Heart Disease's Early Warning Sign

Erectile dysfunction is strong predictor of fatal heart ailments, study finds

From The Los Angeles Time, 3/16/10, By Thomas H. Maugh II

"For the first time, researchers have shown that erectile dysfunction is a strong predictor of the likelihood that men will die of heart disease.
Men who suffer from the problem, which some consider more an emotional than a physical issue, are twice as likely to succumb to cardiovascular disease or heart attacks as those who do not have the problem, German researchers reported Monday in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Researchers have known for years that there is a link between erectile dysfunction, commonly abbreviated as ED, and heart disease, said Dr. Sahil Parikh, an interventional cardiologist from University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland who was not involved in the study. "But now there is pretty clear evidence that there is a substantially increased risk of heart attack and death when patients have erectile dysfunction."
The results are probably not too surprising, added Dr. Robert Kloner, a cardiologist at USC's Keck School of Medicine, "because arteries in the penis are smaller, so atherosclerosis shows up there sooner," perhaps three to four years before the onset of cardiovascular disease.
The take-home message, both experts said, is that when a patient seeks treatment for ED, typically from a general practitioner, he should be given a full physical work-up to look for heart disease and referred to a cardiologist.
"When they are treated aggressively early, we can prevent heart attacks and stroke and they can have many years added to their lives," Parikh said.
Dr. Michael Bohm, a cardiologist at Germany's Saarland University, and his colleagues studied 1,519 men from 13 countries who were involved in a study of two drugs to treat cardiovascular disease. The men were also queried about their ED at the beginning of the study, two years into it and at the end at five years. A full 55% of the men had ED at the beginning of the trial, nearly double the normal incidence of about 30% in the population at large.
The team reported that, in the five years of follow-up, men with ED were 1.9 times as likely to die from heart disease, twice as likely to have a heart attack, 1.2 times as likely to be hospitalized for heart failure and 1.1 times more likely to have a stroke. The risks increased with the severity of the ED."*

*Note: According to the research of well-regarded physicians Caldwell Esselstyn and Dean Ornish, heart disease can be reversed with a whole foods, plant-based diet. In fact, Dr. Esselstyn often refers to heart disease as a "paper tiger" and says that with a proper diet and healthy lifestyle, it need never develop at all.

Must-See Video

"Make Yourself Heart Attack Proof" is a highly informative lecture presented by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn,

chief of surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. In this one-hour, free YouTube video, "Dr. Esselstyn discusses his 18-year study whereby he reversed severe heart disease in every patient in his program -- who had all been sent home to die by their cardiologists. Dr. Esselstyn shows you how by changing your diet you can prevent and reverse heart disease." Please check out this link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5215695644951404318# or go to www.youtube.com and search "make yourself heart attack proof".

Plant-Based Eating And The Planet

From an interview with John Robbins, son of Baskin-Robbins' founder, and author of numerous bestselling books, including Diet For A New America and The Food Revolution:

 

"In 2006, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations released a report entitled Livestock's Long Shadow. It looked at the direct impact of meat production and also at the impact of the feed crop agriculture required for meat production.

The report stated that meat production is the second or third largest contributor to environmental problems at every level and at every scale, from global to local. It is responsible for land degradation, air pollution, water shortage, water pollution, species extinction, loss of biodiversity and climate change. Henning Steinfeld, a senior author of the report, stated, "Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation."

In 2006, a University of Chicago study found that a vegan diet is far more effective than driving a hybrid car in reducing carbon footprint. "Vegetarianism is the new Prius" is a phrase I heard recently. But it's actually more effective than driving a Prius. If you're going to drive a car a hybrid vehicle is the way to go, there's no doubt about it. But as the FAO report stated, all the SUVs, Hummers, trucks, ships and planes in the world contribute less to the problem than meat. The meat-eating Prius driver has a bigger carbon footprint than the vegan Hummer driver, not that there are probably too many of those!"

The Real Story About Genes And Cancer Risk (plus "Ask Amy")

You may have heard that genetics play a major role in the risk and development of cancer, but the research suggests otherwise:

 

From www.nutritionfacts.org:

 

5 to 10 percent of our cancer risk is genetic

 

25 percent is attributed to tobacco use

 

4 to 6 percent to alcohol consumption

 

10 to 20 percent from obesity

 

10 to 15 percent from pollution, x-rays, cell phones, etc.

 

And 50 percent of our cancer risk is from diet.

 According to the Canadian journal Nutrition and Cancer, total meat consumption is directly related to the development of most every type of cancer.

 

Ask Amy

 

Q: I'd like my children to eat more of a plant-based diet. How can I help them transition when they're so used to eating animal products?

 

A: This is exciting! Here are a couple of suggestions:

1. Take advantage of "transitional foods", especially at first. These include soy sausage, mock ground beef, chicken strips, and lunch meat, and mock chicken nuggets and burgers. Although quite processed, these foods can help ease the transition for people who are accustomed to a diet heavy in animal products.

 

2. Experiment with different non-dairy milks and cheese (like Daiya). If your children taste-test different products and choose their favorites, they'll be more active participants in this transition.

 

3. For younger children, I recommend reading the book That's Why We Don't Eat Animals  by Ruby Roth. Older children might like Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet.

 

4. Visit farm sanctuaries, which give children an up-close and personal look at animals like those they consume. They'll learn about and observe the personalities of farm animals and hear their compelling stories -- some of these animals escaped from factory farms or fell off trucks on their way to slaughterhouses.

For a sampling of sanctuaries, check out www.farmanimalshelters.org. My favorite sanctuary is Animal Acres, located north of Los Angeles in Acton, CA. It offers an intimate look at a number of animals and helped inspire my children to go vegan.

 

5. Commit to cooking plant-based meals at home. If your children long for animal products, they can consume these elsewhere. This way, much of their diet will be animal-free. My children understand, in age-appropriate terms, what happens to animals raised for food. They understand that they have plenty of food options that don't involve animals. They know the health benefits of eating vegan and the personal costs of consuming animal products. They eat plant-based meals at home. Still, it's up to them to decide how they wish to eat when they're out in the world. When my children feel they have the freedom to choose, they're more likely to make choices that feel right to them. And most of the time, they opt for vegan foods.

Beating Disease With A Plant-Based Diet

I recently received the following email from Dr. John McDougall (www.drmcdougall.com), a physician dedicated to the treatment of various illnesses through a whole-foods, plant-based diet. I was moved by this teenager's story and thought you might find it interesting, too. This story and Dr. McDougall's commentary are below. 

If you'd like to read more on the subject of preventing/reversing disease through diet, I'd recommend the following books:

Super Immunity by Dr. Joel Fuhrman (www.drfuhrman.com)

Disease-Proof Your Child by Dr. Joel Fuhrman

Foods The Fight Pain by Dr. Neal Barnard

Eat Right, Live Longer by Dr. Neal Barnard

Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn

Forks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way To Health, Gene Stone (Editor)

This teenager used a plant-based diet to cure her arthritis. Here is her story:

My name is Juliea Baker and it’s a miracle that today I am a healthy 18-year-old college student. When I was 15 years old, totally out of the blue, I awoke one day with severe jaw pain. The pain hurt so bad I could barely chew any type of food for days. My mom took me to the doctor and they could not find any reason for the pain. The doctor prescribed ibuprofen and suggested that I see a dentist that perhaps it was TMJ or something to that effect.

Shortly thereafter the pain disappeared. Over the next few months I began having soreness in one shoulder then the other shoulder. At first we thought I was sleeping wrong or carrying too many books in my backpack. Once again the pain disappeared. When the pain came back in my knees my mom knew something was wrong and took me back to my pediatrician. This time they ran blood work and found that my Rheumatoid Factor (RF) was elevated to 19 mm/hour, 2 points higher than normal, indicating I had generalized inflammation in my body. They were not alarmed, as there could be many reasons why it was slightly elevated. My doctor referred me to a rheumatologist at a famous hospital in the San Francisco Bay Area.

At the time of my first appointment with my rheumatologist I was having pain more frequently in my hands and my feet. The doctor ordered x-rays of my complete body and a full panel of blood work. Now almost a year into my disease, my RF was elevated even higher but it still was not clear what was wrong with me, and the pain was still traveling to different joints and sometimes disappearing altoget her. The doctor put me on Naprosyn (naproxen) and scheduled me for monthly visits consisting of blood work and x-rays.

Finally at Christmastime when I was 16 1/2 we realized something was very wrong: my knuckles were very swollen and I couldn’t make a fist without intense pain; even shaking hands was painful. My right foot was so swollen I couldn’t wear a shoe comfortably, and I walked with a limp. I actually told my mom that I thought my foot was broken because it hurt so badly whenever I walked. During my next doctor’s appointment I was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). My RF was now at 39.7 mm/hour, and my antibody markers were elevated, also confirming the diagnosis and indicating that my body was attacking itself (an autoimmune disease).

Every morning when I awoke I could barely get out of bed, I felt like I was living in a 60-year-old’s body. I became even more depressed when at my next doctor’s appointment they told me they were going to put me on methotrexate (a drug given to cancer patients) in a low dose to suppress my immune system in order to keep the arthritis from permanently damaging my joints.

My mom and I were stunned with this news. I went home and began to research methotrexate. The side effects of this drug were so frightening that I begged my mom not to put me on it. Eventually, I told my mom I refused to take it. My mom began to research the drug and agreed that the side effects sounded too dangerous. My mom called my doctor and asked if we could try something less severe, and she was told that there wasn’t anything less dangerous. In addition, I was told that if I went on the drug, I would have to stay on it for a minimum of two years, and the longer I was on the drug the more toxic it was to my liver. My mom agreed with me that we should look into alternate, more holistic ways to treat my illness.

Just by chance, during this time my mom and I were reading a book my friend gave to me about veganism, The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone. In the book there was a reference about several doctors who believed arthritis could be cured through diet. Dr. John McDougall was one of the doctors mentioned. My mom emailed Dr. McDougall with the story of my illness. We were so honored and excited when Dr. McDougall emailed my mom back personally. Although we were unable to have me participate in Dr. McDougall’s program, he said he would be happy to help me by recommending articles and books to read, and he gave us a diet for me to follow.

Dr. McDougall assured us that my disease was completely treatable through diet. He recommended that I begin by eliminating all meat, eggs, dairy, wheat, soy, and corn from my diet as well as my medication, ibuprofen, and that I should use aspirin for pain instead. He told us that it would take about four months for us to see the full benefit of eating a starch-based, animal-product-free and oil-free diet.

At first the strict elimination diet tasted awful to me and was very hard to follow. But through emails to Dr. McDougall, and with his guidance and encouragement, we were able to find a diet I could easily follow. Within a month or two I felt 90 percent better, with my only remaining symptom being the slight swelling of my knuckles.

Then, much to our dismay, soreness in my hands and feet would occasionally return. Once again, Dr. McDougall encouraged us to be patient and to follow the diet carefully so we could determine if I was curable through diet. My mom started looking at everything I was eating and we found out that one of the products that we thought was vegan, was really vegetarian, and had egg whites in it—I was eating egg protein for breakfast every morning without even knowing it. Once I eliminated that one product from my diet I began to get totally well. Through my experiences I found that eggs and dairy are my triggers. I can eat soy, wheat, and corn with no problems. But if I accidentally eat anything with eggs or dairy in it, the very next day my hands are stiff and sore.

I am a testament that serious illness can be cured through this diet. Dr. McDougall has saved my life, literally! I cannot imagine where I would be now had I not picked up that book by Ms. Silverstone with the small story about Dr. McDougall and his belief in curing illness through diet. If my mom had not contacted Dr. McDougall and he had not responded, I would be suffering terrible pain, have disfigured joints, and be taking a horribly toxic drug. Instead, my life is filled with joy and I am a healthy happy 18-year-old with a bright future before me!

Warmest regards!!
Juliea

Dr. McDougall's Comments:

Our children are sick. Juliea is an excellent example of the suffering that is caused by current dietary recommendations, which serve to keep the profits of the meat, dairy, and processed foods industries stable and rising. Industry’s powerful influences on what is “good nutrition” extends to dietitians, doctors, scientists, and politicians.

The foods children are encouraged to eat are making them fat, greasy-skinned with acne, and constipated. Not just a few children, but most of them. In some cases, like with Juliea, milk-induced autoimmune diseases damage their kidneys and joints. They can become crippled, hospitalized, and sometimes they die because experts teach us that cow’s milk and other animal foods are good for us. The excuse often given by general doctors, pediatricians, dietitians, and other experts for not standing up to protect the children is ignorance. Many are simply afraid to step out of line and risk criticism from colleagues, and even more fearsome is the possibility of legal action from offended businesses.

I have personally cared for three children with JRA and all have done extremely well on the McDougall Diet. There are also three reports of JRA cured by stopping cow's milk in the published scientific literature. One report was of a 14-year-old girl who had been so sick with JRA that she was hospitalized nine times over the previous six years. Her diet had been primarily based on dairy products because she had an aversion to meat. Three days after starting a dairy-free diet her persistent fever disappeared, and after one week her joint swelling subsided. She gradually stopped all medications and her problems of fever, joint pains, and anemia all resolved. Eighteen months later an experimental challenge with dairy foods was done and within ten days she was sick again. The child refused to eat any more dairy foods. In another study, nine patients suffered with inflammatory arthritis thought to be due to food allergies, including dairy and eggs. Two of the patients were young enough to be classified as having JRA. Elimination of dairy products cured at least one of them. Children as young as two years old have been described with JRA due to cow’s milk. You can find many examples of people who have cured themselves of crippling inflammatory arthritis by changing their diet, under my Star McDougallers (www.drmcdougall.com).

Calcium Myths Debunked

Many people assume the best source of calcium is cow's milk. But consider this: Decades ago, most dairy cows grazed in the fields, getting their calcium from the grass they consumed. Now, the majority of dairy cows live on factory farms, where they are fed a mainly grain diet. In order to maintain the calcium in cow's milk, these cows are given calcium supplements. Personally, I'd rather cut out the middle-cow and go straight to the source for my calcium -- plants!

"In countries around the world, the more dairy consumed, the higher the incidence of osteoporosis and hip fractures. It is not simply about how much calcium you take in, but, rather, about how much you absorb. And there's ample calcium in this foods I eat, including broccoli, tofu, and sesame seeds."  From Julieanna Hever, author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Plant-Based Nutrition".


According to Janice Stanger, PhD, author of "The Perfect Formula Diet" (perfectformuladiet.com):
Calcium is one of the most overhyped nutrients, largely because of the clout of the dairy industry. The myth is that osteoporosis is basically a calcium deficiency, and consuming lots of dairy products and calcium supplements will keep bones strong. This strategy pervades the 2010 USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This USDA report recommends the unreal amount of three cups of dairy or soy milk a day for anyone age 9 or older.
Supplement manufacturers benefit as well from concern about not getting enough calcium. Bottles of calcium pills, either as an isolated mineral or combined with other minerals or vitamin D, line store shelves with a dazzling array of choices.

Nowhere in the constant repetitive message of “calcium, calcium, calcium” will you hear about the hazards of consuming too much of this mineral. Here are three of the top concerns:
• Your body could become too alkaline
• Your risk of kidney stones increases
• Your artery walls can become stiff and inflexible
Decreased kidney function (common in older adults) and certain popular prescription drugs lower the body’s ability to get rid of excess calcium and raise the risk of toxic excess. Yet older women are the ones most consistently hounded to consume lots of calcium.

So how do you keep your bones strong?
You want your bones to be durable and resist breaking. You really don’t care how thick they are. The popular myth is that calcium makes bones stronger.
However think about chalk, which is almost pure calcium. Imagine taking a stick of chalk and holding one end in each hand. Now snap your hands up and apart with little force. What are you left with? Two pieces of chalk, the broken remnant of the original stick. This shows calcium is brittle, not a property most people want to see in their bones.
A 2010 editorial in the prestigious British Medical Journal states “Bone mineral density, which is often used as a measure of treatment success, is a surrogate measure for real clinical benefit.” The authors go on to observe “Calcium supplements, given alone, improve bone mineral density, but they are ineffective in reducing the risk of fractures and might even increase risk, they might increase the risk of cardiovascular events, and they do not reduce mortality. They seem to be unnecessary in adults with an adequate diet.”

If you eat a whole foods, plant-based diet, you might not really need much calcium anyway. Your body gets skilled at absorbing, conserving, and recycling calcium when you don’t eat excessive amounts of it. Researchers compared a group of 105 Buddhist nuns on an animal-free diet with 105 similar women in their communities. While the nuns consumed 330 mg of calcium per day on average, and had been on an animal-free diet for an average of 33 years, these women suffered no ill effects on their bone health.

A whole foods, plant-based diet balances inflammation, countering the systemic chronic inflammation that can weaken bone structure as well as damage blood vessel walls. Weight-bearing exercise has consistently been shown to build bone strength. And practices that improve balance can help avert bone-breaking falls, as can common sense safety measures around the house and while traveling.