HEALTH, STROKE, HYPERTENSION, HEART DISEASE

A couple of members of my husband's family have had strokes, and so I've been thinking a lot about health matters. The first thing I learned is that having low cholesterol does not guarantee one will not have a stroke. The media blitz says that those with high cholesterol are most likely to have cardiovascular or heart disease; and those with low cholesterol will not. This is what ads, news articles, doctors, everybody say.

Now I've realized that cholesterol is only one factor. There are other factors including: high blood pressure (hypertension), stress, diet, diabetes, weight, smoking, lack of exercise, heredity, gender, age, hormones, birth control pills, and alcohol. Addressing these various factors is the best way to minimize one's risk to suffering cardiovascular or heart disease.

I'd read about these things and took them for granted even though my own brother suffered from a fatal heart attack at the age of 53. There are direct correlations among the above factors. My sister-in-law was taking too much estrogen and she had a stroke, and it was specifically the estrogen that was pretty much blamed for this. Fortunately she has recovered nicely and now she is vigilant in taking care of herself. No more hormone shots; she's seeing an acupuncturist. She takes lipitor to lower her cholesterol. She takes a lot of medicines and supplements including fish oil and flax seed oil.

My mother used to give me God-awful cod liver oil. It was truly ghastly - a tablespoon every night, along with my Vidaylin vitamins. Now and then I've bought cod liver oil and fish oil pills (a little easier to take), but I always slacked off because of that fishy aftertaste. (Even my cat hates it; I've tried mixing the oil in her food!). I suppose there was also a reluctance on my part to increase the medicines and supplements I'm taking.

(Aside: I've noticed that older people start to get touchy about medicines. They start boasting that they aren't taking medicines. I know a woman who has high cholesterol and has osteoporosis and osteoarthritis and she refuses to take medicine. Another woman has osteoporosis and she does not take medicine either. They say they'll handle these problems naturally - walking and diet. Both of them have curved spines and one has coccyndinia -tail bone pain- and can barely move her hands and wrists.)

Anyway, I decided to give Fish oil another try. I bought the premium kind and I also picked up sprouted Flax seed. Both Fish oil and Flax Seed have Omega-3 oils. I've also decided to watch our salt intake, because salt and high blood pressure are directly related; high blood pressure and strokes are also directly connected.

The benefits of Fish oil are reportedly: cardiovascular health, protection from strokes and heart attack, better brain function, less depression, prevents breast, colon and prostate cancers.

The benefits of Flax seed oil are: cardiovascular health, reduce cancer risk including breast, colon, prostrate, and skin cancers, relieves constipation, hemorroids and diverticular disease, lessens inflammation associated with lupus and gout, and many more.

My sister-in-law and I were talking about our willingness to take medicines offered by modern science. True, medicines have benefits and dangers, but the fact is that now people are living longer and are healthier for more years than say 50 years ago. Here's another thing - I came from a developing country and I had beri-beri when I was an infant, which almost killed me. Fortunately medical science had medicine to heal my beri-beri. Until my body or instinct tells me otherwise, I will be open to what science now offers.

Here are some links to sites about:
Osteoporosis
Hypertension
Strokes
Fish oil
Flax seed oil
Heart attack