Public Enemy #1: Heart Disease

Heart disease kills a million people a year in North America alone, and millions more worldwide. It's an epidemic. It's the equivalent of wiping out entire cities of people like San Diego or Sydney or Vancouver every year. Year after year, or to say it another way... Somebody dies at least every 32 seconds from heart disease. Six million North Americans have it right now - one in every three adults - according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. Heart disease is deadly. But just what is it? It's not a disease you catch like a cold. It's a disease you eat. Improper diet causes a sludge called plaque to slowly clog up your arteries, stopping the flow of vital oxygen and nutrients to your heart muscles. When your arteries finally plug up, you have a heart attack. This happens to over 1.5 million people a year. For most of them, it's a total surprise. They had no idea their arteries were clogged. 1/3 of them will die on the way to the hospital, with no second chance, no time to say goodbye. Those who do survive suffer through expensive and painful therapies. These days, a coronary bypass surgery costs about $25,000.

And all of this expense and pain and death may be unnecessary.

So how can you decrease the risk of heart disease?

Odds are, you probably already have some degree of heart disease. Heart disease starts early. By age 16, young Americans already have some degree of blockage in the crucial arteries that supply the heart with blood. But, here's the good news. We have made significant progress in the war on heart disease. Since 1950, we've cut the death rate in half.

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When a Banana a Day Isn't Enough

(Health-e Headlines™) - Nature's nearly perfect food, the banana, packs a punch of potassium that helps each of us reach our daily requirement for this vital mineral.

With so much attention on other nutrients, such as calcium, poor misunderstood potassium gets lost in the mix. Potassium is present in almost every food we eat, including fruits and vegetables, milk and meats.

So why the concern if we don't get enough? Potassium helps regulate cells and muscles and fluid in blood. It even plays a role in reducing the risk of high blood pressure, according to the Joint National Committee on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure. These nutrition experts often encourage people with high blood pressure to increase their intakes not only of potassium but also of two other vital nutrients involved in blood pressure control - calcium and magnesium.
What to Do?

Do you start your day with a ripe banana sliced over fortified cereal along with milk and a glass of orange juice? Most Americans don't. If they did, the recommended goal of 4,700 mg per day would be easily met.

To get adequate amounts of potassium, check food labels. You'll find potassium listed on foods that contain added potassium, such as breakfast cereals. But it's not required on every food label. Green beans, baked potatoes, squash and prunes are other good sources.

For adults who are taking certain medications, potassium levels may be low because the medications themselves cause the kidneys to move the potassium out of your body. At risk for low potassium are people who take high blood pressure medications and women who use diuretics ("water pills") to reduce water and bloating during premenstrual days. Some older people take similar medications to reduce swelling in their legs.

Talk with your doctor about checking potassium levels in your blood and, if you're a banana too low, discuss ways to replenish this valuable mineral.

Sources:

1. The Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC7). NHLBI. 2003. Available online at: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/ guidelines/hypertension/ jncintro.htm. Accessed June 9, 2006.

2. DRIs for Water, Potassium, and Sodium, Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine (IOM), February 2004.

Obese employees cost their companies extra $460-$2485 a year

RTI International Health, Social and Economics Research and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention compared figures that included body mass index (BMI), sick days and total medical expenditures. As BMI increased, so too did medical expenses for both men and women. The additional costs ranged from $162 for slightly obese men to an extra $1,524 for men with a BMI greater than 40. For overweight women, these costs ranged from $474 to $1,302. Per capita cost of obesity amounts to between $460 and $2,485 annually.