Good Heart Health

Good Heart and Cardiovascular Health are important to everyone, especially people with diabetes. This is especially an urgent issue

The outcome of a study published in the American Heart Association (AHA) journal Circulation on February 14, 2010 has resulted in the dismal conclusion that only one in 1,933 Americans may be meeting the American Heart Association's criteria for good heart health.

University of Pittsburgh vice chancellor for clinical research Steven E Reis, MD and his associates analyzed data from 1,933 men and women aged 45 to 75 who participated in the community-based Heart Strategies Concentrating on Risk Evaluation (Heart SCORE) study. Surveys, physical examinations and blood test results provided information concerning the presence of the following factors: not smoking, meeting physical activity and healthy diet goals, and having a body mass index lower than 25, untreated cholesterol level of less than 200, blood pressure of lower than 120/80 and fasting glucose below 100.

Only one participant met all seven criteria of ideal heart health and fewer than 10 percent of participants had five or more components. African-Americans had an 82 percent lower chance of having five or more components compared to subjects of European ancestry.

"Of all the people we assessed, only one out of 1,900 could claim ideal heart health," stated Dr Reis, who is affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh's Cardiovascular Institute. "This tells us that the current prevalence of heart health is extremely low, and that we have a great challenge ahead of us to attain the AHA's aim of a 20 percent improvement in cardiovascular health rates by 2020."

"Many of our study participants were overweight or obese, and that likely had a powerful influence on the other behaviors and factors," he observed. "Our next step is to analyze additional data to confirm this and, based on the results, try to develop a multifaceted approach to improve health. That could include identifying predictors of success or failure at adhering to the guidelines."

Read more »

Posted in: American Heart Association,diabetes,first natural health news,heart health,LEF,Longest Walk 3

Diet Soda for Kids Brings More Obesity

Some very definitive studies have been done showing the increase in obesity when diet soda is used in place of this with high fructose corn syrup.

This obviously is being ignored by Bill Clinton, the American Heart Association, Pekka Puska from the World Heart Federation, and PepsiCo in school sales schemes.

In primary schools, PepsiCo will sell only water, fat-free or low-fat milk, and juice with no added sugar. In secondary schools, it will sell those drinks along with low-calorie soft drinks, such as Diet Pepsi. Sports drinks are permissible when they're sold to students participating in sports or other physical activities.

Complete article

NB: Cutting down on drinks sweetened with high fructose corn syrup may help, put selling artificially sweetened drinks is a direct path to obesity and diabetes plus more than 100 known health issues.

March 17 - In a related discussion, one "...prominent cardiologist accused leading heart organizations of being too cozy with industry and allowing those ties to influence its policies and education programs for doctors."
Complete article

As long as the money flows around the Beltway moat, good luck in getting any REAL and SUBSTANTIAL health insurance reform that makes a difference for the people!

Read more »

Posted in: American Heart Association,Bill Clinton,diet soda,Pekka Puska,PepsiCo,schools