Health Alert 244
Dear Subscriber:
You’ve heard time and again that skyrocketing blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, and obesity can put you at risk for heart disease. But there’s something you don’t hear about-something even more important. Today I’m going to show you why millions of people are approaching the prevention of heart disease the wrong way.
You’ll discover why your blood sugar, not your blood pressure, is the most important factor of whether or not you’ll suffer heart disease. You’ll also learn about a simple test to reveal if you’re currently at risk and what you can do about it.
When you hear the words ‘blood sugar’ you think of diabetics. People with diabetes have to check their blood sugar all the time. If you don’t suffer from the disease, your must be okay, right? Wrong. It turns out the way your body uses sugar, diabetic or not, can increase or lower your risk of heart disease.
New research reveals that high blood sugar levels, called hyperglycemia, can dramatically boost your risk of suffering from heart and artery disease. One study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine shows just an increase of 1 percentage point in hemoglobin A1c predicts an 18% increase for diseases of the cardiovascular system and a 28% increase for clogged arteries alone. What’s more, with each percentage point increase there’s a 30% increase in chance of death.1
But most damaging to the way we’ve approached heart disease prevention so far is this: studies reveal lower hemoglobin A1c levels significantly lowers your chance of cardiovascular disease and death, even if you’re older, fatter and suffer high blood and cholesterol! No wonder heart disease is the number one killer of men and women in the U.S.!2
So what does all of this mean? You’ve got to monitor and control your blood sugar to protect your heart. It doesn’t matter if you’re diabetic or not.
You don’t have to use finger sticks like diabetics do, instead you need to have a regular blood test for glycosylated hemoglobin. The test is known as HA1c for short. It measures how well your body controlled blood sugar over the past three months. The concentration of those with healthy hearts and the lowest rates of cardiovascular disease is less than 5%.3 (And if you’re diabetic this test is even more important, you need to have it on top of your regular checks for blood sugar.4)
In the meantime, no matter who you are, you can lower this concentration and help your body control blood sugar by doing three things: first, reduce your caloric intake (see HA 139). Second, reduce your intake of blood sugar boosting foods by selecting foods that rank lower on the Glycemic Index (see HA 120 and HA 158 ). And lastly, increase your exercise. If you need some ideas to jumpstart your routine see HA 28, HA 156, and HA 160.Wellness Research Foundation – Offering alternatives to standard medicine
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears MD
Sources:
1. Khaw, K-T., Wareham, N., Bingham, S., Luben, R., Welch, A., Day, N. ‘Association of Hemoglobin A1c with Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality in Adults: The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer in Norfolk.’ Ann Intern Med 2004; 141:413-432, 475-476.
2. American Heart Association. ‘Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics 2004 Update’ http://www.americanheart.org/downloadable/heart/1079736729696HDSStats2004UpdateREV3-19-04.pdf, www.americanheart.org, December 2004.
3. Khaw, K-T., Wareham, N., Bingham, S., Luben, R., Welch, A., Day, N. ‘Association of Hemoglobin A1c with Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality in Adults: The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer in Norfolk.’ Ann Intern Med 2004; 141:413-432, 475-476.
4. Selvin, E., Marinopoulos S., Berkenblit, G., Rami, T., Brancati, F.L., Powe, N. R., and Golden, S.H. ‘Meta-Analysis: Glycosylated Hemoglobin and Cardiovascular Disease in Diabetes Mellitus’ Ann Intern Med 2004; 421-431.