As we all know, vitamins are very important when it comes to keeping your heart healthy. You need to eat the right foods of course, although you also need to supplement the food you eat with the necessary vitamins your body needs to stay in shape and keep your heart working healthy for a long time to come. If you don’t consume the right nutrients, you won’t be doing your heart any favors – and may end up having problems later on in life.

The first vitamin that comes to mind for most people is vitamin E, a vitamin that is essential to improving the overall health of your heart. When taken correctly, vitamin E will stop the cholesterol in the body from harming the arteries that surround the heart. Anytime cholesterol oxidizes, it sticks to the sides of the arteries and can lead to blockages which can cause heart attacks or other serious problems with the heart.

To help you keep your heart healthy, most doctors recommend that you take additional supplements that contain vitamin E. They may also suggest that you eat foods that are naturally rich in vitamin E, such as nuts. Nuts have high amounts of vitamin E, and most of them taste great. You can find other foods that contain vitamin E as well, although nuts have the highest amounts. Read the rest of this entry »

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

Tags: antioxidant, C, cholesterol, E, food, heart attack, heart attacks, heart disease, heart healthy, nutrients, vitamin c, vitamin e

As all Vioxx users have been aware over the last year of so there has been a class action suit against the makers of Vioxx because of the inadequate testing or reporting of risks associated with Vioxx. Well the case has not concluded with almost 5 Billion dollars going to those that have suffered from the arthritis pain killer drug.

Merck & Co. said Friday it will pay $4.85 billion to end thousands of lawsuits over its painkiller Vioxx in what is believed to be the largest drug settlement ever.

The deal becomes binding only if 85 percent of all plaintiffs in about 26,600 lawsuits agree to drop their cases. It was finalized in the early morning hours after attorneys for Merck and the plaintiffs met with three of the four judges overseeing nearly all Vioxx claims.

Merck faced personal injury lawsuits representing 47,000 plaintiffs, and about 265 potential class action cases, filed by people or family members who claimed the drug proved fatal or injured its users. The agreement covers cases filed in both federal and state courts.

Negotiating teams met more than 50 times in eight states and spoke hundreds of times over the telephone to hammer out the deal, according to attorneys.

“I’m very happy with it,” Chris Seeger, one of the six plaintiff lawyers who helped negotiate the settlement, said Friday. “It’s a tremendous way to resolve this litigation.”

Merck pulled Vioxx from the market Sept. 30, 2004 after its own research determined the then-blockbuster painkiller doubled risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Seeger said the deal was put in motion last December when three key judges pushed the parties to open out-of-court talks.

“Every claimant is going to be compensated” once their claim is validated, he said.

Seeger believes it is the largest settlement ever in the industry and said he will recommend that his 2,000 clients accept the deal.

Merck could put the uncertainty of millions of dollars in possible settlements that have plagued the pharmaceutical company behind it, though it has been fairly successful fighting cases individually, winning 10 of 15 court verdicts to date.

Tags: arthritis, Chris Seeger, heart attacks, Merck, Merck & Co., pain, pharmaceutical, testing, USD, vioxx

The Chinese have used green tea to treat ailments for several centuries. Nowadays, Western culture is beginning to understand the benefits of green tea. Recent research has revealed some of the health benefits of using green tea including the possible prevention of arthritis, cardiovascular disease, cataracts and also cancer.

Besides the disease-fighting benefits, Green Tea also aids weight loss programs. Studies have shown that drinking green tea helps you burn more calories. So what makes green tea so beneficial?

Green tea is the most popular types of Chinese tea. Many people, consider it as the best drink for hot summers. The main reason for this claim is the fact that green tea is cool and fights off irritation. Many have even claimed that it relieves fever.

The health benefits of Green Tea have been known throughout the world, and are appreciated a lot more these days. The Chinese have known about these medicinal benefits since ancient times, as they have been using green tea to treat everything from headaches to depression, and a long list of other ailments. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: antioxidant, arthritis, Asia, cancer, cardiovascular disease, cataracts, depression, esophageal cancer, fever, green tea, headaches, heart attacks, irritation, National Cancer Institute, prevention of arthritis, stroke, thrombosis, University of Purdue

Is it possible that one of the most powerful, health inspiring substances in the world could already have a home in your kitchen�s spice rack? It�s true that most folks have a bottle of cayenne right in their own home without even realizing the health benefits they could be receiving if they only utilized it on a daily basis.

This article is going to reveal the true power cayenne possesses to heal a variety of ailments. Let�s get right into the benefit�s a daily dose of cayenne will bring to you.

Greatly improved digestion. Cayenne is highly effective in addressing a variety of digestive issues. Stomach ulcers, poor digestion, gas and other gastric ailments all respond very favorably to cayenne. This may seem counter intuitive, but it works nonetheless. Cayenne enlivens the whole digestive tract bringing renewed life to the area and clearing away any blockages.

Outstanding improvement in overall circulation. Poor circulation is one of the most common conditions people have. This is where cayenne really gets a gold star. It offers absolutely stunning increases in circulation throughout your whole body. This brings about untold benefits. Better circulation translates into every cell of your body, becoming more healthy and vibrant and leading to an overall state of health and well being. This also greatly helps if you suffer from cold hands and feet by bringing fresh, warm blood into those extremities.

Greatly strengthens the heart and arteries. Cayenne has the marvelous ability to revitalize and strengthen your heart and arteries. Here is how it works. Cayenne greatly increases the circulation of blood in the body. This increased circulation feeds the heart and arteries far more effectively, greatly increasing strength and vitality. Cayenne also increases the amount of oxygen tissues can hold. This combination of enhanced circulation and increased oxygenation prove to be incredibly beneficial to the health of the heart arteries, and the body as a whole. Cayenne has even been noted for its ability to stop heart attacks within 1 minute of being consumed in warm water. If that doesn�t showcase its power, I don�t know what will.

Before you order a bunch of cayenne pills, it is important to know the following. Much of cayenne�s power is brought about by direct contact on the tongue. Researchers have found that when cayenne touches the tongue circulation goes through the roof. If you take cayenne encased in pills it will never touch your tongue. You will still receive benefits, but they will not be near as powerful as they could be.

Start out by taking 1/16 of a teaspoon a day, placed directly on your tongue. Let it start to burn a little before drinking any water. You can slowly up your daily dosage until you are getting the benefits you desire. Always take cayenne after eating.

You now have a simple, inexpensive and powerful means of dealing with a variety of conditions. Give cayenne a chance to prove itself to you, and you will be very pleased with the outcome.

Tags: heart attacks, Stomach ulcers

My wife has been taking high dosages of aspirin tow or three times a day for the last few months as she had some clots show up on her legs and the doctor, after having me give her injections to thin her blood, gave her this prescrition for a generic type of aspirin derivative that she is taking. As always I scoured the internet to find more information on taking aspirin and I have copied the following info from both Wikipedia and the FDA in case you have a simeilar interest. The wiki info is an outline on aspirin itself and the FDA info is a bunch of questions and answers about aspirin.

Aspirin or acetylsalicylic acid (acetosal) is a drug in the family of salicylates, often used as an analgesic (against minor pains and aches), antipyretic (against fever), and anti-inflammatory. It has also an anticoagulant (”blood-thinning”) effect and is used in long-term low-doses to prevent heart attacks.

Low-dose long-term aspirin irreversibly blocks the formation of thromboxane A2 in platelets, producing an inhibitory effect on platelet aggregation, and this blood-thinning property makes it useful for reducing the incidence of heart attacks. Aspirin produced for this purpose often comes in 75 or 81 mg dispersible tablets and is sometimes called �Junior aspirin�. High doses of aspirin are also given immediately after an acute heart attack. These doses may also inhibit the synthesis of prothrombin and may therefore produce a second and different anticoagulant effect.

Several hundred fatal overdoses of aspirin occur annually, but the vast majority of its uses are beneficial. Its primary undesirable side effects, especially in stronger doses, are gastrointestinal distress (including ulcers and stomach bleeding) and tinnitus. Another side effect, due to its anticoagulant properties, is increased bleeding in menstruating women. Because there appears to be a connection between aspirin and Reye’s syndrome, aspirin is no longer used to control flu-like symptoms in minors.[1]

Aspirin was the first discovered member of the class of drugs known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), not all of which are salicylates, though they all have similar effects and a similar action mechanism.
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Tags: A. Consumers, A. Patients, acetyl group, aches, allergy, angina pectoris, angioplasty, arthritis, Arthur Eichengr, Arthur Eichengrun, aspirin, aspirin products, Asthma, Bayer, body systems, British Columbia, bypass, Cerebral Ischemia, Charles Frederic Gerhardt, chemical, chemical structure, chemist, chest pain, chills, coronary artery disease, Cox, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Derek W. Gilroy, diarrhea, Egypt, fda, fever, first discovered member, Friedrich Bayer & Co., Gerhardt, Germany, Glasgow, headaches, hearing loss, heart attack, heart attacks, Henri Leroux, Heyden Company, high blood pressure, Hoffmann, hydroxyl functional groups, ibuprofen, ISIS, John Robert Vane, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, ketoprofen, kidney disease, London, Michigan, myocardial infarctions, osteoarthritis, pain, pains, pharmaceuticals industry, pharmacist, physician, pleurisy, Raffaele Piria, research assistant, researcher, Reye's syndrome, rheumatism, rheumatoid arthritis, Royal College of Surgeons in London, selective inhibitors, spondylarthropathies, stroke, Stroke Prevention, strokes, Sumeria, systemic lupus erythematosus, thrombus, tinnitus, transient ischemic attack, treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, United Kingdom, United States, University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, unstable angina, Walter Sneader

My brother in law told me at one point that he had sleep apnea. The next week my boss, who never slept well and had a problem staying up in meetings, told me that he had sleep apnea and after having it treated he was really happy to be sleeping better and to be more rested all of the time.

Sleep Apnea is a very exhausting condition that causes you to wake up a bit all night long all the time so that you never get a restful night sleep. A horrible thought for everyone and real hell if you are the one that is suffering from this.

What is Obstructive Sleep Apnea?

The most common kind of sleep apnea is called Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome. Sleep apnea means “cessation of breath.” It is characterized by repetitive episodes of upper airway obstruction that occur during sleep, usually associated with a reduction in blood oxygen saturation. In other words, the airway becomes obstructed at several possible sites. The upper airway can be obstructed by excess tissue in the airway, large tonsils, a large tongue and usually includes the airway muscles relaxing and collapsing when asleep. Another site of obstruction can be the nasal passages. Sometimes the structure of the jaw and airway can be a factor in sleep apnea.

What are the symptoms of Sleep Apnea?

* excessive daytime sleepiness
* frequent episodes of obstructed breathing during sleep. (The patient may be unaware of this symptom — usually the bed partner is extremely aware of this).
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Tags: airway obstruction, apnea, deformities, depression, ENT surgery, heart attacks, heart disease, high blood pressure, home healthcare, impotence, insomnia, insurance, jaw forward, laser, maxillofacial surgery, Nelson Powell, Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome, oral mouth devices, plastic surgery, respiratory distress, respiratory equipment, Robert W. Riley, scar, sleep apnea, Sleep Technologist, Stanford University Sleep Disorders Center, strokes, surgery, U.S. Food and Drug Administration

I just found an article over at Ediets of seven foods never to eat.

1. Doughnuts It’s hard to resist the smell of a Krispy Kreme doughnut, which is why I never step foot in the store. Doughnuts are fried chock-full of sugar and white flour and loads of trans fat.

According to the Krispy Kreme website, an average 3.5 ounce sugar doughnut weighs in with about 400 calories and contains few other nutrients besides fat. These sugary treats may satisfy your craving but it won’t satisfy your hunger as most of the calories come from fat.

“Eating a lot of refined sugar contributes to blood sugar swings or extreme fluctuations, eDiets Chief Nutritionist Susan Burke said.
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Tags: average fast-food cheeseburger, cancer, canned soup products, Center for Science, eDiets Chief Nutritionist, food, food chain, guard, hawaii, healthy food, heart attacks, hydrogenated oil, mcdonalds, obesity, oil containing unhealthy trans fats, Oscar, Oscar Mayer, potent cancer-causing chemicals, strokes, Susan Burke, the Public Interest, University of Hawaii

I really enjoy making scrambled eggs and toast for me and the kids on a Saturday morning but I have always been careful not to eat to many eggs because you know, we have always heard that they are bad for the heart�or are they?

The American Heart Association says �A single egg contains about 213 milligrams of dietary cholesterol. So an egg a day could fit within an individual’s dietary budget only if dietary cholesterol from other sources, such as meats, poultry and dairy products were limited.�

Eggs could actually protect against heart disease, breast cancer and eye problems and even help you to lose weight.

For years people assumed eggs were bad for cholesterol levels. But a review just published in the British Nutrition Foundation’s Nutrition Bulletin found they ‘have no clinically significant impact’ on heart disease or cholesterol levels.
Dr Bruce Griffin of the University of Surrey’s school of biomedical and molecular science analysed 30 egg studies, among them one from Harvard University which showed people who consumed one or more eggs a day were at no more risk of suffering from cardiovascular disease than non-egg eaters.
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Tags: American Heart Association, blindness, breast cancer, British Egg Information Service, British Nutrition Foundation, Bruce Griffin, cancers, cardiovascular disease, dairy products, Detroit, diabetes, end product, food, Harvard University, heart attacks, heart disease, Joanne Lunn, macular degeneration, nutrition scientist, obesity, the American College, University of Surrey, vitamin a, Vitamin D, Wayne State University in Detroit

The blockbuster drug Vioxx was pulled from the market in the fall of 2004 after research showed that the painkiller doubled the risk of heart attack and stroke and that its use may have contributed to thousands of deaths in North America.
Now, a new Canadian study shows that the risk was even more dramatic because one in four of the heart attacks that occurred were within two weeks of the start of treatment.
“This demonstrates that cardiovascular risks from taking Vioxx may occur much earlier than previously believed,” said Linda Lévesque, an assistant professor in the department of community health and epidemiology at Queen’s University in Kingston.
At the same time, however, the research shows that additional risk virtually disappears within a month, meaning it is likely safe for long-term use.
The earlier data had suggested that the risk remained elevated for up to 18 months.
The research was published yesterday in the on-line edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
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Tags: assistant professor in the department, Canada, Celebrex, Cox, digestive chemicals, director of the institute, heart attack, heart attacks, ibuprofen, Kingston, McGill University, Merck & Co. Inc., north America, on-line edition, Peter Liu, Quebec, Queen's University in Kingston, scientific director, stroke, the Canadian Medical Association Journal, United States, vioxx

I found this list of some common supplements used in weight loss from the Blue Cross of of Massachusetts. This list even includes some warnings where needed:

Chromium Supplement

This mineral, found in tiny amounts in almost all foods, helps the body burn fat, build muscle, and control blood sugar. A little chromium is essential to good health, but does that mean extra chromium must be extra healthy?

Supplement marketers and manufacturers claim that chromium pills are a shortcut to the perfect body, but the benefits are far from certain. For one thing, chromium is a nutrient and not a drug, which means it can only help people who don’t get enough chromium in their diet. And while a few studies have found that chromium supplements apparently lead to small gains in muscle and modest weight loss (as in roughly 2 pounds of fat lost per month), several recent studies have found no such effects.

Richard A. Anderson, lead scientist at the United States Department Of Agriculture’s Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, has studied chromium supplements in many contexts over the last 20 years, and he’s never seen the supplements change a person’s body weight. Dr. Anderson summed up his opinion of the supplements in the September, 1998, issue of the journal Nutrition Reviews: “Chromium is only a small part of the puzzle in weight loss and body composition, and its effects, if present, will be small compared with those of exercise and a well-balanced diet.”
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Tags: American Medical Association, bloating, chemical, Columbia, Columbia University, diabetes, diarrhea, Editor, energy, ephedra product, FDA's Office of Over, food and drug administration, HCA, headaches, Health and Human Services Secretary, heart attack, heart attacks, high blood pressure, hypertension, India, insomnia, kidney disease, neurologic disorders, numerous injuries, obesity, over-the-counter products, Pittsburgh Medical Center, Robert Sherman, seizures, stroke, strokes, the International Journal, the Journal of the American Medical Association, Tommy G. Thompson, tremors, United States, University of Pittsburgh