Day 20: Additional Risk Factors.
There are two additional risk factors for heart disease that we wanted to discuss. They are not necessarily primary risk factors but you should be aware of them both.
First, is the iron in your blood. High iron in the blood oxidates LDL in the bloodstream and speeds the formation of the deadly foam cells we discussed on Day One. The higher the iron content of your blood, the higher the risk of heart disease.
Iron content is measured with two simple blood tests: serum ferritin and iron binding capacity.
It is our opinion that unless you are anemic you should never take a multivitamin with iron or a mineral product with iron. You should also never cook with iron cookware.
If you have higher than normal iron levels you can donate blood which lowers your total iron content or take supplements such as fiber, garlic, green tea and resveratrol, which have been shown to lower iron blood levels.
The second additional risk factor for heart disease is low thyroid function or hypothyroidism. Individuals with sluggish thyroids have an increased risk of heart disease through higher than normal cholesterol levels and homocysteine levels. In fact nearly everyone with low thyroid functions suffers from either high cholesterol or high homocysteine levels.
In order to check your thyroid function your doctor can measure free T3, free T4 and TSH. Low thyroid function should be treated immediately after diagnosis.
Tomorrow, we will summarize all these risk factors and give you a beginning game plan for a simple preventative program moving forward. Then we will look at the common drugs, therapies and procedures used to treat heart disease.
There are two additional risk factors for heart disease that we wanted to discuss. They are not necessarily primary risk factors but you should be aware of them both.
First, is the iron in your blood. High iron in the blood oxidates LDL in the bloodstream and speeds the formation of the deadly foam cells we discussed on Day One. The higher the iron content of your blood, the higher the risk of heart disease.
Iron content is measured with two simple blood tests: serum ferritin and iron binding capacity.
It is our opinion that unless you are anemic you should never take a multivitamin with iron or a mineral product with iron. You should also never cook with iron cookware.
If you have higher than normal iron levels you can donate blood which lowers your total iron content or take supplements such as fiber, garlic, green tea and resveratrol, which have been shown to lower iron blood levels.
The second additional risk factor for heart disease is low thyroid function or hypothyroidism. Individuals with sluggish thyroids have an increased risk of heart disease through higher than normal cholesterol levels and homocysteine levels. In fact nearly everyone with low thyroid functions suffers from either high cholesterol or high homocysteine levels.
In order to check your thyroid function your doctor can measure free T3, free T4 and TSH. Low thyroid function should be treated immediately after diagnosis.
Tomorrow, we will summarize all these risk factors and give you a beginning game plan for a simple preventative program moving forward. Then we will look at the common drugs, therapies and procedures used to treat heart disease.
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