Showing posts with label Heart Disease. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Heart Disease. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Tips on how to get Healthy Heart

Since heart disease is the # 1 cause of death in the United States, it's no wonder health-conscious people want to know how to get a healthy heart.
With our lifestyle contribute to high rates of cardiovascular disease and heart problems in the country, it's time to get serious. Since over 80% of our jobs are sedentary, we do not get enough exercise. By not getting adequate exercise, our blood pressure rises, our bodies become weak.
Worse, most of us do not eat enough heart healthy foods like vegetables and fish.
Both exercise and diet can help reduce inflammation, which is essential for a healthy heart. By reducing your inflammation, you naturally thin the blood so it is your flowing smoothly through your veins, not being hung up on the dangerous plaques.
Movement for a Healthy Heart
Doctors recommend at least 20-30 minutes of aerobic exercise 3-4 times a week for a healthy heart. It can be walking, jogging or raking leaves. However, if you are not accustomed to much exercise, better do it slowly and gradually to him than to go too far right of the gate and hurt yourself.
Start with a walk on a regular basis and work to exercise, which is more intense.
Eat a healthy heart
Your diet is important in your heart health, too. Food of the packages that are high in omega-6 fatty acids. You need some of them to stay healthy, but typical of today's processed foods are made with vegetable oils, which contain large amounts of these fatty acids.
In fact, the typical Western receives 10-30 times more omega-6 to omega-3. Omega-6 fatty acids increase inflammation. While omega-3 to reduce inflammation.
The American Heart Association recommends eating fish 2-3 times a week for your heart. Fishes are full of omega-3 fatty acids, EPA and DPA, that you can not get from other sources.
Of course, as you eat fish is also important. Fried fish does not help your heart with fried foods are to increase inflammation. Thus, the oven or grill your fish for maximum benefits. Studies have shown heart patients who regularly eat fish, reduce the risk of heart attack.
An easy way to get heart healthy
Many cardiologists recommend fish oil supplements to their patients. Some fish oil supplements, rich in essential omega-3 fatty acids, giving your body the nutrients it needs to reduce inflammation and protect your heart.
Thus, the best answer to how to get heart healthy regular exercise and get the omega-3 fish oil!

Friday, December 3, 2010

EWG Lab Tests Confirm BPA on Customer Receipts

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has found through independent laboratory testing that 40% of cash register receipts sampled from major US businesses contain bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical thought to have significant health effects.
BPA, best known as a plastic hardener, is used to coat thermal paper used in receipts. It reacts with the dye to form black print. Because it acts as an endocrine disrupter, it has been associated with health problems such as breast cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
Read: BPA Linked to Heart Disease
The organization collected 36 receipts from stores in seven states and the District of Columbia. They were tested at the University of Missouri Division of Biological Sciences laboratory, one of the world’s foremost research facilities in its capability to detect environmentally relevant levels of BPA.
The total amounts of BPA on receipts tested were 250 to 1000 times greater than other, more widely known, sources of BPA exposure, including canned foods, baby bottles and infant formula. Wipe tests conducted by the lab found that the chemical could easily transfer to the skin of the person handling the receipt.
Among those surveyed, receipts from Safeway supermarkets contained the highest concentration of BPA. The receipt, taken from a store in DC, contained 41 milligrams of the chemical. If the equivalent amount were ingested by a 155-pound adult, it would exceed the Environmental Protection Agency’s safe exposure limit by 12 times.
The receipt for a McDonald's Happy Meal™ purchased in Clinton, Conn. had an estimated 13 milligrams of BPA, which equals the amount of BPA in 126 cans of Chef Boyardee Overstuffed Beef Ravioli in Hearty Tomato & Meat Sauce, one of the products with the highest concentrations of BPA in EWG's 2007 tests of canned foods.
Read: BPA - Another Reason to Avoid Canned Food
Other store receipts with high levels of BPA include CVS, KFC, Whole Foods, WalMart and the US Postal Service. Receipts from Target, Starbucks, and Bank of America ATM’s were BPA-free or contained only trace amounts.
Scientists have not yet determined how much of the BPA coating from a cash register receipt can transfer from the skin and enter the body. One study, conducted in Sweden, found that BPA can penetrate the skin to such a depth that it cannot be washed off, which raises the possibility that the chemical infiltrates the lower layers of the skin and could enter the blood stream. Another route of exposure would be from the skin into the mouth, should a person handle a receipt and then handles food or puts their fingers in their mouths.
The EWG says that this is not only a problem for product consumers, but also for the millions of Americans who work as “retail salespersons” or “cashiers” who handle hundreds of receipts each day. The organization says that retail workers carry an average of 30% more BPA in their bodies than other adults.
Read: Senators Seek to Ban BPA In Children's Products
Appleton Papers Inc. of Wisconsin, the nation's largest thermal paper maker, removed BPA from its products in 2006, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has begun evaluating BPA alternatives in thermal paper.
The EWG offers these suggestions to consumers to minimize their exposure to BPA in cash register receipts:
• Minimize receipt collection by declining receipts at gas pumps, ATMs and other machines when possible.
• Store receipts separately in an envelope in a wallet or purse.
• Never give a child a receipt to hold or play with.
• After handling a receipt, wash hands before preparing and eating food (a universally recommended practice even for those who have not handled receipts).
• Do not use alcohol-based hand cleaners after handling receipts. A recent study showed that these products can increase the skin's BPA absorption.
• Take advantage of store services that email or archive paperless purchase records.
• Do not recycle receipts and other thermal paper. BPA residues from receipts will contaminate recycled paper.
• If you are unsure, check whether paper is thermally treated by rubbing it with a coin. Thermal paper discolors with the friction; conventional paper does not.