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 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.
