Healthy Aging

Drug Therapy Has Little Value In Early Stage Hypertension

By Erik Goldman

Amid the clamor over metanalyses suggesting that organic veggies are no more nutritious than conventional, and that omega-3’s don’t reverse heart disease, another important metanalysis got totally overlooked: the one showing that anti-hypertensive drugs are largely ineffective in people with Stage 1 hypertension.

Reckoning with Statin-Induced Diabetes and Metformin Resistance

By Thomas G. Guilliams, PhD, Contributing Writer - Vol. 13, No. 3. , 2012

Drug therapies to reduce cardiovascular risk and prevent the onset of diabetes may be effective in the short term, but as people age, the efficacy of drugs like statins and metformin tends to diminish, while the risk of adverse effects increases. The benefit of nutritional and lifestyle interventions, on the other hand, remains robust even as people enter their final decades.

Not-So-Obvious Cardiometabolic Risk Factors Worth Considering

By Erik Goldman - Vol. 12, No. 3. , 2012

Elevated cholesterol and high blood glucose are the obvious features of diabetes and heart disease but they’re hardly the whole picture. Other, less obvious factors including environmental toxins like BPA and lead, gastrointestinal disorders, and frequent use of artificial sweeteners are also important drivers of disease. According to Dr. Mark Hyman, author of the popular book, The Blood Sugar Solution, these oft-overlooked factors warrant closer attention.

Low Vitamin D Levels May Trigger Weight Gain

By Erik Goldman

A new and interesting angle on the vitamin D story is emerging from research on weight gain in older women. The vitamin, it seems, is an important metabolic signal that indirectly regulates the propensity to store fat.

Magnesium Significantly Reduces Blood Pressure

By Erik Goldman

Magnesium supplementation, particularly at doses over 370 mg per day, can significantly reduce both systolic and diastolic blood pressure in hypertensive and pre-hypertensive people, according to a new metanalysis of 22 trials.

 

Blood Viscosity: The Unifying Parameter In Cardiovascular Disease Risk

By Ralph E. Holsworth, Jr., DO & Jonathan V. Wright, MD - Vol. 13, No. 1. , 2012

Increased blood viscosity is the only biological parameter that has been linked with all of the other major heart disease risk factors, including high blood pressure, elevated LDL cholesterol, low HDL, type-II diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, smoking, age, and male gender. Until recently, technological limitations made it impractical for doctors to measure this key risk factor. Fortunately, that’s changing.