That's Fit

The results of a recent study show that an aspirin taken at bedtime lowered the blood pressure of pre-hypertensive patients, whereas an aspirin taken in the morning didn't have the same effect. While the exact reasons are unknown, researchers suggest that nighttime aspirin usage could slow the production of clot-producing hormones and other substances that are typically generated at night.

The three-month study followed 244 adults with blood pressure that hovered just below the 140/90 mark. (Consistent readings greater than 140/90 are considered high blood pressure (HBP). Readings that are just below that threshold are considered pre-hypertension -- a warning that the patient is at risk of HBP. The group was divided into thirds: one group followed a blood pressure reducing diet, the second took a 100 mg aspirin at bedtime, the third took an aspirin in the morning.

The group that took the aspirin before bedtime saw the best results -- an average drop of 5.4 points in systolic pressure and 3.4 points in diastolic pressure.

If you don't do dairy, then I doubt what I'm about to mention will make you any more inclined to go buy a gallon of milk. However, if you haven't banished dairy from your diet, but simply aren't consuming much of it, then what I'm about to tell you may have you reaching for a glass of milk tonight with your dinner.

A recent study at Harvard University reveals that women who consume little or no lowfat dairy products daily are 11 percent more likely to develop high pressure than women who ate at least two servings a day. While an easy solution may be to pop a few calcium and vitamin D supplements and call it a day, you unfortunately miss out on the protein and magnesium found in dairy products, both of which may also play a role.

If donning a milk mustache really isn't your thing, you can always get your two daily servings from yogurt, cottage cheese, and other lowfat dairy products.

We frequently hear about making sure that our cholesterol is low, but rarely are we questioned about whether it is high enough. As you may already know, there are two types of cholesterol, LDL (which is considered "bad" cholesterol) and HDL (which is considered "good" cholesterol). Essentially, you want your LDL to be low, but you want to make sure that your HDL is high.

Fortunately, many foods that help lower "bad" cholesterol can also help boost your "good" cholesterol. RealAge.com highly suggests eating mixed berries to do just this. In a recent study, people with high blood pressure (a condition that can sometimes be attributed to cholesterol levels) who ate berries daily saw a seven point drop in their systolic blood pressure after only eight weeks. What's more, not only did their blood pressure go down, but their HDL went up, too.

The Norwegian National Headache Center found that people with high blood pressure were less likely to have migraine headaches. Previously, it was believed that high blood pressure was a causative factor for migraine headaches, but research shows otherwise.

The study followed more than 50,000 adults and included information on headache frequency, use of blood pressure medication, and blood pressure readings. People with the highest pulse pressure had up to 50% fewer headaches.

Knowing that high blood pressure doesn't cause migraines is a good thing -- it leads researchers closer to better understanding painful migraine headaches. Also, blood pressure medication is sometimes prescribed for migraines and this study may prove that is unnecessary or ineffective. However, it's clearly not a reason to stop treating high blood pressure. As my grandmother used to say, "don't trade one evil for another." High blood pressure is a dangerous condition that increases your risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, and can even lead to reduced function later in life.

The health benefits of pet ownership are well-documented -- lower blood pressure and less stress among them. But not everyone is able to keep a pet. Allergies, lifestyle, and restrictions on pet ownership in living spaces can prevent animal lovers from having a pet of their own.

In Tokyo, it's especially hard to keep a pet. The market for apartments is competitive, and landlords are increasingly banning pets from their properties. But a new cafe allows people to reap the benefits that pets can offer, without all the hassles that pet ownership can bring. At the Calico Cafe, customers can drink coffee, order snacks, and shop for a variety of goodies, all while enjoying a cuddle and a purr from the stores many cats.

Would a similar business be popular in the U.S? What do you think?

Scientists in Britain think so. According to them, the position in which you hold your body plays a major role in maintaining your blood pressure.

New Scientist magazine reports that the studies suggest that good posture could help keep blood pressure levels normal while bad posture could increase it.

Posture is the position in which a body is held upright against gravity while standing, sitting or lying down. And good posture involves training a body to stand, walk, sit and lie in positions where the least strain is placed on supporting muscles and spine during movement or weight-bearing activities.

Scientists had earlier suspected the link between the muscles in the neck, blood pressure and heart rate. Now, they have found a direct connection between these neck muscles and a part of the brain stem, which plays a crucial role in regulating heart rate and blood pressure. Researchers also claim that their findings could explain why blood pressure and heart rate sometimes change when the neck muscles are injured.

Similarly, it is possible that hours spent hunched over a computer may raise blood pressure.

Breathing is very important. "Thank you, Captain Obvious" is probably what you're thinking. But, there is a reason why I mention something that seems so obvious.

First off, weight training, resistance training -- it all pretty much means the same thing, so don't get confused by the wording. Basically, anything that involves the pushing or pulling of something -- be it a dumbbell, a resistance band, or even your own body weight -- falls under the umbrella category of weight or resistance training.

Back to my point -- when it comes to resistance training, there is a risk of raising the blood pressure in your eyes. Research shows that because of something called Valsalva (an effort to exhale while keeping your air passages closed), an increase in blood pressure can occur. The same applies for cardio, although it is rare for people hold their breath while performing exercises of this kind.

Just some healthy advice from your friendly neighborhood Captain Obvious. But before I go, I just want to point out that there were a lot of spaceships in the movie Star Wars. Just something I noticed.

Staying healthy is becoming harder and harder. We used to live in a society where our jobs usually involved physical exertion of some kind, meaning that people were practically exercising all day long. In an agrarian culture, this meant tilling crops, raking stuff (notice how my knowledge of agrarian culture is already starting to wane), and the like. This was hard work. So was working in a factory, laying bricks, digging ditches, and carrying lumber and steel. Nowadays, however, many people spend their 8 to 15(!) hours per day sitting behind a desk, staring at computer screens and moving only to occasionally go to the bathroom. Our diets aren't getting any better, either.

Processed foods, fast-foods, chemical-laden foods -- they have all laid their claim in the American diet. Convenience is king in the fast paced, New York Minute type world that we live in. As a result, it's easier to reach for a Big Mac than it is to make some grilled chicken and vegetables. Let's face it, it takes time to make grilled chicken and vegetables!! The Big Mac? No time at all. So therein lies the problem: How do we make healthy choices when our lifestyles are not conducive to supporting them?

Here are a few tips that can help you work around this conundrum.

Exercise performed in several short sessions, spread throughout the day, can be just as effective in helping you burn calories as one, long workout session. This means that if you can squeeze a few quick sets of push-ups or a brisk walk into a coffee break, go for it.

I'm always skeptical of government standards when it comes to how much exposure to something is supposedly safe. Some drinks are allowed to have certain amounts of chemicals in them -- chemicals that have been linked to cancer, mind you -- just as long as they do not exceed the limits of what has been deemed "safe." The same goes for meat packaging plants; there are designated levels of "safe" rat excrement that are allowed. This time around, and with respect to the health of our hearts, it seems that the government's "safe" levels in lead exposure may not be all that (guess what?) safe after all.

Based on a report in the journal Circulation, researchers found that people who had levels of this metal from 3.6 to 10 micrograms per deciliter increased their risk of death from heart attack or stroke by 89 percent. Bear in mind, this 3.6 - 10 mcg/dL falls far below the 40mcg/dL threshold that the government has listed as being safe.

Lead is known to damage the kidneys, which, in turn, causes an increase in blood pressure and damage to the blood vessels. With that being the case, is any level of exposure truly safe? I know I have my doubts. What about you?

As I write this, it's snowing outside and I'm guessing the temperature is somewhere around 15 degrees. While temperature may have some affect on how my car runs, it really shouldn't have much affect on my body, right? Not so, say researchers from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Based on a five year study of about 450,000 patients with high blood pressure, the researchers found that temperature may play a significant role in the outcome of a BP reading. Measurements taken during warmer months were, on average, 10 points lower than measurements taken during colder months. Which of the two is accurate? Unlike your car, the cold of winter seems to have no affect on blood pressure, meaning that the warm of summer is to blame for the inaccuracy.

Doctors suggest that you test your blood pressure during various times of the year to make sure your reading is not being compromised by seasonal temperatures.

College was great for many reasons, some of which have no place being mentioned on this blog. Of those that do, however, I immediately think back to the afternoon nap I occasionally took. Living on campus, it was easy to squeeze in a quick, forty-five minute power nap before my next class and recharge my batteries a bit. But, with that easy, college life schedule years behind me, the best I can do these days is enjoy the mere thought of a mid-day nap. Amazingly, though, a thought, or that anticipation, of sleep has been shown to lower blood pressure.

Studying more than 23,000 people, Greek researchers studied the health benefits of taking a daily nap. Not surprisingly, they found that people who caught some Z's in the middle of the day reduced their risk of heart attack by 37 percent. What was surprising, however, was the discovery that anticipating a nap produced the most beneficial cardiovascular effects.

Measuring the heart rates of study volunteers during two separate stages: 1) the stage between turning the lights off and the onset of sleep, and 2) during actual sleep, researchers found that heart rates were lowest in the first stage. This suggests that the anticipation of sleep may create a calming affect equal to, or even more powerful than, actually sleeping.

Yawn. Sorry ... I was busy thinking about taking a nap.

Heart attacks and strokes occur most frequently in the morning. Scientists, and most lay people, have known this for decades. Questions regarding this time-related spike in heart attack and stroke have typically been met with speculation, mostly of a nature vs. nurture theme.

Some scientists believe that blood pressure follows circadian rhythm, forming a molecular clock of sorts. Others subscribe to the belief that the daily hassles and pressures -- such waking up for work, trying to hurriedly get dressed, and weaving in and out of traffic in efforts to not be late to the job again -- are more to blame.

But, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine endeavored to solve this mystery. Which camp is right? The Nature or the Nurture people? Well, at least based on the research out of UPenn, it seems that the body's internal molecular clock is what controls blood pressure and, based on the evidence, seemingly plays the greater role in morning heart attacks and strokes.

I've just about giving up on trying to figure out if caffeine is good for you or not. Back and forth, back and forth -- the evidence behind the benefit/detriment of caffeine keeps springing up on both sides, leaving at least this blogger unsure which study(ies) to believe. In a study I recently happened upon, it was discovered that drinking caffeinated beverages may provide significant protection against the development of heart disease in elderly people who have normal blood pressure levels.

It turns out that drinking a caffeinated beverage raise blood pressure to what researchers referred to as a "healthy level" after someone has consumed a meal. This rise can counteract the temporary drop in blood pressure that typically occurs after a meal. This drop is most commonly known to occur in the elderly.

The researchers point to their findings that people who consumed four or more servings of caffeinated beverages daily had a 53 percent lower risk of death from heart disease than did those individuals who consumed less than half a serving a day. And, with respect to the people who only drank two or three servings of caffeinated beverages a day, they had a 32 percent lower risk than those who drank less than half a serving a day.

The verdict is in. For now, anyway. I'm sure I'll come across some information stating just the opposite about caffeine, so I'm at a complete impasse as far as an opinion on this goes. What about you guys? What do you think? Is caffeine good for you or not?

As part of National Heart Month, Newsweek offered a multi-page advertisement for Vytron, a pharmaceutical drug that was supposedly shown to reduce bad cholesterol more effectively than either Crestor or Lipitor. However, unlike most ads, included in these four or five pages were articles on how to keep your heart healthy -- with or without resorting to the product that was paying for them.

Always a sucker for a good quiz, I was immediately drawn to the "Test Your Cholesterol IQ," a somewhat eye-opening look at how misunderstood this silent killer can sometimes be. Here's a quick, paraphrased version of some of the questions that appear in this True or False quiz.

1. There's Nothing Good About Cholesterol. - False. Cholesterol is required for life. The problem is when there is too much of it in the blood, increasing the risk of heart disease and heart attack.

2. When It Comes to Cholesterol, Less is More. - False. Depending on the type of cholesterol you're talking about, low cholesterol levels aren't always best. For bad (LDL) cholesterol, yes, this is the case, as an elevated level can cause plaque build-up on the walls of arteries and other blood vessels. But, insofar as good (HDL) cholesterol is concerned, no, this is not the case. That's because good cholesterol removes cholesterol from the blood and artery walls and to the liver, from where it can later be eliminated from the body.

It appears as though the expression "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree" applies to more than just someones personality. Based on research from the Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh, there appears to be a direct relationship between children who have cardiovascular risk factors and their parents also sharing similar cardio issues.

Based on a sample of 94 families (108 parents and 141 children), it was discovered that child/parent association was considerable for cardiovascular risk factors; systolic blood pressure, body mass, waist size, triglycerides and total cholesterol.

Here's a quick look at some of what the researchers discovered:

~ Parents of obese children are 6 times more likely to be obese than parents of non-obese children;

~ Parents of children with high blood pressure (hypertension) are about 15 times more likely to suffer from hypertension than parents of children who do not have the condition;

~ Parents of children with elevated triglyceride levels are 5 times more likely to have hypertriglyceridemia than parents of children with more standard levels.

Generally speaking, children see doctors with greater frequency than do most adults. And, by screening children for cardiovascular disease risk factors, parents who are at risk may also be more identifiable.