Chapter 6 C
TREATMENT OF most ordinary diseases and Diet

 

As comes to many diseases caused by the standard of living, they are often caused by the issues mentioned above, that is excessive use of sugar, white flour (and generally refined carbohydrates, such as white polished rice, cornstarch, or white macaroni) as well as bad fats. Their excessive use, but at the same time also too slight supply of certain nutrients, cause most of these diseases which in the current society are common.

   Below, we are going to study some common diseases and how they can be healed by means of diet. The basic rule concerning all diseases is to decrease the amount of unhealthy food and excessive eating as well as increase the amount of healthy food. This is how we can expect relief of symptoms caused by many diseases.

 

Coronary thrombosis and THE CLOTTED ARTERIES

 

The two most common causes of death in Finland, the United States, and generally in the Western countries are cardiovascular diseases and cancer. These two groups are clearly the most common causes of death in many countries and heart diseases account for approximately a half of all the deaths (diabetes in adults, which is an ever-increasing illness, also belongs to the cardiovascular diseases according to the current classification). If these diseases could be kept in check, the quality of life of many people would improve considerably and their lifetime would also be much longer.

   As far as the cardiovascular diseases are concerned, there is one feature common to them: bad condition of the veins and clots forming inside the arteries. When bad food is consumed for many years, it will cause bad cholesterol to accumulate in the veins, in other words a certain kind of fat will cling to the walls of the arteries. At first, this fat is like toothpaste but it may transform little by little into a kind of lime causing, for example, blood clots and strokes.

   This kind of soft fat has been observed already in young people. For example, in the autopsies of young American boys from the Vietnam war - who were well under 30 years of age - fat accumulations and developing lime precipitates on the walls of the veins were observed. Thus, if these very fit young men had layers of fat in their veins, it is certain that other, more ordinary people have even more:

 

"What is wrong sonny? Don't start to vomit!" a incessantly belching pathologist said and pushed his finger through the blue-black, sticky substance that had caused the heart attack. When he turned the heart in his hand, the damaged area came clearly into sight, but the blocked coronary artery that had caused the attack was covered with a thick layer of fat.

   "It looks as if someone had struck it with an hammer," he said when he cut off layers of fat that covered the rock-hard arteries.

   When I finally got used to his rudeness, I asked, "How often is it that you find as much fat as this?"

   He scratched his head with the blunt head of a surgeon's knife. " I have never seen a heart attack without piles of lard." He caught the handful of fat and raised the heart to the level of our eyes. "Before, there was not so much fat. But now everybody has it. People are as fat on the inside as on the outside." (3)

 

How can we stop the bad development going on in our veins and arteries? Are there other solutions, such as conventional medication, and can it be prevented in advance? 

   The answer is clear. Most of the artery blockages are created because of the wrong food, so the direction of the development can be changed with a more reasonable diet. For example, the following nutrients have been observed to be useful to the veins and to the health in general:

 

Eating fish has a large significance in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. It has been observed that certain groups, such as the Eskimos and Japanese fishermen, who eat plenty of fish have not suffered much from cardiovascular diseases. These diseases have not occurred, even though their diet may have been one-sided and unbalanced in some other way.

   In the same way, the benefits of eating fish have appeared in numerous studies. For example, according to a study made in the university of Kuopio, the mortality rate of heart patients eating fish decreased by over 60% during a follow-up cycle of five years when compared to those who did not eat fish at all (Newspaper Etelä-Suomen Sanomat, 28 July 2003). According to this study, a healthy minimum quantity is three fish dishes a week.

   Good preventive measures against heart diseases have been observed to be fatty fish (salmon, rainbow trout, Baltic herring, herring, whitefish, mackerel, sardine, and tuna, even though also other fish species contain some fish oil). Fish oil has been found to decrease the content of injurious fat,  increase the fluidity of blood, decrease arrhythmia, blood clots and heart attacks as well as decrease blood pressure and auricular fibrillation. In addition to this, fatty fish has been noticed to decrease the content of fat in the blood after a meal.

    The good properties of fatty fish have been accredited especially to omega-3 fatty acids. They are found in fatty fish in the long chain form, but it is possible to get these fatty acids also from rapeseed oil and other plant oils as well as from nuts.

 

Plant oils such as rapeseed, soy, olive, and flaxseed oil as well as other oils are a good preventive method against heart diseases (coconut and palm oil are an exception, because they consist different kind of fats). Several plant oils include similar fatty acids (omega-3) as fish fat, and it has been found that they decrease the cholesterol level, the danger of blood clots and deaths caused by heart diseases. In the Mediterranean, olive oil has been used for a long time, and the mortality rate caused by heart diseases has been very low. The food there has also contained plenty of healthy fruit and vegetables.

   The use of plant oils is indeed justified, because they contain plenty of single and polyunsaturated fats plus vitamin E. These have been found to be useful to the health of the heart and the body in general. Ordinary cold-pressed rapeseed oil is especially useful, because it more actively decreases the accumulation of harmful LDL cholesterol to the walls of the veins than olive oil. In addition, rapeseed oil contains more important fatty acids (linoleum acid, alphalinoleum acid, and vitamin E) than olive oil. Both oils are also good in the sense that they are suitable for baking.

 

Fibers. One of the most important factors promoting health are fibers that are found only in the vegetable kingdom and foods such as grain, fruit, vegetables, berries, nuts, and seed. There are two kinds of fibers; insoluble and soluble. Both of these types can be found in the vegetable kingdom, but generally insoluble fibers are more common.

   Fibers have their own significant role in reducing cholesterol levels and generally in preventing heart diseases. It has been found that soluble fiber, although to a slightly lesser degree, is useful in reducing the blood cholesterol level. It can be found especially in bran, rolled oats (there is about 11% fiber in oats, of which about 5 % soluble beta glucan; bran and oats can be eaten, for example, with milk and honey: what is good with oats is that persons suffering from coeliacie can also eat it), barley grouts, and also in berries, fruit (mostly in apples) and vegetables. Soluble fibers bind cholesterol to themselves in the digestive tract, and so a part of the bad cholesterol leaves the body in stool instead of being absorbed into the body.

   The significance of fiber was researched and tested by a Canadian research team (Etelä-Suomen Sanomat, 9 February 2004), where people ate a double amount of fiber. They were advised to maintain a diet containing, for instance, soy, almonds, oat, barley, ochre and eggplant. According to the study, the high-fiber diet decreased harmful LDL cholesterol levels by up to 30%. It is a significant amount when taking into account the fact that the impact of medication was 33% and a low-fat diet only 8.5%.

 

Fruit, berries, and vegetables. As comes to fruit, berries, and vegetables, many researchers have found them to be a good preventive tool against cardiovascular diseases and other diseases. People should generally consume about 500 grams per day. However, 200 grams per day has been found to decrease the risk of a heart attack.

   The effect of fruit, vegetables, and berries on heart diseases and other diseases is based on many factors. One of them are the insoluble and soluble fibers already mentioned above, of which the latter one has been noticed to decrease cholesterol. They also contain plenty of antioxidants (vitamins C and E, beta carotene) and flavonoids that have been found to decrease the risk of heart attacks and other diseases. We can find these foods all year round from shops and also as deep-frozen, available in various combinations.

 

Vitamin C is one of the antioxidants that has been found to protect the veins of diabetics and improve immunity in general. Its connection to heart diseases has become apparent in a research project, conducted at the public health institute of the University of Kuopio in Finland. They measured the vitamin C content of blood plasma in over 1,600 middle-aged men. It was noticed that those whose vitamin C content was low had a high risk of suffering a heart attack. The risk was 3.5-fold compared to men who had enough vitamin C in their blood.

   There are several good sources of vitamin C. One glass of orange juice alone contains the amount needed a day. Other good sources are, for instance: oranges (50 mg / 100 g) and citrus fruit, potato (15 mg / 100 g; generally consumed a lot), rutabaga and turnip (40 mg / 100 g), all cabbages (50-110 mg / 100 g), strawberry (80 mg / 100 g), cloudberry (100 mg / 100 g), black currant (120 mg / 100 g), parsley (200 mg / 100 g), and sweet pepper (200 mg / 100 g).

 

Beta carotene is one of the antioxidants that have been found to prevent heart diseases, especially if we get it directly from food. For example, in the research of Doctor Hennekens it was found that men who had a weak heart but who used beta carotene, suffered almost half the heart attacks, strokes or deaths than those who got a placebo (Reader's Digest, November 1994, p. 28). Beta carotene also prevents cancer. In many studies, it has been found that those who eat food including beta carotene very rarely have cancer of the lungs or intestines (Reader's Digest, November 1994, p. 28).

   An especially good source of beta carotene is carrot, which satisfies the daily need (carrot satisfies also the need of vitamin A, because the beta carotene turns into vitamin A in the body). Other good sources are, for instance, sweet pepper, spinach, cabbages, tomato, parsley, apricot and sweet potato.

 

Vitamin E is one of the antioxidants that have been found to effectively prevent heart diseases and decrease accumulating of cholesterol to the veins (Reader's Digest, November 1994, p. 28). It has been observed to prevent certain forms of cancer, such as prostate cancer (the most common cancer of men in Finland.).

   Good sources of vitamin E are plant oils (for example, sunflower, corn, rapeseed, soy, and wheat germ oils), whole meal grain, avocado, vegetable margarine, and also eggs that are one of the most versatile food on earth (there are vitamins A, D, E and K, minerals plus the egg proteins include all the necessary amino acids).

   One good source of vitamin E are nuts. As little as a couple of handfuls of peanuts, for example, can satisfy the daily need of vitamin E. Nuts also contain many fats good for our heart (content 46-68%), protein (9-30%), fiber (in peanuts 8%), group B vitamins, calcium, potassium, phosphor, iron, magnesium, zinc, copper, selenium, and ubiquinone (for example peanuts; it can also be found in fatty fish and meat) that has been regarded as an important tool against ageing.

   Nuts are indeed important in preventing heart diseases. Numerous studies and publications have indicated that people who eat plenty of nuts seem to have a smaller risk of getting diabetes or die because of a coronary disease. (Medical magazine Duodecim, 19 / 2004). It has been found that ordinary nuts improve fat values of blood and decrease the risk of a cardiac arrest and diabetes by about 30-50% (Newspaper Lahti ja ympäristö, 14 January 2005, p. 3).

 

Flavonoids are ingredients that have been noted to prevent heart diseases, cancer, asthma, and other diseases. The most important sources of flavonoids are apples, onion, garlic, sweet pepper, black currant, and several forest berries. It is said that onion prevents clots and decreases cholesterol levels; in the same way, according to the studies of the National Cancer Institute of the United States, garlic has proved to be the best food to prevent cancer (newspaper Etelä-Suomen Sanomat, 13 January 2004). High levels of flavonoids are found for instance in cowberries, blueberries, cranberries, rowanberries, crowberries, and bog whortleberries. Cranberry and blueberry also prevent infections of the urinary tract, as do ordinary juice and sour milk, (newspaper Etelä-Suomen Sanomat, 6 March 2003, p. 25).

 

Lycopene and selenium are agents that are believed to prevent heart diseases. For example, tomato and tomato products contain plenty of lycopene. Selenium can be found in whole meal grain, meat (except meat from areas where selenium content of the soil is low), fish, tomato, onion, shellfish, mollusks, nuts, and also many mushroom.