Statin Drugs have issues, 2 new research studies report

Statin drugs took a big hit in the news today. I always advise my heart disease patients to be thoguhtful consumers of all pharmaceutical drugs, herbs, supplements and other nutrients and to keep their personal knowledge of benefits and disadvantages in the use of any materials for their overall health and well being.  This includes impact, both intended and unintended, on the cardiovascular system.

The study published in the Atherosclerosis journal showed statins increased coronary and aortic plaque.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22981406

Below, "T2DM" means Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

In the Diabetes Care journal, the published research study shows that more frequent statin use is associated with accelerated coronary artery calcification in T2DM patients with advanced atherosclerosis.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22875226

Statins Increase Prevalence of Coronary Calcification by More than 50 Percent!

A new study in the journal Atherosclerosis shows that statin use is associated with a 52 percent increased prevalence and extent of calcified coronary plaque compared to non-users. None of the participants in the study – 6,673 in all – had any known coronary artery disease at the time of undergoing coronary CT angiography (CCTA) – a non-invasive method that allows you to see coronary atherosclerotic features, including plaque composition.

Arterial plaque is a hallmark of cardiovascular disease and increases your risk of all-cause mortality, so clearly, anything that increases calcification and stiffening of your arteries is wisely avoided. And statins seem to fall into this category.

These disturbing findings come right on the heels of another study published in the journal Diabetes Care, which discovered that type 2 diabetics with advanced atherosclerosis who are frequent statin users have significantly higher amounts of coronary artery calcification compared to less frequent users of the drug.

Furthermore, in a subgroup of participants who initially were not receiving statins, progression of both coronary artery calcification as well as abdominal aortic artery calcification was significantly increased when they began frequent statin use.

The authors concluded that:

"More frequent statin use is associated with accelerated coronary artery calcification in T2DM patients with advanced atherosclerosis."

So much for statins being the answer for diabetics... Diabetes is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which is why many diabetics are prescribed a statin drug to reduce their risk. Alas, as these studies show, statins actually accelerate the progression of disease.

There are other ways to address concerns with managing cholesterol that are natural, safe and effective.  Make an appointment to discover what are your options for cholesterol management.

Making matters worse, statins have also been shown to significantly increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes if you don't have it already. This is a risk everyone needs to be aware of.  In one study, statins increased the risk of type 2 diabetics in postmenopausal women by 48 percent.

Sleep your way to weight loss!

Want an insider secret to help with weight loss?

Any one who wants to lose weight has to have a regular bed time and strive to get both enough sleep (quantity of sleep) and restorative sleep (quality of sleep).  For a person to lose weight and keep it off, they must get enough rest.  If they don't get the needed rest, the body perceives it as a stress and shifts the metabolism to store fat.  Sleep is a key ingredient for losing weight and keeping it off.  Adults usually need 7 1/2 to 8 hours of sleep each night; younger children and teenagers need 10 - 10 1/2 hours sleep a night.

If missing sleep is a habit, for whatever reason, you have to fix it so you can get the sleep you need and deserve.  Your weight does depend on this simple fact. 

Short term memory is also impacted by sleep.  Ask any parent of a newborn baby how well they remember things when they are deprived of sleep night after night!

Sleep can be elusive for some people, and doesn't always go with having a stressful life.  There are lab tests and other assessments that help identify the source of a chronic problem with sleep.

Preventing ACL tears in young athletes - a great idea for girls and boys

Do yourself a favor and read this information, take this to heart if you have a young athlete in your life.

Here's a clear, informative article to read that discusses the gender differences in how often ACL tears of the knee occur in girls and boys.  I am an athlete, and would have loved to have this information as I was growing up.  I played every sport I had access too, and have always been glad for what Title 9 did for myself and other girls growing up in the 70's, 80's and 90's.  If you have a child or children ages 9 and higher, check out what our friends at Body By X Gym - Skills Development and Training Center have to say about prevention of ACL injuries.  This particular injory can be devastating, and ruin chances for an athletic scholarship, or simply freedom from knee pain while being physically active for a life time.

Thank you to Nadia McClinton, Co-Owner of Body By X Gym - Skills Development and Training Center for sharing this important information with us all. 

Check out the article here:

 http://www.getfitmarin.com/jump-training.html

Want to learn more about the Body By X Gym, Skills Development and Training Center?  Check out their website @  http://www.GetFitMarin.com/

HCG Diet, High Blood Pressure, Lower Cholesterol, Type 2 Diabetes

In clinical practice, I've enjoyed using the HCG Diet as a way to help patients lose weight.  Over the years of working with people to help them lose weight and keep the excess weight off, I've noticed that on the HCG Diet people do lose weight, specifically fat.  When tested before an HCG Diet weight loss program and after, they show a lower BMI ratio and some other wonderful things happen too.

In one case, I worked with a woman in her late 50's who'd been obese for the last 15 years, with creeping weight gain over the years that started after she'd given birth to her 3rd child.  She had high blood pressure, was on Type 2 Diabetes medicines and high blood pressure medicine.  She had been on cholesterol lowering medicine for a while, but stopped as it hadn't help to lower her cholesterol - her cholesterol kept going up, despite the medication. This person also had severe chronic sleep apnea, and refused to wear a CPAP mask and use a CPAP machine to help her breathe at night.  I explained that the facts that she was obese, diabetic and had high blood pressure put her at extreme risk for a heart attack or a stroke if she didn't lose the excess weight ASAP and start using her CPAP machine when she slept.

Sometimes people don't realize what risks they are taking with their health, and that if they don't do something about it, they are very likely to die early or be incapacitated for the rest of their life.  These kinds of outcomes are not necessary.  An obese or overweight person has to take appropriate steps to lose weight, deal with their diabetes, their high blood pressure, sleep apnea and cholesterol problems or they run the very real risk of the bad consequences of these chronic health problems.

She did the HCG Diet Weight Loss Program in two rounds, and did really well.  She lost a total of 51 pounds, dropped 8 dress sizes and felt so much better she started playing actively with her grandchildren.  Her grandkids are delighted to have Grandmom be active with them!  She has lots of energy and is really enjoying her life again. This patients reports that she looks much closer to the body size she was when she married years ago.

Losing the weight improved her sleep apnea, and she no longer woke up with the headache that is a common side effect of having sleep apnea and not using a CPAP mask and breathing machine while asleep.  After her first round of the HCG Diet, she reported that her cholesterol lowered to the normal range, and that she no longer had high blood pressure.  She was able to safely stop taking the high blood pressure medicine, as her blood pressure has stayed normal, along with her cholesterol.  Also, after her first round of the HCG Diet, she no longer needed her Type 2 Diabetes medicines either. 

Life became a lot simpler as she lost weight.  Her costs for medications dropped, and the savings from no longer needing the prescription medications paid for the costs of the HCG Diet programs with change left over. 

Weight loss is a sensible goal and can provide numerous rewards, both personal and financial.

HCG Diet Weight Loss Program and Hormone Balance

The Systems Approach™ HCG Diet Weight Loss Program, using the injectable form of HCG as part of the weight loss plan, can help people who otherwise have a hard time losing weight, especially losing excess fat.  For some people, the simple, direct approach of "eat less and exercise more" is not effective at achieving weight loss goals. 

Unwanted weight gain can be the result of poor sleep, hormone imbalance, wrong kinds and amounts of foods, wrong kinds and amounts of exercise, and too much stress.  Each of these factors can really keep a person trapped in a body that stores fat efficiently and that does not burn fat efficiently.  When this happens, it makes sense to get professional help to lose the excess fat. 

Why do I say "lose the excess fat" and not just say "weight loss"?  These details matter for a person who struggles with weight to succeed at losing weight and keeping it off as they acheive a healthy weight range again. 

If you do a weight loss program, lose weight, but do not lose fat, then you've done yourself no favors.  Once you are off of the weight loss program, you gain all the lost weight back; it becomes a rebound weight gain program.  Is this what you want?  Of course not!

Muscle tissue is needed for you to have a healthy, normal metabolism. 

If a weight loss program causes you to lose muscle, it means you are losing the very thing you need - the muscle tissue - to burn fat for fuel after your weight loss program is done.  So, after the program ends, here comes the weight right back, and likely more, as you are now at risk of having the metabolism slow down even further, making it even easier for you to gain weight, and especially gain fat. 

Active muscle tissue keeps your metabolism revved up and burns calories effectively and efficiently.  Active muscle tissue also uses glucose for fuel and helps keep glucose from being turned into fat.  Glucose gets turned into fat as a storage form of energy when you don't exercise, as a lack of exercise means there is no demand for muscles to use glucose as fuel, so it gets turned into fat instead. 

The Systems Approach™ HCG Diet Weight Loss Program is specific for preserving muscle tissue while losing fat.  You can test your own body fat percentage before and after this program to prove it to yourself.

If you find that after you've done a weight loss program that you are gaining back the weight you've lost, it's a great idea to get yourself assessed and tested.  You need to find out if you have a hormone imbalance, sleep apnea or another sleep problem, as these chronic health conditions can really undermine both your weight loss efforts and your ability to maintain a healthy weight range. 

If your hormone balance is missing, then you may be a candidate for bio-identical hormone replacement therapy - BHRT. 

Often people who struggle with weight are hypothyroid and they can benefit from bio-identical thyroid hormone replacement therapy - thyroid BHRT.

Some other hormone imbalances to consider are cortisol (a stress hormone), estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, and more.

Once hormone imbalances are corrected and hormone balance is restored, patients who respond well to BHRT therapy enjoy an improved quality of life as their body and mind work better.  They often report that they feel much more like their old self again.