Is That Indigestion Or A Heart Attack?

Ask yourself an important question: Can you tell the difference between indigestion and a heart attack? If you can’t, you should. Your life may depend on it!

Heart attack can strike anyone. When it occurs, there is no time for delay. Most heart attack victims survive if they recognize the early warning signals of heart attack and get medical care immediately.

The pain of heart attack is not exactly the same for every victim. It might be an intense pain for one person or a milder pain for another—often misinterpreted as “indigestion.”

Heart attack victims often hesitate. Some don’t want to admit that they’re ill. Others mistakenly decide that the symptoms don’t mean anything or are due to indigestion. They don’t know the early warning signals of heart attack—they wait, ignoring the warnings, hoping the pain will disappear.

Signals vary…but the usual warnings of heart attack as enumerated by the American Heart Association, are:

• Uncomfortable pressure, fullness, squeezing or pain in the center of the chest for more than two minutes.

• Pain may spread to the shoulders, neck or arms.

• Severe pain, dizziness, fainting, sweating, nausea or shortness of breath may also occur.

• These signals are not always present. Sometimes they subside and then return.
  

When these signals occur, waiting can be fatal.

If you or someone you know has these signals, get help immediately. Prompt action can reduce the risk of a fatal heart attack.

The early warnings of heart attack are a special “body language.” They tell the person that the blood supply to the heart is seriously reduced. A coronary artery which supplies the heart with blood becomes narrowed or closed, and part of the heart muscle begins to die because it gets no blood and oxygen.

Doctors call this a myocardial infarction.

Bad News For The Smokers

We all know that smoking affects our lungs, but unknown to many of us, its worst effect is on our hearts.

Smoking, certainly, is bad for the lungs. It can cause lung cancer and emphysema, a condition in which the lungs lose their power to deflate. Another equally serious problem that smokers may suffer from is chronic bronchitis.

The effect of smoking on the heart and the circulatory system is much more mysterious.
For this reason, the connection between smoking and heart health is not well-understood by the average person, nor is it widely accepted as a bad result of the smoking habit.

Statistics show that smokers have a higher risk of getting a heart attack than do nonsmokers; should smokers suffer a heart attack, they have twenty times greater risk of dying from the attack.

There’s no doubt that smoking is bad for the heart. But why does it weaken the heart?

Carbon monoxide is the culprit. Tobacco smoke contains that odorless gas which hurts the heart. Oxygen, not carbon dioxide, is the gas that the heart loves; lack of oxygen in this vital organ can trigger attacks—and eventual death for the individual.

The heart, furthermore, utilizes more oxygen than any other organ in the body, and takes from the blood a hundred percent of the oxygen during sleep and other rest periods.

The nicotine in tobacco smoke also has a bad effect on the heart. Being a powerful drug, nicotine is particularly harmful to a weakened heart because it upsets the normal electrical impulses which are the sparks which cause the heart to function.

Although the heart is said to be the most powerful organ of the body, beating about 100,000 times a day, we should take good care of it. Remember, we only have one heart!

Ten Natural Ways To Stop The Common Cold

With the onset of the cold weather at certain times of the year, we can expect to suffer from the common cold.

Unknown to many of us, there are more than 200 different cold viruses floating around to make our lives miserable. Only a strong immune system can repel these viral invaders—and most often it does, or nobody would ever stop sneezing!

Should the cold virus slip by your bodily defenses—or has already—Norman D. Ford, a medical researcher and writer, has offered a 10-point crisis program to get you well in just one day:

• Take a brisk walk for an hour or more.
• Stop smoking completely and cease drinking alcohol for as long as the cold lasts.
• Begin taking nutritional supplements.
• If you have a sore throat, start taking Slippery Elm lozenges. Or you can also gargle with a warm saline solution (with some crushed garlic, if you wish) every hour or less until the itchiness in your throat disappears.
• Drink plenty of fluids.
• Eat lightly.
• Increase the humidity and clear your nose.
• Make yourself comfortable.
• Stay calm and relaxed.
• Think positively.

Want To Smarten Up?

It is possible to increase mental acuity and memory up to 25% by adding a well-known food supplement—lecithin—according to an interesting report from the Organic Consumer, a health publication.

Lecithin, a natural component of soy beans, contain choline, required in the production of acetylcholine, an important brain chemical involved in memory and thought. Phosphatidyl-choline, in lecithin, is the source of acetylcholine.

Dr. Christian Gillin, one of the pioneer researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health in the United States, reported that subjects of an experiment became smarter and increased their learning ability by the simple addition of lecithin to their daily diets.

Dr. Sitram, another researcher, found improvement was most dramatic in slow learners. “Choline is a part of the B-Complex,” he explained, “and the substance acts within 90 minutes and its level in the blood lasts for four to five hours.

Maureen Kennedy Salaman, best selling author of the book, All Your Health Questions Answered Naturally, maintains that “Only two food sources contain liberal amounts of lecithin: soybeans and eggs.” Lecithin is also found in wheat germ, cabbage, lettuce, cauliflower, lentils, rice, etc.

And because exercise promotes a healthier brain, here’s something for exercise buffs: If you suffer from muscle soreness and stiffness after a workout, they are the results of strenuous physical activity. The discomfort may occur immediately—or some delay—following the activity, in which case the soreness may not be felt until the next day. Pain in the neck, or “stiff-neck,” is a common occurrence; pain in the joints, is another.

The soreness and stiffness usually lasts for only a few days, although after periods of heavy exercise, it may last for a week.

Medical authorities have offered two possible causes of muscle soreness and stiffness:

• The metabolic waste (lactic acid) remains in the muscles for a few hours after exercise, causing pain in the muscle receptors.
• The muscle soreness may be the result of tiny muscle fiber tears that occur during severe muscular activity.

To avoid muscle soreness and stiffness, plan your conditioning program to progress gradually, especially during the beginning stages.

One best remedy to overcome sore muscles is to have a regular body massage. It lessens stress and relaxes you, too. So, why not give it a try?

Iloilo and Bacolod pictures

I'd like to share some pictures taken during LifeMax Mila product launching in Iloilo and Bacolod, Philippines.

Thanks to Dominic Alojado, Adonis Manzan, Rads Sy, Vhey Galang, et. al for the memorable weekend sojourn. 

More pictures are in Michael Padua's facebook page.

FREE RADICALS: CAUSE OF DISEASE AND AGING

Research has pinpointed free radicals as a major component in the development of degenerative diseases, like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and--though not technically considered a disease--aging.

Aging is hastened by the proliferation of free radicals which wreaks havoc on the immune system, the body's defense mechanism. And free radical destruction is the actual cause of aging.

But what are free radicals?

In essence, free radicals are oxygen molecules that have lost an electron in its center shell, leaving an unpaired electron. To regain their missing electrons, free radicals steal electrons from molecules, transforming damaged molecules into free radicals themselves.

The attack of the free radicals on other molecules continues, causing a cumulative adverse effect on the immune system. Consequently, the immune system weakens, becoming less effective in overcoming disease and infections.

Through proper diet, regular exercise, stress reduction, adequate sleep and other lifestyle changes, the immune system can be strengthened to make us healthier and live longer.