Did you ever hear the old saying "Where there's confusion, there's opportunity"
In my opinion that "old saying" is applicable today, late November 2008 with regard to the economy, international stability or health care. We are going to talk about health care for a few minutes.
Have you observed the state of health care today in America regarding most patients and their confusion about their health conditions. It seems that they are more confused they are, the more open they are to consider medical procedures that translate into profit for those promoting them.
Let's look into what is going on. Some heart operations are as common as a tonsillectomy was 50-60 years ago. It's really rare to find an American over 60 years of age who isn't taking some sort of medication for a cardiovascular problem. Also men in the 30-40 range are increasingly being prescribed for cholesterol-lowering drugs.
Now there are many studies out there that have shown that a high-fiber diet is effective in lowering the "bad" cholesterol level, but do the doctors and medical establishment as a whole recommend and provide to their patients for a plan for lowering the cholesterol before prescribing a drug? Generally no, drug first, then maybe a suggestion for a better diet and some exercise. Why don't they provide a strict diet and exercise plan first and consider drugs as a last resort. Money. Many times the doctors get financial benefits for prescribing drugs. They get nothing for a recommendation for diet and exercise.
Let's get down to discussing the subject of this article. More than 75 million American have high blood pressure, and it is growing every year. You are not surprised that high blood pressure is a $5 billion-a-year business for the drug companies - are you?
Did you know that doctors at the University of Chicago when studying the Oriental custom of using celery to lower hypertension discovered that celery contains the chemical 3-n-butyl phthalide. This smooths the muscles lining the blood vessels, which increases the vessel diameter and allows for easier blood flow at lower pressures.
When using the recommended Oriental dosages to lower mild cases of high blood presume, one would eat about 4 ounces of celery daily. This is about a cup of celery chopped up. Of course you could take the equivalent of the 1-cup of celery and juice it with carrots and an apple and get even more benefit. The final results was that an individual only needed to stay on this regimen for two weeks to begin to see results in a lower blood pressure. But it must be consistent. Juice every day and that means EVERY day.
As a side benefit, celery is good for anyone that has stiffness in the joints. It's the sodium in celery that does it. A cup of celery or the equivalent in juice contains about 100mg of sodium.
So, celery is really a 10-cent treatment for a billion dollar business.
One more word about cholesterol. We have all heard in the last 20+ years that "cholesterol kills" and that we must eat cholesterol-free foods to keep us from getting heart disease. The "real truth" is that the cholesterol-free foods like margarine. Do you cruise the supermarket aisle looking for "no cholesterol" items? Well, maybe what you don't know is that these cholesterol-free foods have a good chance of being hydrogenated. Hydrogenation is a process that converts liquid oils into semisolid fats by adding an extra hydrogen atom onto the fat molecule. Sure these altered foods are cholesterol-free, but they deplete your levels of essential fatty acids, lead to faulty cell wall construction and aberrant nerve tissue formation, and it could even add to the cardiovascular damage and CANCER.
So my advice is to not even consider any of the cholesterol-free, fat-free food items. They are garbage and offer minimal nutrient value to your body.
What do we expect from food? Vitamins and minerals to maintain our all important health and immune system. A strong immune system is what keeps from getting disease including cancer. Nutrients from food alone these days is so low that we must consider supplementation with immune boosting products such as a blend of medicinal mushrooms or an extract of cat's claw. Stay away from cholesterol-free products and consider immune boosting supplementation.
