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Berwick Area Heart Support Group
September 2007 newsletter
Next meeting Wednesday September 5th at the day Hospital, Berwick Infirmary from 7.00pm – 9.00pm Guest speaker: Dave Stephens from Northumberland Warm Zone
Northumberland Warm Zone is part of National Energy Action (NEA) a registered charity tasked with helping householders live in warm dry homes. They are a not for profit organisation and carry out free surveys for householders to assess suitability for insulation measures. They also have access to bespoke benefits advice and again this is a free service.
Clients who qualify under their "priority" service, have insulation works carried out completely free and all others qualify for grants under a similar scheme.
The funding comes as part of the government's energy efficiency commitment scheme (EEC).
Active partners are Blyth Valley Borough Council, Wansbeck District Council, Castle Morpeth Borough Council, Tynedale Council, Alnwick District Council, Berwick upon Tweed Borough Council, Northumberland County Council, Northumberland Care Trust and many voluntary sector groups such as Age Concern and local CAB's. The partners they have, all acknowledge the difference they make to clients in helping them into warm dry homes which helps reduce the risks of ill health as well as increasing household income.
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Our speaker for August meeting held on Wed. 1st August was Katie Kennedy. Katie is a State Registered Dietician, now based in the East Midlands and employed by Alpro Soya.
She has only relatively recently taken this post, having previously spent all her working life looking after the dietary needs of various age groups, from children to the elderly within the NHS.. One of the advantages of working in outside business is there is the opportunity to visit groups such as ours and, other public events where she can promote healthy eating options, based on a commonsense approach, without the mention of “the expensive option”, or “theorganic option”
As with many of our speakers now, Katie’s talk was based around a slide show (In computertalk this is now known as a Power Point display)and a lot of what she covered was in last months newsletter.(click here) She did cover the basics of a healthy balanced diet, which many of us try to live by, ie 5 fruit or vegetables a day, (thereis a train of thought that this may rise to8 in the near future),and about keeping saturated fats, salt and sugar to a minimum, and eating plenty of fibre, and the benefits of the different types of fibre. Oat fibre comes very near the top but all fibre is good.
Cholesterol levels were covered as were good and bad cholesterol. ‘Good’ cholesterol is HDL cholesterol, and we can improve our levels of this by including plenty of fruit and vegetables in our diet. This also includes things produced from vegetables and their oils. These are marked on the packet as unsaturated and poly unsaturated fats, whilst the ‘Bad’ Cholesterol is referred to as LDL cholesterol, and is the cholesterol contained in, and produce by our digestion of saturated fats.
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Ideal level for most people
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Ideal level for those at higher risk of heart disease, e.g. People with diabetes, those overweight, and those with high blood pressure
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Total Cholesterol below 5.00 mmol/l
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Total cholesterol below 4.00mmol/l
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LDL(bad) cholesterol below 3.00mmol/l
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LDL (bad)cholesterol below 2.00mmol/l
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HDL cholesterol above 1.00mmol/l
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HDL cholesterol above 1.00mmol/l
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I have never seen this chart printed anywhere before, so I thought I would reproduce it, it may help to understand the make up of cholesterol.
Katie did cover many aspects and benefits of soya, not just milk. Soya is a bean of which there are thousands of varieties. You can now buy a frozen soya bean (It looks like a small broad bean and you cook as if it was, but doesn’t taste as strong as a broad bean). I know Morrisons sell them, also Holland and Barrett have Soya bran that can be sprinkle onto food, but whatever form you take soya in it is,
- Naturally low in saturated fat
- Naturally low in cholesterol
- Naturally contains Omega 3 and 6
- Low in salt
- Contains all 8 essential amino acids
- Available with added calcium
- Dairy and lactose free
- Is used for dairy free probiotic yogurts.
Mentioned above is Omega 3 and 6. We all know that we need these fatty acids and that Soya is not the only source. As our bodies cannot produce these, and we can only get them from our diet, if you are not an oily fish fan, here is another alternative source.
Alpro soya have an online health check for you to find out how healthy you are currently and to help you track your progress as you make more healthy decisions. You can log on to www.alprosoya.com and look out for the life style check
Katie did bring some yogurts and milk (Non dairy drink) for every one to try. I quite enjoyed the yogurt, but the milk will be a bit of an acquired taste I think, (but then they told me that about Guinness when I was but an apprentice drinker) It has a sweet vanilla powdery taste as a drink but its tasty in cereals, (the milk not the Guinness)
Eating soya foods as part of a healthy balanced diet can help to reduce cholesterol. 25 g of soya protein daily as part of a diet low in saturated fats is sufficient; it is the protein on soya products that reduces cholesterol levels.
Thank you Katie for your time.
Wally
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A LITTLE BIT OF THEORY …
This is a kind of irritation you cannot feel: blood tests are needed to detect CHRONIC INFLAMMATION, but it is increasingly recognised as the link between various risk factors and the build-up of problems in arterial health. We are borrowing most of the following from a publication by a leading USA medical university, Johns Hopkins.
Researchers believe that chronic inflammation initiates and speeds the process of atherosclerosis. How does inflammation damage your body and how can it be detected? Read on …
When you read or hear the word "inflammation,” what comes to mind? An infected cut or scrape? Perhaps you think of swollen, congested sinuses or painful, arthritic joints? What about coronary heart disease? It probably wasn’t on the list. Yet a large amount of research now shows that inflammation plays a role -- possibly a major one -- in the development and progression of atherosclerosis, the build-up of fatty plaques that leads to coronary heart disease, heart attacks, and strokes.
The inflammation we are talking about is not the short-term kind that the immune system produces to help the body fight an acute infection or heal a wound. Instead, it is low grade and chronic inflammation - present in the body at low levels day in and day out.
The inflammation - atherosclerosis story begins with risk factors: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, and smoking. These risk factors irritate and disturb the normal biology and activity of the arteries. This irritation in turn stimulates the production of cells and proteins that initiate and fuel inflammation. [Cells are the microscopic living units of our different tissues. Most types of cell multiply and die in a continuous process that renews tissues.]
Ongoing irritation and inflammation by these risk factors eventually injures the delicate tissues of the arteries. This injury stimulates the production of more inflammatory factors and attracts immune-system cells called monocytes that burrow into the arteries where they develop into other cells known as macrophages. Macrophages absorb cholesterol that enters the injured artery. As the cholesterol accumulates, the macrophages are transformed into foam cells, the earliest stage of plaques.
As plaque builds up inside an artery, inflammatory factors make the plaque unstable and prone to rupture or cracking. When a plaque becomes disrupted, its contents may spill into the bloodstream and come into contact with platelets and clotting factors that can produce a blood clot and ultimately a heart attack.
Bottom line – reduce those risk factors and you very promptly reduce the irritation!
News snippet this month …
If you do not know your bloodsugar level or have not had it checked recently, see if your Doctor is willing to get it checked, especially if you have only recently had a heart attack (MI) or ‘event’.
It seems that not only can diabetes cause heart problems, but a heart attack can cause diabetes. It is worth emphasising that lifestyle changes can greatly reduce the risk of both heart disease and diabetes. What is new is that MI seems to be a risk factor for Diabetes
Myocardial infarction more than doubles the risk of new-onset diabetes in the 3 months after the heart attack and leads to a 15-fold increased risk of impaired fasting glucose, according to a study of more than 8,000 MI patients.
[For internet report seehttp://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/MyocardialInfarction/dh/6495
The Primary source is: The Lancet
Source reference: Mozaffarian D et al. "Incidence of new-onset diabetes and impaired fasting glucose in patients with recent myocardial infarction and the effects of clinical and lifestyle risk factors. Lancet 2007; 370: 667-675.]
Phil
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Wally’s Yarn
A guy goes into a seafood restaurant and asks to see the dishes of the day. The waiter wheels over a trolley and the man examines the dishes.
”I'll have the little green squid with the hairy lip, please" says the man.
" O.K." replies the waiter and calls out "Gervais!"
A little French chef appears with a large knife, the waiter instructs the chef to kill the little green squid with the hairy lip.
Gervais is just about to slice at the poor squid when he notices a tear running down its face. Gervais is touched, and admits that he hasn't the heart to kill the squid.
”Not to worry" says the waiter, and calls out "Hans!" at which an enormous German bloke comes out of the kitchen.
”Sir", says the waiter, "this is Hans, the dishwasher. Hans kill that squid!"
The dishwasher wields a huge rolling pin and is just about to bludgeon the little green squid with the hairy lip when it cringes back and gives a little cry.
”I am sorry sir, I just cannot kill the squid," Hans admits, his lower lip trembling.
”Well sir," says the waiter, "it just goes to show...
That Hans that do dishes, can be soft as Gervais - with mild green, hairy lip squid!!!!!!"
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