Healthly Life

In today’s newsletter, we’re going to talk about the vascular system — your arteries and veins. Unlike our discussion of the heart, which required a great deal of anatomy, our discussion of anatomy today will be much simpler. As I’ve stated previously, my goal in this series is not to make you doctors, but to help you understand enough about your body’s systems and how they work so that you can communicate with your doctor and actively participate in your treatment. If you have high blood pressure, blood clots, or atherosclerosis, it’s imperative that you fully understand how that happened, the physiological consequences of any medical treatments, and any viable alternatives that might be available to you.

That’s what we will cover today.

Circulatory Systems
As we discussed previously, you have several distinct circulatory systems.

The pulmonary system that carries deoxygenated blood away from the heart to the lungs, and then returns the refreshed oxygenated blood back to the heart.

The systemic system that carries the oxygenated blood away from the heart out to every single cell in your body, and then returns the spent deoxygenated blood back to the heart so that it can be sent out through the pulmonary system.

There is actually a third system, the portal system, which loops within certain organs or areas of the body that we will discuss in future newsletters.

The important thing to understand about these circulatory systems is that they are “closed looped.” Unless there is injury, no blood leaves them. As you will see, even the nourishment that every single cell in your body receives from your blood happens without that blood ever leaving the closed system. This becomes key when we talk about blood pressure.

The circulatory systems are comprised of:
- Arteries.
- Arterioles.
- Capillaries.
- Veins.

All told, these four components make up some 50,000 miles of passageways in the body. Let’s take a look at them in more detail.

Arterial system
Arteries, arterioles, and capillaries make up the arterial system. Arteries and arterioles have only one function—to move blood throughout the body. That’s all they do. They are channels, tubes, pipes if you will. As long as they are unclogged, flexible, and undamaged, they do their job. The primary difference between arteries and arterioles is one of size. Arterioles are just the smallest arteries you can see with the naked eye. Again, arteries and arterioles have only one function, to move blood. They do not feed any cells of the body—not even their own. That’s actually a fun little bit of trivia. The arteries of your body are not fed by the blood that flows through them. They require their own network of blood vessels called the vasa vasorum (literally, vessels of a vessel) that feed them — from the outside!

As I mentioned, I’m not going to get into naming all of the arteries in the body; but for the most part, arteries take their names from either the organs they supply (e.g.., the hepatic artery, which feeds the liver) or the areas through which they travel (e.g., the subclavian artery, which travels under the clavicle—AKA, the collar bone).

Capillaries
Capillaries are quite different in function. They are not designed to shuttle blood. In fact, blood hardly flows through them at all as they are so small they allow only one blood cell at a time to pass through. Instead, the capillaries are the end point of the arterial system. It is in the capillaries that food and oxygen are exchanged with every cell in your body (except your cornea and the lens of your eye). Amazingly, of the 50,000 miles of circulation in the body, capillaries comprise over 49,000 miles.

Unlike the arteries, capillaries are invisible to the naked eye. They are smaller than a human hair—microscopic. And it is because they are so small and their walls are so thin, that capillaries serve as the exchange system for food and oxygen in the body. Keep in mind that every single cell in the body (except the cornea and lens) is near a capillary. That means that as blood passes through the ultra thin capillaries, it is easy for oxygen and tiny sugar and protein molecules (the end products of digestion) to “exchange” through the walls of the vessel and feed every single cell in the body.

Capillaries also serve as the connecting point between the arterial system and venous system that returns deoxygenated blood to the heart. The same exchange system that works to feed the cells of the body works in reverse. Cells pass their waste such as carbon dioxide back through the walls of the capillaries, where the blood cells recently relieved of their oxygen payload, can now pick up the CO2 waste from the cell and carry it back to the lungs for exchange with fresh oxygen.

Surprisingly, there’s more “space” inside the tiny capillaries than can be filled by your entire blood supply. If all your capillaries were “open” simultaneously, your blood pressure would drop precipitously, and you would die. What happens, though, is that your body intelligently shunts blood into different capillaries as needed. When functioning properly, this is a pressure regulating mechanism. The body can open more capillaries to lower pressure, and close off sections if needed to raise pressure.

Note: our bodies retain the ability to sprout new capillaries throughout our entire lives.

Venous System
The venous system returns deoxygenated blood to the heart, and for the most part, it pretty much parallels the arterial system in all aspects—just in reverse. Whereas the arteries start out large (the aorta) and end small (the capillaries), the venous system starts small (the capillaries) and ends large (the vena cava). Veins tend to run right next to their corresponding arteries, and in fact have similar names. The subclavian vein, for example, runs in tandem with the subclavian artery under your collar bone. The primary exception is the vena cava, which is the aorta’s counterpart.

How arteries and veins are constructed
In this section, we start learning how problems occur. For it is their different construction (dictated by their different functions) that defines the nature of the things that can go wrong such as hardening of the arteries, high blood pressure, and blood clots.

Arteries
Arterial walls are composed of elastic tissue and smooth muscle. It is their elastic nature and the presence of substantial muscle tissue that allows them to expand and contract as the heart beats. This allows them to even out the increase in pressure caused by each beat. This is one of the primary reasons why hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis) increases blood pressure. If you pump more fluid through the same sized tube, pressure must increase. On the other hand, if the tube is flexible and can widen, the increase is less. (We will talk more about this later.)

Veins
Veins are thinner walled than arteries and have less elastic tissue, and much, much less smooth muscle tissue. Instead, veins make use of valves and the muscle contraction of your body’s major skeletal muscles to squeeze blood along. This is the reason you’re asked to get up and walk around on a long plane flight—to prevent blood from pooling in your legs. As a side note, the lack of muscle in the walls of veins makes them more susceptible to bleeding when injured since there’s no muscle to clamp down.

Problems that can occur in arteries
There isn’t much mystery as to what the problem is—the build up of arterial plaque on the walls of the arteries and arterioles. There is, however, a great deal of mystery as to what causes it.

The basic problem is that arterial plaque (a combination of protein, calcium and cholesterol) starts building up on the walls of the arteries. This causes the arteries to both harden and narrow. So far so good! But what causes that buildup?

The cholesterol theory
The primary theory lays the blame on cholesterol—that as cholesterol levels climb in the blood, this causes plaque to form on the walls of the arteries. But this theory begins to collapse under even the most elementary scrutiny. As I mentioned in my newsletter, the Cholesterol Myth, one of my favorite questions to ask doctors is, “If cholesterol is the main culprit in heart disease, why don’t veins ever get narrowed and blocked?” And if you wanted to, you could throw capillaries into the equation too. Capillaries do not evidence the build up of arterial plaque. (They do, however, clog with amyloid plaque in the brain. But that’s a different problem that we’ll cover in a later newsletter.)

Think about this for a moment. If you have cholesterol circulating equally through the entire circulatory system, but it only causes plaque to build up in the arteries and arterioles, not the capillaries or veins, then how can cholesterol be the primary cause of the problem? If cholesterol caused plaque to form, wouldn’t it form everywhere? Since it only forms in the arteries, doesn’t the problem have to be something unique to those arteries?

The arterial wall theory
A more sophisticated version of the theory says that the build up of plaque is triggered by damage to the arterial wall—the endothelial lining. The lining consists of a thin layer of endothelial cells that performs two critical functions:

- It protects the “innards” of the artery from toxic substances in the blood.
- It helps regulate the expansion and contraction of the arteries by releasing a bio-chemical (cyclic GMP) into the cells of the smooth muscle in the arterial wall that change the tone or firmness of the artery.
- In an attempt to repair damage to the endothelium, your body will “patch” the damage with plaque.
- This produces one of two conditions—two sides of the same coin really.

Artherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)
Damage to the endothelial lining is “managed” by the smooth muscle cells surrounding the lining. Smooth muscle cells respond to endothelial injury by rapidly multiplying and producing a fibrin/calcium/cholesterol patch. These patches, called plaques occur just inside the lining and thicken the artery’s inner wall. Over time, given multiple injuries, the wall of the artery begins to harden and become dysfunctional, no longer expanding and contracting to regulate blood pressure —and steadily narrowing the passageway through which blood flows.

Arteriosclerosis (plaque build up)
Another way of describing this process is that your body creates plaque to “paste over” any damaged areas—like a scab over a cut. Over time, given repeated injury, these plaques intrude more and more on the inner passage of the artery steadily compromising the ability of the artery to expand and contract and for blood to flow freely.

But it gets worse
The damage to the arterial wall also triggers an immune response with white blood cells flooding the area. This leads to a chronic inflammatory response in the blood vessel. Continued inflammation causes even more damage, which accelerates the process.

All of this, of course, brings up the $64,000 question: “Since the entire theory hinges on damage to the endothelial lining, what actually causes the damage to the lining, and why doesn’t it happen to the lining of the veins?”

Once again, oxidized fats and LDL cholesterol are named as the key culprits. Other suspected culprits include:
- Free radicals.
- High blood pressure (yes, high blood pressure begets more high blood pressure).
- Diabetes.
- High homocysteine levels.
- High C-Reactive Protein levels.
- Low levels of vitamin C (similar to scurvy).
- Low levels of nitric oxide.
- Heavy metals.
- Aging.
- Muscle matters

But once again, the question arises: “Are not all of these things present in the capillaries and veins too?” The answer, of course, is yes they are—which means there’s still a missing piece in the equation. The answer, according to the pH theory, lies not in what flows through the arteries and veins (which is identical), but in their construction (which is different). The key difference between arteries and veins is in the amount of muscle tissue surrounding the endothelial lining. In arteries and arterioles, the smooth muscle is extensive. In veins, it is minimal. And in capillaries, it is totally absent. Why does this matter?

It matters because when muscle tissue is used it produces lactic acid. If your body is healthy (in an alkaline state) and has ready access to an abundant source of oxygen rich blood, that lactic acid can clear quickly. But for those people who eat a high acid forming diet and are in an acidic state, the lactic acid cannot clear quickly. (Remember, blood vessels do not have direct access to the oxygen in the blood that flows through them. They are dependent on the vasa vasorum.) It is the lactic acid that provides the final trigger that causes damage to occur in arterial linings, but not so in veins. It is the presence of accumulated lactic acid in the smooth muscles surrounding arteries that ultimately causes plaques to form.

But even beyond lactic acid, there’s another area where muscle tissue matters: nitric oxide. The contraction of the muscles in the arterial walls is regulated by a signaling molecule that we referred to earlier called cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cyclic GMP) in the muscle cells. Cyclic GMP causes the arterial muscle to relax, in preparation for its next contraction. Cyclic GMP is triggered by nitric oxide, which is produced in the endothelial lining. The ability of the lining to manufacture enough nitric oxide to maintain artery dilation is one of its most crucial functions. As damage continues to build in the lining, it blocks nitric oxide-induced dilation, thus stiffening the arteries.

High Blood Pressure
If the arterial blockages happen in your coronary arteries, the result, as we’ve discussed previously, is coronary heart disease and a heart attack. If it happens in the carotid arteries leading to the brain, it can cause a stroke.

In most cases, however, the damage happens systemically, throughout your arterial system, and the result is high blood pressure. As a quick review, blood pressure is a measurement of the two pressures in your circulatory system as your heart beats. The increased pressure produced in your circulatory system by the contraction of the left ventricle is referred to as systolic pressure. The reduced pressure during relaxation is called diastolic pressure. These are the two numbers your doctor gives you when reading your blood pressure (e.g., 120 over 70). Both low and high blood pressure are dangerous, but low blood pressure is usually easier to manage. High blood pressure, on the other hand, tends to be more intractable and harder to manage—and therefore more dangerous.

Your body has many mechanisms for controlling blood pressure.
- It can change the amount of blood the heart pumps.
- It can change the diameter of arteries, and the volume of blood in the bloodstream.
- To increase blood pressure, it can pump more blood by pumping more forcefully or more rapidly.
- It can also increase pressure by narrowing arteries (particularly the arterioles), forcing the blood from each heartbeat through a narrower space than normal.
- It can seal off capillaries forcing the blood into a smaller space, thereby increasing pressure.
- The body can add fluid to the bloodstream (regulated by the kidneys) to increase blood volume and thus increase blood pressure.
- And it can remove fluid from the blood (also regulated by the kidneys), thereby decreasing pressure.

All of these things happen automatically, regulated by a healthy body, without your even thinking about it. In addition, blood-pressure measurements can vary throughout the day, affected by everything from:
- Food.
- Alcohol.
- Caffeine.
- Smoking.
- Stress.
- Climate.
- And the time of day.

Blood pressure changes that occur naturally during the day are the result of the body’s internal (circadian) rhythms. In most people, blood pressure rises rapidly in the early morning hours, in anticipation of rising and beginning the day. This is not the result of the physical act of rising but is a preset system that automatically increases a person’s blood pressure at that time. Likewise, pressure normally starts dropping early in the evening in anticipation of going to sleep.

All of these things mentioned so far, have nothing to do with clinical hypertension unless they result in secondary damage such as can be caused by smoking and alcohol or sustained stress. Clinical hypertension is a chronic and dangerous condition caused by:
- Constricted arteries.
- Hardened arteries.
- Malfunctioning kidneys (which we’ll talk about in a subsequent newsletter).

If left untreated, chronic hypertension can cause:
- Damage to the heart muscle because of the extra load it puts on the heart.
- Strokes.
- Kidney damage—which leads to more hypertension, which leads to more kidney damage, etc.

And ultimately, it kills you.

Problems that can occur in veins
As we’ve already discussed, veins do not have a substantial amount of muscle tissue to contract and squeeze blood along. That means that without physical activity to cause the skeletal muscles to squeeze the veins:

- Blood has a tendency to pool and stop flowing in veins—particularly in the legs where gravity works against you.
- Blood that isn’t flowing tends to clot.
- Clots tend to propagate more clotting around the original clot.
- Cumulatively, this can form very large clots.
- Large clots that stay in place and block the flow of blood cause phlebitis.

If the clot breaks free and starts traveling through the circulatory system, it’s called a thrombus. At whatever point it lodges in a blood vessel and blocks it, it’s called an embolism. If you think back to our discussion of the venous system, you’ll remember that veins get steadily bigger as blood moves back to the heart. That means that clots that break free in the legs are unlikely to be stopped anywhere on their way back to the heart. The first place they are likely to lodge is when the right ventricle of the heart pumps them out into the pulmonary circulatory system on the way to the lungs. If the clot is fairly small, it will lodge in the lung itself and block the flow of blood to a section of the lung, killing it. This is called a pulmonary embolism. Larger clots can actually lodge in the pulmonary artery feeding an entire lung…killing the lung just like that. Or the clot can lodge at the juncture where the pulmonary artery divides between the two lungs, which will kill both lungs simultaneously…in an instant.

DVT, or deep vein thrombosis, is the term now commonly associated with clots that form as the result of prolonged sitting on an airplane. They tend to break free the next time you start moving again with any vigor. This can be several days or weeks after the plane flight itself, which means many people never connect the two events.

There is one other notable place that clots tend to form. As a result of low blood flow or damaged valves, clots can form in the left atrium of the heart. If the clot forms there, it’s already past the pulmonary circulatory system so it can’t affect the lungs. Unfortunately, the next stop for the clot is out into the systemic circulatory system, where it has a good chance of being pushed up into the brain causing a stroke.

What doctors do about these problems
Medical treatments for vascular problems never address the actual causes, but seek instead to force test results back into line. What is your doctor likely to offer?

Clogged arteries
Modern medicine really only has two approaches.

1. Surgically repair the damaged area (bypasses and angioplasties).
2. Use drugs to improve the flow of blood through the damaged area and minimize the production of cholesterol, which serves as one of the triggers.

Neither of these approaches, of course, actually deals with the real problem.

High blood pressure
When it comes to high blood pressure, doctors rely almost exclusively on pharmaceutical drugs. The four major classes of drugs are:

1. Diuretics, which reduce pressure by making you pee out water from your body. Reduce the volume of fluid in your blood, and you reduce the pressure. Unfortunately, side effects can include dizziness, weakness, an increased risk of strokes, and impotence. (Not to worry, there are medications to alleviate the side effects.)
2. Calcium channel blockers, which work to relax and widen the arteries—thus reducing blood pressure. Then again, a major side effect of channel blockers is a 60% increased risk of heart attack.
3. Beta blockers, which work by weakening the heart so it won’t pump as strongly, thereby reducing blood pressure. One of the major problems with beta blockers, though, is the increased risk of congestive heart failure.
4. ACE inhibitors (the new drugs of choice), which like the calcium channel blockers, also work to relax and widen the arteries. Unfortunately, ACE inhibitors can produce severe allergic reactions, can be deadly to fetuses and children who are breastfeeding, and can cause severe kidney damage. Again, none of these drugs deals with the actual cause of the high blood pressure. They are merely an attempt to force test numbers into line and prevent people from immediately dying.

Blood clots and DVT
If doctors are worried about clots (such as after bypass surgery), they put patients on blood thinners. The standard is Coumadin (warfarin). Aside from the usual jokes that Coumadin is essentially rat poison (which it is), it has serious side effects. It can cause severe internal bleeding that can be life-threatening and even cause death. You can always tell a person on warfarin by the extensive bruising all over their body since even the slightest bump or touch is enough to cause internal bleeding. It’s a bit like using dynamite to open a locked door. It can do the job, but you need to be oh so careful or you’ll blow up the building at the same time. There are better choices.

Note: some people might think aspirin is a good alternative. It’s not. While aspirin may be beneficial at keeping blood flowing through arteries, studies indicate it has no effect on preventing clots from forming in veins.

What are the options?
As it turns out, for most major heart problems, you have a world of alternatives—certainly safer and often far more effective than their medical counterparts.

Clogged arteries
- Studies have shown that dietary changes alone can unplug arteries.
- Proteolytic enzymes, particularly formulas that contain either nattokinase or lumbrokinase, can break down the proteins that hold plaque together stuck to arterial walls—effectively dissolving it. Proteolytic enzymes can also help dissolve scarring of the endothelial lining. And proteolytic formulas that contain seaprose-s, serrapeptase, and/or endonase can help reduce arterial inflammation that both constricts arteries in real time and contributes to future long term damage.
- Sufficient Omega-3 fatty acids in the diet also help reduce arterial inflammation and dramatically reduce the circulating levels of damaging NEFAs.
- Antioxidants such as SOD, pomegranate, grape seed extract (AKA OPCs), and pycnogenol help heal the endothelial lining, thereby preventing future plaque and helping to heal current plaque.
- Methylating supplements such as B6, folic acid, B12, TMG, and SAMe help reduce homocysteine levels, thereby reducing damage to the endothelial lining.
- L-arginine and noni extract assist the smooth muscle in arterial walls in obtaining sufficient nitric oxide to function properly.
- Regular heavy metal detoxing can reduce a major cause of irritation to the endothelial lining and a primary instigator of plaque formation.
- And raising body pH through proper diet and the use of supplements such as coral calcium reduces lactic acid levels in the arterial smooth muscle, thereby minimizing damage to arterial linings.

As you can see, there is a world of choices you can make that can dramatically change your vascular outcomes. Virtually all of them are covered if you’re following the Baseline of Health Program.

High blood pressure
Pretty much everything you do to reduce clogging of the arteries will, by definition, help to reduce blood pressure. In addition, though, you can also consider:

Lose weight. Simple laws of physics apply here. As we’ve already discussed, your blood vessels have to service every single cell in your body. The more body mass you have, the more pressure you need to force blood through the system. Lose weight; less pressure required.

If you smoke, stop. Smoking constricts blood vessels and raises pressure.

If you’re stressed, try meditation or biofeedback. As part of your body’s “flight and fight” mechanisms, stress increases heart rate and blood pressure to help respond to the short term stress of an attack from a saber toothed tiger. Twenty-four/seven stress was not designed into the system. Prolonged stress definitely impacts blood pressure levels. Even if you have clogged arteries, reducing stress levels can still help drop your blood pressure levels significantly.

Herbs such as passionflower, apocynum venetum, hawthorne, and stevia (yes stevia) have all been shown in clinical studies to help lower blood pressure.

Blood clots and DVT
Proteolytic enzymes, particularly formulas that contain either nattokinase or lumbrokinase are just as effective at preventing clots, with wide ranging dosage tolerances. In other words, good proteolytic formulas work with minimal chance of side effects. In fact, a good systemic proteolytic enzyme formula that also contains enzymes such as endonase, seaprose-s, or serrapeptase can have multiple beneficial effects for the circulatory system in addition to reducing clotting. Such formulas can play a major role in reducing inflammation and scarring in the cardiovascular system and enhance cardio perfomance in athletes.

Conclusion
When it comes to most forms of heart disease associated with the arteries and veins, you have a world of alternatives—certainly safer and often far more effective than their medical counterparts. It’s also worth noting again that if you are following the Baseline of Health Program, then you’re already doing most of them.

Which brings us to the final part of our series on the anatomy, physiology, and diseases of the cardiovascular system—your blood. In the next issue will take on this most complex of subjects.

Is it actually possible to LEARN how to feel better? You bet!

The body-mind-emotion connection is not only scientifically known but also quite apparent when you try out some simple steps. When your body feels uneasy, your mind can improve it. The influence of positive thought in healing is clearly evidenced from many sources. Norman Cousin, in his memoir “Anatomy of an Illness” describes relief from a very painful spine condition in watching comedies. He claims that watching 10 minutes of funny videos allowed him two hours of pain free sleep.

Are you ready to learn some simple steps?

1. Become your own best friend. Always, always be on your side, no matter what. Be quick to forgive mistakes and ready with a kind word to yourself. Imagine that you are talking to a vulnerable small child. If your habit is to scold yourself, berate yourself, judge yourself or otherwise put yourself down, watch for these tendencies and replace them with positive, uplifting, and encouraging words.

2. Don’t look down. Tightrope walkers and mountain climbers subscribe to this motto because they know that the body has a tendency to follow the eyes. In a literal sense, avoid looking down. If you find yourself depressed, raise your head and lift your eyes. Your stomach relaxes, your diaphragm unclench, you take deeper breaths, and your thoughts also follow an upward direction.

3. Practice gratitude. We often focus on what we don’t have or what is wrong. Each expression of how bad it is, how we lack this and that, increases these burdens. Each negative thought adds to the weight until it is so heavy that we cannot bear it. Make a list in your daily journal of all the things for which you are grateful.

4. Smile. Even if you don’t feel like smiling, smile anyway. Smile when you talk on the phone or type on the computer. Smiling filters different thoughts into your mind. If you smile long enough, you’ll find yourself smiling at yourself smiling!

5. Laugh. Read, watch, or listen to something funny at least once a day. Seek others with whom to share humor. The online community is a great source for funny jokes, audio, video clips and the like.

6. Share. Take steps 1-5, bundle them all up, and share them. Write them in a daily journal. As negative focus increases the weight of the burden, positive expression relieves it. Tell a joke to someone. Give an encouraging word. Share something for which you are grateful. Give or receive some helpful advice. Your example inspires others and rewards you all over again!

Do something NOW to make contact with friends. There is power in action!

It’s not easy to have sense of humor if we have to face so many problems everyday… However, one has to cultivate it exactly because we live in a crazy world full of mistakes that stress us continuously.

Humor can mean the indifference one has to the horrors of this world or one’s satisfaction with immoral fantasies, which are harmful because indifference is a psychic disease since the person is disconnected with the painful reality they observe and immorality has tragic consequences that provoke craziness, terror and despair.

Many people laugh when someone falls in the street or is in a horrible situation, but in this case, their reaction means that they are indifferent to other people’s pain. This cold and cruel reaction indicates psychic insensitivity.

However, humor has a positive meaning when it means indifference to bad situations and when it comes from funny images that have a cute aspect. When we see a baby trying to do something like an adult we can only laugh at the child’s attempts that are graceful even though it fails in doing what it wants.

Those that have to use their humor in order to face the bad side of everyone in our crazy world or to show patience in front of human problems need irony, the best tool for these cases. Instead of complaining about the rude way they are treated for example, they make fun of their aggressor’s “style,” thus showing their indifference to the aggression and putting an end to this story, instead of arguing about it and creating many more problems by causing a fight and much sadness.

Humor means having a good spirit when faced with problems provoked by others, since it means forgiveness and an attempt to give a positive spin to the sad situation.

However, depressed people are not able to develop their humor because their psychic problems prevent them from relaxing and having the desire to laugh. For them, it is impossible to see anything funny anywhere, because they are suffering and their constant pain is always hurting them.

They can find relief and psychotherapy in their dreams’ messages, that can cure their depression and help them develop their humor, so that they’ll be able to use this tool when facing several problems or simply as a way to relax and feel happy for a moment. Without psychotherapy their humor cannot function; nothing is funny for them.

Nevertheless, when they solve their basic psychic problems, instead of complaining for everything and hating their enemies, humor starts helping them add a color and shine to their simple daily moments of life, as well as having a philosophy of life that is always forgiving and always looking for peace and joy.

Reciprocal Review Carousel idea is based on few simple and yet effective link-building and bloggin techniques I have learned:
* Build value of the blog by creating a link from within content.
* Provide a value to community by doing a review on blog you personally like.
* Link to YOUR blog has exact anchor text you want and helps you boost Google Rankings.
* No more then 30 outbound links from any page to prevent penalties for link farming.
* Viral effect of the link – as more bloggers participate, link to your blog with YOUR anchor text, coming from quality content post will spread.

Here is How to participate:

* Copy the entire text between the specified lines.
* Create a post on your site and put at least one paragraph explaining how you joined the Reciprocal Review Carousel.
* Paste the text you copied into your post.
* Remove the Bottom Review and At the Top add your own review with a link to a site reviewed, at least 2 sentences about the site and a note – Reviewed by: Your Anchor Text. Link your anchor text to your site. Here is an example:

WordPress Web 2.0 Guide is a blog providing very useful information on building your very own Web 2.0 portal based on WordPress. Detailed instructions and howto guides make it possible for anyone to create a sparkling and engaging blog and join the community of like-minded individuals. Reviewed by: WordPress Web 2.0 Spot-er
http://www.howtospoter.com/

***************************
Sites Reviewed:
Detoxcenter
Visit the Detoxcenter for a complete collection of articles about body detoxification and associated issues. All done with a fresh approuch. Reviewed by:Body Detoxification

A Weight Lifted
A weight lifted blog is a pleasent change in the apporouch to weight loss. It is the kind of blog that looks at weight loss as a health issue, not a cosmetic. Trying to maintain proper weight/height proportions becomes a bit more easy with the advice found here. Reviewed by:Body Detoxification

The Daily Table
The Daily Table is not just about organic food, but it also is a very informative blog if you want to know about what is finding its way to our tables. Sometime it is a bit scary. Reviewed by:Natural Body Detoxification

Alternative Medicine Blog
A revolution is occuring in health care. At the forefront of this revolution are alternative and complementary medicine, systems that focus on promoting health and on treating disease with natural, nontoxic therapies. This blog trys to inform about some of them on the basis of scientific research.
Reviewed by:Liver Detoxification

Alternativemedicinesblog.org
Complementary and alternative medicine information about common health conditions, including home remedies, holistic healthcare, herbs and supplements. Reviewed by:Drug Detoxification

A Course In Miracles
This is an invitation to celebrate miracles in your successful transformation from a human being to God Mind. This is what your are undergoing. It is the only thing that is going on, no matter what you think. A blog to think about. Reviewed by:Natural Body Detoxification

Deepest Health
An informative and entertaining blog pertaining to Classical Chinese Medicine. Written by a third-year student who studies at National College of Natural Medicine, home of Heiner Fruehauf. Reviewed by:Natural Body Detoxification

Feel free to join the carousel and please add reviews to the sites you like. Once you have provided review about the site – let them know, and perhaps they will join the carousel. You will be surprised how fast your rank will grow and this time so will the Google Page Ranking. It is your chance to get viral traffic to your blog.

Update:
To answer several questions I have received in email.

Q: Do I have to do the review of the site that reviewed me?
A: Absolutely Not! It is entirely up to you what sites do you review. Reciprocal part of this Carousel is in the part where reviewer creates a link to HIS or HER own blog using anchor text that fits the reviewer the most. It is actually most beneficial to review other blogs you might like and invite them to join the carousel. Main idea is not to only build links but to actually provide value to our readers by sharing sites we like.

Q: How many sites can I add?
A: It is up to you and I only request that you do not remove more then one from previous carousel. It will work best if each of us remove just one bottom review and adds one at the top. Using this method it creates most organic, changing content. But nobody is limited to removing JUST the bottom. If you look through the list and find one blog that simply don’t fit the theme of your blog – remove it. I don’t mind if you even remove my own blog, its all part of the game and as long as we continue to provide value to our readers and have changing (rotating) content we avoid penalties. On how many reviews to have – I wouldn’t recommend more then 10 for a simple reason. 10 reviews = 20 links, plus a link back to a site that invited you to participate and other links you already have on your blog. Our goal is to create the least amount of outgoing links, combined with value and avoid blame for being link-farmers.

Q: How fast will my technorati rank and Google PR will grow?
A: I have no clue! It will mainly depend on your efforts. Invite your friends Bloggers to join the carousel and use copy/paste from your blog. More people participate – better you rank. Here is a quote from Dave Ledoux: “Does it work? My Technorati ranking improved by over 2000 in the last 36 hours because of this.”

Terry Areford of Morgantown, West Virginia is one patient who wasn’t told by his cardiologist that the option of adult stem cell therapy existed for him. He was a patient at the prestigious teaching hospital attached to the University of West Virginia where he could reasonably have expected to receive the best and most advanced treatment options available to medical science. He believed that his imminent death was unavoidable because he did not want a transplant and after several heart attacks, six bypasses and more than half a dozen operations to insert stents he had only one small vessel left pumping blood to the front of his heart.

Everyday for Terry was characterized by chest pain and shortness of breath. He could not walk a hundred feet without tightness in his chest and at only 60 years of age wanted to be around a little longer to enjoy his family and grandchildren. He was upset and felt that there must be something else out there for him. Fortunately, his daughter scoured the internet and searched until she found that there was, indeed, grounds for hope.

‘I think it’s a real shame that I cannot get the help I need at home. I found out that there is some research going on with adult stem cells in the U.S. but they are like five year trials. I couldn’t wait five years. There’s going to be a lot of people dead in five years and they wouldn’t have to be dead if they knew about adult stem cell therapy,’ he said.

‘I hope ten people read my story and go out and tell ten more people so that everybody comes to understand what this is all about. I was using my own body to help, or perhaps cure, my own body. There is no rejection factor and it took only a small incision in my chest wall and an injection of my own stem cells into the heart. Once implanted these cells do what they are programmed to do – revascularize to improve blood flow to my useless heart muscle. While my wife shopped and visited the temples and markets I lay back in a superb hospital with fantastic care to get well,’ he added.

The Volumetric’s Diet was created by Barbara Rolls PhD and is a very popular diet that has been part of a weight loss program for a number of very successful dieters.

Volumetrics is based on a very simple fact - people like to eat! And that if people are given a choice between eating more or eating less then in 99% of cases they will always choose to eat more.

The Volumetric’s Diet isn’t based on deprivation like many other diets. It’s based on this natural human preference just mentioned and the natural human dislike for dieting (i.e. hunger and unhappiness).

The basis of the Volumetrics diet is finding foods that you can eat lots of whilst you are still losing weight. Volumetrics focuses on the feeling of fullness that many other diets exlude. According to Rolls, people feel full because of how much food they’ve eaten and it has nothing to do with calories, grams of far, protein, carbs or anything else. The trick is to fill yourself up on foods that are not full of calories. In most cases, following the Volumetrics diet will allow you to eat more and not less whilst you are still easily losing weight.

In 2000, Barbara Rolls and her co-author Robert A. Barnett released The Volumetrics Weight Control Plan detailing her theory. She followed it up in 2005 with The Volumetric’s Eating Plan which provided even more recipes whilst reminded people of the basis of the diet.

You may be wondering who Rolls is and what credentials she has. She’s the profession of nutrition and directory of the Laboratory for the Study of Human Ingestive Behaviour at Penn State University. She’s written well over 200 research articles and based the Volumetric’s diet largely on the work she has done in her laboratory.

In the Volumetric’s diet, there are no banned foods, nor are foods divided into good and bad foods. You are urged though to evaluate foods based on their energy density, which is a vital concept for the diet.

The energy density is the number of calories in a specific amount of food. Some foods, particularly fatty foods, are much more energy dense than others, i.e. they have a lot of calories packed into a small amount. Water is the complete opposite because it has a zero energy density.

By eating foods with a high energy density you are consuming a lot of calories. By eating less energy dense foods you can not only eat more, but you get less calories too.

Some very low energy density foods include things like soup or broths, fat free milk and non-starchy vegetables. In contrast, some of the very high density foods include things like crackers, chips, cookies, chocolate, nuts, oils, butter, etc.

At the heart of the Volumetric’s Diet are foods with a high water content, such as vegetables and fruits, which are often up to 95% water. These will fill you up without adding too many calories. Of course, you could drink a lot of water and consume no calories at all, but you would still feel hungry.

The Volumetric’s Diet also recommends eating foods with filling fibre, lean protein (i.e. not fatty meat) and some healthy fats such as those you find in fish. You can still eat energy dense foods like sweets, fats and alcohol, you just eat them a little bit more sparingly that you would have before.

At its root, the Volumetric’s Diet is very clever. It is essentially a sensible eating program that almost any nutritionist would recommend. Reduce your calorie intake, lower your fat intake and eat lots of vegetables and fruits.

The South Beach diet menu is the collection of the food that you could take if you truly want to achieve your set goal. You could substitute some of the food contents only that you must not go beyond what is required by the phase.

The Phases of South Beach Diet Menu

There are various phases involved in the South Beach Diet Menu. Moreover, they are all nutritious and wholesome foods.

For Phase 1, you would be required to eat only lean protein while mixing it up with the mono and the polyunsaturated fats like those of the canola oil, olive oil, and peanut oil. The low-glycemic index of carbohydrates may also be included.

Phase 2 re-introduces the list of some healthy carbs like the whole grain bread, fruit, whole wheat pasta, whole grain rice, and sweet potatoes. Some indulgences may also be enjoyed from time to time.

Phase 3 is now the maintenance part. There is no ready food plan or list. You would simply be adopting the knowledge and concepts that you earned from the phase 2 of the South beach diet menu.

Be very creative in thinking about alternatives or substitutes in every single phase. You may try new foods and new things. It matters that you do not get bored with the food plan that you take.

The Aim of the South Beach Diet Menu Phases

All of the three phases of the South Beach diet menu plans are meant for flexibility. As you deem yourself already fit, you may switch on with the phases. South Beach diet menu helps you in eating for the purpose of your health. Its main goal is to let you eat foods which are nonetheless pleasurable for you yet they are healthy at the same time.

The Acceptable Food for the South Beach Diet Menu Phases

Phase 1 Food list may include the lean cuts of beef, all kinds of seafood, skinless poultry, lean cuts of veal and pork, lunchmeats and cheeses that are low-fat or fat-free, tofu, eggs, legumes, low-glycemic index vegetables, canola oil, olive oil, peanut oil, seasonings and spices without added sugar, and some sugar-free treats.

Phase 2 list may include the advisable food for phase 1 and the addition of whole grain bagels, whole wheat pasta, high-fiber cereal, high-fiber breads, popcorn, and whole wheat pita.

South Beach diet menu plan aids in resolving the problems of the body in processing sugar, fats, and fuel. If you are ready with the routine intake, better get professional help.

We hear a lot about heart disease and other problems of the cardiovascular system. It has been a problem that has been faced by scientists and health professionals over many decades. We can be forgiven for thinking that with all the attention it has received and all the money that has been spent in trying to find treatments and cures that the problem would have been solved and that the number of people who are dying from cardiovascular system problems would have decreased. This does not appear to be the case. I find the following information alarming.

Piscatella and Franklin (2003) estimate that cardiovascular disease afflicts 100 million Americans (about half the population). One person, in the United States, dies from cardiovascular disease every 34 seconds. This means that by 7 am on any day of the week, 741 have already died of cardiovascular disease, by noon the figure has risen to 1,271 and by the time the day has ended 2,488 have died. Let’s put this another way. The American odds of contracting AIDS is 1 in 1,000,000. The chance of being murdered is 1 in 10,000. However, the risk of dying for cardiovascular disease is 1 in 2.

It has often been thought that this is a man’s problem. However, there are almost as many women with heart problems as men and it is the leading cause of death among American women. Over 250,000 women die of heart disease each year - which is more than the next 14 causes of death added together. More women than men die of heart disease each year. Twice as many women die each year from cardiovascular disease than from all forms of cancer combined.

Answers to questions about heart disease

What is a heart attack?

A heart attack - also called a myocardial infarction (MI) or coronary occlusion (coronary) occurs when blood flow to a part of the heart muscle is blocked. It is caused by a blockage of the coronary artery, or more commonly one of its sub-branches. This usually results from the movement of unstable plaque on the artery wall, a blood clot or a spasm that seals off the artery. The section of the heart muscle that is without blood supply eventually dies and this produces permanent damage to the heart muscle tissue, which comprises the bulk of the organ.

What does a heart attack feel like?

The most common symptom is pain or pressure or a sense of fullness in the chest that lasts for two or more minutes. Men sometimes say that it feels like having a vice squeezing their chest or an elephant sitting on their chest. Women typically experience a milder pain. The pain or sensation may (or it might not) also be in the shoulders, neck, jaw, back, arms or abdomen. Men tend to have sharper pain than women and also often in their arms and shoulders. Dizziness, sweating, nausea and shortness of breath may also occur.

If you have ever run very hard without proper training you will have felt the pain in your muscles caused by lack of oxygen during the time you forced them to work. Well, your heart muscle always has to work for you to live, so when part of it is suddenly deprived of oxygen the pain can be extreme, resulting in loss of consciousness.

When are heart attacks most likely to occur?

Men may first get the signs of heart disease between the ages of 35 and 40 years. The condition doesn’t usually affect women until between the ages of 45 and 64 years.

There are differences in the time of day and the time of the week when heart attacks are most likely to occur. Between 6 am and 12 mid day are the riskiest time of the day - possibly because of the increases in hormone levels and blood pressure and artery stiffness in the morning. More heart attacks happen on Mondays than any other day of the week - sometimes called “Blue Monday”. It is thought that the stress of the work environment - especially after a period of relaxation may be the cause.

What is angina?

There are often no warning symptoms in the early stages of heart disease. However, as the arteries that feed blood and oxygen to the heart muscle (the coronary arteries) become gradually narrowed many people experience angina or angina pectoris - “chest pain”. The heart muscle itself is receiving insufficient oxygen for its current level of workload, just like the untrained runner’s legs mentioned above.

Angina is a sharp, sudden pain - a feeling of tightness, heaviness, squeezing, numbness, burning or pressure. It may move into the arms (often the left arm), neck, jaw, back and shoulder.

Angina is a symptom, not a disease. It is progressive - the pain can becomes more frequent, more intense of both.

Not all angina is the same.

• Some occurs during or soon after physical exertion, eating a heavy meal, going into the cold or heat, or as a reaction to emotional stress. Sufferers are usually forced to stop what they are doing (thereby reducing the workload on the heat so that it will have enough oxygen).
• Another form of angina produces pain at less predictable times - even when you are sleeping. This form is often a symptom of an impending heart attack.
• Angina is a indicator of coronary artery blockage - it affects over 5 million Americans.

What is a cardiac arrest?A cardiac arrest is where the heart ceases to function - its normal process of pumping blood throughout the body stops. This is an emergency situation as the body, and in particular the brain, needs oxygen supplied via the blood flow. Without this oxygen death occurs rapidly. Most cases of cardiac arrest are related to the heart’s electrical conduction system that isn’t working properly and the heart beats irregularly, such as in ventricular fibrillation where the heart beat is chaotic and ineffective. Sometimes a heart attack can lead to these heart beat problems.

There are ways to deal with and overcome heart disease.

All of the information provided above presents a very gloomy picture. However, you and your family do not need to be a part of this heart disease tragedy. Any changes that your body makes in one direction (for example, towards cardiovascular disease) it can make in the opposite direction (for example, towards a healthy cardiovascular system). You will need to take action to make it happen. Some of the actions you need to take include:

• quit smoking, if you are a smoker then the Growerz.com quit smoking program will help you.
• balance your diet,
• make exercise a health habit, and
• manage your stress levels.

As well as these you need to cleanse your body of toxins - this includes the toxins that have built up in your arteries as well as the rest of your internal tissues. These actions (how to take them, things you need to consider and more) will be included in future articles on heart disease.Part of the tragedy of heart disease is that, as devastating as the disease may be, it is avoidable and treatable. Far too many people are drawn into the myths promoted by western medicine that suggest little can be done to effectively deal with the disease. Your typical doctor has accepted the verdict that suits the pharmaceutical industry and treats you entirely within their “market”. They have largely lost the knowledge and skills to deal with heart disease any other way and now simply perform tests, prescribe side-effect laden drugs and expect you to die soon enough, after they have separated you from a good deal of money. Their approach is massively expensive (consider the tests, drugs, special paramedics, coronary care units and lost work productivity, not to mention the human suffering), quite clearly does not work (just look at the statistics) and simply cannot be relied upon.

Heart disease is largely a lifestyle related problem. There is a genetic component, but that is over emphasized by most of the medical profession who want to excuse their failure. With some guidance and a commitment to make some changes you can avoid or recover from heart disease or at the very least dramatically improve your quality of life if you already have advanced pathology.

References

Davies, S. and A. Stewart., 1997, Nutritional Medicine. Pan.

Holden, S., Hudson, K., Tilman, J. & D. Wolf, 2003, The Ultimate Guide to Health from Nature. Asrolog Publication.

Pistcatella, J.C. and Frankin, B.A. 2003, Take a Load off Your Heart. Workman.

Saxelby, C. 2001, Nutrition for the Healthy Heart. Hardie Grant.

Dr Jenny Tylee is an experienced health professional who is passionate about health and wellbeing. She believes that health is not just absence of disease and seeks to actively promote vitality and wellness through empowering others. She encourages people to improve their health by quit smoking, cleansing their body, taking essential, non contaminated vitamin and mineral supplements (from healthproductssite.com) and many other methods, including herbal remedies. She also owns Healthy Living blog.

Terry Areford of Morgantown, West Virginia is one patient who wasn’t told by his cardiologist that the option of adult stem cell therapy existed for him. He was a patient at the prestigious teaching hospital attached to the University of West Virginia where he could reasonably have expected to receive the best and most advanced treatment options available to medical science. He believed that his imminent death was unavoidable because he did not want a transplant and after several heart attacks, six bypasses and more than half a dozen operations to insert stents he had only one small vessel left pumping blood to the front of his heart.

Everyday for Terry was characterized by chest pain and shortness of breath. He could not walk a hundred feet without tightness in his chest and at only 60 years of age wanted to be around a little longer to enjoy his family and grandchildren. He was upset and felt that there must be something else out there for him. Fortunately, his daughter scoured the internet and searched until she found that there was, indeed, grounds for hope.

‘I think it’s a real shame that I cannot get the help I need at home. I found out that there is some research going on with adult stem cells in the U.S. but they are like five year trials. I couldn’t wait five years. There’s going to be a lot of people dead in five years and they wouldn’t have to be dead if they knew about adult stem cell therapy,’ he said.

‘I hope ten people read my story and go out and tell ten more people so that everybody comes to understand what this is all about. I was using my own body to help, or perhaps cure, my own body. There is no rejection factor and it took only a small incision in my chest wall and an injection of my own stem cells into the heart. Once implanted these cells do what they are programmed to do – revascularize to improve blood flow to my useless heart muscle. While my wife shopped and visited the temples and markets I lay back in a superb hospital with fantastic care to get well,’ he added