Regular readers will know that we are not big fans of supplements in any form. That does not mean that they don’t work or do what they say on the can. The advertisements for the supplement Creatine say it increases muscle mass and improves performances in the gym or in sport. I have known people […]



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By the middle of this century 9 out of 10 British adults and two thirds of children will be overweight or obese, according to the Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, this will have a serious effect on the health of the nation and it will put a huge burden on the Health Service.
Change4Life
The Government is planning […]



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Yes, chocolate can be good for you, but it would be more accurate to say that cocoa is good for you. Only dark chocolate contains enough cocoa to have any real beneficial effect and milk chocolate is much higher in saturated fats and sugar.
Some healthy ingredients…
So what’s so healthy about dark chocolate and cocoa? […]



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Are you preparing for Halloween, carving out pumpkin after pumpkin for the children, creating scary faces to ward of any signs of evil? You may have noticed that all this monster head-making has left you with rather a lot of pumpkin flesh. So whether you are making soup or a pie we felt you should […]



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Have you ever watched wine experts in a restaurant taking time to sample the wine they are offered by the waiter? They take their time, breathing in the aroma of the wine, tasting it slowly and deliberately, concentrating on the wine and nothing else. Well, according to Dr Susan Albers of the Cleveland Clinic Women’s […]



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In his new TV Series on Channel 4 Jamie has been upsetting people in the Yorkshire town of Rotherham by suggesting that they can’t cook – it’s not surprising that they’re upset, who likes to be criticised? No-one of course, but Jamie’s aim is not to judge but to help: he is concerned about the […]



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It probably comes as no surprise that too much salt can contribute to resistant high blood pressure despite taking several medications to control it, University of Alabama researchers report.

High blood pressure is called resistant hypertension when blood pressure remains above goal despite their taking three medications to lower it. High blood pressure that is under control, but requires four or more medications to treat it, is also considered resistant to treatment.

“High-salt diet contributes importantly to resistant-to-treatment hypertension and high volume and vascular resistance may contribute to resistant hypertension,” said lead researcher Dr. Eduardo Pimenta, now at the Department of Hypertension and Nephrology at the Dante Pazzanese Institute of Cardiology in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Details of the study were expected to be presented Friday at the American Heart Association’s Fall Conference of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research, in Atlanta.

For the study, Pimenta’s team randomly assigned 13 patients with resistant high blood pressure, to a high- or low-salt diet. These patients were all taking at least three blood pressure medications.

The researchers found that patients on the low-salt diet saw their systolic blood pressure drop by 22.6 mmHg, and their diastolic blood pressure dropped by 9.2 mmHg, compared with people on high-salt diet.

In addition, body weight, as well as brain natriuretic peptide levels and thoracic fluid content, two measures indicating fluid reduction, also significantly increased among those on the low-salt type compared with those on the high salt, the researchers found.

“Patients with resistant hypertension, in spite of three or more antihypertensive drugs, are specially salt-sensitive,” Pimenta said. “The blood pressure reduction achieved with low-salt diet was higher than some antihypertensive drugs.”

Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow, a professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, agreed that salt could contribute to resistant high blood pressure.

“This small, but interesting, study, shows among patients with medication-resistant hypertension that salt restriction has a substantial impact on lowering blood pressure by reducing intravascular fluid retention and improving vascular function,” Fonarow said.

Recent large-scale clinical trials show that blood pressure can be effectively lowered by following the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating plan and by eating less salt, Fonarow said.

“Excess sodium intake, above 2,300 milligrams daily, should be avoided in all patients with hypertension, and among those patients with medically resistant hypertension, a closely monitored low-salt diet [1,500 milligrams daily] should be considered,” Fonarow advised.

More information

For more about high blood pressure and salt, visit the American Heart Association.

Source

This is where you will need to don your lab coats because beebleblog will now turn into a bit of a science lesson. Hopefully we will able to keep it more interesting than the science lessons we all remember (or not in some cases - Beeble).
There is a widely held belief that goes like this […]



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According to the website www.celebritystarbucks.com many well-known faces like their cup of coffee: Madonna, Kate Hudson, Heidi Klum and Seal have all been sighted clutching a cup from that famous coffee house chain.
In an article in the Independent last Tuesday August 19th Jane Feinmann outlined some of the many benefits of drinking coffee. She pointed […]



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The Michael Phelps Diet brings in the gold medals
Well, what did you have for breakfast this morning? I know, you felt pretty good having had that plate of muesli, yoghurt and an apple, didn’t you? Well, while you were munching your healthy breakfast Michael Phelps was eating his breakfast and it wasn’t muesli oh no […]



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