Health Tip: Heart Disease & Cholesterol

Hi, I am Joe Graedon, I am a pharmacologist. I write the syndicated news paper column with People’s Pharmacy and co-host the radio show.

Heart disease is still our number one killer. Over a million people suffer a heart attack every year. One out of three of us have cardiovascular disease. Now trying to get your cholesterol under control is not a Do-it-Yourself project. You are going to have to enlist your physician in this process because he or she will have to have a blood test to see what your cholesterol and your LDL is and you HDL and your triglycerides all those risk factors, and there is a good chance your doctor is going to want to have a prescription. So you are going to have to find out whether you need Lipitor or Zocor, one of those other powerful cholesterol lowering drugs. But there is something you can do as well.

It turns out that aspirin is one of the most powerful ways to reduce your risk of having a heart attack. And the low dose aspirins have been around for years and are very effective. Now, not everybody can take aspirin. It can cause all kinds of problems for your stomach and it can interact with many medicines. So make sure your doctor’s is on board with the program.

But once you have taken care of the aspirin component there are some other things that you can do to get your cholesterol down. For example Psyllium which is good to keep your digestive track regular can also lower cholesterol, so can Niacin which you all find in the pharmacy or health food store, but this requires medical supervision so you do not suffer side effects. This is kind of cool, Red Yeast Rice. It contains the same kind of statins that are available in some of those prescription drugs. Very effective but also requires medical supervision.

I kind of like this one, because Fish Oil is good for the heart, it lowers triglycerides, it has some anti-inflammatory properties and the same omega-3 fats in fish oil. Well guess what? You will find them in walnuts, so have a walnut or two a day and do not forget the dark chocolate. It turns out dark chocolate can also lower cholesterol.

Finally a little cinnamon chaser. It turns out that ground cinnamon can lower cholesterol and blood sugar. But if you are going to use cinnamon on a regular basis, I would not go with the spice rack. I go with some kind of a standardized cinnamon product. You will find this is a water extracted products and you will find them in health food stores and pharmacies.

Well we may not be able to eliminate heart disease, but diet, exercise and prudent use of medications can lower the risk.


Transcription by: Scribe4you Transcription Services