Heart Disease Prevention - How Can Higher Protein Intake Lower Atrial Fibrillation Risk?

Not getting enough protein in the diet can lead to health issues, for instance, tissue can break down and lead to muscle loss. For older women, eating more protein may significantly reduce the risk of developing atrial fibrillation (AFib). Find out more at:

https://www.howtopreventheartdisease.com/how-can-higher-protein-intake-lower-atrial-fibrillation-risk.html

What Foods Diabetics Should Avoid?

Diet plays an important role for diabetics in managing their conditions. Whether one likes it or not, consumption of certain foods should be minimized or even avoided.

White rice, for instance, has been an inseparable part of daily diet for most people of Asian origin. But for Type-2 diabetics, white rice consumption should be reduced. This is because researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health found that people had higher risk of developing Type-2 diabetes if they ate 5 or more servings of white rice a week. On the other hand, people who substituted at least a third of their white-rice servings with brown rice had their risk cut by as much as 16 percent. Comparing with white rice, brown rice has more fiber that can help maintain blood sugar levels stable.

Likewise, white bread should be replaced by whole meal bread. White rice is made of refined flour that can be quickly digested by body. The quick digestion can cause the blood sugar to rise. Studies have shown that people who eat more whole grains and fewer refined grains including white bread have less of the type of body fat that can trigger heart disease and Type-2 diabetes.

Though cutting red meat from the diet entirely is unnecessary, eating lots of red and processed meats like bacon and cold cuts, all high in saturated fat, could most likely lead to development of Type-2 diabetes. A large study reported that people who ate processed meat (a hot dog or sausage or 2 slices of bacon) once a day had their risk of getting diabetes more than doubled. The risk can simply be lower by substituting one serving of red and processed meats with healthier sources of protein like nuts and low-fat dairy products.

Nevertheless, one should note that too much protein can raise the insulin, too. Protein can help lose weight and is essential to a healthy blood sugar level, as long as one does not over consume protein powders and eating animal proteins. Most people only need 0.5 grams to 1 gram of protein per body weight per day and those amounts should be split up into multiple servings, and not consumed at one time.

Saturated fats, the prime culprit for heart disease, can be found not only in red meat and butter but also whole-milk dairy products. In several studies, a diet high in saturated fats has been linked to insulin resistance. Switching to no-fat or 1-percent dairy products can get all the benefits of calcium without the drawbacks and reduce calories to help with weight loss.

Caffeine is another one that can increase insulin if excess amount is consumed. Drinking a cup or 2 of coffee a day might be good for the insulin, but more than that can cause the insulin to shoot up. When the insulin surges, one can feel moody, shaky, irritable and craving sweets. This will in turn cause one to reach for more caffeine or more sugar. 

Heart Disease Prevention - Does Protein Help One To Lose Weight?

Though there are numerous ways to lose weight, most of them will make one feel hungry and unsatisfied. Unless the person has a very strong determination, he or she will certainly give up quickly. In reality, losing weight might not be that difficult! First, one must eat the right food! Click the following link for more information:

Heart Disease Prevention - Does Protein Help One To Lose Weight?

Can Damage Heart Be Repaired?

It has long been thought that the heart does not have the ability to repair itself. In other words, when cells turn into fully formed adult heart muscle, they will stop dividing, and cannot replace damaged tissue caused by disease or deformity.

For heart attack patients with heart weakness, people with heart failure or heart disease children with congenital heart defects, their damaged heart muscle tissue normally does not regenerate.

However, researchers from the United States have found a way to repair the damage heart. What they discovered is that heart tissue could be re-grown and heart function improved in mice that were injected a growth factor without using stem cells. Such discovery is indeed a potential breakthrough for human cardiac care.

As published in the July 24, 2009 issue of journal Cell, the researchers from the Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School injected a substance known as neuregulin1 (NRG1), which is a protein, into the peritoneal cavity of live mice after a heart attack.

The injection was done once daily for a period of 12 weeks. It was found that heart regeneration was increase and pumping function (ejection fraction, assessed on echocardiograms) was improved when comparing to untreated control group.

NRG1 is one of the 4 proteins in the neuregulin family that acts on the EGFR family of receptors. It is essential for the normal development of the nervous system and the heart.

According to the researchers, this is the first regenerative therapy that may be applicable in a systemic way. In principle, human treatment could eventually be carried out with daily infusions of NRG1 at a clinic over a period of weeks.

Nevertheless, further research is still necessary to ensure such therapy is safe before it could be tested to human patients.

With many studies focusing on stem cells, the new finding does suggest that stem cells are not required and that stimulating differentiated cardiomyocytes to proliferate may just be a viable alternative too.

What Types Of Cereals Should Be Banned From Kids?

According to a new analysis by Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, the breakfast cereals meant for children are less healthy than cereals for adults, and worst still, those that are ‘marketed the most aggressively to kids’ have the worst nutritional quality.

Through the study of 161 brands of cereals, the researchers published their report in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association indicating that the health claims by the cereal producers were often misleading. For instance, cereals sold as ‘low fat’ or ‘low sugar’ did not have low calories, and those brands sold as ‘whole grain’ though had more fiber, they also had as much salt, sugar, and fat as any other brands and had the same calorie content.

They also noted that children are often encouraged by both the food industry and public health authorities to eat breakfast, especially ready-to-eat cereals.

With an aim to comparing the nutritional quality of cereals targeted for children and those for adults, the researchers screened 161 brands of cereals, 46 percent of which were meant for kids. To be qualified in the study, the particular brand of cereal should have a character on the box, toys or games inside, or the company’s web site listed that brand as a children’s cereal.

The research team found that children’s cereals in fact had more sugar, sodium, carbohydrate and calories per gram than non-children’s cereals, and less protein and fiber, too. Meanwhile on average, more than one-third of the weight of children’s cereals consisted of sugar, comparing to less than one-quarter of the adult cereals.

While 56 percent of the non-children’s cereals met nutrition standards for foods sold in school, only 34 percent of the kid’s cereals did.

The growing number of overweight and obese kids would definitely worry their parents because the extra weight in these kids may just make them the possible candidates for heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and many other sicknesses, as they grow older.

The advice from the researchers is that parents hoping to choose healthy cereals for their kids should search for those containing 4 or less grams of sugar per serving (about 1 teaspoon), at least 4 grams of fiber per bowl of cereal. Most importantly, once the parents decide to ban the heavily marketed cereals from their kids should stick to their decision. If they ever give in once, they are going to make their kid nag them even more.