U.S. Diet Still a Problem

Health

By Michael Janson, M.D.

Consumption of healthy levels of fruits and vegetables is appallingly low in the United States. Even after the big campaign (starting in 1990) to encourage people to eat up to nine servings a day, the numbers of people who ate a mere five servings a day increased from a paltry 19.0% to a measly 22.7% in the six succeeding years (with no recent increase). Both numbers are extremely low.

An even worse finding is that obese people actually reduced their already low consumption of these healthy foods. Consumption by sedentary people stayed the same. These are just the people who need to eat more healthy foods and fewer fatty, rich, sweet desserts and animal products if they are going to improve their health and weight.

Depression and Heart Disease

Evidence continues to mount that there is a serious association between mental state and physical disease. It has been known that depression is linked to deaths and recurrent heart attacks in people who already have heart disease. In a recent study, depression was associated with the development of heart disease.

In both men and women, the risk of new heart disease was over 70 percent greater in depressed patients than in non-depressed patients. This demonstrates the importance of both treating depression and preventing heart disease.

Regular exercise and a healthy diet often help to relieve depression (and, not coincidentally, also help with heart disease), and a number of dietary supplements are also beneficial. Vitamin B3 (niacin), vitamin C, St. John’s wort, and 5-HTP help in mild to moderate depression.

The typical dose of St. John’s wort is 300 mg of standardized extract three times a day. For 5-HTP it is 50 to 100 mg twice a day. Both of these influence serotonin levels in the brain and are extremely safe, although St. John’s wort might cause sun sensitivity in some people and it might interact with some medications – don’t take it with other antidepressants without medical advice. Melatonin can also help with depression.

Recommendations for heart disease include a high fiber, mostly – vegetarian diet and aerobic exercise. Supplement with vitamins C and E, B-complex, coenzyme Q10, and omega-3 oils, as well as magnesium, L-carnitine, and a variety of flavonoids.

Cholesterol Not Best Indicator of Heart Disease

I just returned from a medical conference where I noticed an increasingly common phenomenon – academic researchers who present scientific studies supporting "alternative medicine."

Dr. Paul Ridker’s presentation showed that cholesterol in the blood is not the best predictor of heart disease. He confirmed that blockage of the arteries is an inflammatory process, not just fatty deposits. However, free-radical damage and inflammation of the arteries may be caused in part by oxidized fats. You can reduce these risks through lifestyle change and dietary supplements.

He showed that one of the best tests to predict heart disease is a "high-sensitivity CRP" test, now available at testing labs. The CRP, or C-reactive protein, is an old test for inflammation, but the new high-sensitivity test, when combined with the cholesterol/HDL ratio, is probably the best choice for evaluation of heart disease risk.

As heart disease involves the inflammatory process, it is beneficial to take anti-inflammatory supplements. These include vitamin C (4000 mg daily) and several botanicals, including curcumin from turmeric, bromelain from pineapple, ginger extract, proanthocyanidins, and others.

You also want to improve your blood lipid ratios with exercise, diet, garlic, and vitamin E. In addition, a new study shows that niacin raises the level of good cholesterol (HDL) better than a common drug called gemfibrozil. It’s also better than the drug for the other lipid levels. The doses ranged from 1500 to 2000 mg daily.

"No" to Sweeteners

I advise against adding refined sugar to the diet, but one reader asked me about the use of artificial sweeteners. I recommend avoiding them, whether it is aspartame (Nutra-Sweet, Equal), saccharin (Sweet ‘n Low), or acesulfame. Aspartame causes neurological problems in many people. Saccharin is suspected of causing cancer in humans (we know it does in rats). The National Toxicology Program just took it off the list of carcinogens, but they are ignoring important evidence. In addition, none of these artificial ingredients has ever been shown to help with weight loss or diabetes, for which many people take them. You will be healthier with very small amounts of natural sweeteners.

Ginseng for Diabetics

A new study shows that ginseng can help diabetics and normal people metabolize sugar. When given a sugar drink, those people who had been given a dose of ginseng 40 minutes earlier handled the sugar better and cleared it from their systems more quickly than those given a placebo. When the ginseng was given at the same time as the sugar drink, only the diabetics benefited. I usually recommend 200 to 400 mg of standardized extract twice a day.

You can send questions of general interest to Dr. Janson at his website, www.drjanson.com or by mail. He appears on WMEX radio, 1060 AM, on Wednesdays from 9 to 10 a.m.

Information herein is not medical advice or direction. All material is provided for information only. Its contents should not be used to provide medical advice on individual problems. Consult a health care professional for medical or health advice.