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With studies claiming the you have a 50% chance of developing Alzheimer’s the older you get, coupled with the fact that we are actually experiencing higher levels of longevity, it is wise to know the odds, isn’t it?

Familiarize yourself with these risk factors (some rather controversial), tomorrow we’ll feature 8 possible protective factors:

** head injury
** hypothyroidism
** advanced maternal age
** low educational attainment
** vascular risk factors (hypertension, raised LDL cholesterol, etc.)
** history of depression
** zinc deficiency or exposure
** stress
** solvent exposure (especially exposure in industry)
** HSV -1 exposure (herpes simplex 1 virus can cause brain damage)
** aluminum exposure
** elevated plasma homocystiene
** thiamine deficiency

When you have a look at these risk factors associated with Alzheimer’s you cannot help but notice how many are somehow related to our lifestyles. Specifically nutrition!

Your health

Libido and Health

Popularity: 52% [?]

Tags: alzheimer, brain, cholesterol, depression, hypertension, longevity, stress

Supplementing with vitamin D has many extremely important health benefits e.g. anti aging qualities, a combination of vitamin C and vitamin D is a very effective barrier against viral infections, vitamin D helps in the prevention of auto immune diseases, etc.

Recently, researchers found a link between inadequate vitamin D in large populations and sudden mass outbreaks of influenza and other viral diseases.5 They pointed out that adequate vitamin D “dramatically stimulates the expression of potent anti-microbial peptides, which exist in neutrophils, monocytes, natural killer cells and epithelial cells lining the respiratory tract, where they play a major role in protecting the lung from infection.”

It’s my opinion that avoiding sugar and refined carbohydrates, while taking in adequate vitamin D (from sunshine and supplements), ascorbic acid and whole foods will ultimately be found much more effective than vaccinations in preventing the flu.

If you’re a serious anti-aging enthusiast, 3,000 to 4,000IU of vitamin D daily should be just a starting point for finding out your individual optimum level. After using that amount for a few months, work with a physician skilled and knowledgeable in nutrition and natural medicine to have your serum calcium and 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels checked.

Tropical levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (60 to 100 nanograms per millilitre) are considered both safe and optimal for the best of health, anti-aging and longevity. Serum calcium is a double-check on vitamin D safety, since taking too much vitamin D will cause your serum calcium to elevate.

If this happens, you should stop supplementing with vitamin D temporarily and use a lower level when you start taking it again even if the 25-hydroxyvitamin D level is at the optimal tropical level.

Vitamin D helps prevent auto immune diseases such as lupus, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. It also promotes healthy bones in children and adults, helps prevent and (if necessary) treat osteoporosis, effectively treats psoriasis (with topical vitamin D) and down-regulates a metabolic pathway that is directly involved in many cases of hypertension.

Research has also demonstrated an 80% reduction in new cases of childhood diabetes.

The benefits are incalculable because supplementing with vitamin D and vitamin C can add many healthy years to your life and give your children a healthy head start in life.

Another fact I’ve come to realize about diet is that is not so much what we eat that is the problem as it is what we don’t eat that has serious health repercussions.

So don’t be naughty take your vitamin D.

Your health

Libido and Health

P.S. For optimum supplements follow this link - Where to Buy?

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Tags: anti aging, diabetes, hypertension, longevity, nutrition, rheumatoid arthritis, vitamin D

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Tags: aging, anxiety, brain, chronic fatigue, depression, diabetes, diet, exercise, healing, health and wellness, heart disease, high blood pressure, hypertension, immune system, libido, natural cures, nutrition, sexual health, smoking, stop smoking, stress, weight loss

A must read: A direct link between heart attack and our emotions. We live in such a stressful world, the fight or flight hormones in our body is working overtime and the result is deteriorating health.

We live our lives in a corner and when somebody or something rattles our cage we want to destroy them, at least mentally. So we cannot help but live in a constant state of anger - well now you know what that pent up emotions are and they can kill you, do something about it today.

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Tired and angry? Both emotions may predict heart attacks
American Heart Association meeting report (article compliments EurekAlert.com)

HONOLULU, April 24 – Anger and exhaustion may result in future heart attacks or sudden cardiac death, according to research presented today at the American Heart Association’s Asia Pacific Scientific Forum.

“To our knowledge, this is the first study to report the combined effects of these two psychological risk factors,” says Janice Williams, Ph.D., M.P.H., an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and lead author of the study.

The study includes a bi-ethnic (black and white) sample of middle-aged men and women. It assessed the occurrence of heart attacks over nine years, a longer observation period than reported in previous studies.

Participants were members of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study. ARIC is a large prospective study of cardiovascular disease and its risk factors conducted in four U. S. communities: suburban Minneapolis, Minn.; Washington County, Md.; Forsyth County, N.C.; and Jackson, Miss.

From 1990-98, researchers followed 12,453 men and women who were between the ages of 45 and 64 and had not had a heart attack when the study began to assess the occurrence of heart attacks and sudden cardiac death.

Participants took the 10-item Spielberger Trait Anger Scale to test for levels of trait anger (TA) and the 21-item Maastricht Questionnaire to determine levels of vital exhaustion (VE). TA is identified as a person’s proneness to anger, and VE is defined as excessive fatigue, increased irritability and feelings of dejection or defeat.

Some sample items participants ranked in the anger survey include: “I feel annoyed when I am not given recognition for doing good work”; “I am quick-tempered”; and, “I get angry when I am slowed down by others’ mistakes.” Questions from the exhaustion survey included: “Have you experienced a feeling of hopelessness recently?”; “Do you ever wake up with a feeling of exhaustion and fatigue?”; and, “Do you have a feeling that you can’t cope?” TA and VE were ranked in groups of high, medium and low.

The study found that persons who scored in high TA or high VE levels had a 42 percent greater long-term risk of heart attack or sudden cardiac death than those in the lowest tertile of each condition.

Furthermore, Williams says, “People who reported being highly prone to anger and also scored high for vital exhaustion were 69 percent more likely to have a heart attack or a sudden cardiac death than their counterparts who reported being less prone to anger and scored low for vital exhaustion.”

In sharp contrast, for both the low and medium levels of TA, the association between TA and VE was only appreciable when VE was in the highest tertile.

Researchers found the results were true even after taking into account several of the established biologic and sociodemographic risk factors for coronary heart disease, such as hypertension, smoking, gender, diabetes, low education and cholesterol levels.

Williams says the results of the study confirm previous findings that support a positive association between psychological stressors and coronary heart disease. The study suggests that not only are anger and vital exhaustion short-term predictors of heart attack, but that they also may predict long-term heart attack risk.

“This study provides convincing evidence that high anger and high vital exhaustion preceded the heart attack and was not a consequence of it,” Williams says. “Epidemiologic research should continue to focus on the influence of psychological factors on coronary heart disease.”

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Co-authors are David J. Couper, Ph.D.; Catherine P. Sanford, M.S.P.H.; Verna Lamar-Welch, Ph.D., M.P.H.; Herman A. Tyroler, M.D.; and Tom Mosely, Ph.D.

CONTACT:
Darcy Spitz or Carole Bullock
AHA News Media Relations
Hawaii Convention Center
Honolulu, Hawaii
Ph. 808-792-6515
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It is important that you prevent anger to cause a heart attack, learn how to relax, vent your emotions in a positive manner like exercise, you’ll be a lot happier, try some easy stress management.

Your health

Libido and Health

Popularity: 11% [?]

Tags: emotion, fatigue, health, heart attack, heart disease, hypertension, stress, stress management