Low Carb Blood Pressure

It hasn't worked for us but it might work for you. The headlines and stories all tout: "A low-carbohydrate diet like Atkins is better at cutting blood pressure than weight-loss pills, say US doctors." BBC News, LA Times, and Reuters.

Called a low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet (LCKD) the results were especially pronounced for individuals with combination symptoms, high blood pressure and diabetes. For those of us with just high blood pressure the weight went down but not pressure. Nor was our results a part of a scientific study and we don't number one hundred and forty-six (146). We're what you would call real world experience. The study said:

(t)he mean age was 52 years and mean body mass index was 39.3 (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared); 72% were men, 55% were black, and 32% had type 2 diabetes mellitus. (Archives of Internal Medicine)

We love the Atkins logo and it probably should be noted that Atkins doesn't obviously appear to be funding the study by the Durham VA Medical Center. But we do love the logo, or rather someone of us do. It says: "Sweet, sexy science." Oh, yeah! If science is going to be anything we think it should be sweet and sexy. Unfortunately it's anything but sweet or sexy. We just like where their head is, well some of us do anyway!

More Pepa Less Salt

The year was 1986 and our god brother was "knocked out" by two female rappers who wanted to "talk about sex, baby!" They were the multi-hued Salt & Pepa whose recent revival on VH1 and subsequent re-split has resulted in a separate show for the very bawdy Pepa.


What's this got to do with the recent news about the research on salt in our diets? We thought it timely. We've always known that too much salt has been harmful to us resulting in or contributing to hypertension, heart attacks and possibility leading to death. The life savings, to just our community would result in 2006, of 50,000* individuals.

We aren't our god brother and aren't a big Pepa fan. We like Salt. Pepa was too crude for our taste. If we keep the two a duo instead of a single act we'd, and in our opinion so would the women, be better off.

“Reducing dietary salt is one of those rare interventions that has a huge health benefit and actually saves large amounts of money. At a time when so much public debate has focused on the costs of health care for the sick, here is a simple remedy, already proven to be feasible in other countries,” said Lee Goldman, MD, MPH, senior author, executive vice president for health and biomedical sciences and dean of the faculties of health sciences and medicine at Columbia University. The American Heart Association (AHA) reports that salt consumption among Americans has risen by 50 percent and blood pressure has risen by nearly the same amount since the 1970s - despite evidence linking salt intake to high blood pressure and heart disease." (University of California San Francisco UCSF)

If we do an equal share of seasoning say instead of three shakes of the salt shaker do one and half and one and half of pepper. Or if that's not possible because for us adding salt is more of an automatic response regardless of how the food is prepared. We don't even taste the food before grabbing the salt. What we learn from eating out with friend, or at least what the men learn, is that your hostess is insulted by an automatic salt reach. Try some spices if pepper is your "salt." For some of us its spicy hot and for others its spicy sweet.

Now if only VH1 learns the same lesson cause we really don't want to talk about Pep! We will use her to emphasize a point that will help us all live longer use a celebrity to help us be a better we.

Reducing the salt and not eliminating salt from our diet is a couching activity we can take. It's not a pill but since it took the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) two (2) months to decide that Meridia can kills us. So waiting for a pill we can take might not be the scientific solution. Salt reductions might just be the science we need. It doesn't take making drastic changes that can't be maintained. It can only help. We can start this new year, new decade with a reasonable dedication we can sustain and so can you!

What Does Not Destroy

"Out of life's school of war: What does not destroy me, makes me stronger." - Friedrich Nietzsche [1895] MAXIMS AND ARROWS, 8 of 44, Twilight of the Idols, Translated from the original German

CAUSES OF DEATH By Jurisdiction 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH 5TH District of Columbia North Carolina Maryland Virginia United States of America North Carolina Virginia

We take the quote to mean to learn from your losses, disasters or setbacks. What makes us stronger is to learn from the problems in fighting the H1N1 and the problems in the distribution of limited supplies to a wide majority.

Haiti, the island and its people, has sufferred and unreasonable amount of natural and manmade disasters yet in their struggle to survive comes great stories of love, faith and courage. Their survival can only, we hope, make them stronger. Almost universal in voice is the belief and hope for such strength for Haiti's recovery.

May we find such strength in the things that destroy us. The top destroyers us are: cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure and accidents. It's just the order that varies and not that much from line to line. Surprising The District of Columbia and North Carolina share the same first two (2) causes: cancer and heart disease while Maryland, Virginia and the nation as a whole share the same first three (3) causes: heart disease, cancer and high blood pressure (cerebrovascular diseases). North Carolina share the last three (3) cause with MD, VA and the US: high blood pressure (cerebrovascular diseases). The District of Columbia shares it's third (3) cause with North Carolina and Virginia's fourth (4) cause: accidents. The fourth (4) for the District: high blood pressure (cerebrovascular diseases) and Maryland which reflects the national pattern: chronic lower respiratory diseases.

Data Source:
Table 29. Number of deaths, death rates, and age-adjusted death rates for major causes of death for the United States, and each state, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and Northern Marianas, 2006 (CDC)

Sweet Love

We delayed telling you this for as long as we could. We verified and then verified our verification all because the news is not good. You've heard and maybe read about it online and we hoped we'd hear something back on the other side to ignore this information to no avail.

The news isn't good so we might as well face it. Everything sweet is bad for you. Two studies by two different research teams on two (2) coast from fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to artificially sweetened drinks of any variety increases your risk of high blood pressure or " kidney function decline." Drink more than two (2) and you're going to pay medically. No if and or buts about it.

From the UK (Snack and soft drink sweetener putting millions at risk of high blood pressure) to the US:

"There are currently limited data on the role of diet in kidney disease," researcher Dr. Julie Lin, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said in a news release. "While more study is needed, our research suggests that higher sodium and artificially sweetened soda intake are associated with greater rate of decline in kidney function."

The first study looked at diet and kidney function decline in more than 3,000 women enrolled in the national Nurses' Health Study. The researchers found that:

"in women with well-preserved kidney function, higher dietary sodium intake was associated with greater kidney function decline, which is consistent with experimental animal data that high sodium intake promotes progressive kidney disease."

The second study looked at the association between sugar- and artificially-sweetened beverages and kidney function decline in the same group of women. The researchers found an association between two or more servings per day of artificially sweetened soda and a two-fold increased risk of faster kidney function decline. There was no connection between sugar-sweetened beverages and kidney function decline.

The association between artificially sweetened beverages and kidney function decline persisted after Lin and colleague Dr. Gary Curhan accounted for other factors, such as age, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, physical activity, caloric intake and cardiovascular disease.

Further study is needed to better understand how artificial sweeteners influence kidney function decline, the researchers said.

Our problem with the report was that the press release was the actually ABC News story rather than the other way around. So we immediately sought one of the researchers while contacting all of the usual suspect (American Beverage Association).
They had little (read nothing to say to us) to say on their website. The information they had was old and outdated.

The fact is that the compendium of science, regardless of funding source, does not show that soft drinks or other sweetened beverages uniquely contribute to obesity - nor, for that matter, that they are uniquely linked to any negative health consequences. In fact, the authors fail to cite a study funded by the Canadian government that examined a sample size of more than 137,000 school-aged children in 34 countries - a sample size larger than the combined total of the studies that were cited by these researchers - and found no association between soft drink intake and body mass index. Furthermore, a study funded by the National Institutes of Health and published earlier this year in the New England Journal of Medicine supported that all calories count - and that balancing calories consumed from all foods and beverages with the calories burned through physical activity is what matters.

What we did find was quotes from WedMD:

Asked to review the study findings, Maureen Storey, senior vice president of science policy for the American Beverage Association, says in a prepared statement: "It's important to remember that this is an abstract presented at an annual meeting." She notes that the research needs further scrutiny by researchers.

She acknowledges that kidney disease is serious but that diabetes and high blood pressure account for the majority of kidney disease cases, ''not consumption of diet soda."

We thought the research was presented in a way that made us suspicious which is why we made direct contact with one of the researchers hoping for a copy of the original press release. Instead what we got was an interchange that didn't reassure us at all.

We studied all sugar-sweetened beverages, sugary sodas, and diet sodas in our investigation so I cannot speak to the applicability of the drinks you mentioned below. We found an association between faster kidney function decline and >=2 servings of artificially sweetened sodas per day but not with other beverages. - Dr. Julie Lin

The abstract that's not online said:

We identified 3256 women participating in the Nurses' Health Study who had had data on sugar sweetened beverage (SSB) or artificially sweetened soda intake and (epidermal growth factor receptor) eGFR change between 1989 and 2000. SSB included soda, fruit juices, punch, and iced tea. This group included 730 diabetic women participating in a sub-study of kidney function. Cumulative average beverage intake was derived from the 1984, 1986, and 1990 food frequency questionnaires.

Median age was 67 years, 97% were Caucasian, 54% had HTN, 24% were diabetic, and median eGFR was 85 ml/min/1.73 m2 at baseline in 1989.

Consumption of > 2 servings per day of artificially sweetened soda is associated with a two-fold increased risk for kidney function decline.

We're holding on to the hope of Splenda. Though it really isn't sweet enough for some of us. Some of us only have less than two (2) a day but other of us drink like it's going out of style. Yes, we know about the "rat" study but that was thrown out of court and it's from the Sugar Association against Splenda. Listen we need something sweet since every dentist in the world speaks against the ills of sugar (and we really don't like dentist! - Do you?).

Blood Pressure Pressure

More of the same and nothing new to report. You know lose weight, eat better, exercise more, no smoking, no drinking... Of course they say it the same way and the answer is always we need healthier living habits but we think we are if we eat a salad once or twice a week. Having a fast food lifestyle is the only lifestyle we can have or afford. It's too difficult to eat healthy and well - until someone can suggest a better solution than more of the same this type of analysis goes in one ear and out the other.

In the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) while looking for the top story of the new drug to prevent second heart attacks we found this oldie: "To combat obesity, support from families, schools, community and religious organizations, government, insurers, food and beverage industries, health care providers, and the general public will be essential. Population-wide strategies — such as redesigning of roads and walkways to promote cycling and walking and the expansion of school health education and physical education programs — should be combined with individually targeted interventions to alter dietary intake and increase physical activity. Recent progress provides some cause for optimism: public awareness of the major contributors to childhood obesity and the health risks involved has increased,68 and support has grown for making a number of essential changes, some of which are beginning to be mandated in several states. It is paradoxical that despite the enormous advances in antihypertensive-drug therapy, the number of people with uncontrolled hypertension has continued to rise. The failure to adopt healthy lifestyles has been a critical factor in this increase and must be addressed urgently. To make the necessary changes on a broad basis will be difficult, but the benefits will be well worth the effort."

Blah blah blah blah blah!

The Positive on The Negative

The hippie, feel good, new age, "let it all hangout" lifestyle is vindicated once again especially for our targeted concern. US News reported today: "The new research, detailed in the journal Circulation, also found that women with a high degree of cynical hostility — defined as harboring hostile thoughts toward others or having a general mistrust of people — were at a higher risk of dying in general..."

Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association had the facts in abstract form and you are invited to look at their numbers or purchase the full study which involves our subset of diabetic women without the obvious "lose weight" advice. We can do this and we suggest that we all take the advice to watch something funny on TV for thirty (30) minutes each day with surprising results. Begin listening at three minutes and fifty seconds (3:50) into the podcast. "The findings, presented at the Experimental Biology conference in New Orleans, show that after one year the group prescribed laughter saw a 26 per cent rise in their good cholesterol. Patients who took the medication without any extra laughter had just a 3 per cent rise. The group watching comedy programmes also saw a drop of 66 per cent in the amount of harmful C-reactive proteins, which increase the risk of heart disease, in their bodies. While the control group also saw a fall in the amount of the proteins, it was much smaller at 26 per cent over the course of the year."

How do you know what makes a person optimistic? Food Consumer found from the study: "Optimism was described as expecting that good, rather than bad, things will happen. The nearly 100,000 participants were asked such questions as "In unclear times, I usually expect the best," or, conversely, "It is safer to trust no one."

Does it really make that much of a difference? If you asked that question don't count yourself as an "up" person. WebMD translated the figures: "Optimistic African-American women had a 33% lower risk for death than African-American women who were pessimists. Among white women, the survival advantage for optimists was 13%. African-American women who scored highest for hostility and cynicism were 62% more likely to die than African-American women who scored lowest." Don't worry be happy!

Smokers Oh My

We don't smoke but we share high blood pressure and or diabetes. At our age this makes us susceptible to "lose our minds up in here, up in here." If it weren't for our coffee intake we'd have to make more of an effort to exercise our bodies and our minds. Aunt Pearlie worked crossword puzzles and loved SCRABBLE on the PC and against her friends on a board. She kept her wits about her longer than her twin and drank her MAXWELL HOUSE every morning. Pearlie wasn't big on exercising once she lost the ability to walk. Her twin, Aunt Mamie continued to walk up until her final days though she needed the aid of a cane. She wasn't a walker but outlived Aunt Pearlie.

If we understood the technical research better we'd translate it here but BBC News did a much better job than we could. We are in age range in the study done in conjunction with the UK and from the Universities in America.

"Smoking, high blood pressure and diabetes were all strongly linked with dementia, which the researchers say is not unexpected since these can damage the brain and the small blood vessels that supply it."

"Current smokers were 70% more likely than those who had never smoked to develop dementia, people with high blood pressure were 60% more likely than those without high blood pressure, and people with diabetes were more than twice as likely than those without diabetes to develop it."

The curse of aging is the possibility of losing the thing that we value most, our memories and the knowledge of who we are. Aunt Mamie, the twin, was a remarkable woman desperate to retrieve the fading memories. Wanting to do whatever to get back the ability to remember and to not to forget. Dementia robs you of the ability to remember the things that should be instinctual. You can forget to breathe.