Heart Awareness

I almost forgot that February was National Heart Awarness Month. I should have remembered based on my emails. Oh, well. But I found some great information that I had to share with everyone.

In the March issue of Fast Company (go to www.fastcompany.com/keyword/103fc and enter access code FCMARANNIV to read more) there is an article on the body. Some good news they shared: If you were born after 1970 your life expectancy is 71.1 years. If you were born after 1995, your life expectancy is 75.8 years. And if you were born this year, 2006, your life expectancy is 77.3 years. That means that we are living longer lives. But those added years may take a toll on us too. Between 1997 and 2003 the number of cardiac surgeries went up from 3.23 million to 3.55 million. Could it be our fast food diets causing this increase? Or could it be that the increase in surgeries and added life expectancy can be linked to our drug and supplement use? According to the number of prescriptions filled, maybe prescription drugs cause more harm than good: in 1994 only 7.7 prescriptions were filled (this is per capita), but by 2003 11.1 were filled. Fairly large jump. But how about the number of supplements used? 10 years ago, barely over $12 million dollars was spent on supplements. By last year- nearly $21 million!! That is in the sales of non-FDA approved supplements. That's good news for the health and wellness industry!! But also, it means that companies such as Pfizer have good competition. The New York Times reported in November (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/16/business/16pfizer.html) that the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor has not proven itself statistically to the world yet. They compared the drug to Zocor. This information was also published in The Journal of the Amereican Medical Association at the same time. The study was conducted by Pfizer itself, and found that thier drug did not experience fewer coronary events during a period of five years when compared to Zocor. Both drugs had the close to the same number of coronary events, including nonfatal heart attacks and nonfatal cardiac arrest, which showed that the difference was not statistically significant. So we go to one of the fastest growing companies that sells incredible supplements. There are so many personal success stories that I could share with you that I've read, but I won't tell you all of them. In fact, I will only give a little info, because I don't want to get into trouble.

One older lady was about to be put on Lipitor by her doctor, but she refused, and said that she had an alternative that she wanted to try first. Her cholesteral levels were tested two months later, and they had startling news: her levels were amazingly lower than before.

Here's the breakdown:

Total cholesterol: from 264 to 181

LDL (bad): from 140 to 88

HDL (good): from 67 to 69

Triglycerides: from 287 to 119

Well, needless to say, her doctor told her to keep it up and continue those supplements.

Here's another:

This man's triglyceride level was 768!! His doctor wanted him to lower his numbers within one month or he would have to go on Lipitor. His son bought him these supplements, and when he went back the next month his triglyceride level was 75!! He had only been using these supplements for 26 days, and his overall cholesterol went down from 211 to 206.

One more:

This man had been using Lipitor since 1998, since having a triple by-pass operation. His total cholesterol levels stayed between 150 and 200, despite a change in diet and exercise. When he got the supplement he was screened for his levels. After a month he had his doctor check his levels and both were amazed.

Total cholesterol: from 184 to 141

Triglycerides: from 179 to 104

LDL: from 104 to 77

Ok, maybe one more and that's it:

This woman had extreme triglyceride levels: her doctor had never in his entire life of practicing medicine levels like hers.

Triglycerides: 1750

Total Cholesterol: 425

After four years of taking different statin drugs (Lipitor, Pravachol, Tricor, and Zocor) she successfully lowered her total cholesterol, but her triglycerides never went below 525. Her daughter in law was a registered nurse and mentioned that one of her patients was taking these supplements, and had much success (he faced surgery in his neck to open clogged arteries, but was able to decrease the clogging with the supplements). So she bought some for herself and her husband. After four years of different drugs, she had her tri levels tested again, after she started taking the supplements. Her triglyceride level had finally gone down to 350 and is slowly decreasing even now!!

"So, what in sam's hill are you talking about?" you may ask. Provex CV and Phytomega, two incredible supplements from Melaleuca. I myself take them, although I have not had my levels checked because I'm still young :) (actually I'm afraid of the doctor, but that's a whole different story). These supplements are the only heart healthy supplements on the market to contain both phytosterols and the essential fish oil omega-3 fatty acids. Lipitor does not contain either. The Vitamin shoppe supplements only contain 1000 mg of fish oil. The Twin Labs Cholesterol Success only contains 900 mg of phytosterols. Phytomega contains 1500 mg of phytosterols and 1000 mg of fish oils. AND it costs less than all of them. Go to www.melaleuca.com to get more information- or contact me if you want more info.

So that being said, it's important to watch your cholesterol and triglyceride levels. I'll get mine checked- sometime this year, just to be on the safe side. I'm pushing 30, so I really need to be careful of my health. Oh, and stop eating so much chocolate chocolate cake....
3/12/12- Edited out the names of the products and the company- I unknowingly violated a company policy of internet usage and advertising, so I just edited out the pieces that I violated so I will not have problems.  Sorry about the inconvenience. Don't hesitate to contact me for more information though about the products I mentioned.