July 31, 2005
High Blood Pressure and Lifestyle
The current guidelines state that high blood pressure is
any value over 120 when the heart contracts and over 80 when it
relaxes. Ninety-one percent of Americans will suffer from high
blood pressure, which causes heart attacks, strokes, and kidney
damage. To reduce this frighteningly high incidence of this silent
killer, The American College of Sports Medicine recommends
that every able person start an exercise program (Medicine and
Science in Sports and Exercise, November, 2004). Certain
conditions may temporarily preclude exercising, so check with
your doctor.
Anything that expands blood volume will raise blood
pressure. Diuretics lower blood volume and are therefore the
most effective medication for lowering high blood pressure.
However, diuretics tire you earlier during exercise because
dehydration is a major cause of fatigue. Vigorous, prolonged
exercise also dehydrates you and can lower blood pressure for
24 hours or more after you stop exercising.
Full fat cells raise blood pressure. When your heart
contracts, it pushes a huge amount of blood into your main artery
called the aorta. The aorta is supposed to widen and accept the
surge of blood that comes with each beat. If the aorta is stiff, it
does not expand adequately and blood pressure rises too high.
When you are overweight, full fat cells release inflammatory
hormones that stiffen the aorta and raise blood pressure.
Exercise is a vital part of any successful program to lose weight
and keep it off.
If you have high blood pressure, your doctor will probably
recommend medication. However, more than 80 percent of
hypertensives can have their blood pressure controlled just with
diet and exercise. To see if you fall in this group, try my SHOW ME! Diet for two weeks
For more on controlling blood pressure with diet see report #8614
and other reports in the
Heart Health section of DrMirkin.com.
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Dear Dr. Mirkin: What's the best treatment for elbow pain?
If you have pain on the tendons attaching at your elbow,
you may have tennis elbow, damage to these tendons. Place
your hand and arm on the table with your palm facing up. If your
elbow hurts when you try to raise your fist by bending you wrist,
you probably have forehand tennis elbow. If the same maneuver
hurts when your palm is down, you probably have backhand
tennis elbow. The odds are overwhelming that your orthopedist
will try to inject cortisone-type drugs into that tendon, and you
may feel better for a few weeks. However, at six months, it won't
make any difference whether you received the injection or not.
Cortisone gives you only short term freedom from pain.
Treatment is to strengthen the tendon by lifting very light and
then progressively heavier weights.
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Dear Dr. Mirkin: I found an ad for a supplement that is supposed
to make me grow taller. Will it work?
The ads for these products are so unbelievable that the
people who wrote them must be laughing as they steal people's
money for a totally worthless product. They tell you that if you
take their pills, you can continue to grow until you are as tall as
you like, at any age. If that were true, we would see people who
are 15 feet tall and basketball would be an entirely different sport.
They want you to believe that when you eat their special blend of
kudzu vine and other rampant-growing plants, you will grow like
the vines. Of course this is ridiculous. Kudzu vine grows rapidly
because of its genetic structure called DNA, but you cannot
absorb DNA from plants or animals that you eat; it is broken
down in your stomach and intestines into amino acids, the
building blocks of protein.
Bones do not grow throughout their length. They grow
from growth centers, called the epiphysis, near their ends. When
a person reaches puberty, growth centers close one after the
other until all the growth centers are closed forever and a
person's bones can never grow again. After that, a person can
grow wider, but not taller. The tragedy is that some people will
shell out their hard earned money to someone who is making fun
of them. They offer a money-back guarantee, but they know you
will probably be too embarrassed to ask for your money back,
and many people report that their money is never returned when
they request it from these scams.
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Recipe of the Week
Mix and Match Salads
Get in the habit of making them now
while fresh produce is abundant and inexpensive!
Recipe List
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