Looking at some of the history regarding epidemics in the US:

In 1995, an outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever (Ebola HF) affected more than 300 people in and around the city of Kikwit, Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly, Zaire); approximately 80% of the patients died. More than one-fourth of all the patients were health care workers. After the outbreak, the DRC Ministry of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) developed practical recommendations for carrying out viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) isolation precautions in rural health facilities in Africa. These recommendations have been consolidated in a manual for the local health community but something needs to be put into play in getting this epidemic under control if not history noted for repeating itself would be a shame in see results like the following:

The Black Death, 1918 Spanish Flu, HIV/AIDS (As of 2011 at least 60 million people had been infected by AIDS and 25 million had died. while in 2008 an estimated 1.2 million Americans had HIV, Sub-Saharan Africa alone was home to 22.9 million cases, with one in five adults infected. About 35.3 million people were believed to have HIV in 2012.), The Plague of Justinian (ultimately killed 25 million people dead), The Antonine Plague, Cholera, reference to this information is at http://www.rwjf.org/en/blogs/new-public-health/2013/12/the_five_deadliesto.html to go further into details about them.

Other epidemics are Polio, Typhus (camp fever), Malaria, Small Pox, Yellow Fever, The Flu in 1918 before the vaccine. The flu only survived for a year, this strain of virus was responsible for the deaths of 50 to 100 million people, as it was able to quickly spread from country to country as troops and soldiers returned home from WWI from all around the globe. Symptoms were common to those in today’s influenza virus. Also the death for many was the complication of the flu in causing fluid build up in the lungs causing the death (from probably putting the pt into the complication septicemia or or those with or without congestive heart failure going into a exacerbation without having effectively removing the fluids by getting better and ending result drowning in their own lungs).

This is not a pretty picture in having to repeat in history for some Epidemic to occur in our time; which could be Ebola.

Although there is still a great deal to learn about Ebola HF, two observations from the Kikwit outbreak strongly indicate that future outbreaks of this magnitude could be prevented:

• The first case occurred in January 1995, but went unrecognized as Ebola HF by health-care workers. This one case started a chain of transmission of the virus that finally was recognized in April of that year, when many more cases appeared. The outbreak peaked in May. Thus, between January and April, there was a window of opportunity that could have allowed early detection and proper management of patients; the early response might have prevented widespread transmission of the virus.
• After an international investigation team arrived in May 1995 and worked with Kikwit medical community to introduce VHF isolation precautions as well as standard precautions, no further nosocomial transmission of the virus was documented, indicating that although Ebola HF is highly infectious, the use of these measures is effective in preventing the spread of disease. Questionable by many since we have it in our country starting an epidemic and it is already an active one in Africa now.
• The observations sent a strong message to the public health and medical communities in Africa and internationally: combining early suspicion of VHF and isolation precautions can help to prevent another serious outbreak of Ebola HF or other VHF in the future. The only question remaining was how these goals could be achieved in a region where resources are scarce and the health care infrastructure is either underdeveloped or deteriorating. This manual, prepared collaboratively by CDC and WHO, attempts to address the issues of early provisional diagnosis and response within a limited infrastructure. It is designed for the following uses:

• for prevention through preparedness–to help African health facilities make advance preparations for responding with appropriate precautions when a VHF case is suspected.
• for planning and conducting in-service training to strengthen standard precautions and VHF isolation precautions. With follow up by superiors of the facility, from floor managers to nursing education depts.
• as a rapid reference when a VHF case appears at a health facility where no previous VHF preparations have been made give the following by CDC:God willing this becomes no epidemic in our country with our government taking better and stronger actions in prevention of diseases spreading in this country. In carrying out stricter rules and regulations which should have been laid down awhile ago regarding people living here or just visiting that travel to and from different countries. This is should have taken place already just by looking at our history of epidemics that have occurred from spread diseases that came some other than United States.
• The recommendations in the manual make use of common, low-cost supplies, such as household bleach, water, cotton cloth, and plastic sheeting. Step-by-step instructions for implementing the recommendations are presented along with instructional aids for easy reference in health centers. For further information on this go to http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/abroad/vhf-manual.html.

Assess your risk of having a heart attack or dying from coronary heart disease in the next 10 years with the Heart Attack Risk Calculator. HOW you say? go to :http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/HeartAttack/UnderstandYourRiskofHeartAttack/Understand-Your-Risk-of-Heart-Attack_UCM_002040_Article.jsp

American Heart Association

Why Quit Smoking?
Smoking is the most important preventable cause of premature death in the United States.

American Heart Association

Smoking and Cardiovascular Disease

• Smoking causes coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States.
• Cigarette smoking causes reduced circulation by narrowing the blood vessels (arteries) and puts smokers at risk of developing peripheral vascular disease (i.e., obstruction of the large arteries in the arms and legs that can cause a range of problems from pain to tissue loss or gangrene) This pain to gangrene to amputation is due to lack of oxygenated blood getting to the tissue caused by the vasoconstriction the cigarette smoking caused.
• Smoking causes abdominal aortic aneurysm (i.e., a swelling or weakening of the main artery of the body—the aorta—where it runs through the abdomen). An aneurysm with constant vasoconstriction (increases pressure) puts the aneurysm at risk for rupture because the aneurysm area isn’t as strong as the other vessels=Rupture of the aortic aneurysm

Smoking and Respiratory Disease

• Smoking causes lung cancer.
• Smoking causes lung diseases (e.g., emphysema, bronchitis, chronic airway obstruction) by damaging the airways and alveoli (i.e., small air sacs) of the lungs.

Smoking and Cancer

Smoking causes the following cancers: (in alphabetical order)

• Acute myeloid leukemia
• Bladder cancer
• Cancer of the cervix
• Cancer of the esophagus
• Kidney cancer
• Cancer of the larynx (voice box)
• Lung cancer
• Cancer of the oral cavity (mouth)
• Pancreatic cancer
• Cancer of the pharynx (throat)
• Stomach cancer

Smoking and Other Health Effects

Smoking has many adverse reproductive and early childhood effects, including increased risk for—

• Infertility
• Preterm delivery
• Stillbirth
• Low birth weight
• Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).^1,2,9
• Smoking is associated with the following adverse health effects:¹

• Postmenopausal women who smoke have lower bone density than women who never smoked.
• Women who smoke have an increased risk for hip fracture than women who never smoked.

References

1. S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2004 [accessed 2013 June 28].
2. S. Department of Health and Human Services. How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: What It Means to You. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2010 [accessed 2013 June 28].
3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Annual Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Years of Potential Life Lost, and Productivity Losses—United States, 2000–2004. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2008;57(45):1226–8 [accessed 2013 June 28].
4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. QuickStats: Number of Deaths from 10 Leading Causes–National Vital Statistics System, United States, 2010. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2013:62(08);155. [accessed 2013 June 28].
5. Mokdad AH, Marks JS, Stroup DF, Gerberding JL. Actual Causes of Death in the United States. JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association 2004;291(10):1238–45 [cited 2013 June 28].
6. S. Department of Health and Human Services. Reducing the Health Consequences of Smoking: 25 Years of Progress. A Report of the Surgeon General. Rockville (MD): U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 1989 [accessed 2013 June 28].
7. Ockene IS, Miller NH. Cigarette Smoking, Cardiovascular Disease, and Stroke: A Statement for Healthcare Professionals from the American Heart Association. Circulation 1997;96(9):3243–7 [accessed 2013 June 28].
8. Institute of Medicine. Secondhand Smoke Exposure and Cardiovascular Effects: Making Sense of the Evidence. [PDF–707 KB] Washington: National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine, 2009 [accessed 2013 June 28].
9. S. Department of Health and Human Services. Women and Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General. Rockville (MD): U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Office of the Surgeon General, 2001 [accessed 2013 June 28].

GET IT NOw? Please say yes. Smoking rots for your body not just in the lungs but everywhere. How do you make a complete turn-around? Look at your health in regards to what your goal is out of life. Do you want to live longer and most importantly HEALTHIER? When healthier in mind and body you are able to do more with your life in activities of daily living and more than that, so QUIT. If you want to sit most of your life with continuing to smoke but if not you must stop smoking now unless you have a unusual discipline in your way of living that allows you to have a about 6 cigarettes to 1 pack a YEAR, not daily. It is recommended you stop completely but if it actually has to be a part of your life than do it in moderation or less.  If you’re able to do that your definitely not addicted to the bad habit physically, if anything addicted to it mentally. That would still make your life healthier as to smoking frequently every day. Know you take the risk of increasing your quantity in time so I recommend Quit.

Various lifestyle factors have been associated with increasing the risk of stroke. These include lack of exercise, alcohol, diet, obesity, smoking, drug use, and stress. Guidelines endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health recommend that Americans should exercise for at least 30 minutes of moderately intense physical activity on most, and preferably all, days of the week. Recent epidemiologic studies have shown a U-shaped curve for alcohol consumption and coronary heart disease mortality, with low-to-moderate alcohol consumption associated with lower overall mortality. High daily dietary intake of fat is associated with obesity and may act as an independent risk factor or may affect other stroke risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and cardiac disease. Homocysteine is another important dietary component associated with stroke risk, while other dietary stroke risk factors are thought to be mediated through the daily intake of several vitamins and antioxidants. Smoking, especially current smoking, is a crucial and extremely modifiable independent determinant of stroke. Despite the obstacles to the modification of lifestyle factors, health professionals should be encouraged to continue to identify such factors and help improve our ability to prevent stroke, decrease cancers caused by smoking, decrease coronary artery disease, and obesity.   Learn healthy habits or healthier habits, broaden your knowledge on the 4 food groups in what is lean or leaner or leanest with each group, increase your activity 30 minutes a day and learn what a healthy diet actually is through Dr. Wayne Scott Anderson’s book “Dr. A’s habits of health” and even if you need to lose weight we can show you the way to do it healthy. It’s not a diet for 3 months or even 6 to a year but it is learning how to get to your body mass index in the ideal weight range for your height and you decide how low you want to go. We can show you through the book and those having more difficulty can buy our foods for 6 months or even a year or in my case I started almost a year ago and I use both their healthy foods as well as healthy foods from the store. You decide the choices, no one else. If you are interested go to my website healthyusa.tsfl.com and peek at what we offer for no prescription, no charge, no donation and no hacking. If you like what you see join me and so many others trying to get America healthier and in time decrease our population in diseases or illnesses primarily impacted by health habits, diet, and weight. Wouldn’t you and the future want to get better in mind and body to impact our health care system that includes our insurance and most importantly lives of citizens in the USA in how they live (which would be more active). It is your choice and I hope you decide to come aboard to my website healthyusa.tsfl.com and I know if I could do it so can too. It just takes discipline and the drive to want to stay healthy or get in a better state of heath. Hope I have helped someone out there in broadening your knowledge regarding how to keep or reach a healthier life.

Smoking is hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, and dangerous to the lungs.

King James I

Let’s start with what smoking actually does to the body. Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body. Smoking causes many diseases and reduces the health of smokers in general. It primarily starts at the lungs. How?   Well think of your lung tissue with openings all over which are air sacs called alveoli. This is an anatomical structure that has the form of a hollow cavity which does the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in and out of our body, when we inhale and exhale. The thing to know about this tissue is that before you start smoking the alveoli are expandable (think of it like a rubber band) allowing the person to get a good exchange of oxygen getting in the body to go to all our tissues and carbon dioxide getting out of the body (O2=oxygen being the fuel to our tissues and without it causes cellular starvation, carbon dioxide=CO2 being an acid / toxin to the human body and exhaled by the lungs).   After years of smoking the alveoli stretches out not allowing a good exchange of O2 and CO2. The sad thing for a smoker is the alveoli cannot REVERSE back after damage has already occurred unless you had a lung transplant with continuing to smoke, which no M.D. or health insurance would allow. More realistic would be QUIT the bad habit. The tissue doesn’t get completely better but it improves when you quit. So the pt with Emphysema has alveoli that can’t exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide from the blood like it use to at the bottom of the lungs, prior to even starting to smoke. Also, after smoking years and when diagnosed with COPD you have difficulty breathing (that is why smoking is a major cause of bronchitis or Emphysema=types of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease=COPD and it is not REVERSIBLE). Emphysema is the worst type of COPD you can get. COPD is the third leading cause of death in the U.S., and the economic burden of COPD in the U.S. in 2007 was $42.6 billion in health care costs and lost productivity. Isn’t this reason enough to stop smoking?

Emphysema is an enlargement of the air spaces distal to the terminal bronchioles, with destruction of their walls. People with emphysema have historically been known as “Pink Puffers”, due to their pink complexion.

Chronic bronchitis is defined in clinical terms as a cough with sputum production on most days for 3 months of a year, for 2 consecutive years. People with advanced COPD that have primarily chronic bronchitis were commonly referred to as “Blue Bloaters” because of the bluish color of the skin and lips (cyanosis) along with hypoxia and fluid retention.

Know when the lungs get effected in time the heart gets effected. One Affects the other in time. The heart can’t live without the lungs and viCE versa.

Now knowing just this you’ll understand why smoking alone can cause the following conditions, Through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They state the following:

Smoking and Increased Health Risks

Compared with nonsmokers, smoking is estimated to increase the risk of—

• Coronary heart disease by 2 to 4 times, ^(causing atherosclerosis=thickening of the vessels or due to arteriosclerosis=hardening of the arteries and remember smoking causes vasoconstriction of the vessels = increase pressure in the vessels = high B/P.
• Stroke by 2 to 4 times (Due to causing the above problems listed under coronary heart disease.)
• Men developing lung cancer by 23 times,
• Women developing lung cancer by 13 times(cancers due to constant irritation of the tissues) , and
• Dying from chronic obstructive lung diseases (such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema) by 12 to 13 times. ( Explained at the top)

“Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye.

Jackson Brown, Jr. an American author best known for his inspirational book, Life’s Little Instruction Book, which was a New York Times bestseller (1991, 1994)

“I saw many people who had advanced heart disease and I was so frustrated because I knew if they just knew how to do the right thing, simple lifestyle and diet steps, that the entire trajectory of their life and health would have been different.”

Dr. Mehmet Oz (cardiothoracic surgeon & The host of The Dr. Oz Show)

Let us first understand how the heart functions. For starters think of a car, without the engine the car won’t move unless pushed in neutral but the engine is still not working at all. Well, the body can’t work at all if the heart isn’t working=dead. Right? We can’t live without the heart but more importantly you can’t function actively and productively with a one that is diseased not cared for or just severely diseased. We need to take good care of our bodies especially if diseased already, that includes your heart.

Looking at the anatomy and physiology of the heart it will help us understand in how it functions. For starters the heart is like an engine in having chambers (2 on the top called atriums and 2 on the bottom called ventricles), 4 chambers to be exact (sort of like a 4 cylinder car). It also has valves, in allowing our blood to go in and out of the heart. They are located before the entrance of the blood entering the heart on the left and right upper chamber, between the upper and lower chambers (atriums & ventricles), at the beginning of arteries and veins involved in moving blood throughout the heart and to or from the lungs to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood, in allowing the blood to leave the heart with oxygenated blood to now go throughout the body (like oil/gas entering and leaving the engine which allows it to work).

Now getting down in how the heart works. First take our blood, in particular our red blood cells are the cells that carry oxygen and carbon dioxide throughout our body; the body without enough oxygen in the body tissues=cellular starvation. We can’t survive without oxygen sent to our tissues=food to our tissues (Ex. poor circulation to any tissue of the body = pain and if not resolved it will go into necrosis = death of the tissue, like in a diabetic that has poor circulation to the toes/foot that has pain/numbness and unresolved = necrosis to amputation). So your blood, in particular the red blood cells, need to transport oxygen (O2) to and take carbon dioxide (CO2) from our tissues in the body and refill up with more 02 and release C02 (O2 used up by our tissues) that takes place at the lungs. This process is done constantly in the body to feed our tissues O2 (by RBC’s picking up 02 upon inhalation), with tissues releasing CO2 picked up by the RBC’s that take the CO2 to the lungs in release it from our body completely via breathing=exhaling but only done due to the heart beating allowing the blood to circulate and recirculate throughout the body and get more 02 from our lungs (just like the engine how the engine works to allow fuels, oils to circulate throughout the engine and other areas of the car to allow the car overall to function).                                                                                                                                                                        In review, our bodies oxygen is the food to our tissues in keeping them alive through our red blood cells (RBC’s) that carry the O2 to the tissues but there through a working heart and lungs only (one organ cannot live without the other). There has to be a systemic way we allow this to work and this is through the heart, lungs, and RBC’s (3 systems that connect with each other). The heart = right side deals with more C02 blood which is blood returning to the heart to get more 02 going first via the Rt. side of the heart to the Rt. and Lt. pulmonary artery, each of which carries blood to the lungs for 02 and C02 exchange to occur. This is for getting more 02 in our RBC’s with allowing them to release C02 at the lungs and then return them to the left side of the heart to be sent through both Lt. chambers of the heart to our blood stream to utilize the new 02 in our RBC’s to our body tissues. This is a 24hr/7days a week job for our red blood cells, lungs and heart in functioning to keep the human body alive.

In simpler terms this is how it works: The blood that needs to be refreshed with more 02 when it enters the right (Rt.) atrium coming from a vessel that brings back mainly carbon dioxide in the blood from the toes and the brain that was mainly used up by the tissues and those RBC’s need to be reoxygenated with higher levels of oxygen for the RBC’s to deliver 02 again to tissues. It first goes to the Rt. atrium & fills up to its max level simultaneously while the left (Lt.) atrium is filling up to its max level. When the Rt. atrium is ready to drop its blood max level into the Rt. ventricle below it the valves open between the chambers simultaneously dropping the blood to the Rt. Ventricle (Lt side does the same thing) but only the Rt. side ends up going to the lungs through a Rt. and Lt. pulmonary artery to get more oxygen to send it to the highly oxygenated side of the heart, being on the left side. The job the Rt. side of the heart does is this, it just goes from the Rt. side of the heart to our lungs and back to the heart on the Lt. side through the 4 pulmonary veins to the L atrium; so the path or distance for the Rt. side of the heart to do its function is a short distance = it gets your used up oxygen in the red blood cells (that are high in carbon dioxide) to get more oxygen by going through the Rt. side of the heart sending them to the lungs where they get more O2 and then they are sent back to the Lt. side of the heart.   This is the Rt. side of the heart’s function.

Now let us look at what the Lt. side of the heart does in function. The RBC’s reoxygenated leave the lungs and sent via the 4 pulmonary veins to the Lt. side of the heart reaching the Lt. atrium thus carries a high 02 level in the RBC’s (this blood just came directly from the lungs where O2 and CO2 exchange for the RBC’s took place). Next the RBC’s go to the Lt. ventricle to our Aorta that sends this high oxygen level of RBC’s out to all our tissues as food to prevent starvation of the tissues).   Again, when the valves open between the chambers and allowing this blood to fill up in the lower chambers called the Rt. and Lt. ventricles it is simultaneously done also including the valves that open and close in the the pulmonary artery and the aorta that is in the Lt. ventricle sending RBC’s out to our circulatory system high in O2 to be utilized by our body tissues.

So the way it works with both sides of the heart is the Rt. side sends blood of highly carbon dioxide blood (RBC’s) to the lungs to get re-oxygenated through 2 vessels from the Rt. side of the heart to the lungs that sends this re-oxygenated RBC’s through 4 vessels to the Lt. side of the heart and it reaches the Lt. side of the heart which sends this highly oxygenated blood throughout the top and bottom of the Lt. side of the heart to the aorta that sends this blood throughout our body tissues. When this oxygen is used all up from dispensing it out to tissues the C02 is taken back from the tissues by RBC’s that replace it with O2, this process starts all over again with these RBC’s that returned to the heart. Ending line the right side of the heart is for higher levels of carbon dioxide in the blood (used up blood) to get more oxygenated whereas the left side of the heart sends higher levels of O2 throughout the body all the way to the toes (a harder job=muscle mass of the left side of the heart works out more than the right making the left side of the heart a bigger muscle vs the right side.

Now knowing the anatomy and physiology of the heart let’s now understand more about cardiac disease in how they develop and in how it effects the engine of the body, being the heart and other areas of the body. If eating unhealthy or living unhealthy habits or even overweight to obese these are the problems that can arise regarding the cardiac system alone:

• High Blood Pressure is the primary cause of death among Americans older than 25. About 75 million people suffer from high B/P or hypertension, which is a major risk factor for heart disease and more. Did you know that from the National Health Survey in 1981 their statistics indicated that hypertension afflicts at least 17 to 22 million American adults during that time, in the book of “Principles of Anatomy and Physiology” by authors Tortora and Anagnostakos? Look at today, yes our population has increased but the debate with that is we now know better and have for awhile. We as responsible people for ourselves, families (children in particular) and as a country should be living healthier but still too many EAT and PRACTICE unhealthy habits based on statistics, if we weren’t disease would be less in percentage throughout America.

AMERICA wake up or else we will just continue increasing high in the following problems we already have at home and make life, especially for many, unbearable.                                                                                                                                              Uncontrolled high blood pressure is of considerable concern because of what harm it can do to the HEART, BRAIN, and KIDNEYS.  What harm and how?  Than come back this weekend for Part 2 on that section of this article.

Fructose is processed in the liver. To greatly simplify the situation: When too much fructose enters the liver, the liver can’t process it all fast enough for the body to use as sugar. Instead, it starts making fats from the fructose and sending them off into the bloodstream as triglycerides .

Laura Dolson-Low Carb Diets Expert (See more on lowcarbdiets.about.com .)