– “Mario Salcedo”

A. What you have in mind is certainly sensible because the initial step in lowering blood cholesterol level especially in people like you whose cholesterol level is only borderline (normal is less than 200 mg/dl) consists simply of lifestyle modifications. Besides, pravastatin along with the other statins, although very effective in lowering blood cholesterol level, are not exactly innocuous.

A high blood cholesterol level is, very often, simply the result of eating food that is rich in cholesterol and saturated fat. Consequently, a high cholesterol blood level can sometimes be brought down to normal by just adhering to a low-fat diet.

However, hypercholesterolemia is not merely a dietary problem. There are other factors associated with the condition including advancing age, genetic make-up, obesity, sedentary lifestyle, excessive alcohol consumption, certain diseases such as diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism, liver disease, and the intake of particular drugs such as birth control pills and thiazides. Thus, often, hypercholesterolemia cannot be controlled by diet alone, other lifestyle modifications and drugs may have to be employed. In your case, maintaining your weight at the present normal level, engaging in a regular exercise program (which you intend to do) and refraining from alcohol will certainly help. But if the lifestyle changes you intend to adopt do not work, you could consider taking cholesterol-lowering drugs.

At present, the most widely used cholesterol lowering drugs are the statins, and pravastatin is one of them. The other members of this group of drugs include atorvastatin, fluvastatin, lovastatin and simvastatin. The statins block the production of cholesterol by the body and facilitate the removal of low density lipoproteins or LDL (bad cholesterol) from the bloodstream.

Statins are routinely prescribed for people who have known heart and blood vessel disease secondary to atherosclerosis because scientific research has already established that regular intake of statins reduces the mortality and cardiovascular morbidity rates in these patients. They are also now being increasingly given to people with high blood cholesterol and other risk factors for heart disease even if these people do not have heart disease.  This is because more recent studies have shown that statins improve survival and reduce the risk of major cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events in these people.

Statins though, are not harmless. They have adverse effects and should thus be taken only under the supervision of a physician. The more severe of these adverse effects include myopathy (i.e., muscle disease), hepatotoxicity (liver damage), peripheral neuropathy, impaired heart contraction and autoimmune diseases.

Likewise, statins can decrease blood cholesterol level to below normal and studies indicate that people with low cholesterol level have higher risk for cancer (lung and blood), respiratory and digestive diseases, violent death (suicide and trauma), and hemorrhagic stroke.

Lastly, it is certainly good that you intend to talk to your physician about how you intend to bring down your blood cholesterol level. Surely, he is the person who is in the best position to advise you on how you can bring and maintain you blood cholesterol to a normal level.

By EDUARDO GONZALES, MD

At some point in our lives, cancer will rear its monstrous head — either to us directly or to the people we love.

With 40% of Americans expected to get some form of cancer, the threat is a disarming and harrowing one.

And according to a new report, American are swimming in a deadly, toxic stew of carcinogenic chemicals which threaten to drag ever more of us into cancer’s waiting jaws.

Who could have guessed that industrial chemicals and pesticides could do such serious damage to the human body?

While this news may not be a shocker to Green Chip Living readers, what you might find shocking is that this report didn’t come from an environmentalist organization, a natural health guru, or an organic farming committee… It came from one of the most mainstream medical coalitions in the country: the President’s Cancer Panel.

The report is called “Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now” and its content echoes the title…

Environmental Hazards

A dividing cancer cell

The crux of the report is that Americans are exposed to around 80,000 chemicals, most of which are either unstudied or understudied in terms of cancer risks. Currently, many chemicals are thought to be safe until proven otherwise — at which point, the damage has already been done.

Chemicals like Bisphonal-A (BPA) have been linked to cancer, but only after years of ubiquity. Just this year, the FDA finally recommended that children limit their exposure to it.

Recommendations in the report explicitly calls for chemical companies embrace “green chemistry” and turn to non-toxic alternatives to existing risky chemicals. It goes on to outline the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry, like designing chemicals using methods that possess little-to-no toxicity to human beings.

At this point, research support for green chemistry is rather limited, but the study cites Michigan’s Green Chemistry Drive as a positive development; the initiative expands education in green chemistry to chemists and chemical engineers.

Who is Most At Risk?

The report stresses that both children and pregnant women are the most susceptible to these carcinogenic chemicals.

Children are particularly at risk for a few reasons:

• Since they’re smaller, exposure to toxins is disproportionately high. Plus, they are slower to metabolize, detoxify and excrete environmental chemicals.

• Children also have lower levels of a chemical binding protein, leaving an open clearing for toxins to reach the vital organs and a child’s blood brain barrier is more porous than adults, opening up their developing brains to carcinogenic chemical exposure.

What Can Regulators Do?

The study recommends that on way in which the government protect consumers is to establish a national database containing all known information on chemicals and their resulting hazards, so people can do their very best to avoid them. This might resemble something of a beefed-up version of the Household Products Database, maintained at the National Institute of Health.

The President’s panel also champions setting appropriate exposure limits, based to the predicted effect of a toxic material.

Historically, many chemical exposure limits were based on “Reference Man” — a hypothetical man, 5’7” and weighing in at 157 pounds. This standard is flawed for obvious reasons: children and woman, who are most at risk, are usually significantly smaller than “Reference Man,” skewing the levels of toxins that an average person could safely handle.

While the EPA states that the organization moved away from the “Reference Man” standards years ago, a new set of appropriate standards has yet to be created. The report suggests quick action on exposure limits.

What Can You Do?

While you’re waiting on regulatory agencies to implement some of the reports systemic recommendations (and considering the government’s glacial pace, that will probably be a while), you can make some personal changes right now.

Here’s a list of the reports suggestions:

1. Eat organic food, grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers;
2. Use glass or ceramics to heat food in a microwave oven, as harmful plastics can leach into your food;
3. Filter your tap water and avoid drinking from plastic bottles;
4. Avoid processed meats, and avoid cooking or charring meats to well-done temperatures;
5. Cut back your cell phone use, or use a hands-free device to reduce exposure to radiation;
6. Reduce exposure to radiation from medical procedures like CT-scans;
7. Check your home radon levels;
8. If you work somewhere containing hazardous chemicals, remove your shoes upon entering your home and wash work clothes separately from the rest of your laundry.

This type of mainstream report is just what the green movement needs to legitimize some of the claims that we’ve been making for years.

It may seem obvious that avoiding pesticides, plastics, and other chemical compounds would reduce the risk of diseases like cancer; but until more studies like this emerge, companies like DOW and Monsanto will keep denying these charges — all the way to the bank.

As Michael Lerner, President of the Commonweal health research agency, noted in the report:

A simple way of thinking about moving to a healthy and sustainable world is that it requires green energy and green chemistry and green products.

And that’s pretty much our motto at Green Chip Living.

We urge you to read the entire report here.

If you’re living a green lifestyle, keep on doing what you’re doing… and in dealing with something as devastating as cancer, it’s worth taking any extra precautions you can.

Be Well,

Jimmy Mengel

Losing It with Jillian premieres on NBC this June 1 at 10pm, but while it hasn’t started, the waterworks have. “I don’t think that I have cried so much in my entire life,” the star added.

It’s simply because she really tries to connect with the families she deals with on the show. She hands out fitness advice, from eating habits to exercise routines, and tries to change lives. It’s a difficult job to undertake, making it look as though she’s losing it along with these people.

“I become very empathic with the families, I think, so I can understand them and get in their heads and try to help them implement solutions that work for them,” Jillian Michaels went on.

That means, the trainer is with the clients practically 24/7. She observes their lifestyle and makes her adjustments accordingly through whatever means and resources that are available.

“Life is an ongoing journey, so we’re coming back to see if they’ve utilized these tools and rebooted their lives,” the Losing It with Jillian star said. Even so, it’s her life that’s changed because of it all as well.

On Losing It with Jillian, fear isn’t exactly what this lady will use to motivate these families. There won’t be as much yelling and forcing people to do what she wants at all.

“Me being in a very different environment automatically makes me kind of vulnerable in a totally different way — being around kids and being a fish out of water,” she explained. “It’s definitely going to present a different side.”

Three ways to look better than just using the scale, if your fitness program is working, No. 1 The way your clothes fit, if your pants are too loose around the waist, and you have more space in your clothing as more than likely lose fat. use tape dress # 2 and scale. The measurement of line size and scale will give you much better information. If the balance remains the same and goes to the waist, then you are losing fat and muscle. If the balance remains the same and the waist up, then you are an accumulation of fat. # 3 site skin caliper dual kit. They are very easy to use and very affordable. Just search Google for them. The reactions are much more accurate than other methods mentioned above. The three # ’s that are important to watch, first whole body fat 2 wt% Fat 3 Lean Body Mass These kits are very easy to use and less than a minute you . . .

The solution is well within our reach, and like every significant achievement, healthy weight loss requires time, planning and perseverance. The most important part of losing weight is to keep in mind that it’s not a diet, but a new lifestyle which must be followed every day. Virtually every diet is destined to fail when viewed as a temporary plan. Only a sustainable dietary modification program with proper exercise will result in permanent weight loss.

Keep an Electronic Food Journal
The best way to develop a weight loss plan is to keep an accurate food journal and record everything eaten in a day. Be honest with your quantities and weigh foods where appropriate. Using one of the many free online food calculators, input the journal results to receive the total calories consumed for each day. Most people are surprised to see the total number of calories, especially when eating out or frequenting fast food restaurants.

After a few days, begin to look at the types of food you eat regularly, especially the high sugar items and refined carbohydrates. While it may be true that each calorie has the same impact on weight regardless of the type, studies demonstrate that many people are metabolically sensitive to calories from high fructose corn syrup and highly processed wheat and corn based foods. From an evolutionary perspective, these are new food groups which create havoc in our body, as it leads to abnormal fat storage and weight gain.

Eat a Well Balanced Diet to Lose Weight
Many fad diets eliminate one or more of the major food groups, resulting in an unsustainable lifestyle and possibly even damaging your health. The only diet which can work is balanced and consists of reduced quantities of lean proteins, nuts, seeds, healthy monounsaturated fats and unlimited raw green vegetables.

he key is to eat healthy quantities of green leafy vegetables such as spinach and spring mix so you become full. Resist the natural urge to eat processed and refined foods which are laden with calories and have been stripped of nutrients.

It’s important to slowly eliminate the most calorie dense food choices such as sweets, breads, fried foods, snacks and soft drinks. Most people can easily eliminate 500 calories per day simply by making a low calorie substitution. This is a good starting goal, as 3,500 calories dropped per week will result in one pound lost.

Most women will want to target approximately 1,200 total calories per day, while men will need around 1,500 calories. Never go below 1,000 calories per day, as the body has certain energy requirements for normal metabolic function which may be jeopardized.

Compliment Diet with Exercise
No weight loss lifestyle plan would be complete without exercise. Physical activity is a great way to achieve an extended calorie burn, but more important are the health benefits from improved blood lipids and blood sugar control as well as lowered blood pressure. Exercise helps tone the different muscle groups in the body and modifies insulin resistance that can alter how fat is stored and burned.

This has a direct effect on weight loss and will also lead to overall improved health as you age. A high intensity workout is not necessary, as just 20 minutes of moderate exercise on most days is enough to reap the rewards and fuel weight loss.

Americans continue to gain pounds at an alarming rate, and appear to have become complacent with their efforts to lose weight. Dedication is required to reach a proper weight, and can only be achieved by committing to a new lifestyle of healthy eating and physical activity. It’s difficult to make the changes necessary to reverse a lifetime of eating processed junk food, but the reward is a natural and healthy weight loss which can be maintained for life

John Phillip