleviate arthritis and also reduce your risk for a number of cardiovascular problems, your first (and easiest!) step is to eat an anti-inflammatory diet. A pro-inflammatory diet can make you sick, and feed the fires of the health problems mentioned here…and more. Therefore, you must be armed with a solid anti-inflammatory eating plan so you can calm the flames of arthritis, as well as heal so many other diseases.

Arthritis Interrupted, featuring the Arthritis Healing Diet, will give you the diet tips you need to ease arthritis. It will also broaden your understanding about how inflammation can be downright debilitating, and provide you with an action plan to “tackle” your arthritis head on. Hold on to your helmets!

You can order a hard copy of Arthritis Interrupted at myhealingkitchen.com. While there, you can choose to download a copy of the book to your computer to get you started, and even get free bonus recipes and other booklets on foods that fuel, foods that heal arthritis, non-drug pain relievers, and more.

For more information on overall health and nutrition, visit www.drsinatra.com.

Bypass Surgery Makes Sense for High-Risk Patients

Monday, May 24, 2010 by Stephen Sinatra

If you have high heart risk factors, you may need to opt for intervention.

Bypass surgery is probably the best option for you when many vessels are involved, or if your single or double-vessel disease is not amenable to angioplasty. In a nutshell, the greater the extent of heart disease, the more I lean toward bypass surgery.

But I want to stress that a bypass is rarely a “cure” for heart disease. It actually is an opportunity to alleviate your painful symptoms so you can begin to participate in your own care and take responsibility for healing yourself. You'll immediately want to control high blood pressure, maintain healthy triglycerides and healthy cholesterol, among other things.

The two most important criteria you and your cardiologist should use to decide whether bypass surgery is necessary are: whether it’s a quality-of-life issue and the condition of your coronary vessels.

In my next blog posting, we’ll discuss if angioplasty is right for treating your cardiovascular problems.

For more information on cardiovascular problems, visit www.drsinatra.com.

Statin Drugs Will Not Reduce Lp(a)

Wednesday, April 14, 2010 by Stephen Sinatra

Drugs typically prescribed for reducing cholesterol have no impact on Lp(a) levels. In fact, a study involving these drugs showed an increase in Lp(a) levels! And therein lies the dilemma.

While drugs prescribed to help you attain healthy cholesterol can reduce LDL, they can’t alter Lp(a). If you find that Lp(a) runs in your family, you must attack it with an alternative approach. Here’s what I recommend:

If you’re as concerned about good cardiovascular nutrition as I am, I hope you’ll follow my Pan-Asian Modified Mediterranean diet. You’ll eat fresh fish (cold-water fish such as salmon, sardines, and mackerel) and fish oils at least two to three times a week. You’ll also want to omit saturated fats. Instead, choose monounsaturated fats like olive oil and polyunsaturated fats like alpha-linolenic acid, found in flaxseed and flaxseed oil. (Visit me here on the Web for additional details on my Pan-Asian Modified Medietrranean diet.)
Take 100 mg of niacin, twice a day. If you experience side effects like flushing, headache, and diarrhea, follow the diet and stop the niacin. You can try a lower dosage at a later date, then slowly increase the dose to 500 mg a day, twice a day for further protection. TwinLabs' quick-acting Niacin is a good product.
Take 1–2 grams of vitamin C and 100–200 mg of CoQ10 each day.
Policosanol—20 mg daily at bedtime.
Exercise regularly.
Ask your doctor about screening techniques to assess your risk factors for heart disease. If you’re concerned, you and your family members should have your Lp(a) and other risk factors (homocysteine, fibrinogen and serum ferritin) evaluated by your doctor.
Be aware of other risk factors for heart disease, including smoking, high blood pressure, circulatory problems, high triglycerides, obesity, glucose intolerance and repressed emotions, which can have a harmful effect on the health of your heart.

For more information on cholesterol lowering diets and cardiovascular nutrition, visit www.drsinatra.com.

Heart Risk Factors for Women Versus Men

Sunday, February 7, 2010 by Stephen Sinatra

Let’s take a look at how women’s risk factors for heart disease are different from men’s.

Diabetes. Diabetic women have a higher risk for heart disease than diabetic men. This is because the incidence of diabetes and its complications (including heart disease) is much higher in women. If you are a diabetic woman, your risk for heart disease is five to seven times normal, compared with a risk of only two to three times normal for a diabetic man. For you, proper heart sense means you should increase your physical activity and watch your diet to maintain a healthy body weight.

Overweight. Women have a higher heart disease risk from being overweight than men do. Recent studies indicate that being only 20 pounds overweight doubles your risk of heart disease. If you are overweight, I don’t want you to go on a diet. Instead, get physically active—it’s your most powerful weapon against fat—and begin eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, pasta, fish and lean poultry. Eating this way is what I call “healthy heart nutrition” and it just makes sense. (See other blog entries for additional advice on cardiovascular nutrition.)

Cholesterol. Women have a higher risk for heart disease than men if they don’t have good cholesterol levels. More specifically, if they have have low levels of HDL (“good” cholesterol) they increase their heart risk factors.

You probably already know that there are two types of cholesterol. LDL is the “bad” cholesterol, which oxidizes in your blood and forms the plaque that clogs arteries. HDL carries LDL out of your blood vessels before it can do its damage. Volumes of data have shown that a high LDL is a powerful risk factor for heart disease in men. But for women, the story is different. Recent research indicates that a low HDL, not a high LDL, is the more significant risk factor for a woman to develop heart disease. (This means that some women may need to increase HDL cholesterol levels.)

The good news is that HDL is sensitive to factors such as smoking, obesity and lack of exercise. If your HDL is low (less than 35 mg/dL) you can raise it by quitting smoking and dropping excess weight through a combination of smart eating, healthy heart nutrition, and physical activity such as walking and dancing. If you are postmenopausal, you might also consider estrogen replacement therapy (ERT), which raises HDL, lowers LDL, and has other beneficial effects on your heart. Have your HDL level checked six weeks after you start an HDL-raising program. Chances are you will see a change for the better.

High Triglycerides. When you get your cholesterol checked, I also want you to have your doctor check to see if you have healthy triglycerides levels. Triglycerides are another type of blood fat. A high triglyceride level is more dangerous for women than for men, so if your triglycerides are elevated (above 200 mg/dL), I want you to put some effort into lowering them, especially if you are a diabetic. This is because if you are a diabetic woman who also has high triglycerides, your risk of developing heart disease increases to 200 times normal. Please stop and think about this. You can lower your triglycerides using the powerful combination of exercise and weight control.

For more information on heart risk factors for women, visit www.drsinatra.com.

Healthy Heart Nutrition Plan

Friday, January 22, 2010 by Dr. Sinatra’s Team

We have received several comments expressing a concern on proper supplementation—which nutrients are important, the right dosage, getting the biggest bang for your buck, etc. When we developed a nutrient line with Dr. Sinatra, we asked ourselves the very same questions.

We (and Dr. Sinatra!) believe that the foundation for healthy heart nutrition lies first and foremost in a solid multinutrient. A good multivitamin and mineral formula should contain, among other nutrients, significant levels of antioxidants, calcium, vitamin D, magnesium, and folic acid.

And no cardiovascular nutrition advice would be complete without discussing fish oil. The omega-3s found in a high-quality fish oil are crucial for cardiovascular nutrition, promoting healthy blood pressure levels, good triglycerides, HDL/LDL cholesterol ratios, and more.

Lastly, given the time of year, you may also want to take nutrients that provide solid immune protection. A good immune product should contain a blend a nutrients, including quercetin, alpha lipoic acid, resveratrol, astaxanthin, and bromelain. Not only do many of these nutrients have heart benefits, but they also help to strengthen your immune system, as well as promote healthy aging.

For more information on healthy heart nutrition, visit www.drsinatra.com.

Bring Down High Triglyceride Levels

Thursday, October 29, 2009 by Stephen Sinatra

With all of the unnecessary attention lavished on HDL and LDL cholesterol levels, the importance of healthy triglycerides has been largely lost. And that’s too bad—because keeping them in a healthy range is essential to heart health.

Triglycerides are the chemical form of most fats in the body. The triglycerides in your blood come from dietary sources, primarily fats and carbohydrates. I consider a healthy triglyceride level to be 50–150 mg/dL. Levels above that have been linked to coronary artery disease and metabolic syndrome.

Given that the typical American diet is laden with processed and fast foods, it’s no surprise that high triglyceride levels are a problem for many people. To bring them down, cut back on the amount of sugar and carbohydrates in your diet, and eat more protein. I would also strongly recommend that you exercise regularly. Lifestyle changes such as these are very effective in keeping triglycerides in the healthy zone. Remember, the lower your weight, the lower your triglycerides, so weight loss and weight management are KEY to success!

Another good option for lowering triglycerides is a high-quality fish oil supplement. Start with 2–3 grams daily in divided doses, and let me know how it works for you.

For more information on how to bring down high triglycerides, visit www.drsinatra.com.

Soy Promotes Healthy Cholesterol Levels

Thursday, August 20, 2009 by Kimberly Day

More than 30 clinical studies have shown that soy is highly effective as part of a cholesterol-lowering diet. Case in point, an August 1995 meta-analysis from the New England Journal of Medicine found that people who ate an average of 47 grams of soy protein per day had a 13 percent decrease in LDL cholesterol levels, a 10.5 percent decrease in triglycerides, and a nine percent decrease in total cholesterol levels.

A November 2001 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine also found that a high consumption of legumes, including soybeans, meant a lowered risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). They concluded that increased legume intake may be an important part of a dietary approach to preventing CHD.

Additionally, a report in the August 2002 issue of Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology found that a diet rich in tofu and other soy products may help protect postmenopausal women from arterial disease. According to researchers, phytoestrogens were associated with less arterial stiffness among more than 400 postmenopausal women. The benefit was most pronounced among the oldest women, or those who had been postmenopausal the longest.

Surprisingly, even the FDA agrees that soy is beneficial for maintaining good cholesterol levels. In 1999, they authorized of the use of health claims on the labeling of foods containing soy protein, based on research which shows that soy foods may reduce risk of coronary heart disease by lowering blood cholesterol levels. According to the FDA, foods must contain 6.25 grams per serving of soy protein in order to qualify for the claim, and a daily intake of 25 grams is recommended in order to achieve a significant cholesterol-lowering effect. Now that's healthy heart nutrition!

For more information on healthy cholesterol levels and cardiovascular nutrition, visit www.drsinatra.com.

Two Birds, One Stone: Niacin Increases HDL and Lowers Lp(a)

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 by Stephen Sinatra

You’ve heard me say time and again that reducing cholesterol is not the magic bullet that will prevent heart attack and stroke. I stand by this statement wholeheartedly—but I don’t want you to interpret it to mean that cholesterol is unimportant.

Optimum cardiovascular health requires maintaining a healthy cholesterol ratio—that is, keeping your LDL cholesterol levels (the so-called “bad” cholesterol) in proper balance with your HDL levels (the “good” type of cholesterol). It also calls for minimizing the amount of Lp(a) in your blood, and not letting your triglyceride levels get out of hand.

Although regular exercise and a cholesterol lowering diet will go a long way toward helping you achieve these goals, I also recommend that you try some targeted nutritional supplements for an extra boost. One of them is niacin (vitamin B3). It’s a fantastic nutrient that can help you increase HDL cholesterol, as well as lower both triglycerides and the dangerous subtype of cholesterol known as Lp(a).

These are huge benefits. For me, keeping HDL levels high and Lp(a) down are more significant than lowering LDL or even total cholesterol. Elevated Lp(a) is a serious, widespread, and underemphasized problem, and niacin is probably one of the best nutrients to lower it. And the higher your good cholesterol levels, the more protection you have in your blood vessels.

The only downside to niacin is the flushing sensation it generates. This hot, tingly, pins-and-needles feeling is disconcerting to a lot of people, but it usually lasts no more than 30–60 minutes, and it is most pronounced during the first week or so that you take the supplement (it can also occur when you increase your dosage). You can find no-flush forms of niacin, but they’re not as effective. I would stick with the regular kind.

I recommend taking 1–2 g a day in divided doses with meals. Start with 250 mg and slowly work your way up to minimize the flushing effect. Let me know how it works for you!

For more information on how to increase HDL cholesterol while lowering LDL cholesterol levels, visit www.drsinatra.com.