Results from a 2 year study of over 300 participants, that compared a low-carb diet to a low-fat diet, have just been released.

Weight loss between the two diets was approximately the same, however, people on the low-carb diet had lower blood pressure and better cholesterol levels than those on the low-fat diet.

A summary of the study can be found on the Annals of Internal Medicine website. For more reports on the study, please see: Yahoo, Medical News Today, and WebMD.

The dogma that low-fat diets are the only way to go is slowly being chipped away. Kellie wrote about a study that found that weight loss was no greater on low-fat diets, but this study goes further than that. Personally I have no doubt that high quality fats are good for you, and I have plenty of olive oil in my diet, and have recently made sure I get plenty of omega-3 oils, and even some coconut oil.

The amount of carbohydrates that the people on the low-carb diet ate was only 20 grams per day. 20 grams per day is not a lot. 1/3 of a cup of oats is 20 grams of carbohydrate.

Over the years, the common wisdom has been that while low-carb diets work when it comes to weight loss, they are somehow unhealthy. This study shows that is a bad assumption.

My diet – the “low starch/sugar carb” diet

I have never been on a low-carb diet myself, but I imagine that limiting carbohydrate intake to only 20 grams a day would be a tough challenge.

While I have never eaten a low-carb diet, over the past few years, my diet has changed in that I now rarely eat starchy carbohydrate foods such as potatoes, bread, rice and pasta, and I try to avoid processed foods that contain refined carbohydrate and added sugar. I used to love these kinds of foods when I was younger, but I have found that eating less makes me feel better and less hungry. I still eat plenty of carbohydrates, because I eat plenty of vegetables.

Back in April, a regular commenter on this blog (John S.) left some comments on the polyunsaturated fats story, recommending amongst other things, increasing the intake of Omega 3 fats.

I took John’s advice and have since been eating what is known as an anti-inflammatory diet. A quick overview of an anti-inflammatory diet can be found on the Cooling Inflammation website, and a more detailed description on Dr. Weil’s website.

The Cooling Inflammation blog is written by a guy with a Phd in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. It is very technical in places, but also has lots of very practical posts examining the effect that diet has on health such as; How your diet makes you sick, Simple remedies, Medical advice wrong, and Low carbs lowers triglycerides. The author, Dr. Art Ayers, argues that inflammation is the cause of many of the modern diseases, and that bad diets cause inflammation.

Personally I have never felt better. I have more energy and have lost weight. So eating less carbs has definitely worked for me!

Thanks to John S. for bringing this story to my attention.

Over the past month, Steve has been working on a number of videos which explain what a blood pressure chart is. The video that we decided to upload, shows his own blood pressure chart from 2004 to 2006.

I know it has taken him a lot longer to finish the video than he first thought. I got to see the first draft about three weeks ago, and I had the unpleasant job of having to tell him that it was the most boring YouTube video I had seen in a long time. (Sisters are allowed to say those kinds of things!)

Fortunately, he went away and kept working on the video, and I think that now, it is a much more personal, and interesting video. There are a few video and audio glitches, however it was recorded using a cheap WebCam, and he is no Steven Spielberg

The video is best viewed at full size on the YouTube website, and clicking on the video below will take you through to watch it on YouTube.

Steve does have a fairly thick Australian accent, so I hope you can understand him If you like the video, we would appreciate it if you click the thumbs up “Like” button on YouTube, and/or use the YouTube “Share” buttons to share it on Facebook and Twitter.

There have been many news articles over the past week reporting on a study which has linked the Angiotensin receptor blocker hypertension drugs (sometimes called Angiotensin-2 receptor antagonists) with a small increase in cancer risk.

Some of these articles include: WebMD – Blood Pressure Drugs Linked to Cancer, theheart.org – Modest lung-cancer signal with angiotensin-receptor blockers and CBSNews – Angiotensin Receptor Blockers Linked to Cancer.

The full study is behind a paywall, but you can find a summary on the Lancet website.

Doctors commenting on the article have stressed that the increase in risk is small, and people should not stop taking the drugs without first talking to their doctor. Kellie has written before about the beneficial effects of ARBs in her “Telmisartan medication tolerated well” article.

Common brand names of ARB drugs are: Atacand, Avapro, Cozaar, Diovan, Micardis and Teveten. For a large list of hypertension drug names and types see the About.com Hypertension Drugs page.

Below is a video by illumistream which explains the various types of hypertension drugs. Kellie has used the video in an article previously, however I think it is useful to repeat here.

Over the past few years, we have written about a number of studies that have highlighted the negative effect on health of fructose. These include; Fructose linked to high blood pressure, Reduce sugar and increase fiber, Fructose promotes type 2 diabetes and Cut out sugary drinks.

These are just a small sampling of the studies finding problems with fructose.

I was certainly getting the idea that fructose may not be all that good, but until last week I had no idea why.

Sugar: The Bitter Truth

John S. left a comment on Kellie’s recent article linking to the article: The 76 dangers of sugar to your health.

In that article I found a link to a very interesting video. The video is of a talk given by Robert H. Lustig who is a Professor of Pediatrics, in the Division of Endocrinology and Director of the Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health (WATCH) Program at UCSF.

The title of the talk is: Sugar: The Bitter Truth

At 90 minutes, I think this is the longest video that we have linked to, however if you have the time, I think you will find it very interesting. I certainly did, and I have sent it on to a few other people since who have also told me that they found it shocking (in a good way!).

Sugar is a poison

At the start of the talk, Dr. Lustig shows lots of slides that demonstrate that there is an obesity epidemic. Of particular interest is the slide showing an epidemic of obesity in six-month old babies.

He then makes the statement that sugar, specifically fructose, is a poison. It is a toxin, it is handled by the liver similarly to alcohol, and is the cause of multiple diseases, such as hypertension and type II diabetes. He spends the rest of the talk demonstrating that this is true. He proved it to me!

For those people who cannot watch the video, I have included a screenshot of the summary slide of the talk below:

If you are looking for more written information on fructose, then the article that John S. sent me: The 76 dangers of sugar to your health, contains lots of information on fructose, as well as loads of references.

Thanks to John S. for bringing this to our attention! By the way John, I am still eating plenty of Omega-3s. Thanks again!

The latest versions of all our software programs can automatically upload backups of your readings and settings to our secure server.

While you should always make backups of all your hard drive documents, I have learned the hard way personally, and from speaking to literally hundreds of people, that having more backups is always better. More on this later.

Opening the Locker Center window

All information about your Online Locker, and its tasks and settings can be accessed through the Locker Center window.

You open the Locker Center window by clicking on the Locker center… task on the Home page. Alternatively you can click on the Tools menu and then click on Locker Center.

The Locker center… task is circled in red in the screenshot below:

Online Locker status

To check whether your program is making backups to the Online Locker, firstly open the Locker Center window as described above.

If backups have not been turned on, or if there is a problem, you will see a warning message similar to the screenshot below:

If you see the same red warning message as in the screenshot above, click on the Turn on Online Locker backups link to enable backups to the Online Locker.

If there is any other problem stopping the backups from occurring, a warning will be displayed here along with the recommended action to fix it.

How backups to the Online Locker work

Once a day, any users that have been changed since the last backup are encrypted and securely sent to the Online Locker server. If the program encounters a problem doing this, you will be informed in the status area as described above, and also by a news item that will appear on the program’s Home page in the News section.

If at any time you need to restore your readings from the Online Locker, open the Locker Center window as described above, and then click on the Restore task and follow the prompts. The steps involved in restoring readings are illustrated in the screenshots below:

Subscription

When you first purchase one of our programs you get a free trial subscription to the Online Locker. Once this trial has finished you can purchase a one-year subscription to use the Online Locker for $US9.95. To do this, open the Locker Center window as described above. Then click on the Subscription task, then click on the Online Locker’s secure web page link. This will take you to a webpage where you can securely purchase a subscription.

Turning off backups to the Online Locker

To turn off backups to the Online Locker, open the Locker Center window as described above, and then click on the Backup task. Uncheck the Enable backups to the Online Locker checkbox. This is illustrated in the screenshot below:

When the above checkbox is unchecked, you will not be reminded or nagged that your subscription to the Online Locker has expired.

General backup advice

If you do not do any backing up of your computer, I would strongly recommend that you do. At the least you could buy a cheap external USB drive and copy across your important files and folders.

Hard drives are not made to last forever. Sooner or later your hard drive will fail, and you will likely lose everything on that drive.

If you are running an older version of Windows, the following Microsoft article describes a few ways that you can backup your documents: Windows XP Backup Made Easy. For more recent versions of Windows, have a look at: Backup and restore in Windows 7.

If you backup your Windows documents, this will also backup all your readings and settings from all of our programs.

I was recently asked whether you should take your blood pressure on your left or right arm. Good question! The answer is both!

A big difference between the left and right arm blood pressures can indicate a blockage in the heart or arteries. It is important to take readings of both arms to rule out any problems.

My Blood Pressure can help you record and chart your right and left arms to spot any abnormalities over time.

Is it normal to have a difference between the arms?

Yes! It is normal to have a difference between the blood pressure readings of your arms. Generally, blood pressure is higher in your dominant arm. So, if you are right-handed, like I am, your right arm may have a slightly higher reading than your left arm. However, the difference is usually less than 5mmHg systolic.

When a doctor takes your blood pressure, it is typically taken on the right arm. But if you measure your blood pressure at home, readings are often taken in the left arm, as it is easier to do. This can cause different readings at home and in the doctor’s office – as well as the white coat effect.

When should I be concerned?

If there is a difference of more than 10mmHg between your right and left arm, it may be a sign of a blockage in the heart or arteries. You should see your doctor for further investigation. Narrowing of the arteries or occlusive peripheral arterial disease can cause a large difference in the readings between the right and left arms.

Occlusive peripheral arterial disease

Occlusive peripheral arterial disease is more common in older people as it results from a build up of plaque inside the arteries or ‘hardening of the arteries’(atherosclerosis). Occlusive peripheral arterial disease may affect up to 20% of people older than 70.

A simple way of diagnosing occlusive peripheral arterial disease is by comparing the blood pressure readings taken on the right arm to the reading taken on the left arm or between the arms and the legs.

A large difference in systolic reading between the arms suggests a blockage or narrowing of one of the vessels in the arm with lower blood pressure. Occlusive arterial disease is treatable. Often drugs, angioplasty, or surgery is used to relieve the blockage.

Study: Blood Pressure Differences Between the Left and Right Arms

A clinical study published in February 2007 studied the blood pressure of both arms of 147 people. The researchers found little difference between the arms, except on 2 people who were diagnosed with obstructive arterial disease.

The researchers concluded that a difference between the left and right arm blood pressure was only found when the patients had obstructive arterial disease. They found that blood pressure tended to be higher in the right arm, and small differences between the two arms were normal.

Using ‘Categories’ In My Blood Pressure

Over to Steve …

To record the blood pressure of your left and right arms and compare the average readings, you can use the ‘Categories’ system in My Blood Pressure.

To do this, the first step is to tell My Blood Pressure that you want to add categories for the left and right side readings. To do this click on the Study readings task, and then click on the Categories tab.

You are now looking at a list of all your categories. Unless you have added some categories in the past, the list is probably empty. Click on the “View common categories” link to see a list of preset categories. In the list of preset categories you should see a link that says “Body Side”. Click on the “Body Side” link, and then click on the “Yes” button to confirm your choice. This is illustrated in the screenshot below:

Once you have done that, whenever you go to add a reading, you will see the “Left arm” and “Right arm” categories at the bottom of the window. Click on either of the categories to indicate which arm the reading was taken on. This is illustrated in the screenshot below:

*Note:* information provided on this website is for general medical informational purposes only, actual diagnosis and treatment can only be made by your physician(s). For more information visit the American Heart Association website.

Related articles

• Your pulse pressure readings are an indicator of heart disease risk.
• Resting heart rate is linked with obesity and diabetes.

A new meta-study has shown that eating polyunsaturated fats in place of saturated fats reduces your risk of heart disease.

Since other studies have not found benefits in simply eating less saturated fat, the study authors speculated that the beneficial effects are more “strongly related” to eating more polyunsaturated fats, rather than less saturated fat. There was not enough data to draw any conclusions on monounsaturated fats.

You can find the full study for free online at the PLoS Medicine website. You can also find a more easily digestible account of the study by reading their press release.

I enjoy adding olive oil, and various other oils, to many of my meals. It can be hard to remember which oils contain which fats, and whether they are the good ones or the bad ones! Complicating this is the fact that most oils contain different kinds of fat in different portions.

While writing this article, I found a great table on Wikipedia that lists common foods and shows graphically the proportion of Saturated, Monounsaturated, and Polyunsaturated fats in each.

Chemistry lesson

The following video is low-tech and technical. Kellie, who was never a fan of chemistry at school, suggested I warn you that it is “boring”

However, I found it fairly interesting. If you feel like a bit of a chemistry lesson, this is the video for you!

Saturated fats

Saturated fats are solid at room temperature and are mainly from animal sources.

Examples of foods that contain saturated fats are:

• Dairy products … cream, cheese, butter etc.
• Animal fats … fatty meat, lard etc.
• Coconut oil and Palm oil.
• Chocolate

Polyunsaturated fats

Unsaturated fats are typically liquid at room temperature. They are typically found in fish, nuts and seeds, and plant oils.

Examples of foods that contain unsaturated fats are:

• Fish … salmon etc.
• Sunflower seeds
• Walnuts

Replace not reduce

The interesting thing about this study is that other studies have found that simply reducing the amount of saturated fats in your diet does not reduce your risk of heart disease. The key seems to be to switch from saturated fats to polyunsaturated fats, not to just reduce your intake of saturated fats.

More reading

• American Heart Association – Know Your Fats

This week I spent a morning at the Wound Care Clinic of a Sydney hospital.

I meet some courageous people who have had wounds on their bodies for years that just won’t heal. One lady hurt her ankle over 10 years ago by knocking it on a supermarket trolley. She still has that wound and it is now big nasty chronic leg ulcer that the Doctors are struggling to heal.

Many of the people who had nasty wounds were also diabetic or prediabetic. It was a common theme.  

If you have high blood glucose levels you are at a much higher risk of having a wound on your feet. So what’s the connection between feet and diabetics?

Video: Dr Shankhdhar talks about Diabetic feet

I knew if I found a video that showed gruesome foot wounds Steve wouldn’t cope! However, this video shows the connection between diabetics and foot problems without nasty pictures. The Doctor spells out how to prevent foot wounds and what the consequences are if you ignore them.

The video begins with the quite shocking statement, “Every 30 seconds a leg is lost to diabetes somewhere in the world”.

Thank you to Diabetologist for use of the informative video.

Why do diabetics have more foot problems?

There a few main reasons:

• Nerve damage: diabetes damages the nerves which means you may hurt your foot and not even feel it! This is called peripheral neuropathy.
• Poor circulation: diabetes impacts circulation which lessens the bodies ability to heal when damaged.
• Infection: diabetics are prone to infection, which makes even small cuts and scraps vulnerable to infection.

Managing your own feet

If you have prediabetes or diabetes you should be monitoring your feet just like you monitor your blood glucose levels. Make the time for regular visits to a podiatrist for check ups.

Now I know it can be tricky to check out your own feet, especially the bottom. So ask a person you live with or a friend who visits to look at your feet from time to time. I know, it’s not a pretty job , but share with them how important it is to check your feet often.

The National Institute of Health has more information on Medline Plus.

Can you relate to foot problems?

Have you had an experience with a foot wound or problem with your feet? How do you manage looking after your feet? I would love to hear your experiences!

A new study has made it official; it’s better to be happy!

The study is from the Columbia University Medical Center and was published in the European Society of Cardiology’s European Heart Journal.

The study looked at 1739 people over a 10 year period, and rated their positive emotions or happiness. They called this “positive affect”. According to Wikipedia affect theory appears to be a way to quantify subjective feelings.

They then compared this positive affect with heart disease, and found that as positive effect increased, the risk of heart disease decreased.

Hence, it’s better to be happy

Dr. Karina Davidson, who led the research, speculated that the reason for this may be that happy people have more rest and relaxation, and that they recover more quickly from stressful situations.

For more information see the press release.

While researching this story I came across another meta-study confirming previous results that eating chocolate can be healthy, by showing that eating chocolate could lower your risk of stroke. I know that eating chocolate makes a lot of people happy, especially my sister Kellie! Maybe chocolate is another connection between happiness and heart disease

Kellie also wrote about a couple of studies last year that showed that laughing is good for you because “Blood vessels became more dilated … and remained so for 24 hours”.

Be happy

So, after reading this, have I got you stressing out that you should be happier

Below is a TED lecture by Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert. “Why are we happy? Why are we not happy?”. He talks about some surprising and funny results from psychology experiments. At the least it made me laugh, which made me happy, which maybe made me a bit healthier!

Related

• Dark chocolate and high blood pressure
• Cocoa can reduce blood pressure
• Laughter – the best medicine
• A happy marriage is good for your heart health

A new report has been released showing that while most Americans know that high blood pressure is not good for you, this has not led to a drop in the number of people who have hypertension.

In other words, in this case, awareness has not led better outcomes.

The study put a cost of $73.4 billion, in 2009, on the American health system due to high blood pressure. That would buy a lot of copies of our My Blood Pressure software

The report puts the blame on the usual suspects; being overweight, too little exercise, bad diet, too much salt.

As well as the usual suspects, the report also mentions that 86% of the people who have uncontrolled hypertension do visit their doctor, but it appears that their doctors are not following the treatment guidelines for hypertension. It was recommended that more research should be done to figure out why doctors are ignoring the guidelines.

According to the study: “Nearly one-third of U.S. adults have high blood pressure, and it accounts for about one in six adult deaths annually, a 25 percent increase from 1995 to 2005″.

If you need a reminder of why, have a look at the animated video below:

For more information see the press release.

Do you feel that your doctor correctly follows the treatment guidelines for your hypertension situation?