It is the role of the government and people of America to help solve problems with society, including and especially our health crises. Obesity is a health epidemic across our country, and we have a responsibility to promote good nutrition and healthy eating so we can reverse this alarming trend.  Learning young about healthy foods to eat on a regular basis with moderation on treats, from fast food to deserts, with keeping the weight in the therapeutic range or body mass index including balancing rest and exercise will help decrease the percentage of disease in this generation including the one to follow, before obesity kicks in the next one, hopefully.    Let us not forget today’s mid age or later age people in America with disease factors already set in due to unhealthy eating for many years,  you can also change your eating habits with exercising moderately and have better health results also (but recommended your general practitioner clear you with diet and activity first).                                                                                                                                                              The government helps out by passing via Congress in 2010 rules required under a child nutritional law in their effort to get childhood obesity decreased to hopefully absent one day, like some countries.  Society has gotten involved where schools took action with improving their lunches and even vending machine options with others still selling high fat, high calorie foods.  Parents and teachers still have to work harder with reinforcing healthy eating habits in their children both in class and at home so that the future will be healthier for them and their children.  For this to take place today’s children have to walk a pathway at a young age to get in the state of mind in striving for overall wellness .  This will definitely decrease certain diseases caused by poor eating habits with sedentary lifestyles, sooner than you think.  From Feb. 2013  the agriculture department already involved regulating nutritional content of school breakfasts and lunches that have already been subsidized by the federal government, but most lunchrooms also have “a la carte” lines that sell other foods, hopefully that has changed.  Also food sold via vending machines and in other ways outside the lunchroom has never before been federally regulated as of Feb. 2013.  Mom and Dad your peeps need your guidance not just the schools or government, since they don’t always use the best of judgment. .  It has to start somewhere and the drive to a healthy USA is increasing, join me.   Do you want a better body, or a healthier society overall?, than go no further and click onto healthy usa.tsfl.com. that will give you the direction to reaching both a better body and society if enough do it.   Healthyusa.tsfl.com provides you with information that you get to decide in choosing whether or not to use.  This is no donation site, no hacking website, just a site providing information on how to live a healthier life.  I hope you join me like so many others;)

The beauty of following a healthy diet is that it helps treat and prevent all chronic degenerative diseases, from the common ones like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity and Alzheimer’s to the ones you have never heard of or can’t even pronounce.

The first step is to eat healthy, maintaining exercise balanced with rest and practice healthy habits in addressing Alzheimer’s disease, which is currently at epidemic proportions, with 5.4 million Americans – including one in eight people aged 65 and over – living with the disease.

^{7 By 2050, this is expected to jump to 16 million, and in the next 20 years it is projected that Alzheimer’s will affect one in four Americans. People we need to live healthier if not to help ourselves our future young ones.}

In spite of how common

^{memory loss is among Westerners, it is NOT a “normal” part of aging.  While even mild “senior moments” may be caused by the same brain lesions associated with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, these cognitive changes are by no means inevitable! People who experience very little decline in their cognitive function up until their deaths have been found (post-mortem) to be free of brain lesions, showing that it’s entirely possible to prevent the damage from occurring in the first place and one of the best ways to do this is by leading a healthy lifestyle.}

^{Fructose. As mentioned, most everyone will benefit from keeping their total fructose consumed to below 25 grams per day.}

Improve Magnesium Levels.

There is some exciting preliminary research strongly suggesting a decrease in Alzheimer symptoms with increased levels of magnesium in the brain. Unfortunately most magnesium supplements do not pass the blood brain levels, but a new one, magnesium threonate, appears to and holds some promise for the future for treating this condition.

Optimize your vitamin D levels with safe sun exposure.

Strong links between low levels of vitamin D in Alzheimer’s patients and poor outcomes on cognitive tests have been revealed.

8 Researchers believe that optimal vitamin D levels may enhance the amount of important chemicals in your brain and protect brain cells by increasing the effectiveness of the glial cells in nursing damaged neurons back to health.

Vitamin D may also exert some of its beneficial effects on Alzheimer’s through its anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting properties. Sufficient vitamin D is imperative for proper functioning of your immune system to combat inflammation that is also associated with Alzheimer’s.

^{Vitamin B12: According to a small Finnish study recently published in the journal Neurology,9 people who consume foods rich in B12 may reduce their risk of Alzheimer’s in their later years. For each unit increase in the marker of vitamin B12 (holotranscobalamin) the risk of developing Alzheimer’s was reduced by 2 percent. Very high doses of B vitamins have also been found to treat Alzheimer’s disease and reduce memory loss.}

Eat a nutritious diet, rich in folate

. Vegetables, without question, are your best form of folate, and we should all eat plenty of fresh raw veggies every day.

High-quality animal-based omega-3 fats

, such as krill oil. (I recommend avoiding most fish because, although fish is naturally high in omega-3, most fish are now severely contaminated with mercury.) High intake of the omega-3 fats EPA and DHA help by preventing cell damage caused by Alzheimer’s disease, thereby slowing down its progression, and lowering your risk of developing the disorder.

Avoid and remove mercury from your body.

Dental amalgam fillings, which are 50% mercury by weight, are one of the major sources of heavy metal toxicity, however you should be healthy prior to having them removed.

Avoid aluminum,

such as antiperspirants, non-stick cookware,

^{vaccine adjuvants, etc.}

Exercise regularly.

It’s been suggested that exercise can trigger a change in the way the amyloid precursor protein is metabolized,

10 thus, slowing down the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s. Exercise also increases levels of the protein PGC-1alpha. Research has also shown that people with Alzheimer’s have less PGC-1alpha in their brains11 and cells that contain more of the protein produce less of the toxic amyloid protein associated with Alzheimer’s. I would strongly recommend reviewing the

^{Peak Fitness Technique for my specific recommendations.}

Avoid flu vaccinations

as most contain both mercury and aluminum, well-known neurotoxic and immunotoxic agents.

Eat plenty of blueberries.

Wild blueberries, which have high anthocyanin and antioxidant content, are known to guard against Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases.

Challenge your mind daily.

Mental stimulation, especially learning something new, such as learning to play an instrument or a new language, is associated with a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s. Researchers suspect that mental challenge helps to build up your brain, making it less susceptible to the lesions associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Avoid anticholinergic and

^{statin drugs. Drugs that block acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter, have been shown to increase your risk of dementia. These drugs include certain nighttime pain relievers, antihistamines, sleep aids, certain antidepressants, medications to control incontinence, and certain narcotic pain relievers.}

Statin drugs are particularly problematic because they suppress the synthesis of cholesterol, deplete your brain of coenzyme Q10 and neurotransmitter precursors, and prevent adequate delivery of essential fatty acids and fat-soluble antioxidants to your brain by inhibiting the production of the indispensable carrier biomolecule known as low-density lipoprotein.

At one time Alzheimer’s disease was a disease considered with unknown etiology (or cause).  Today it is considered different in the eyes of many in the medical profession.  By a Dr. Mercola a physician who founded Mercola.com (Mercola.com is now the world’s top natural health resource site, with over 1.5 million subscribers.) feels this about alzeiher’s disease: “The cause of the debilitating, and fatal, brain disease Alzheimer’s is conventionally said to be a mystery.”

While we know that certain diseases, like type 2 diabetes, are definitively connected to the foods you eat, Alzheimer’s is generally thought to strike without warning or reason.

That is, until recently.

Now, a growing body of research suggests there may be a powerful connection between the foods you eat and your risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, via similar pathways that cause type 2 diabetes.  Some have even re-named Alzheimer’s as “type 3 diabetes.”“

Can You Eat Your Way to Alzheimer’s?

In a recent animal study, researchers from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island were able to induce many of the characteristic brain changes seen with Alzheimer’s disease (disorientation, confusion, inability to learn and remember) by interfering with insulin signaling in their brains.

¹Know that faulty insulin (and leptin, another hormone) signaling is an underlying cause for insulin resistance, which, of course, typically leads to type 2 diabetes. However, while insulin is usually associated with its role in keeping your ^{blood sugar levels in a healthy range, it also plays a role in brain signaling. When researchers disrupted the proper signaling of insulin in the brain, it resulted in dementia.}

What does this have to do with your diet?  Let us go back to one of my articles on diabetes and how it impacts your diet.  It states “The foods we eat that contain starches, carbohydrates, calories are made up of sugar.  When food reaches our stomach in time digestion starts to take place where these foods are broken down in the stomach into individual or complex sugar molecules ( glucose being one of the most common and important ones).  The glucose then passes from our stomach into our bloodstream when it reaches the liver 60 to 80 % of the glucose gets stored in that organ turning glucose into inactive glucose that’s converted to glycogen.  The purpose for glycogen is when our glucose is low and our body needing energy we have this extra stored sugar, glycogen,  to rely on.  This is done by the liver which allows the sugar to be stored and released back into the bloodstream if we need it=energy,  since nothing is in our stomach at that time, in that case scenario).  When glucose=an active sugar, it is our energy for our cells and tissues and is a sugar ready to be utilized by the body where it is needed,  by many organs.  Think of a car for one moment, and what makes it run?  That would be gas/fuel for it to function.  The same principle with glucose in your bloodstream=fuel for the human body so we can function, for without it we wouldn’t survive.  That is the problem with a person that has diabetes.  They eat, they break the food down, the glucose gets in the blood but the glucose fuel can’t be used due to lack of or NO insulin at all.  Insulin allows glucose to pass into our cells and tissues to be used as energy/fuel for the body parts to work.  Glucose is used as the principle source of energy (It is used by the brain for energy, the muscles for both energy and some storage, liver for more glucose storage=that is where glucose is converted to glycogen, and even stored in fat tissue using it for triglyceride production).  Glucose does get sent to other organs for more storage, as well.  Insulin plays that vital role in allowing glucose to be distributed throughout the body.  Without insulin the glucose has nowhere to go.”

So how does this impact your brain thinking?   “This new focus on the Alzheimer’s/Diabetes/Insulin connection follows a growing recognition of insulin’s role in the brain. Until recently, the hormone was typecast as a regulator of blood sugar, giving the cue for muscles, liver and fat cells to extract sugar from the blood and either use it for energy or store it as fat. We now know that it is also a master multitasker: it helps neurons, particularly in the hippocampus and frontal lobe, take up glucose for energy, and it also regulates neurotransmitters, like acetylcholine, which are crucial for memory and learning.”  What is effected with Alzheimer’s disease? Your memory and learning,  So your diet plays a big role in Alzheimer’s disease.”                                                                                        

Over-consumption of sugars and grains is what ultimately causes your body to be incapable of “hearing” the proper signals from insulin and leptin, leaving you insulin resistant in both body and brain.  Alzheimer’s disease was tentatively dubbed “type 3 diabetes” in early 2005 when researchers learned that the pancreas is not the only organ that produces insulin. Your brain also produces insulin, and this brain insulin is necessary for the survival of your brain cells.

Complications of CHF:

Through the Mayo clinic as a reference regarding complications their website stated: “If you have heart failure, your outlook depends on the cause and the severity, your overall health, and other factors such as your age. Complications can include:

Kidney damage or failure.

Heart failure can reduce the blood flow to your kidneys, which can eventually cause kidney failure if left untreated. Kidney damage from heart failure can require dialysis for treatment.

Heart valve problems.

The valves of your heart, which keep blood flowing in the proper direction through your heart, may not function properly if your heart is enlarged, or if the pressure in your heart is very high due to heart failure.

Liver damage.

Heart failure can lead to a buildup of fluid that puts too much pressure on the liver. This fluid backup can lead to scarring, which makes it more difficult for your liver to function properly.

Stroke.

Because blood flow through the heart is slower in heart failure than in a normal heart, it’s more likely you’ll develop blood clots, which can increase your risk of having a stroke.

Some people’s symptoms and heart function will improve with proper treatment. However, heart failure can be life-threatening. People with heart failure may have severe symptoms, and some may require heart transplantation or support with an artificial heart device.”

Tips on CHF:

See your doctor regularly in evaluating your CHF.

Closely follow your doctor’s instructions, being compliant with the instructions and taking your meds.

Immediately call your doctor of any significant change in your condition, such as an intensified shortness of breath or swollen feet or weight gain of 3lbs or more within one week.

Control your weight in making it easier for your heart, that’s in failure, to function better (less stress).

Watch what you eat and how much.　 Watch the diet intake of cholesterol and sodium that can cause a negative impact on the heart by causing stress to the organ through either high B/P=high sodium intake that causes vasoconstriction or high cholesterol intake frequently　that commonly causes blockage in an artery.　 Both high sodium　or high cholesterol　cause diminishing of oxygenated blood getting to the heart.　 Without oxygen to our tissues or cells this causes tissue & cellular starvation (ischemia).　 What is starvation to the heart=ischemia to the heart=chest pain (what we call angina).　 Take a brittle diabetic, the furthest area from the heart is the feet the first area to experience starvation is the toes, foot or lower extremity which is why this is usually the first to be amputated if necessary (you usually see an upper extremity amputated due to trauma not disease).

Limit or stop alcohol consumption as your doctor informs you.

Of course, stop smoking permanently if actively smoking.

The best defense against heart failure is PREVENTION!　 Almost all the cardiac risk factors can be controlled　by eliminating the bad unhealthy habits　(smoking, obese, high cholesterol, high B/P, diabetes).

Going to the doctor can be stressful but know he is there for you.　 It is hard to remember everything you want to ask the doctor with everything you hear at your visit.　 It helps to prepare a list of questions you may have and bring it with you at your appointment to address to the concerns you listed to the doctor.　 In doing this it helps you with your appointment so you can record the answers by listing them on the paper you have.　 Before you leave the doctor’s office, be sure you understand your condition, its treatment, including any medications your taking this doctor that he or sheprescribed for you with　that doctor　knowing any other medications you may be on through a different doctor to prevent side effects or adverse reactions occurring but if you forget this about the medications there is always your pharmacist you can ask, than your personal　M.D. later.　 With you knowing all this information you will see why it is so vital for you doing all these actions or interventions for your disease that　your doctor prescribed or ordered and you’re more out to follow them as well with understanding the whole picture about the treatment for CHF.

If you are needing any guidance in how to lose weight through using all 4 food groups, with assistance in what to eat now to lose weight till you are in therapeutic range for your height rather than eating food from the market or if you　need to understand how the body works with food and metabolism with where activity comes into play go to healthyusa.tsfl.com.　 See what we can provide you in answering all these questions for you through Dr. Anderson and myself as your coach free.　 SO LIVE AS HEALTHY AS POSSIBLE IN YOUR ROUTINE HABITS,　 YOUR DIETING OF THE 4 FOOD GROUPS, MAINTAINING YOUR WEIGHT IN A THEREPEUTIC RANGE (look as calculating BMI online for free to find out what your weight range for your height is), and BALANCING REST WITH EXERCISE TO HELP DECREASE THE CHANCE OF GETTING HEART FAILURE.　 Go to healthyusa.tsfl.com to learn what Dr. Anderson through his book of “Dr. A.’s Healthy Habits” and me (for free) as your health coach could provide you with.　 Just take a view of what can be offered to you for no price with no hacking go to healthyusa.tsfl.com and take a peek;)　 Join me like many who are trying to live life healthier with making America a healthier home and we all should take part to help the health care system to be more effective for our society.　 Recommended to anyone with disease before changing your diet, activity/exercise program review　your changes with your　doctor to get clearance first to maintain your safety.

We can fulfill this goal, the one step America is by getting healthier (through diet, exercise, and living healthier habits) which would impact cardiac disease by decreasing it in time which would decrease congestive heart failure.  Learn more about CHF on striveforgoodhealth.com with learning how to reach this goal.  Let us the people of America take part on decreasing disease and not just leave it the health care or government’s hands.  Look at the results already and we the society need to take be responsible in being better for ourselves, our children and our future generations.

“In addition to relieving patient suffering, research is needed to help reduce the enormous economic and social burdens posed by chronic diseases such as osteoporosis, arthritis, diabetes, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, cancer, heart disease, and stroke.”

Ike Skelton (born December 20, 1931) is an American politician        who was the U.S. Representative for Missouri’s 4th congressional district from 1977 to 2011)

Treatments for CHF:

Heart failure caused by an excessive workload is curable by treating the primary disease, such as anemia or thyrotoxicosis or hypertension or diabetes.　 Also, curable are forms caused by anatomical problems such as a heart valve defect.　 These defects can be surgically corrected.

However, for the common forms of heart failure due to damaged heart muscle no known cure (like a heart attack that damages the heart muscle where the attack took place on the organ) but prevention of it happening again can take place in many cases through treatment of the disease or illness with being compliant in following up with your doctor for the disease or illness and being compliant in following doctor’s orders.　　 The worst thing you can do is ignore them.　 The treatment seeks to improve patients quality of life and length of survival through lifestyle change and drug therapy.

Patients can minimize the effect of heart failure by controlling the risk factors for heart disease they may have.　 Obvious steps include:　 Don’t smoke or quit smoking, lose weight if necessary, abstaining from alcohol, making those dietary changes to reduce the amount of salt and fat consumed.　　Also,　regular with modest exercise is also helpful for many patients; though the amount and intensity should be carefully monitored by a physician.

Even with lifestyle changes, most heart failure patients must take medication.　 Many patients receive 2 or more meds.　 Types of common medications given are:　 ACE inhibitors, Digitalis, Diuretics, Hydralazine, and Nitrates.

These are some of the meds given for heart failure.　　 Not all medications are suitable for patients, and more than one drug may be needed.　 Always review the list your pharmacist provides in the action, side effects, with instructions of how to take the drug to make it most effective in your body with what to look for while on this medication to keep you the patient most informed on what you should be aware of since your on the medication.　 You should know what your taking.

Results of studies over the years have placed more emphasis on the use of drugs known as angiotensin converting enzymes (ACE) inhibitors.　 Several studies have indicated that ACE inhibitors improve survival among heart failure patients and may slow perhaps even prevent the loss of the heart pumping activity.　 This drug　 prevents the transfer of your enzyme Angiotensin 1 to convert into Angiotensin 2 which prevents the vessels in your body to do vasoconstriction which prevents the pressure in the bloodstream to raise = high B/P (hypertension) but this medication prevents this from happening.　　By the medication doing this it　prevents stress to the heart; with　vasoconstriction in causing the B/P to go high this now　causes the 　blood to get to the heart slowly and more difficult causing the heart to pump harder but the ACE inhibitor with allowing vasodilation (opening of vessels) keeps the　pressure down to make the job easier= less stress on the heart.　 Originally these medications where for patients in the treatment of hypertension but they help patients with heart failure, among other things, decreasing the pressure inside the blood vessels causing the heart to do its job easier.

Digitalis increases the force of the heart’s contractions, helping to improve circulation in the body.

Diuretics are for reducing the amount of fluid in the bloodstream and body by releasing them via the kidneys and having us void the excess of water out in our urine, these are useful for patients with fluid retention.

Those who aren’t prescribed or cannot take these meds already mentioned may be given a hydralazine medication and/or a drug in the Nitrate classification, each of which help relax tension in the blood vessels to improve blood flow.　 Also, both Hydralazine and Nitrates function is they cause vasodilation in the vessels improving blood flow to the heart.

Sometimes heart failure is life threatening.　 Usually, this happens when drug therapy and lifestyle changes fail to control its symptoms.  In such cases, a heart transplant may be the only treatment option. However, candidates for transplantation often have to wait months or even years before a suitable donor heart is found.

Studies over the years indicate that some transplant candidates improve during this waiting period through drug treatment and other therapy, and can be removed from the transplant list.

Transplant candidates who do not improve sometimes need mechanical pumps, which are attached to the heart.　 Called left ventricular assist device (LVADs), the machine takes over part or virtually all of the heart’s blood-pumping activity.　 However, current LVADs are not permanent solutions for heart failure but are considered bridges to transplantation. Worldwide, about 3,500 heart transplants were performed annually. The vast majority of these are performed in the United States (2,000-2,300 annually). Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California has performed the most heart transplants in the last three consecutive years performing 95 transplants in 2012 alone. About 800,000 people have a

Class IV heart defect indicating a new organ.　 The degrees of CHF are I, II, III and IV.　 In learning more about CHF with heart transplants (including becoming a candidate for one) go to wwwtransplantexperience.com or even hearttransplant.com.

Another surgical procedure for heart failure that is available in America is cardiomyoplasty.　 This is a surgical procedure in which healthy muscle from another part of the body is wrapped around the heart to provide support for the failing heart. Most often the latissimusHYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latissimus_dorsi_muscle” HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latissimus_dorsi_muscle”dorsiHYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latissimus_dorsi_muscle” muscle is used for this purpose. A special pacemaker is implanted to make the skeletal muscle contract.　 The electrical stimulator icauses the back muscle to contract, pumping the blood from the heart (this allows the heart to do its job more effectively).

QUOTE FOR THE DAY:  “In addition to relieving patient suffering, research is needed to help reduce the enormous economic and social burdens posed by chronic diseases such as osteoporosis, arthritis, diabetes, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, cancer, heart disease, and stroke.”  Ike Skelton (born December 20, 1931) is an American politician        who was the U.S. Representative for Missouri’s 4th congressional district from 1977 to 2011)