Cutting salt in your diet means lowering your blood pressure and reducing your risk for disease. Dozens of research studies have reported this over the years.  Current research results not only do not repudiate the old results but recommend that the guidelines for high blood pressure be narrowed and made more stringent. No matter what way you look at it, a decrease in sodium in the diet, even among people with only modest elevated blood pressure, lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease later in life. Read the rest of this entry

Sometimes, especially when our lives are so complicated, it is difficult to understand that something so simple as reducing our salt intake can reduce our risk of stroke and heart attacks, especially as we get older.  Actually, cutting back on salt for better health is no secret.  You cannot pick up a magazine for women or a health magazine for men without some monthly article focusing on salt reduction.  The problem is so few of us give any action to this concern.

If you watch the TV Food Network for any length of time, you will find our that there are a dozen or so different kinds of salts, some of them very exotic and very pricey.  It does not matter what color or flavor or what the origins of the salt may be, salt is salt.  Too much salt from the sea and too much salt from a mine will have the same bad effects.  True, sea salt may have some redeeming qualities but too much of it is not good.

There are several  real problems with table salt.   It does contribute to high blood pressure, especially with people who have kidney problems.It can harm your kidneys.   The other  concern is that salt or sodium chloride is an adrenal stimulant, which triggers the release of adrenal hormones, especially those natural steroids that resist inflammation.   When these hormones are at high levels in the blood, you are going to feel a sense of well being.

Using this reasoning you could say salt is a drug. It is!  It is a habituating drug and food manufacturers know this.  What are the 3 ingredients in our fast food industry that have contributed to the obesity problem: sugar, fat and salt?  The problem is we are so used to stimulating our adrenals we do not notice it any more.  All we notice is when there is not enough salt and then our food tastes flat.  People are uncomfortable when there is no salt shaker on the table.

Not only does salt wear down our adrenals but it increases our risk of high blood pressure.  If you do not have high blood pressure and are not worried, think again.  Ninety percent of people in the US develop hypertension because blood pressure tends to rise as you age and they have been exposed to excesses of sodium for a long time.

Think about this.  Most of do not need to eat salt as a nutrient.  There is enough sodium in one dill pickle to run your body for a year.  There is enough natural sodium in many vegetables to supply your need for sodium without using salt.  More than this is probably causing some kind of damage.

More in tomorrow’s post about salt and your health. If you have any questions type them in the comment box and I will answer them either personally or in another blog post.

To your success at healthy aging without overdoing the salt.

Ruthan Brodsky

Everything you eat is going to influence the way your brain functions; I am convinced of that. It just makes sense if you think about it. Food gives your body the raw materials it needs to build, replace and repair everything and to operate efficiently. Read the rest of this entry

Before people develop Type 2 diabetes, a condition called pre-diabetes usually takes place. Interestingly, this condition arrives gradually but usually without warning. There may be no signs of it or the signs are so insignificant that no one pays attention. However, if you are 45 years or older, pay attention, because that is the age when problems with blood sugar control usually begin.

Also known as impaired glucose intolerance by the medical profession, prediabetes is a term that refers to the 41 million people I the U.S. who have blood glucose levels higher than normal but not high enough to be classified as diabetes.

Recognizing the importance of diagnosing pre-diabetes because  treatment of the condition may prevent type 2 diabetes as well as all those complications associated with type 2 diabetes. Doctors now know that the complications associated with prediabetes, such as heart and blood vessel disease and eye and kidney disease, take place before the diabetes diagnosis is made.

You are at risk for developing Type 2 Diabetes if you fall within one of these categories:

• Have a family history of type 2 diabetes;

• You are a woman who had gestational diabetes or had a baby weighing more than  9 pounds;

• You are a woman with polycystic ovary syndrome PCOS;

• You are African American, Native American, Latino, or Pacific Islander, minority groups that are more affected by diabetes;

• You are overweight or obese especially around the abdomen;

• You have high cholesterol, high triglycerides and high blood pressure;

• You are inactive;

• You are over 70 because as people age they are less able to process glucose the right way.

Treatment for pre diabetes

• Eat a healthy diet and lose weight

A 5 percent to 10 percent reduction in weight makes a huge difference.

• Exercise at least 30 minutes for 5 days a week. You can split the activity up into shorter periods. Select an activity you enjoy so you will stay with the exercise.

• Stop smoking.

Treat high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

In other words, choose a healthy lifestyle and stay with it.

I’d love to learn about your ways that you deal with your sugar problems especially if they work well for you. I’d like to share them with our readers. Scroll down to the blank window and write your suggestion in the blank window.
Thanks for your participation.

To your success at healthy aging.

Ruthan Brodsky

Your blood pressure tends to get higher as you get older. You may have gone thru life with a normal bp for your first 45 or 55 or even 60 years and then your doctor tells you your bp is up. Read the rest of this entry