It's Killed More Than WW2 – Are You Next?

The High Blood Pressure/Cholesterol Connection

According to the American Heart Association, cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of disease-related death. High blood pressure and high cholesterol are the two major risk factors that contribute to the development of heart disease.

Many doctors treat their patients with prescription medications, that can lead to horrible side-effects! Just look at the list:

• Headache
• Difficulty Sleeping
• Flushing of the Skin
• Muscle Aches, Tenderness, or Weakness (myalgia)
• Drowsiness
• Nausea or Vomiting
• Abdominal Cramping or Pain
• Diarrhea
• Bloating or Gas
• Constipation
• Rash

Add to this list the chance of developing memory loss, high blood sugar, and even Type 2 Diabetes!  What? Why would anyone want to put these drugs into their body, when they can actually develop MORE disease by taking them?

There is also absolutely NO proof that these drugs will keep you from having a heart attack. Just watch any statin drug commercials on TV and you’ll see that the claim simply cannot be made.

Click Here to Read More About the Dangers of Statins

The 2-Headed Monster – Salt and Sugar

Your blood pressure AND cholesterol are hugely affected by two things:  salt and sugar. The Food and Drug Administration is finally beginning to recognize the problem through their recent urging of food manufacturers to voluntarily limit the sodium they add to food.

“The link between sodium consumption and blood pressure is strong and well documented,” said Susan Mayne, FDA’s Director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, in announcing the move. High blood pressure increases the risk for heart disease, stroke, and premature death.

“The totality of scientific evidence, as reviewed by many well-respected scientific organizations, continues to support lowering sodium consumption from current levels,” Mayne explained.

While the body needs about 2500mg of sodium each day, many people are consuming twice that amount or more!  Processed foods put HUGE quantities of salt in there.  Salt = flavor to the untrained pallet. Once the overuse of salt begins, by consuming processed and fast foods, it will continue.  I need “just a little more”.  You know the people in the room who love their salt – they salt their food before they even taste it!

We have to view our bodies like the intricately running engines that they are. If you were to put oil into your gas tank you would immediately have a recipe for disaster! It is the same for our bodies. We cannot expect to ingest fatty, sugary and processed foods and not have our engines “seize up”. High blood pressure is your first warning sign of impending doom.

What About That Sugar?

If you are downing gallons of soda each week, stopping at the donut store on the way home, or eating fast food regularly, you’re feeding the other side of the 2-headed monster.

It is now being proven that sugar is as detrimental as salt in contributing to high blood pressure. From take-out to boxed mixes for dinner and ice cream for dessert, it’s all contributing to this problem. Unfortunately, it is not just the blood pressure that is being affected.

The average American eats the equivalent of about 21 teaspoons of added sugar a day — about 2 1/2 to 3 times more than new heart disease prevention guidelines say they should.

Excess sugar is known to contribute to obesity, diabetes, and other conditions linked to heart disease, and now new research links it to unhealthy cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

“People in the study who ate the most added sugar had the lowest HDL, or good cholesterol, and the highest blood triglyceride levels. People who ate the least sugar had the highest HDL and the lowest triglyceride levels.

Eating large amounts of added sugar more than tripled the risk of having low HDL, which is a major risk factor for heart disease.”
(Journal of the American Medical Association, article written April, 2010)