Instead of changing your own habits here in 2012, make one change for someone else: your kids.

Stop giving them cereal.

Even the healthiest cereals are usually just a blend of different kinds of carbs: sugar and some of the worst grains imaginable (and don’t believe those “made with whole grains” labels — because that doesn’t make this stuff any healthier).

Some cereals are more than half sugar.

Environmental Working Group recently took a closer look at the ingredients labels of some of the most common and popular cereals and found that both Kellogg’s Honey Smacks and Post Golden Crisp are more than half sugar by weight — 55.6 percent and 51.9 percent, respectively.

Number three was almost there — Kellogg’s Froot Loops Marshmallow is 48.3 percent sugar.

Froot Loops by itself was already heavy in sugar (41.4 percent, coming in at number 10) — but when they added the marshmallows, they went for the record… and actually fell just a little short.

Better luck next time, Team Froot Loop.

And the Quaker Oats man, who’s supposed to represent old-fashioned purity? He’s actually responsible for FOUR of the top ten most sugar-soaked cereals: three flavors of Cap’n Crunch and something called Oh!s, which appear to be sugar-coated Cheerios.

You can see the full report here, which also features some helpful comparisons — like the fact that those Honey Smacks contain more sugar than a Hostess Twinkie.

Even the healthy-sounding Wheaties Fuel — breakfast of champions, but with “fuel,” right? — has more sugar than that Twinkie.

And a single cup of Honey Nut Cheerios has more sugar than three Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies.

When a Twinkie or Chips Ahoy cookies turn out to be the better choice, you know you created something special.

EWG has some alternatives for parents looking for better options — like unfrosted Mini Wheats and original Kix, which I think refers to the kicking and screaming kids do when they find out their Honey Smacks have been replaced by a “healthier” option.

In reality, cereal in general isn’t a healthy option for breakfast. If you’re in charge of mornings in your house, cook up something fresh each day instead — make it something all of you can eat together, and everybody wins.

Forget the low-fat mantra the mainstream has been chanting for generations now, because the consensus is quietly changing.

Now, top researchers from the nation’s leading institutions are singing a new tune, because they’re finally recognizing that fat on the belly isn’t caused by fat on the dinner plate–but by the sugar and other carbs hidden inside the staples of the modern American diet.

An eye-popping report in the Los Angeles Times offers a who’s who of big names joining the Carbohydrate Tea Party: Harvard, Duke, Tufts and UC Davis are throwing the sugar overboard and embracing a common-sense approach that can save millions of lives.

Let’s hope it’s not too late–because the latest research shows that today’s teens are already suffering from the earliest warning signs of sugar overload.

Researchers have found that adolescents who consume the most white stuff already have the cardiovascular risk factors that once appeared only in middle age or beyond.

These sugar-addicted teens have lower levels of HDL (“good”) cholesterol, and higher levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and triglycerides.

Naturally, they’re also far more likely to be overweight and are even showing signs of insulin resistance, putting them at risk for diabetes, according to the study in Circulation.

The researchers used data from the National Health and Nutrition Survey, and found that today’s teens now eat or drink a quarter pound of sugar every single day–nearly double the consumption of kids the same age back in the late 1970s.

And if that keeps up, we’re facing a dark future–because if there’s ever been a single ingredient responsible for more death and disease than sugar, I haven’t seen it.

Eliminating sugar in all its forms, even without following an otherwise strict low- carb diet, would do more for your overall health than any other single dietary change.

And getting rid of the rest of the bad carbs will positively transform you.

But if you don’t want to take my word for it, now you can listen to Harvard:

“If Americans could eliminate sugary beverages, potatoes, white bread, pasta, white rice and sugary snacks, we would wipe out almost all the problems we have with weight and diabetes and other metabolic diseases,” Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, told the Times.

Maybe it’s time for the low-carb craze to mount a comeback.

Anyone can shed a few pounds–the hard part is keeping the weight off for good.

A new study lights the way to post-diet success, and all you need to do is avoid the sugars and other bad carbs that probably led to your weight gain in the first place.

Easier said than done, I know–but maybe this study will help give you the motivation you need to finally win the battle of the bulging bellies. Researchers have found that the greatest post-diet success comes to those who stick to foods low on the glycemic index.

Those are generally the low-carb foods that won’t cause spikes in blood sugar levels.

The researchers followed 773 overweight and obese adults from eight European countries who lost an average of 24 pounds during two months of low-fat dieting.

Then, they placed the dieters on one of five different “maintenance” plans: low protein, high glycemic; low protein, low glycemic; high protein, low glycemic; high protein, high glycemic; and a control group that didn’t follow any single plan.

After six months, most of them regained a little weight. But the ones who followed the high-protein, low-glycemic diet regained 2 pounds less than those who ate more carbs and less protein, according to the study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study suffered from a high dropout rate–just 548 of the dieters were able to stick with it until the end. But again, the low-carb eaters did best: Just 26 percent of them dropped out, versus 37 percent of the high-carb, low-protein dieters.

The one flaw here is that the glycemic index isn’t always the best way to look at carbs. For example, ice cream and peanut M&Ms rank relatively low, but that doesn’t make them healthy.

If you want an easier time choosing your foods, ditch the charts and get back to basics. Pass on all the bad carbs–especially sugars, starches and refined grains.

Even healthier whole grains can sabotage a diet, so limit them–and even then, only eat them after you’ve reached your weight-loss goal.

And whatever you do, don’t let those sugars sneak back into your life–that’s how dieters fall off the wagon.

In addition to successful weight loss, low-carb diets can also help you to lower your blood pressure, keep your cholesterol levels within a healthy range and even lower your risk for diabetes and heart disease.

September 2008 PDF

Eat your way off diabetes
A drug-free plan that can slash glucose levels

There’s an old saying about digging your grave with a fork and a knife. As it turns out, that adage may be true: The single greatest contributor to your developing type-2 diabetes could be your food choices.

But who could fault you? With all the conflicting nutritional advice, it’s a wonder we don’t bump into ourselves trying to navigate grocery store aisles. Good fat, bad fat, good carb, bad carb—I talk with patients all the time who are on the road to type-2 diabetes, and who had no idea they were eating so poorly despite following these popular “guidelines.”

But I’m going to let you in on a secret I share with those patients—just as you can eat your way into type-2 diabetes, by making some better food choices you often can eat your way back to health again.

I’ve convinced many of my patients that drugs are not their only recourse in dealing with type-2 diabetes. I have a strategy that takes a lot more work than just popping a pill—but it’s worth it in the long run.

I’m going to show you how my plan worked for one of my patients, Jim, and how it can work for you too.

Facing down disease

Jim is a 52-year-old patient of mine. I met him when he showed up at our small, local hospital suffering from pneumonia. Turned out he also had new onset diabetes, with a sky-high fasting-blood-sugar reading in the 300s.

It didn’t get that way overnight. Diabetes is a long-latency disease, which means it was in the making for at least 10 years before coming on stage and sending Jim’s blood-sugar level into the stratosphere. But Jim did have one early warning: His father had diabetes too and ended up dying of a heart attack at 60. Heart disease is the most common complication of diabetes.

Jim wanted a fix that didn’t include a bottle of pills. He was open to making lifestyle changes, which, as you know, is the first thing I recommend. And guess what? It took less than six months to fix his blood-sugar problem without a drug in sight.

I’m going to show you how to do it too, but first it’s important to understand diabetes and the mechanics of how it affects your body.

Behind the curtain

Diabetes is defined as a fasting blood glucose (FBG) level of 125 or more. Prediabetes consists of having an FBG level of 100 to 124. In fact, a FBG of 90 or more merits attention.

Type-2 diabetes accounts for more than 95 percent of all diabetes in the United States. The main problem is insulin resistance (which means your cells are refusing to cooperate with the insulin in your body). The development of insulin resistance starts in your digestive system, which breaks down whatever carbs you eat into glucose (i.e. blood sugar).

Forget everything you think you know about carbs. We need carbs—they’re the most efficient fuel for energizing our bodies. The problems begin when we overdose on just one type of carb for too long.

Further, there are no such things as “good” and “bad” carbs—it’s just a matter of where they fall on the glycemic index (GI). The GI gives you a sense of how quickly the sugar in the foods you eat is entering your bloodstream as glucose and causing the trademark blood sugar and insulin “spikes.” You don’t have to give up your favorite carbs—you just have to practice moderation and balance. Get a good GI guide that shows you whether a food is high on the GI scale, then balance that selection with something that’s lower.

When you don’t pay attention to the GI scale, problems with insulin are bound to develop. Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas, and “insulin resistance” is just what the phrase implies: Your cells stage a rebellion, resisting the efforts of insulin to do its job and escort glucose into your cells, where it can be burned as energy. Next thing you know, you have a backlog of glucose idling its engine in your bloodstream. That excess sugar in your blood is basically a time bomb.

Reevaluate your food options

I hope that by now I have convinced you of the need to balance what you eat to keep your blood sugar in check. Jim had failed to do this for years and was experiencing the grave results. Like most of my diabetic patients, Jim thought he was making decent food choices, but he was wrong. Here are two dietary truths I share with my diabetic patients––and they tend to be quite surprised:

1) You must avoid “white death”: A lot of folks have taken up the “Fat is Bad” mantra and rushed to purchase “low fat” foods—which often are a mother lode of white sugar and white flour. “Low fat” should be read as “cheap, carbohydrate-rich, edible manure,” courtesy of the fat cats at Big Food corporations.

2) You need fat: I can’t emphasize this enough: Eat fat. Overall, fat consumption has decreased over the last 30 years (except for people who eat fast food daily). I think it’s no coincidence that as fat consumption has dropped in this country, diabetes cases have skyrocketed. Fats provide vitamins A, D, E and K, vitamins that protect your heart, your metabolism, and your immune and nervous systems. Fats support hormone production and electrical functions. They’re also the clean-burning energy source your body prefers.

But not just any kind of fat will do. Trans fats (a.k.a. hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated ones) are lethal. Here’s a mantra to memorize: Increases shelf life? Decreases human life. Trans fats are found in thousands of processed foods—mainly packaged baked goods, snack foods, salad dressings, margarines, and french fries (sad but true, I know). Trans fats will be here with the cockroaches when the world ends.

The saturated fats we’ve been eating since the beginning of time in dairy and meat products are better—as long as they have not been tampered with. The mischief begins when hormones, antibiotics and pesticide residue enter the picture, which is why you need to choose organic dairy products and meat.

You have a picture now of what not to eat. Now I’m going to put the pieces together for you and show you a diet that can keep type-2 diabetes out of your life.

A blood-sugar-friendly diet

The diet I prescribe to patients looking to shed their type-2 diabetes requires discipline, but the results are worth it. Here’s a typical day’s worth of food and snacks.

Breakfast: Eat a couple of eggs (try boiling them and adding a pat of butter) plus an apple with chopped nuts. You’ll get the vitamins and filling proteins you need to avoid hunger and develop an ample supply of energy. Try a glass of unsweetened green tea as your beverage, which will give you a rich supply of antioxidants.

Many of my diabetic patients had been starting their days with over-processed cereals, skim milk and a cup of coffee. If you’re looking to avoid diabetes, this is a disaster. Skim milk consists of sugar and protein, and when combined with some fake-food dry cereal is guaranteed to spike blood sugar and lead to cravings by midmorning.

Midmorning snack: Instead of reaching for a doughnut at midmorning, opt for some walnuts, almonds or pecans, or a piece of cheese, plus a large glass of filtered water.

Lunch: For many people, lunch means a sandwich. That’s OK if you eat the right type of sandwich. Use one slice of very dense whole-grain bread from a local bakery, along with organic meats and cheeses. Add a big salad or a bowl of soup (which can include beans, whole grains and vegetables).

Afternoon snack: By late afternoon, grab some nuts or cheese again or some leftovers from lunch. No more potato chips, candy or soda pop.

Dinner: Your dinner should include a piece of fish, chicken or organic beef or lamb (from a pasture-fed animal) plus a plate piled high with vegetables (mostly the non-starchy green-leaf variety, such as bok choy, broccoli, kale or collard greens), and another salad. For dessert, try a piece of fruit—it’s a good way to savor a bit of sweetness without blowing your blood sugar sky high.

Tips and tricks

There are some simple tricks you can use to augment your diet—shake cinnamon onto your fruit and nuts, since cinnamon lowers blood sugar. Use apple cider vinegar on your salads, as research has shown that it significantly reduces blood-sugar and insulin levels after meals.

Take a good once-daily supplement. I recommend Every Man’s One Daily or Every Woman’s One Daily from New Chapter. Also, take a daily tablespoon of Carlson’s Cod Liver Oil for healthy vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids, both important for their favorable effects on inflammation and blood-sugar levels.

Finally, consider adding some Rhodiola rosea, one of a class of adaptogens that can aid in balancing the internal workings of your body. One study showed that Rhodiola can significantly reduce blood glucose.

Get some exercise and manage your stress. Building muscle and losing weight will improve your insulin sensitivity, and getting a handle on stress will lower your body’s production of cortisol, which fuels insulin resistance. Several times a day, take a 60-second time-out, during which you slow your breathing down to six breaths per minute. It’ll make a difference.

A home run

By sticking to my diet and making the necessary lifestyle changes, I have seen diabetic patients achieve remarkable results without drugs. After just six months, Jim lost 30 pounds and his fasting sugar levels went back to normal—under 100. (Remember: They were originally in the 300s!) His glycated hemoglobin reading dropped from 9.3 to 5.7. Glycated hemoglobin (hemoglobin A1C) gives you a three-month measure of your average blood-sugar. Although most doctors don’t wave the red flag until it’s over 7.0, anything over 5.8 suggests progression toward diabetes.

Jim’s results may seem remarkable, but I promise you they are not. If you’re looking to get your type-2 diabetes under control, stick to my diet. Clip this article and post it to your refrigerator door, then refer back to it often. Change what you eat and how you manage your life, and you will see improvements. With a little discipline, you really can eat your way to being diabetes-free.

Balance your blood sugar with magnesium

Nearly half of all Americans are not getting the 400 mg of magnesium per day needed in their diets. It plays a major role in insulin and glucose metabolism. Get it naturally from these sources:

• Whole-grain breads and cereals
• Beans: varieties include lima, black, and navy
• Avocados
• Pumpkin seeds
• Leafy green vegetables: includes Swiss chard, spinach, mustard and turnip greens
• Broccoli

Dr. Inglis recommends…

More great menu items for managing blood sugar

Breakfast

• Eggs with a banana-almond smoothie
• Whole oat groats and hulled barley (soak overnight) topped with nuts and berries

Lunch

• Salad: romaine lettuce and your choice of vegetables, topped with black beans
• Steamed bok choy and broccoli over brown rice
• Soup: navy beans, barley and a variety of vegetables with a side of hearty bread and a pat of butter

Dinner

• Whole-wheat pasta topped with organic ground-beef meat sauce
• Whole-wheat tortillas with your choice of black beans or organic ground-beef, cheese, and heavy on the veggies
• Grilled organic chicken breasts with steamed kale or collard greens with brown rice

Snacks & desserts

• Small plate of sliced pear or apple with a portion of cheese
• Baked berry or apple-betty made with a whole-oat, chopped-almond and cinnamon-rich topping

10 ways to stay eagle-eyed for life

Your vision provides as much as 80 percent of your sensory input. You want to preserve it at any cost, because it has an enormous impact on your quality of life. You have a couple of conditions working to erode your eyesight. Cataracts are the chief cause of vision loss in both developing and developed countries and are the leading cause of blindness worldwide. As if that weren’t enough, age-related macular degeneration (AMD) has become the bane of the “golden years,” currently affecting as many as 20 million elderly Americans.

Most physicians still believe that progression to either of these conditions is inevitable, and they’ll wait to intervene until you start exhibiting symptoms. This type of “reactive” medicine could cost you your eyesight. You’re better off focusing on a variety of proven prevention strategies, running the gamut from nutrition to lifestyle choices, that can help keep your eyes healthy.

Here are 10 areas you can focus on to help promote a lifetime of good eye health:

Use vitamins as a first line of defense

Vitamins A, B, C and E play vital roles in eye health. You can get plenty of these vitamins if you are smart about food choices. Numerous studies have shown that a good way to fill up on vitamin C, thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2) and niacin (B3) is with a whole-food diet. It should be a smorgasbord of vividly colored vegetables and whole grains. For vitamin E, I prefer to see patients supplement with food-based multivitamins (available from New Chapter or Mega Food) that include all four tocopherols. Get your preformed vitamin A (retinol) from cod-liver oil, up to 10,000 units a day for most folks. Higher doses may be risky for smokers, people with liver disease stemming from alcohol abuse, or women who are pregnant.

Incorporate sulfur-containing foods into your diet

Glutathione is an eye-supportive antioxidant that works as a major free-radical scavenger in the human lens. It’s found in sulfur-containing foods like onions, garlic, avocados, cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts, turnips, and cabbage), asparagus, and watermelon—all of which you should eat to your heart’s content. Glutathione boosters include alpha lipoic acid, MSM and N-acetylcysteine (NAC). Astronauts, who are exposed to high levels of oxidative stress-producing UV lights, supplement with as much as 3,000 mg of NAC per day. As for us earthbound folks, we can usually manage this need through nutrition.

Learn to love the yolk

Lutein and zeaxanthin are sibling carotenoid antioxidants found in abundance in leafy green vegetables and egg yolks. Because they’re fat-soluble, you’d be well advised to make sure your diet includes adequate amounts of healthy fats. Lutein and zeaxanthin are present in high amounts in the retina and lens—more so than beta carotene, found in orange-colored fruits and vegetables such as carrots. Folks with early cataracts or AMD should include 6 mg daily of supplemental lutein.

For extra supplemental lutein, Jarrow Formulas Lutein is an excellent, widely available choice. (Go to www.jarrow.com to locate a store near you.) For general prevention, getting 2 mg included in a multivitamin is recommended.

Get your amino acids

Taurine is an interesting amino acid, because it’s the only one that circulates freely on its own through your bloodstream and tissues. Capable of truly multitasking in the body, it helps stabilize biologic membranes in addition to being a useful mood stabilizer and a calmative and cardio-protective agent. It’s the most abundant amino acid in the retina and is known to protect the eye from toxins. For the eye, taurine deficiency is common in people with the retinal degeneration associated with AMD. Consider a supplemental dose of 1,000 mg daily. Taurine can be found naturally in fresh fish and meat.

Mine for minerals in your food choices

It’s not difficult to come up deficient in mineral intake—especially when you consider our food is being grown in increasingly mineral-depleted soil. But minerals are necessary for your eye health.

Zinc, magnesium, and selenium are key multitasking minerals, which means they work as cofactors in your body. The retina has some of the highest concentrations of zinc found in the body. Zinc is found primarily in meat, poultry, and fish and other types of seafood, especially oysters. Magnesium, which supports healthy blood flow to the eye, is found in leafy green vegetables and a variety of nuts. Selenium has been linked to cataract prevention. It’s found in whole grains, shellfish, and especially Brazil nuts—a couple per day can supply your daily requirement.

There’s no need to supplement with more than 200 mcg of selenium per day, as toxicity may kick in with regular ingestion of as little as 750 grams per day.

In one study, high-dose zinc sulfate (100 mg per day) significantly slowed the progression of AMD. While high doses of zinc can suppress the immune system, forAMD sufferers the benefits generally outweigh the risks.

If you don’t have AMD already, 15 to 30 mg per day in a supplement should be sufficient. Also, look for a supplement that includes 2 mg of copper, as supplemental zinc of 30 mg per day or more can reduce copper levels.

Eat more fish

A building block of every cell membrane in the body—and a key player in eye health—is DHA. It’s one of the two key fish-source omega-3 fatty acids that I recommend you look for when choosing an omega-3 supplement. It supports the health of your retinas, improves night vision and hand-eye coordination, and makes up 30 percent to 50 percent of the retinal photoreceptors responsible for light sensitivity. You can obtain it naturally in such fatty cold-water fish as salmon, mackerel, herring, and sardines. Go one better, and get at least 1,000 mg of DHA from cod-liver oil. In one study, the combination of fish-based omega-3 fatty acids (DHA and EPA) in conjunction with acetyl-l-carnitine (1,000 mg) and coenzyme Q10 (100 mg) improved and stabilized vision in the elderly.

Use time-tested herbs

Ginkgo, sage, bilberry and milk thistle all have a role in eye support. Ginkgo (160 mg twice per day) has been shown to increase retinal blood flow by up to 23 percent. Sage also improves circulation. Unlike ginkgo, which can be excitatory for some people, sage is calming. Herbalists recommend 2 grams orally twice per day. Bilberry jam was used by RAF pilots in World War II to help support their night vision. Bilberries (similar to blueberries) and bilberry jam can be tasty additions to your diet. Bilberry is also found in many combination eye-support supplements.

Your liver supplies important substances that aid in molecular repair of the eye, including glutathione (which I mentioned earlier). To help support your liver while it’s supporting your eye health, I recommend you take the time-honored milk thistle (150 mg two or three times per day) to boost liver function.

Be wary of drug-treatment effects

If you’re taking any medication regularly, play it safe and wear sunglasses whenever you’re outside. More than 300 common drugs are known photosensitizers, which means they lead to increased light sensitivity. Cholesterol-lowering “statin” drugs, such as Lipitor, can diminish glutathione production in the liver (and that’s just one thing they do to your liver). Tylenol may also be liver-toxic, even in small amounts (over 4 grams per day, and as little as 2 grams daily if you drink even moderate amounts of alcohol each day). Corticosteroids (e.g. prednisone and hydrocortisone) are known to raise the incidence of both cataracts and glaucoma.

The danger is most pronounced with the topical steroids used to treat eye inflammation and allergies. These medications are best avoided, so ask your eye doctor for an alternative.

Wear sunglasses

Taking medication isn’t the only reason you should don sunglasses. Excessive sun exposure and high altitudes have long been known to raise the frequency of cataracts and AMD. (Astronauts who go into space even once have a higher incidence of cataracts.) One study found that those who reported higher levels of sun exposure than their peers were able to cut their risk in half for developing deposits on their retinas (which signal degeneration)––just by wearing sunglasses. The damage from sun exposure is cumulative over a lifetime, so children especially should be encouraged to wear sunglasses.

Avoid lifestyle risks

There are many lifestyle-related risk accelerators that can lead to eye disease. These include smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, not exercising, having diabetes, high blood pressure, hypothyroidism, lack of sleep, poor nutrition and poor stress-handling skills. They all contribute to increasing your chance of developing eye problems.

Postmenopausal women have higher rates of AMD than do men. While hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may be beneficial, I wouldn’t recommend it simply for this reason.

Remember, you’re in control of your lifestyle. Make sure you eat plenty of fatty cold-water fish, leafy green vegetables like spinach and kale, and fruits like blueberries and grapes. Round out your food selections with nuts and extra-virgin olive oil. Finally, make sure you get a regular eye exam from a specialist. Ask your primary-care doctor how often you should get one, since individual need varies.

Finally, I recommend you consider taking a good, comprehensive eye-support formula. Mega Food has a well-designed botanical combination eye formula called Vision Strength. Another good product, though more challenging to obtain, is Ocuforce, from Designs for Health. It’s available through many health professionals and some related Web sites.

I don’t care for the commonly prescribed Bausch and Lomb Ocuvite products, although they were used successfully in studies. Unfortunately, they contain inferior forms of zinc and vitamin E. Your eyes deserve the best. Getting the best products may cost a little more, but good eye health is well worth the price.

Setting the record straight on vitamin E

It seems as though the medical community thrives on creating confusion—one day something is good for you, and the next it isn’t. The reason for this is often a simple one: The “studies” that some mainstream docs cite as gospel are frequently funded—or at least influenced—by special interests. One of the things I’m here to do is help you separate the genuine medical information from the bunk—and a lot of the information that has emerged lately on vitamin E is pure bunk.

Vitamin E is classified as an antioxidant that pgle

rotects fats found in human tissues from free-radical damage. It stabilizes cell membranes, regulates vitamin A, protects red blood cells, and helps control cell division, which could possibly confer an anti-cancer benefit. So why is it getting a bad rap?

A great deal of attention has been focused on vitamin E and heart-disease prevention, and doctors often cite two prominent, negative studies. In one, a review of 19 clinical trials concluded that long-term use of 400 IU or more of vitamin E per day was associated with a small 4 percent increase in overall risk of death. In another study, people with heart disease who took 400 IU daily developed heart failure more often than did those taking a placebo—5.8 percent vs. 4.2 percent. I cite these two studies because doctors will often use them as “proof” that vitamins are no good.

Risk-benefit analysis

But here’s what you won’t hear: Both studies had serious methodological flaws. Both studies—like the vast majority of vitamin E clinical research—used only the alpha-tocopherol form. Researchers seem to have fixated solely on this one form because it’s more potent in humans than are the other forms. This is a classic example of an archaic, limited-reductionist approach.

Another thing you won’t hear is that the benefits of vitamin E far outweigh the “risks” found in these flawed studies. High-dose supplemental vitamin E (usually 400 to 800 IU daily of the alpha-tocopherol variety) has been used to treat a wide variety of complaints. It speeds the healing of burns, provides immune-system support (particularly for the elderly), and has been known to benefit patients suffering from leg pain due to poor circulation, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and age-related macular degeneration (for more on eye health, go to page 4). I hate to think that people suffering from these conditions are being scared away, quite unnecessarily, from vitamin E.

Let’s face it—vitamin E has been an important dietary staple throughout history. We know from the research of nutrition expert Dr. Weston L. Price in the 1930s that many pre-industrial, primitive diets around the world supported excellent health and vitality. And those diets were rich in key vitamins, including vitamin E.

Food sources for vitamin E include wheat germ, nuts and seeds, whole grains, egg yolks, and leafy green vegetables. Foods that feature vitamin E often contain other nutrients that help support its function, including selenium, unsaturated fats, sulfur-based amino acids, and antioxidants like vitamin C and beta carotene.

Here are my common-sense recommendations: If you’re going to use vitamin E to treat a condition (the way you would use a drug), use a full-spectrum product with all four tocopherols and tocotrienols, such as Carlson E-Gems. (Go to www.carlsonlabs.com to locate a store near you.)

Other full-spectrum products include New Chapter’s Vitamin E and Standard Process’ Wheat Germ Oil Fortified™. I highly recommend either, as it would be reasonable to expect overall health benefits from a food-based product.

CAUTION: Supplemental vitamin E in higher doses over 400 IU has blood-thinning effects. Usually desirable, this could actually pose a hazard to people on the blood-thinning drug Coumadin (warfarin).

Vitamin E––naturally

• Sunflower seeds
• Almonds
• Peanuts
• Spinach
• Kiwi
• Broccoli
• Mango
• Wheat germ

Your Questions Answered

When your heart takes a hit, you can fight back

Q. I’m 62 years old and have been told I have congestive heart failure. I have a history of high blood pressure and am now on three drugs for it. My doctor tells me I had one or more silent heart attacks in the past because my heart isn’t pumping normally. My ejection fraction is 35 percent—whatever that means. I’m now taking a water pill, Lasix, to help the swelling in my legs and feet. I’ve finally quit smoking and have become serious about my diet and weight, but isn’t there something more I can do? I don’t want to live on Lasix the rest of my life.
––A. Potts, Charlotte, NC

A:The short answer is yes—there’s plenty you can do. In particular, there are specific nutrients that can help your heart to pump more efficiently.

First, let’s talk about your ejection fraction. This number reflects how much blood is being pumped out per heartbeat. Based on your heart’s ejection fraction, you’ve lost 25 percent to 30 percent of your heart’s strength. So now there’s back-up pressure in the vessels leading to your heart. As a result, fluid is pushed out of these blood vessels into tissue—mainly in the lungs and liver but also in the legs and feet. Another name for visible swelling due to fluid build-up is edema. All this waterlogged tissue is what the term “congestive” refers to.

When your doctor took his assessment, he probably saw a combination of things. One most likely was an abnormally thickened left ventricle, which is common in patients who have been dealing with high blood pressure for years. Another may have been some degree of damage from a silent heart attack. In a heart attack, the vessels serving the heart are blocked, preventing blood from delivering essential oxygen to the hard-working heart muscle. You end up with irreversible damage—a permanent scarring. A silent heart attack can happen in the absence of symptoms and occurs in up to 25 percent of cases.

And in case you weren’t aware, your heart is an energy hog. Many folks with CHF are functionally deficient in key nutrients required to produce energy in the heart muscle. These key nutrients are magnesium, carnitine, coenzyme Q10 and ribose. Many people with congestive heart failure are also deficient in vitamin D and vitamin B2 (riboflavin).

For vitamin D, ask your doctor to check your 25-hydroxy vitamin D level. Make sure it’s between 40 and 60 nanograms per milliliter, which for most folks will require 1,000 to 2,000 IUs of D3 daily. Most folks with CHF have some degree of vitamin D deficiency.

Here’s a roundup of nutraceuticals that you should consider adding to your daily regimen. They’ll help support and energize your heart.

1) Magnesium: Any form but the “oxide” version is good, so look for citrate, glycinate, orotate, or lactate. Take 400 to 800 mg daily.

2) D-ribose: Take 10 to 15 grams. It’s a huge energy-restorer and will help you to feel better than ever. I recommend you take a look at the product from Valen Labs (www.valenlabs.com). It includes both ribose and magnesium, which is also an effective treatment for chronic fatigue ass puociated with CHF.

3) L-Carnitine: 2,000 to 3,000 mg a day.

4) Coenzyme Q10: Take 100 to 300 mg in the gel-cap form. I put my wife’s grandmother on this while her ejection fraction was 40 percent. It increased to 50 percent after coenzyme Q10 treatment.

5) Vitamin B: Obtain this important vitamin through a whole-food diet that includes bananas, chicken breasts, tuna, liver, and beef tenderloin (from organic sources).

6) Food-based multivitamins: Use of multivitamins is the easiest way to give your body much of what it may be lacking. New Chapter (www.newchapter.com), Mega Food (www.megafood.com), and Standard Process (www.standardprocess.com) all carry multivitamins that I recommend highly.

7) Heart-healthy omega-3s: Take 2,000 to 3,000 grams of fish oil that includes DHA and EPA. (You’ll need to add up the amounts on the label.)

I owe a huge thanks to Frank Sinatra, M.D. (not to be confused with “Ol’ Blue Eyes”), an integrative cardiologist who spells this all out in his excellent book The Sinatra Solution, which I consider recommended reading for anyone suffering from CHF.

By the way, you may be able to eliminate the need for Lasix entirely and reduce—or even eliminate—the need for your blood-pressure medications with the right combination of these supplemental nutrients, exercise, and a whole-food diet.