Berwick Area Heart Support Group
July 2008 newsletter
Berwick Area Heart Support Group Next meeting Wednesday July 2nd at the day Hospital, Berwick Infirmary from 7.00pm – 9.00pm The Speaker will be Kathleen McNish from Berwick Council Environmental Health Department who will talk about her job and the progress that Berwick is making towards the vital task of re-cycling more of our rubbish. Kathleen agreed to speak at very short notice, for which we are very grateful. (Phil adds that he read that the staff at the new Recycling Centre won some kind of award last year. They certainly are cheerful and helpful.)
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August meeting
For the August meeting we have our annual walk with but with a difference this year, instead of walking round the Berwick Walls, the walk will take place at Etal. The transport arrangements and departure time will be in next months newsletter.
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Blood pressure monitoring
The dates have been confirmed for the Blood Pressure monitoring days we have arranged for Jus Rol. The publicity day is on Thursday 10th July from 10am to 4pm, and the monitoring will take place on Friday 18th July and Wednesday 23rd July from 12.30pm till 5pm. There has already been some volunteers come forward to help with leaflet distribution, but more are needed.if you can help for an hour or so let us know at the next meeting
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2008 AGM
Our AGM was held at the beginning of last months meeting, all existing officers were re elected.
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Gardening & Health
This is the article that Lesley Angell wrote for the Borders Organic Garden news
When Berwick Area Heart Support Group, at short notice, asked me to give them a talk on Gardening & Health, I initially thought that would be great if only I had more time to prepare!
I was reassured that in-depth research and analytical theory was not required - just enthusiasm for the subject. Well, I work in community health and have grown veg for 30 years- I was awash with enthusiasm!
I started with some personal gardening history. To begin with there were those early seductive strawberries and new potatoes with barrel butter and mint from Dad's garden. Then there was the first allotment where my 6 year old son helped grow huge carrots in the deep, dark, crumbly soil that we have in Berwick's Lion House allotments.
After a gardening break [the wilderness years?] we were once again able to rent an allotment - time had moved on and concern about chemical use meant not using them was now a priority. Despite, or because, of this decision we enjoy fresh produce daily through the year in a variety that amazed many of those present. In a couple of weeks in March meals had included broccoli, leeks, beetroot, cabbage, parsnips & salad fresh from the garden, plus stored potatoes and frozen fruit.
But I also needed to talk about the health benefits of gardening beyond great tasting organic veg and the knock on effects of improving diet - and there are quite a few.
The obvious one is exercise - 30 minutes a day of moderate exercise makes a big contribution to counteracting heart disease. However, it is important that new gardeners avoid what we call the 'curse of the new allotmenteer', which sees a new plot holder dig for 8 hours on their first day before retiring exhausted for several weeks while the weeds flourish - little and often is best for the garden and health!
Less obvious to the non-gardener is how gardening improves mental health, being calming, energising, revitalising and meditative, reducing stress and replacing worry. This can be especially important for people living with a major health worry.
Finally, I set the group a challenge. Using some spare, chitted Sharpe's Express I asked who would like to try growing them and then talk about the results in 12 or so weeks time - all disappeared and we'll see how everyone got on later.
I hope the talk confirmed for existing gardeners that gardening was good for them and perhaps inspired others to give it a try.
Lesley Angell
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(How many of you have stuck your fingers into the pots to find out if you’ve got any potatoes growing ? )
Terry
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LOWERING CHOLESTEROL with TOMATO JUICE
but what about the added SALT?
Tomatoes and preserved tomato products are reasonably low-cost vegetable items to add to your basket. Interestingly tomato juice and pastes and ketchup have health properties that not only survive cooking but are probably improved by it.
Recently Terry took a question on our Heart Group websitehttp://www.berwickheartsupport.co.uk A man wanted to know where he could get tomato juice with low-salt. Right enough, at the quantities he was drinking the salt intake from available British commercial tomato juice was very large. Our website had quoted an American source where apparently you can get no-added-salt versions. Salt intake is important for people looking after their arteries who need to lower salt to benefit blood pressure etc. Our questioner said that his drinking nearly a litre a day of TJ had lowered his cholesterol and he wanted to continue that!. We decided to recommend to him that in Britain it would be a good idea to buy low-salt tomato paste and dilute it to taste by adding enough water and perhaps a little malt vinegar and spices and herbs also to taste like a commercial juice. (We can buy tomato paste concentrate by the kilo from Berwick’s Green Shop that has a 22% dry matter content. You can add it to food without dilution if you wish.)
Then just a few weeks ago we came across news of a scientific study that demonstrated that a large daily intake of tomato juice can indeed lower cholesterol, so we posted the good news to our man and wished him well in his artery protection!
Here is a brief account of the research that we have borrowed from Tuft’s University, in the USA although the Finnish study results were published in Britain. The study suggests that drinking more than half a litre a day is useful.
Tomatoes and tomato products offer many nutritional benefits-and new research suggests that improving your cholesterol may be another one of them. A study from Finland found that people who ate tomato products every day for three weeks lowered their LDL ("bad") cholesterol by 13 percent.
It was a small study published in the "British Journal of Nutrition" [December 2007] that focused on 21 healthy volunteers with normal cholesterol readings. The participants ate a totally tomato-free diet for the first three weeks and a "high tomato" diet (that included tomato juice and ketchup) for the next three weeks.
When the participants' cholesterol levels were re-measured after the "high tomato" phase, researchers discovered the improvement. Total cholesterol levels fell about 6 percent on average and the LDL levels by 13 percent.
High cholesterol levels have been associated with cardiovascular diseases and many other health problems. Earlier studies have associated tomatoes and tomato products with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, but scientists could not explain why. This new research suggests a possible link.
Phil
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Wally’s Yarn
The Monk and the Sirens
A man is driving down the road and his car breaks down near a monastery.
He goes to the monastery, knocks on the door, and says, 'My car Broke down. Do you think I could stay the night?'
The Monks graciously accept him, feed him dinner, even fix his car.
As the man tries to fall asleep, he hears a strange sound. A sound unlike anything he's ever heard before.
The Sirens that nearly seduced Odysseus into crashing his ship come To his mind.
He doesn't sleep that night. He tosses and turns trying to figure out what could possibly be making such a seductive sound.
The next morning, he asks the Monks what the sound was, but they say, 'We can't tell you. You're not a Monk.'
Distraught, the man is forced to leave.
Years later, after never being able to forget that sound, the man Goes back to the monastery and pleads for the answer again.
The Monks reply, 'We can't tell you. You're not a Monk.'
The man says, 'If the only way I can find out what is making that beautiful sound is to become a Monk, then please, make me a Monk.'
The Monks reply, 'You must travel the earth and tell us how many blades of grass there are and the exact number of grains of sand. When you find these answers, you will have become a Monk.'
The man sets about his task.
After years of searching he returns as a gray-haired old man and Knocks on the door of the monastery. A Monk answers. He is taken before a gathering of all the Monks.
'In my quest to find what makes that beautiful sound, I travelled The earth and have found what you asked for:
By design, the world is in a state of perpetual change. Only God knows what you ask. All a man can know is himself, and only then if he is honest and reflective and willing to strip away self deception.'
The Monks reply, 'Congratulations. You have become a Monk. We shall now show you the way to the mystery of the sacred sound.'
The Monks lead the man to a wooden door, where the head monk says, 'The sound is beyond that door.'
The Monks give him the key, and he opens the door.
Behind the wooden door is another door made of stone.
The man is given the key to the stone door and he opens it, only to find a door made of ruby.
And so it went that he needed keys to doors of emerald, pearl and diamond.
Finally, they come to a door made of solid gold. The sound has become very clear and definite. The Monks say, 'This is the last key to the last door.'
The man is apprehensive to no end. His life's wish is behind that door!
With trembling hands, he unlocks the door, turns the knob, and slowly pushes the door open. Falling to his knees, he is utterly amazed to discover the source of that haunting and seductive sound........
But I can't tell you what it is because you're not a Monk.
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