Cancer Articles (Dr. S.N White)

What about wine and alcohol?  Wine is a rich source of antioxidants, like other grape products. It also contains alcohol. Alcohol does raise HDL (good) cholesterol, and some studies have linked moderate wine consumption in countries like France and Italy to a lower incidence of heart disease. It is well known that alcohol should always be consumed in moderation and avoided during pregnancy. Perhaps the key to wine drinking is to consume wine only with meals. Even better, you may try diluting your wine with water, as is often done at Italian meals. The basic health rule is not to exceed one glass a day for women and two for men. Less research can be found on beer, but, again, a moderate amount may be beneficial. As with wine, if you choose to drink beer, do so with a meal. Drinking to excess may increase blood pressure and cause other health problems. Recent reports about red wine show that it contains substances beyond the alcohol which have some extra benefits. A nondrinker ...

What about fats in plant foods?  There are many current myths about fats. That fats can play both a beneficial role and a damaging one is at the root of the confusion. If you have heart disease, you need to be extra careful about your animal fat intake. Making plant foods the centerpiece of your meals eliminates much of the worry about the amount of fat you take in you’ll automatically get the right kind of fat. Remember that the fats in plants, with a few exceptions like coconut, are good fats . It is the fat from land animals beef and chicken that you need to be concerned about, because they contain large amounts of saturated fats. Natural plant fats are usually unsaturated. Furthermore, animal foods contain cholesterol, whereas there is no cholesterol in plant foods. Aren't nuts high fat foods that I should avoid?  Nuts are high in fat, but these are the good fats. Recent studies have shown that nuts help lower blood cholesterol, and in a major study done by Loma L...

I know I must cut down on saturated fats, but what about cholesterol in foods?  Cholesterol has many roles in human health. For example, some hormones and bile acids are synthesized from cholesterol, and cholesterol is part of the cell wall. But your body makes all the cholesterol you need, so you do not need to get more from foods. Up to a point, cholesterol from foods does not alter your blood cholesterol, but above a certain level, in most people, it raises blood cholesterol. A few people can eat more, with no damage, but if you have heart disease, you must be extra careful. Where is cholesterol found? Cholesterol is found only in animal foods, and most often it is dissolved in the fat part of the food. If you decrease the amount of animal fat you eat, you decrease your cholesterol intake as well. As you know, two of the richest sources of cholesterol in foods are egg yolks (egg whites have no cholesterol) and liver (cholesterol is synthesized in the liver). You can eat ...

What will I gain by exercising? • Studies have shown that regular aerobic exercise lowers triglycerides, increases HDL (the good cholesterol), and sometimes reduces LDL (the bad cholesterol). • Over time, exercise can increase the size of the coronary arteries and the capillaries that supply blood and oxygen to the heart. Some evidence exists that exercise may even promote the formation of extra blood vessels to help compensate for those that are blocked. • Exercise helps control blood pressure. If your blood pressure is normal, physical activity will help it stay that way. If it is elevated, exercise can help lower it. •Exercise helps control blood sugar and prevent non-insulindependent diabetes. • Exercise helps prevent blood clotting in arteries and veins. • Exercise improves your overall quality of life. As your heart works more efficiently, it does so with less effort. You’ll find you have more energy. • Exercise helps with weight loss and weight control . A phys...

How do statins work?   Understanding how statins work will help you understand their possible adverse effects. Statins interfere with the production of cholesterol in the body, mainly in the liver. Since you synthesize your own cholesterol, it makes sense to limit the amount you consume if you are an overproducer. The liver together with cholesterol from food is responsible for most of the cholesterol found in the blood. There is a key step in cholesterol synthesis that these statins block quite effectively. The result is a reduction in blood LDLcholesterol levels of 25 percent to 45 percent, depending on the dose prescribed. Since cholesterol is the key molecule for the production or synthesis of other essential compounds (like some hormones and bile acids needed for the digestion of fats) in the body, if the dose of the statin is too high there may be some adverse effects. Statins and Cholesterol Always remember: do as much as possible in terms of diet, not smoking, ph...

Yes. During a heart attack, some heart muscle cells that lack sufficient blood and oxygen become damaged, releasing various enzymes into the bloodstream. A blood sample may be drawn every few hours to look for these enzymes as one way to diagnose whether a heart attack has occurred and how much muscle has been damaged. After a heart attack, your physician will always take blood samples to measure blood cholesterol and fractions of blood cholesterol. These tests can reveal your level of risk of developing a future heart attack. These fractions include measures of highdensity lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), often called the “good” cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), often called the “bad” cholesterol. Levels of triglycerides (a type of fat in the blood) are often measured at the same time.

What are healthy levels of cholesterol?  Total blood cholesterol should be below 200 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl) . But it is also important to know your levels of HDL (“good” cholesterol) and LDL (“bad” cholesterol). Any HDL below 35 mg/dl is considered to be abnormal. Women have an average HDL of about 55 mg/dl, and men about 44 mg/dl. Unlike total and LDL cholesterol, for HDL cholesterol, “higher is better and lower is worse” in a sliding scale from between 20 and 70 mg/dl. It is thought that one of the main reasons premenopausal women have a lower heart attack rate than men stems from the protection associated with their having higher HDL levels, most likely due to the presence of estrogen. HDL levels influence risk independent of total cholesterol. In other words, even if your total cholesterol is considered “normal,” if your HDL is less than 35, then you are still at an increased risk. For those with heart disease, LDL levels below 100 mg/dl are now recommended, but le...

Why is cholesterol bad for me?  It is a common misconception that cholesterol is some “evil” substance; actually, what’s bad is too much or the wrong kind of cholesterol in the blood. Your body already makes all you need; you do not need to take in extra cholesterol. In fact, in people with normal levels of blood cholesterol, cholesterol taken into the body from food up to a certain level just tells the liver to produce a little less. But other food components, like saturated fat, seem to cause the liver to make more cholesterol in most people. Too much cholesterol can lead to arterial clogging atherosclerosis, the condition underlying coronary heart disease. Studies have shown that the higher the total blood cholesterol, the more likely an individual is to develop heart disease. For every 1 percent decrease in the total blood cholesterol of an individual, there is a 2 to 3 percent decrease in heart disease. The higher the blood cholesterol levels in a region or country, the ...

What does it mean that I have plaque in an artery in my heart?  Plaques are deposits of cholesterol and fibrous tissue built up over many years, beginning in childhood, in response to factors like smoking, high blood cholesterol, and high blood pressure, among others. These deposits are like lumps on the inside of the artery and are called atherosclerotic plaques. When the plaques build up and narrow the heart artery (known as a coronary artery) to about 50 percent of its original size, then the diagnosis of coronary artery disease may be made, although sensitive tests that are not often performed can detect smaller deposits. After about 50 percent narrowing has occurred, coronary artery disease, also known as coronary heart disease, or CHD, can gradually or suddenly interfere with the pumping and circulation of blood, depriving tissue and organs (including the heart itself) of essential blood and oxygen.

What is cholesterol? Cholesterol is a waxy, fatlike substance produced by the liver, present in all animal tissue. It is an important substance with many functions in the body. It is a building block of cells, the starting molecule for the synthesis of many hormones including sex hormones as well as bile acids (produced by the liver and secreted into the intestines during a meal to help digest fats) and many other substances, like vitamin D. When cholesterol is found in foods, it is referred to as dietary cholesterol. Dietary cholesterol is present in animal foods meat, fish, eggs, and dairy products. When we eat food containing cholesterol, this cholesterol is absorbed from the intestines into the bloodstream. The cholesterol found in the blood is a combination of the cholesterol absorbed from food and the cholesterol synthesized by the liver. This is what is measured when you have a blood test and is referred to as serum cholesterol or blood cholesterol. Even though we call one ...