Participants: Agatha Thrash (Host), Don Miller, Rhonda Clark
Series Code: HYTH
Program Code: HYTH000237
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00:01 Hello, as with most things in medicine and anatomy
00:06 and health, we're learning new things all the time 00:09 and the heart is no exception. 00:12 Everything from new foods that can keep us from 00:17 coagulating the blood inside the blood vessels to new testing 00:20 things, we'd like to talk with you about these that we know 00:24 you'll love the information that we have and I'm sure 00:28 you will appreciate my guests, we hope you will join us. 00:52 Welcome to Help Yourself To Health 00:54 with Dr. Agatha Thrash of Uchee Pines Institute 00:57 and now here is your host Dr. Thrash. 01:01 I think one of the most distressing problems 01:07 that I run into is that of how to lower the cholesterol 01:11 in a person who's ordinary measures don't work well. 01:17 So I would like to invite you to come with me and I would like to 01:22 introduce you to my first guest who is Rhonda Clark, 01:27 Rhonda, welcome to the program today. 01:30 - Thank you! 01:31 - And I'm happy that you are going to talk with us on 01:33 how to lower the cholesterol. 01:35 - Yes! 01:36 - I get calls from time to time and I'm sure you do too 01:38 at Uchee Pines, about how to get the cholesterol down. 01:44 I've tried this, I've tried that I've been on this kind of diet 01:48 and that kind of diet, I've taken this kind of medicine 01:52 and it's still high. 01:55 How do you help them? 01:57 Well I have some things to recommend and it's a blessing, 02:00 simple lifestyle measures can make a big difference 02:03 in one's cholesterol level. 02:04 So let me share with you some the things I brought with 02:07 me today, one of the things that we know commonly 02:11 about lowering the cholesterol is to lower the fats in our 02:13 diet and it makes a difference the types of fats that we take 02:17 out of our diet. 02:18 The two big enemies when it comes to our cholesterol count 02:21 are saturated fats and trans fats, you may know trans fats 02:27 by another term, partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated 02:31 fats, these are very contributory to the development 02:35 of elevated cholesterol levels and should be eliminated from 02:38 the diet. 02:39 On the other hand, some beneficial fats may lower the 02:43 cholesterol, these are the fats that we find in whole plant 02:46 foods, such as nuts, olives, avocados, the nuts that are 02:52 especially of benefit are almonds, pecans and walnuts. 02:56 Several studies have been done on the use of almonds 02:59 to lower the cholesterol and have been very encouraging, 03:03 so these should be included in moderation in a healthy diet 03:06 to lower cholesterol. 03:08 All plant based diet makes a big difference, any product that was 03:14 made by an animal or is an animal that we take into our 03:17 diet will give us cholesterol. 03:18 When we go to a strictly plant based diet our cholesterol can 03:23 very nicely come down. 03:25 There also is an important aspect of a plant based diet, 03:30 it's helpful for us in lowering cholesterol, and that's it's 03:32 fiber content, when we eat a high fiber diet, we trap bile 03:38 which holds cholesterol and excrete it from the body. 03:42 The liver is excellent at recycling bile and just building 03:46 the cholesterol, making cholesterol for us when we help 03:50 eliminate more bile by eating a high fat diet the cholesterol 03:54 is used then in making more new bile, helping to lower the blood 03:58 cholesterol level. 04:00 Another tip is to spend time in the sunlight every day, 04:04 sunlight as it strikes our skin manufactures vitamin D 04:08 in the manufacturing of this vitamin D, cholesterol is 04:12 utilized, as that cholesterol is used, the skin needs to 04:15 pull more cholesterol from our blood to continue making 04:19 vitamin D. 04:20 So spending 20 minutes or more of sunlight on the skin 04:24 every day is very beneficial in lowering cholesterol. 04:27 One study showed that a two hour sun bath lowered total 04:32 cholesterol levels 13%, so this can be very beneficial 04:36 in your over all program. 04:38 I wanted to share some herbs too that can be beneficial in 04:42 lowering cholesterol, garlic, taking garlic in the diet 04:46 regularly can help lower cholesterol and flax seed, 04:50 these contain some of the beneficial fats that we 04:53 mentioned as well as fiber, which are both helpful in 04:57 lowering cholesterol. 04:58 Another interesting herb, actually a resin called Google 05:03 can lower cholesterol as can red rice yeast, 05:07 these can be found at your health food store, 05:10 and can be taken according to package instructions 05:13 to lower cholesterol. 05:14 One other interesting thing I wanted to mention in 05:18 lowering cholesterol, and that is a particular type of food, 05:22 those foods that are high in a substance called plant sterols 05:27 or plant stanols, these are plant steroids that help 05:31 inhibit the synthesis of cholesterol or the building of 05:35 cholesterol in our liver. 05:37 Foods that are high in plant stanols or sterols include 05:41 potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, soy products, celery, all of the 05:49 lettuces, peaches, blueberries, and apples, some of my favorite 05:55 foods and I'm sure some of your favorite foods as well. 05:57 - Yes! I like to hear blueberries coming up 05:59 because blueberries are so tasty and there are so many 06:03 dishes that they fit into well. - Uhuh! 06:04 - All the way from a smoothie to a crisp and breads that are 06:08 made with it. - And muffins and pancakes. 06:10 - Yes! They're not only delightful to look at, 06:14 but they are delightful to eat and delightful to work with. 06:17 - Indeed! - And of course they have 06:19 so many health benefits. - Yes! 06:21 You know I found an interesting study in my research for this 06:24 and this was done in 2003. 06:26 They took two groups of people and put them one on a 06:30 cholesterol lowering medication called Lovastatin and the 06:33 other group went of a lifestyle program where they had 06:36 an ounce of raw almonds in their diet every day, 06:39 they increased the fiber in their diet, they ate foods high 06:44 in plant sterols, they got regular exercise, 06:48 another important factor in lowering cholesterol. 06:50 These individuals in over four weeks of following this program 06:54 had the same, in fact just slightly higher results, they 06:59 lowered their cholesterol equally as well, or 07:02 actually a little bit lower I should say instead of higher 07:04 as the medication and had none of the harmful side effects, 07:09 in fact they had the benefits of these plants to the other 07:12 systems of their body. 07:13 So lifestyle means certainly can be effective in lowering 07:17 cholesterol, I will mention one other supplement that I happened 07:21 to cross in my research and this one I am not familiar with 07:23 this is new but the research is rather interesting, it's a plant 07:26 alcohol called policosanol found at the health food store 07:31 it comes from sugar cane or yams. 07:34 This substance is especially effective in lowering the LDL 07:39 the low density lipoprotein type of cholesterol or what we 07:43 commonly know as our bad cholesterol. 07:46 After taking policosanol for 6-8 weeks the subjects 07:51 in the study lowered their LDL cholesterol a range from 11-27%, 07:57 rather interesting I thought. 07:59 - Yes, I've talked with a physician who has had some 08:05 experience with that and he was quite charmed with the 08:08 thought that this plant substance could from just 08:13 sugar cane and yams could have such a beneficial effect 08:17 on peoples cholesterol. 08:19 - Now he may have mentioned to you there is one precaution 08:22 in taking this is that is at its higher doses it has a 08:26 blood thinning component to it as well, now that can be 08:29 helpful if you are not on a blood thinning medication, 08:32 but if you do take an anti-coagulant 08:34 a blood thinning medication, you may want to stay away from 08:37 the highest doses of this or at least watch for any signs 08:41 of excessive bleeding, like bruises that you can't explain. 08:44 - Or blood in the urine or blood in the bowel movement. 08:48 - Yes, these would be... 08:50 - Or easy bleeding of the nose or whatever. 08:52 Very good now cholesterol is not the only fat that can be high 09:01 that can cause the heart a problem. 09:03 - Yes! There is also triglyceride. 09:05 - Oh indeed! 09:07 - Do you have people a lot who ask you about that? 09:11 - Surprisingly a great number, it seems some people will call 09:15 and say that their cholesterol count is really ok but their 09:18 triglycerides are so high, and have asked what can we do 09:22 to get our triglyceride level down. 09:23 The same things that we have recommended for cholesterol 09:27 can also lower triglycerides, but I want to add a couple 09:30 of other suggestions. 09:32 One triglycerides are also elevated when we have 09:36 an abundance of carbohydrates in our diet, especially the 09:39 refined simple sugars, eliminate the refined products from 09:44 your diet, and I think you will be pleased to see your 09:46 triglyceride coming down. 09:48 Another thing to recommend, a surprising little study that 09:53 was done on kiwi fruit. - Oh yes! 09:55 They had individuals eat two to three kiwis a day and in 09:59 21 days these folks all saw decreases in 10:02 their triglycerides. 10:03 - Oh I like that treatment. - Yes! A very nice treatment 10:06 indeed, and some theorize the vitamin C in which these 10:09 little fruits are so high in may have had a component in 10:12 lowering the triglyceride level. 10:13 I wanted to make one final thought that I want to mention 10:18 to, not only about carbohydrate intake and fat intake but 10:21 when we overeat in general, even of healthful foods 10:25 we can see elevations in our triglyceride level. 10:28 So eating in moderation, following a two meal plan 10:32 may be just the thing that will finally bring your triglyceride 10:36 level down to a healthy value, a healthy range. 10:40 - Very good, thank you so much Rhonda. 10:42 - Thank you for having me. - I appreciate it. 10:43 Now we have another aspect of this thing of cholesterol 10:50 that I would like you to know and that is HDL and LDL and IDL 10:57 and VLDL, and I have a chart that I think will make this 11:01 a little clearer for you so let me just show you 11:06 my chart and see if this doesn't make this clearer. 11:10 Here is a fat globule with a fatty inner core and an 11:18 outer core of phospholipids and cholesterol in the 11:24 little valleys between the rounded portions of the 11:29 phospholipids, of course this is just a schematic drawing 11:33 and here is a little portion of the fat molecule taken up 11:41 so that you can see the inside. 11:43 Just the very structure of this is interesting, notice how the 11:47 artist has put this with hair pins showing that this part 11:51 is always on the outside, and this part is always on the 11:55 inside, interesting structure chemically speaking. 11:59 Then on the surface there are attachment sites for substances 12:07 that can help to remove the cholesterol from the body, 12:12 now if you will look at this portion of the chart, 12:16 here is the HDL, high density lipoprotein, and you can see 12:22 that these are small, these are a little larger, 12:26 these larger yet and these are LDL and the IDL and the VLDL 12:34 now all of these are different forms of lipoprotein, 12:41 and the lipoprotein as we saw here the phospholipids, 12:46 these are the ones that can carry the cholesterol 12:51 so the cholesterol gets into the HDL and can be taken out 12:58 of the body in that way. 13:00 Here is a cell which can take up cholesterol having the 13:07 cholesterol born into these little pits which can go into 13:13 the cell and the cell then recycles these little portions 13:19 of cholesterol, so this can help you some what we can make 13:24 cholesterol inside the body in the liver or we can take it 13:28 in with the food and it is absorbed through the intestinal 13:33 tract and in this way we can see that cholesterol is indeed 13:38 quite a study itself, not a simple thing of I've got high 13:43 blood cholesterol but what form of high blood cholesterol 13:46 do you have. 13:47 If your HDL is high, that's good we're very happy for that, 13:51 but if the LDL or the VLDL, if those are high, 13:55 we're not so happy with that those can be damaging for us. 13:59 And interestingly enough cholesterol and triglycerides 14:03 are not the only problem with substances made in the body 14:08 or that can be made in the body that can cause a problem, 14:12 homocystene and other substances can also cause a problem 14:17 for the heart. 14:18 Now I have asked Dr. Don Miller to also be a guest on our 14:23 program today, and I would like for you to talk with us 14:27 about another aspect of this thing having to do with 14:31 cardiac concerns. 14:32 - Ok I will, but you know as you are showing a picture of that 14:35 cholesterol, I'm thinking as simple as that thing is 14:41 how can anyone believe in evolution. 14:42 - I know. - It is basically so simple 14:45 compared to one eye cone but still people believe in that 14:50 strange thing, God is a good God. 14:51 - Yes and to have one cholesterol molecule which is 14:56 essential for our health. - Absolutely! 14:58 We have to have cholesterol for a number of things 15:00 we have to have it in the skin to make the pro vitamin D 15:05 and we have to have it in all of our hormone organs 15:11 so that they can make our various hormones. 15:13 So it's essential to the functioning of the body 15:17 and yet one wrong enzyme, can make it so that we cannot make 15:25 cholesterol in a proper way. 15:27 So it's impossible, and dozens of them are needed, 15:32 so we would have to have a real explosion of evolution, 15:36 I don't know how I could have ever believed in that theory. 15:39 - Yes it is strange. - It's sociological. 15:41 - It is strange. 15:42 I remember one time we had a... at Uchee Pines we wanted to get 15:47 one of these cholesterol screening machines and so we 15:51 had a couple of different companies with their salesman 15:54 come and I remember very distinctly the day that the man 15:58 came and he put his nice machine down and buffed it up, 16:01 he was real happy with this machine, it was a great machine, 16:04 and a bunch of us lined up and we had little finger sticks 16:08 and got a little drop of blood and he started feeding these 16:11 things into the machine and after about five or six went 16:14 through the machine, he stopped he said just a minute, 16:16 I think there is something wrong, 16:17 I have to re-calibrate my machine. 16:19 So he put his calibration fluids in there and he re-calibrated 16:22 and he said I think it's alright and took some more of our blood 16:25 and he said I'm sorry, maybe it got hurt in shipping 16:29 because it's not working. 16:30 He said well what's wrong, he said all these cholesterols 16:33 are coming out below 150, I don't know the wrong is here. 16:36 - You could have told him what was wrong. 16:38 - You're at Uchee Pines. 16:40 - Where they exercise and have sunlight and have a vegan diet. 16:45 - Absolutely! 16:46 - And trust in divine power, all of those things that make 16:49 for a low blood cholesterol. 16:50 - And you've got to do all of these things, we believe that 16:53 the good cholesterol level is 100 plus your age, 16:57 and if you are 80 years old, it doesn't mean that it's good 16:59 to have 180, really the lower the better. 17:02 Triglycerides we like to see it about what the age is, 17:05 so mine could be just around 60, that's a good triglyceride 17:10 for me, I like to keep mine lower. 17:12 They did a very interesting study up in Finland a number of 17:15 years ago, they took 30,000 men and women from Finland 17:20 who were at risk for coronary heart disease, and they did 17:24 just three simple things for these people: 17:28 One they got them off of tobacco, we realize tobacco 17:32 is poison not only to the heart, but to the entire 17:35 vascular system, got them off of tobacco. 17:38 Second thing, they lowered the blood pressure, taking care 17:42 of salt in the diet, getting them exercising and a few things 17:45 like that, it's quite easy to lower the blood pressure. 17:48 Third thing lowered the cholesterol intake into the body 17:52 which is very easy, you give them more plant based 17:55 carbohydrates and proteins rather than animal ones, 17:59 so that you are not getting so much cholesterol 18:01 into the body. 18:02 What were the results, within a short period of time 18:05 they found that they had a 55% reduction in fatal heart attacks 18:09 in the men and a 70% reduction in fatal heart attacks 18:13 in the women, from three factors, just three factors. 18:19 And there's other factors that affect the heart you know 18:21 some people say well Paul told Timothy take a little wine 18:24 for your stomach's sake, and then someone's people say 18:27 well we take some wine for our hearts sake and we find 18:30 that the number amount of wine that you'd have to take to get 18:35 the beneficial effect for your heart is about 12 glasses 18:39 of wine which then intoxicate you and it's toxic to the 18:43 heart muscle. 18:44 So instead of giving them wine, purple grape juice has the 18:48 resveratrol which has an anti platelet stickiness factor 18:53 which keeps the blood moving freely as along with a 18:56 clove of garlic a day would do the same thing. 18:58 - And the resveratrol has recently been shown to have a 19:02 very beneficial effect on the endothelium, the endothelium 19:06 is the lining of blood vessels and the elasticity and 19:11 plasticity of this membrane is so important to the 19:16 blood vessels to keep them healthy, 19:18 resveratrol is important for that, where would you get 19:22 resveratrol? 19:24 - From grapes. - Purple grapes, and you said 19:26 no wine. - Wine has other toxins, 19:29 - Cardio-toxic and so... 19:32 - Cardio-toxic alcohol is not good for the heart and women 19:38 and people who take mammo-toxic alcohol will have more breast 19:45 problems, breast cancer and other problems. 19:48 So we can get resveratrol from purple grape juice, 19:51 or purple grapes but also from most berries, blueberries 19:56 is one cranberries, strawberries, most berries 19:59 will give some resveratrol, peanuts have resveratrol 20:04 and a number of other foods are found to have significant 20:08 qualities of resveratrol, but these are all 20:11 plant based, notice. 20:12 So a plant based diet can be most important to keeping 20:18 the cardio-vascular system in good health. 20:21 - Absolutely, another one is exercise, they find that those 20:24 who exercise have half the amount of coronary problems 20:27 as those who are sedentary, people who are sedentary 20:31 the health deficit of people who smoke a pack of cigarettes 20:38 a day, and so the need to be out and be active, 20:42 to be exercising every day, not weekend warriors, 20:45 but every day getting good exercise. 20:47 - What would you think of a person who just does not like 20:50 to be outside, they love what goes on inside, they love their 20:55 computer, they love their telephone, they love their 20:58 desks and their reading. 21:01 They have to learn to love their heart monitors too, 21:04 they really need to find a way to break out of that and get out 21:09 and do exercise, now if they don't like outside for some 21:11 other reasons, then get some indoor exercise equipment 21:15 and there are some good ones but still you got to have your 21:18 windows open and get fresh air, exercise is so vital to the 21:21 human body, you really can't live right without it. 21:23 - Many women don't like to get out of door where they live 21:26 because it's not safe in the city where they live, 21:29 and for them of course we can recommend a spa, or we can 21:33 recommend the Y, or to get some indoor exercise equipment 21:42 that can keep them from being sedentary. 21:44 - one of those simple re- bounders just stand there doing 21:46 re-bounding is very good for the entire body, 21:49 that little shake up is good for the bones for osteoporosis, 21:52 it gets your cardiovascular system working, 21:54 gets your respiratory system working, lots of good effects 21:58 from just something as simple as re-bounding, plus you have 22:00 no stress on the knees and the legs and hips. 22:03 - Yes, that's such an important thing. 22:05 - Very important. 22:06 - Yes, well I'm so happy that you brought up these things, 22:09 thank you so much for being on our program today. 22:11 - My pleasure, thank you. 22:12 Now to talk about some of the testing that we now have 22:17 that can help you to know more about your heart and how 22:21 healthy it is, one of those is homocystine, homocystine 22:26 is a rather new kid on the block you might say, 22:32 in laboratory testing, an we note this about it, 22:36 that the lower it is the better. 22:40 Now with cholesterol generally speaking, the lower it is 22:44 the better, now apparently there are some people 22:47 who may need a little higher cholesterol level, these are 22:51 rare but an occasional person does seem to need a bit 22:55 higher level. 22:56 Maybe some of their hormone glands require a bit more 23:02 cholesterol or whatever, but with homocystine 23:05 at least to the present time, the lower it is the better. 23:09 So we recommend that it be below 10 if at all possible, 23:13 certainly below 12, and people who's homocystines are down 23:17 around 5, they are sort of enviable, but there are many 23:22 who do have low homocystine levels. 23:25 Now another one is C- Reactive Protein or CRP, the C-Reactive 23:32 Protein we've had for a long time, but in it's application 23:36 as a cardiac test we have not had it for that long. 23:40 C- Reactive Protein indicates an inflammatory condition 23:46 in the body, when there is an inflammation in the body 23:51 it put a strain on a variety of organs, one of those is 23:56 the heart, it also increases the likelihood that there will 24:00 be small clots, microscopic in size, or large clots, 24:05 large enough that they could block a major blood vessel, 24:09 and the C- Reactive Protein is an indicator for us that 24:15 something is not good for the cardio vascular system. 24:18 Now there are some anti- inflammatory herbs that are 24:23 quite good for the high C- Reactive Proteins for the high 24:30 fibrinogen level which is also a factor that we can check 24:36 to see how good the heart is having it in your body 24:41 and for these an anti- inflammatory herb may be very 24:46 good, there are also some anti- inflammatory foods, apples, 24:50 most fruits, blueberries, kiwi, all of these are very good 24:57 for the heart and are especially high in anti-inflammatory 25:01 substances. 25:02 Hawthorne berry which is double first cousin to an apple, 25:06 Hawthorne berry is an herb which we always think of when we 25:11 think of heart, heart disease, Hawthorne berry, and it's also 25:16 good for the blood pressure, white willow bark, 25:19 one of the best anti- inflammatory herbs that we have, 25:22 it also has some anti-pain characteristics so we can use 25:27 that as well, and white willow bark has yet another wonderful 25:33 feature, and that is it has a very nice anti-coagulant 25:38 factors. 25:40 Interestingly, when we take these herbs, especially if we 25:46 take them in a crude form rather than in a purified derivative, 25:51 if we take these herbs they will usually not overstep 25:58 the boundaries of good health so that we over shoot 26:02 anti-coagulation as a drug anti-coagulant can do. 26:07 Then the common kitchen Turmeric, that's very good 26:10 1/2 teaspoonful one, two, three, four times a day can be most 26:16 beneficial to people for it's anti-inflammatory qualities, 26:21 also has a little anti-coagulant properties as well. 26:26 Rosemary, another common kitchen herb, grow rosemary, 26:31 put it in all your soups and and all your stews, 26:34 put Rosemary in breads, sprinkle it on Pizzas, put it on pasta, 26:42 it's very good in it's use in the kitchen. 26:46 So major on Rosemary and don't forget that it can grow if 26:51 you don't have a garden, right in a flower pot, so put it in 26:54 your living room in a beautiful flower pot, I think it's a very 26:59 nice looking herb, and when you go by just cause the little herb 27:06 to wave in the breeze and see what a nice aroma it puts in 27:10 your entire house. 27:11 Kava Kava another very good herb that has an anti-inflammatory 27:17 quality, one dose, whatever that may be, if it's a tea 27:22 then use one cup four times a day, whatever the done is 27:26 on the package that you purchase take that four times a day. 27:29 And then the last one is ginger, ginger has a very good 27:34 anti-inflammatory quality and can be most helpful in a variety 27:41 of different kinds of heart diseases, 27:44 these are simple things that we have told you 27:47 but if you do these things you will have very good 27:51 cardiac health, Good Bye! |
Revised 2014-12-17