Wheat-free pumpkin bread

25. December 2010 William Davis (5)
Try this recipe for a wheat-free, gluten-free yet healthy "bread." Unlike many gluten-free foods that send blood sugar skyward, this will not.

Ingredients:
2 cups ground almond meal (Buy it from Trader Joe's--70% cheaper than other grocery stores.)
1/2 cup ground flaxseed
1/2 cup sour cream (full-fat, of course)
15 oz canned pumpkin (Trader Joe's is bisphenol A-free)
2 medium to large eggs
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
4 tablespoons butter, melted
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg or allspice
Dash of salt
Choice of non-nutritive sweetener (I used 3 teaspoons Trader Joe's stevia extract powder, the one mixed with lactose. Two tablespoons of Truvia, 1/2 teaspoon of the more concentrated stevia extract, or 1/2 cup Splenda are other choices. You can taste the mixed batter to gauge sweetness if in doubt.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease baking pan (e.g., 10 x 6 inch). The pan should be big enough so that the mix will not be more than 2 inches deep, else it will require much longer to bake. (If you have only smaller pans, you will need to cook longer while the pan is covered with aluminum foil.)

Mix all ingredients thoroughly in large bowl. Pour mix into greased baking pan.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for additional 30 minutes or until inserted toothpick or knife comes out dry.

Serve with cream cheese or as is.

(I'd have some pictures, but the kids and I ate it up before I thought to take any photographs.)

Vitamin D: Deficiency vs optimum level

19. December 2010 William Davis (20)
Dr. James Dowd of the Vitamin D Cure posted his insightful comments regarding the Institute of Medicine's inane evaluation of vitamin D.

Dr. Dowd hits a bullseye with this remark:

The IOM is focusing on deficiency when it should be focusing on optimal health values for vitamin D. The scientific community continues to argue about the lower limit of normal when we now have definitive pathologic data showing that an optimal vitamin D level is at or above 30 ng/mL. Moreover, if no credible toxicity has been reported for vitamin D levels below 200 ng/mL, why are we obsessing over whether our vitamin D level should be 20 ng/mL or 30 ng/mL?

Yes, indeed. Have no doubts: Vitamin D deficiency is among the greatest public health problems of our age; correction of vitamin D (using the human form of vitamin D, i.e., D3 or cholecalciferol, not the invertebrate or plant form, D2 or ergocalciferol) is among the most powerful health solutions.

I have seen everything from relief from winter "blues," to reversal of arthritis, to stopping the progression of aortic valve disease, to partial reversal of dementia by achieving 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels of 50 ng/ml or greater. (I aim for 60-70 ng/ml.)

The IOM's definition of vitamin D adequacy rests on what level of 25-hydroxy vitamin D reverses hyperparathyroidism (high PTH levels) and rickets. Surely there is more to health than that.

Dr. Dowd and vocal vitamin D advocate, Dr. John Cannell, continue to champion the vitamin D cause that, like many health issues, conradicts the "wisdom" of official organizations like the IOM.

Large LDL counts, too

15. December 2010 William Davis (0)
Chad is a 43-year old father of five kids.

Earlier this year, he developed chest pain that got worse and worse. He ended up with a total of five stents in all three coronary arteries. After a devastating experience with Lipitor that resulted from a ruptured tendon, he came to me for an option.

Chad's lipoproteins:

Slow Burn works

14. December 2010 William Davis (55)
I have been impressed with the results I've been obtaining with Fred Hahn's Slow Burn strength training technique.

Because I have limited time to hang around the gym, any technique that provides outsized results in a limited amount of time, I have to admit, appeals to me. In past, I'd be lucky to squeeze in one or two strength training sessions per week, devoting the rest of the time to biking outdoors, biking on a sedentary bike (while playing XBox), jogging, or doing strenuous yard work like digging trenches and planting shrubs.

Over the years, I've gradually lost muscle, since the strength training effort suffered with my time limitations.

So Fred's time-efficient Slow Burn idea struck a chord. Having now done it with some regularity, usually 1-2 times per week since mid-September, I have gradually added back visible muscle. My Slow Burn workouts, involving 8-10 different movements, seem to have restored the muscle I've lost, with a very modest time effort.

It took a little getting used to. After Fred showed me how to do the movements--slow motion movement in both the "positive" and "negative" directions, with smooth, non-jerking transitions, one set per muscle group, each taken to muscle exhaustion--it left me unusually tired and sore the next day. This surprised me, given the limited time involved. Breathing is also very important; the usual exhale-during-the-positive, inhale-during-the-negative pattern is replaced by breathing freely during the entire set. I didn't get this at first and ended up with headaches that got worse with each set. Breathing freely relieved me from the effect.

I have strength trained since I was around 15 years old. Back in the early 1970s, I had about 2000 lbs of barbells and dumbbells in my garage in New Jersey, while also driving back and forth to the Morristown, NJ, YMCA to train with friends. The Slow Burn movements forced me to break habits established over nearly 40 years of conventional strength training.

I've also played around with mixing conventional movements with Slow Burn movements to keep it fresh. This also seems to work.

If you're interested in giving it a try, here's an animation that demonstrates what Slow Burn movements look like. Fred has also produced an excellent 3-DVD set of videos that more fully describe the practice.

Do your part to save on healthcare costs

13. December 2010 William Davis (37)
While many of the factors that drive the relentless increase in health care costs are beyond individual control, you are still able to exert personal influence over costs. Just as in political elections, your one vote alone may not count; it's the collective effort of many people who share similar opinions that results in real change.

I just got the new monthly premium for my high-deductible health insurance: Up $300 per month, putting my family's total premium over $2000 per month---for four healthy people. (My son fractured his wrist playing high school hockey earlier this year; that may explain at least some of the increase.)

I'm going to shop around for a better deal. However, shopping is likely to only stall the process. It will not address the systemic problems with healthcare that continue to drive premiums up and up and up.

So what can you do to help keep costs down? Here are a few thoughts:

Never accept a prescription for fish oil, i.e., Lovaza. Just buy far less costly over-the-counter fish oil. I treat complex hyperlipidemias, including familial hypertriglyceridemia, ever day. I NEVER use prescription fish oil. A typical 4 capsule per day Lovaza prescription adds around $280 to $520 per month to overall health costs (though your direct out-of-pocket costs may be less, since you shove the costs onto others in your plan).

Never accept a prescription for vitamin D. Prescription vitamin D is the mushroom or invertebrate form anyway. Just buy the human (cholecalciferol, D3) form from your health food store or "big box" store. They yield consistent increases in 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels, superior to the prescription form. And they're wonderfully inexpensive.

Eliminate wheat from your diet. If there is a dietary strategy that yields unexpected and outsized benefits across a wide spectrum of health, it's elimination of this thing we're sold called "wheat," you know, the genetically-transformed, high-yield dwarf mutant that now represents 99% of all wheat sold. Blood sugar drops, pre-diabetics become non-prediabetics, diabetics reduce need for medication or become non-diabetic, cholesterol values plummet, arthritis improves, acid reflux and irritable bowel symptoms improve or disappear, just to mention a few. Wheat elimination alone, I believe, would result in incalculable savings in both healthcare costs and lives saved.

Be sure to obtain iodine. In the fuss to cut salt use, everyone forgot about iodine. Lack of iodine leads to thyroid disease, usually hypothyroidism, that, in turn, causes cholesterol values to increase, weight to increase, and heart disease risk to double, triple, or quadruple. Iodine supplementation is easy and wonderfully inexpensive.

Over time, I hope that all of us can help develop the effort to self-direct more and more of our own health. Our Track Your Plaque program has shown me that, not only can people take the initiative to direct aspects of their own health, they can do it better than 99% of doctors.  

I'm sure there are many, many other ways to help reduce costs. Any suggestions?

Fish oil: What's the difference?

10. December 2010 William Davis (27)
Ultra-purified, pharmaceutical grade, molecularly distilled. Over-the-counter vs. prescription. Gelcap, liquid, emulsion.

There's a mind-boggling variety of choices in fish oil today. A visit to any health food store, or any "big box" store for that matter, will yield at least several, if not dozens, of choices, all with varying and often extravagant claims of purity and potency.

So what's the real story?

Given the analyses conducted over the years, along with my experience with dozens of different preparations, I believe that several conclusions can be reached about fish oil:

Fish oil is free of contamination with mercury, dioxin, PCBs, or furans. To my knowledge, only one fish oil preparation has been found to have a slight excess of PCBs. (This is different from cod liver oil that has been found by one source to have a slight excess of PCBs.)

Oxidative breakdown products differ among the various brands. Consumer Lab (http://www.consumerlab.org/), for instance, has found that several widely available brands of fish oil contained excessive oxidative breakdown products (TOTOX). You can perform you own simple test of oxidative breakdown products: Sniff it. Your fish oil should pass the "sniff test." High quality fish oil should smell non-fishy to lightly fishy. Rancid fish oil with excessive quantities of oxidative breakdown products will smell nasty fishy.

FDA approval does not necessarily mean greater potency, purity, or effectiveness. It just means that somebody assembled the hundreds of millions of dollars to obtain FDA approval, followed by lots of marketing savvy to squash the competition.

This means that there are a number of excellent fish oil products available. My favorites are the liquid fish oils from Pharmax, Nordic Naturals, and Barleans. Capsules from Carlson, PharmaNutrients, and Fisol have also performed consistently. The "big box" capsules from Sam's Club and Costco have also performed well and are wonderfully affordable.

Wheat-free pie crust

9. December 2010 William Davis (17)
I've been working on wheat-free yet healthy recipes these past two months.

You can buy wheat-free, gluten-free foods at the store, of course. But the majority of these products are unhealthy because cornstarch, rice starch, potato starch, or tapioca starch are commonly used in place of wheat. Recall that these are among the few foods that increase blood glucose higher than even wheat.

Here's a simple recipe for wheat-free pie crust that works best for cheesecake, pumpkin pie, and cream pies, but not for berry or other fruit pies like apple.

You will need:
?
1½ cups ground pecans
6 tablespoons melted butter?or melted coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract?
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 medium egg
2 tablespoons Truvia™ or ½ teaspoon stevia extract or ½ cup Splenda®

Mix all ingredients thoroughly in bowl. Pour mixture into pie pan and press onto bottom and sides.

Fill pie crust with desired filling. You can fill it with your favorite cheesecake recipe (e.g., Neufchatel or cream cheese, sour cream, eggs, vanilla, and stevia; add pumpkin for pumpkin cheesecake) and bake, usually at 350 degrees F for one hour. 

Yes, the butter provokes insulin and artificial sweeteners can trigger appetite. But, for the holidays, a slice or two of pie made with this crust will not increase blood sugar nor trigger the uncontrolled impulse eating that wheat crust will trigger.

Have a cookie

9. December 2010 William Davis (0)
Here's a great insight dating all the way back to 1966 from one of the early explorations in lipoproteins from the National Institutes of Health lab of Levy, Lees, and Fredrickson:

The nature of pre-beta (very low density) lipoproteins

The subject is a 19 year old female (among the total of 11 in the this small, diet-controlled study) who was first fed a low-carbohydrate (50 grams per day), low-cholesterol diet; followed by a high-carbohydrate (500 grams per day), low-fat (5 grams per day) diet.






To B or not to B

5. December 2010 William Davis (11)
Apoprotein B (apo B) is the principle protein that resides in LDL particles along with other proteins, phospholipids, triglycerides, and, of course, cholesterol.

There's a curious thing about apo B. Just like one child per family in China or one television per household in 1950s America, there is only one apo B for every LDL particle.

So measuring apo B, in effect, provides a virtual count of LDL particles. (Actually, VLDL particles, the first lipoprotein to emerge from the liver, also have one apo B per particle but LDL particles far outnumber VLDL particles.) While apo B structure can show limited structural variation from individual to individual, the effect on measured apo B is negligible.

One apo B per LDL particle . . . no more, no less. What about the other components of LDL particles?

The other components of LDL particles are a different story. Cholesterol and triglycerides in LDL particles vary substantially. Diet has profound effects on cholesterol and triglyceride content of LDL particles. A diet rich in carbohydrates, for instance, increases triglycerides in LDL particles while reducing cholesterol. This means that measuring cholesterol in the LDL fraction will be misleading, since cholesterol will be falsely low. LDL cholesterol is therefore a flawed means to assess the behavior and composition of LDL particles. In particular, when LDL particles become enriched in triglycerides, they go through a process that transforms them into small LDL particles, the variety most likely to cause atherosclerosis.

In other words, when the worst situation of all--an abnormal abundance of small LDL particles develops--it is usually not signalled by high LDL cholesterol.

Because apo B is not sensitive to the composition of LDL particles--high cholesterol, low cholesterol, high triglycerides, etc.--it is a superior method to characterize LDL particles. While apo B doesn't tell you whether LDL particles are big, small, or in between, it provides a count of particles that is far more helpful than measuring this deeply flawed thing called "LDL cholesterol."

(Even better: Count LDL particles and measure LDL size, since size gives us insight into sensitivity to oxidation, glycation, adhesiveness, ability to trigger inflammatory pathways via monocyte chemoattractant protein, various interleukins, tunor necrosis factor and others. This is why cholesterol panels should go the way of tie dye shirts and 8-track tapes: They are hopelessly, miserably, and irretrievably inaccurate. Cholesterol panels should be replaced by either apoprotein B or lipoprotein measures.)
Thiazide diuretics: Treatment of choice for high blood pressure?

Thiazide diuretics: Treatment of choice for high blood pressure?

5. January 2009 William Davis (14)
Thiazide diuretics are a popular first-line treatment for hypertension among the primary care set.

This practice became especially well-established with the 2002 publication of the ALLHAT Study (Major Outcomes in High-Risk Hypertensive Patients Randomized to Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitor or Calcium Channel Blocker vs Diuretic:The Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial (ALLHAT)).

ALLHAT showed that an inexpensive diuretic like chlorthalidone (a weak diuretic in the thiazide class, similar to hydrochlorothiazide) as first-line treatment for hypertension achieved equivalent reductions in cardiovascular events (cardiovasular death and heart attack) as non-thiazide antihypertensives, lisinopril (an ACE inhibitor) and amlodipine (a calcium channel blocker, better known as Norvasc).

After 7 years of treatment, there was 14% death or heart attack among all three groups--no difference.

This was interpreted to mean that inexpensive thiazide diuretics like chlorthalidone offer as much benefit as other blood pressure medications at reduced cost.

On the surface, that's great. Anything that detracts from the ubiquitous pharmaceutical industry propaganda of bigger, better, more expensive drugs to replace old, inexpensive, generic drugs is fine by me.

But you knew there'd be more to this issue! If we accept that thiazides are equivalent to other single-drug treatments for high blood pressure, what do we do with the following issues:

--Thiazides deplete body potassium-This effect can be profound. In fact, built into the ALLHAT mortality rate is an expected death rate from potassium depletion. When potassium in the body and blood go low, the heart becomes electrically unstable and dangerous rhythms develop.

--Thiazides deplete magnesium--Similar in implication to the potassium loss, magnesium loss also creates electrical instability in the heart, not to mention exaggeration of insulin resistance, rise in triglycerides, reduction in HDL.

--Thiazides reduce HDL cholesterol

--Thiazides increase triglycerides

--Thiazides increase small LDL particles--You know, the number one cause for heart disease in the U.S.

--Thiazides increase uric acid--Uric acid is increasingly looking like a coronary risk factor: The higher the uric acid blood level, the greater the risk for heart attack. Thiazides have long been known to increase uric acid, occasionally sufficient to trigger attacks of gout (uric acid crystals that precipitate in joints, like rock candy). (Fully detailed Special Report on uric acid coming this week on the Track Your Plaque website.)

What about the advice we commonly give people to hydrate themselves generously? Yet we give them diuretics? Which is it: More hydration or less hydration? You can't have both.

Do thiazides exert an apparent cardiovascular risk reduction in a society due to its flagrant sodium obsession?

Thus, there are a number of inconsistencies in the thinking surrounding thiazides. In my experience, I have seen more harm done than good using these agents. While I cannot fully reconcile the reported benefit seen in ALLHAT with what I see in real life, all too often I see people having to take another drug to make up for a side-effect of a thiazide diuretic (e.g., high-dose prescription potassium to replace lost potassium, allopurinol to reduce uric acid, etc.). I have seen many people get hospitalized, even suffer near-fatal or fatal events from extremely low potassium or magnesium levels.

My personal view: ALLHAT or no, avoid thiazide diuretics like the plague. Sure, it might save money on a population basis, but I suspect that the ALLHAT data are deeply misleading.

What's better than a thiazide, calcium blocker, or ACE inhibitor? How about vitamin D restoration, thyroid normalization, wheat elimination?
Tags :

Comments (14) -

  • Anonymous

    1/5/2009 6:29:00 PM |

    Does wheat elimination apply to rye and other grains, or only to wheat?

  • Jay

    1/5/2009 8:24:00 PM |

    I am curious, do some of the potassium sparing diuretics ( like Maxzide ) eliminate some of these blood chemistry changes (all of which are concerning) ?

    I have been using a similar product and find my side effects minimal compared to the previous lisinopril/verapromil combo that resulted in the same degree of lowering BP for me.

    Thanks

  • Jeff

    1/5/2009 9:18:00 PM |

    My mother is on this drug and I just happened to discuss it with her a week or so ago.  She claims no potassium issues and that she takes the lowest possible dose.  I sense it doesn't make sense for her to be on this.  Any suggestions?

  • Anonymous

    1/5/2009 9:45:00 PM |

    Dr, Davis, this is not directly related to this post, but I have a question about fish oil. Mine comes in a capsule form with soybean oil. Is it acceptable or should I look for another one which does not contain soybean oil.

    I also took my first pill of Niacin yesterday ( Just got report of high total cholesterol levels -230). I was up almost all night and was frazzled similar to what I would feel if I drank coffee at night. Is this due to niacin?

  • rabagley

    1/6/2009 6:40:00 AM |

    Anonymous,

    Dr. Davis isn't answering questions on the blog, but I'll try to sum up without too badly screwing up what he might say.

    Dr. Davis is particularly against wheat as a negative value food ingredient.  He has quoted primary research and various non-mainstream dietary experts who theorize that wheat contains addictive substances and contains still more substances that worsen multiple risk factors for metabolic syndrome (early diabetes), diabetes, heart disease, etc.  Basically: bad stuff.  Whole wheat is very little different from refined wheat in his view.

    Dr. Davis doesn't quite seem ready to throw out all grains, and does not have much to say about oats, rice, barley, rye, etc. one way or the other.  I suspect that this is simply because there isn't that much reporting on those grains and he isn't as confident that they're quite as bad.

    Now for my take on it (I am a software developer with no dietary or medical training): high carbohydrate foods are dangerous.  Don't even get into the fact that grains are a really bad idea.  Those foods with refined, fast digesting carbohydrates (sugars, simple starches, refined flour, etc.) are slightly more dangerous than "whole grain" or "high fiber" foods, but only slightly more dangerous.  They're all bad.  

    They're bad because our bodies are not used to a diet containing very many carbohydrates.  Our bodies have evolved to thrive on a diet containing mostly fat and a moderate amount of protein with a few carbs here and there.  We tamper with that preference and pay the price with the "diseases of civilization" (Diabetes, Heart Disease, etc.).

    Carbohydrates used to be a signal that either game was scarce and/or winter was approaching.  When we eat large quantities of carbohydrates (more than 15-20% of calories), our bodies start to pack calories away.  This storage response is a reaction triggered by insulin, which is itself triggered by the digested sugars moving from the gut to the bloodstream.  When we chronically eat large quantities of carbohydrates, our fat cells get packed tight and eventually can't pack away any more calories.  When this happens, the fat cells are said to be "insulin resistant", and when that happens, you're only a perceptive doctor's visit away from being classified as having Type 2 diabetes.

    And that's only one way that a high-carb, low-fat diet is bad for you.  That doesn't even begin to get into HDL cholesterol, lipid particle sizes, triglycerides (fructose is one of the worst sources of triglycerides in the diet, and triglycerides are one of the primary indicators of risk of heart disease) or anything else.

    I previously states that "grain" itself is a bad idea but didn't explain why.  It's simple evolution.  An apple tree gets a benefit when an animal comes by and eats an apple.  The seeds will go through the digestive tract and emerge unscathed in a pile of fertilizer some distance from the original tree.  The tree wins all around.  But what if you crack open the apple seeds and try to eat them?  Bad plan.  Apple seeds have about a dozen poisons in them, including potassium cyanide.  The plant does not get a benefit if you eat the whole ovary.  We eat the whole ovary of grains and pulses.  This is risky because we have to defuse all of those poisons or we risk damage from those that accumulate or have damage that accumulates.  Some of the defensive chemicals can be neutralized with cooking, some with fermenting, some with physical removal of layers, some with oxidation.  There's a decent chance that you can get them all and not eat any toxins, but I'm not convinced that we're doing it right with soy, wheat, rice, oats, rye, spelt, millet, etc.

    We just don't know enough to be certain.  And there's no real reason to take the risk.

    Read up for yourself.  "Good Calories, Bad Calories" is a fantastic recounting about the history of dietary policy and dietary science, eventually leading to some very interesting conclusions about what makes for a good calorie and a bad calorie.

  • Anna

    1/6/2009 5:02:00 PM |

    Anonymous-
    high total cholesterol levels -230

    But did you have any of the lipid fractions done, too?  High total cholesterol may mean nothing, but you won't know that unless you have more information.  

    An example,  my total cholesterol and LDL (by calculation, not direct measurement has risen a bit (higher than yours, I think it was 261 last time) over the past 10 years with improvements in my diet over the past 5 yrs (LC, no gluten/wheat, low sugar/fructose, minimal processed foods/more home prepared foods, many foods sources direct from the farm/ranch).  But my endocrinologist was fussing about my basic lipid panel results.

    BUT my HDL has also improved quite a bit (gone up 20+) and while my LDL is high according to the conventional wisdom, it is made up of the large fluffy pattern type, which ISN'T associated with CVD.  My total chol/HDL ratio is great.  My triglycerides are very low (they used to be high when I ate high carb/low fat).  AND, my first coronary calcium scan score, done a few weeks ago was 0, no sign of plaque, despite many years of undiagnosed hypothyroidism & impaired glucose tolerance (both treated/managed now), and current high consumption of grass-fed butter and other natural traditional animal fats, whole fat dairy, and 2-3 eggs every single day, plus Vit D supplementation ( my Vit D levels drop too low on sun exposure alone, despite living in So Cal).

    So, the total chol is essentially meaningless without a context.  You need to know the lipid subfractions (by direct measurement, not "calculation") so that the number and size can be assessed.  Many primary care docs just don't understand this and only order the basic panel (much cheaper) instead of a more informative VAP.  

    My husband on the other hand, has a not so great cholesterol lipid fraction profile (he's a long-time smoker, but now trying harder to quit), and his coronary calcium scan score wasn't so rosy.  He started niacin a couple months ago and hasn't had too many problems with the side effects (the flushing has occurred, but not too disruptively).  BUT, he started with a really low dose (50 mg) and gradually built up the amount, going to 2 x 50 mg, 3 x 50 mg, etc.  He's now at 3 x 100 mg daily with little or no side effects.   You might try gradually increasing the dose to see  if that helps.

  • Robert M.

    1/6/2009 8:05:00 PM |

    Anonymous:

    Wheat, barley, and rye all contain the same gluten protein that can cause an immune system reaction or allergy.  Oats are often contaminated, although wheat-free oats are available at specialty stores.

  • Anna

    1/6/2009 11:55:00 PM |

    Grains are not essential to a healthy diet, even if one appears to not suffer from eating them (appears being the significant word!).

    "Essential" applies to nutrients that must come from the diet because the body cannot make them.  There are essential amino acids and essential fatty acids, but no essential carbohydrates.  The body can make all the carbohydrates it needs from a nutrient-dense diet without grains.

  • puddle

    1/7/2009 9:36:00 PM |

    I'd also point out that the Thiazides are sulfa drugs.  Which luckily my pharmacist's computer was aware of, because my medical team sure wasn't.  And I have an anaphylactic shock reaction to sulfa.

  • David

    1/8/2009 9:00:00 PM |

    I agree that it's generally not a good idea to be on blood pressure meds, but I'm curious about what we should do about these drugs for someone who has already had a heart attack? My dad had high BP (over 145/90) before his heart attack, and the docs (two stents later) put him on an ACE inhibitor (Lisinopril) and beta-blocker (Lopressor). He's been exercising, taking vitamin D, cutting out the wheat, and pretty much doing all the normal TYP stuff, and his BP is down to 112/60, heart rate like 54 bpm. Is there any reason someone in his condition would still need to be on the meds? This is not just a personal question, but a general note of curiosity.

    Those med recommendations came from Dr. O'Keefe, the vitamin D researcher here in Kansas City, by the way. After reading his book, I didn't think he'd be such a pill pusher, but he was! He hadn't even looked at dad's chart and was already telling him he needed to up the dose of all his meds. According to O'Keefe (and I was standing right there when he said this) "The best three things you can do for your health right now: 1. Statins. 2. Vitamin D. 3. Fish oil. Don't worry about any of those other supplements [referring to things like magnesium, CoQ10, pomegranate, cocoa, etc]. The science is Simvastatin. The science is Lisinopril."

    Well, at least he was promoting the vitamin D and fish oil! Even at that, though, he didn't even look to see how much fish oil dad was taking, and he told him 1,000-2,000 IU of vitamin D was fine- without even having the blood work back yet! Grrrr.....

    Anyone know of a good cardiologist in the Kansas City area?

  • cure for high blood pressure

    8/20/2009 10:17:32 AM |

    Wheat, barley, and rye all contain the same gluten protein that can cause an immune system reaction or allergy. Oats are often contaminated, although wheat-free oats are available at specialty stores.High blood pressure cure supplement, natural herbal remedy to lower & control high blood pressure.Use Alistrol everyday to help maintain healthy circulation and support cardio-vascular health.

  • Anonymous

    11/18/2009 3:11:29 PM |

    It was extremely interesting for me to read that post. Thanx for it. I like such themes and everything connected to this matter. I definitely want to read more on that blog soon.

  • buy jeans

    11/3/2010 6:18:48 PM |

    Thus, there are a number of inconsistencies in the thinking surrounding thiazides. In my experience, I have seen more harm done than good using these agents. While I cannot fully reconcile the reported benefit seen in ALLHAT with what I see in real life, all too often I see people having to take another drug to make up for a side-effect of a thiazide diuretic (e.g., high-dose prescription potassium to replace lost potassium, allopurinol to reduce uric acid, etc.). I have seen many people get hospitalized, even suffer near-fatal or fatal events from extremely low potassium or magnesium levels.

  • simvastatin side effects

    5/7/2011 1:44:30 PM |

    Thiazide increases uric acid thus increasing the risk of heart attacks. The higher the level of uric acid blood level, the more the risk of heart attacks. This is a great information.

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