Ageless Lifestyles® LLC

Ageless Lifestyles® LLC Anti-Aging Psychologist Dr. Michael Brickey interviews leading anti-aging experts on how to live longer, heatlhier, and happier.

Are You Aging Well?

Q: Dr. Brickey what supplements do you take?

A: Frankly, I take quite a few because I am at high risk for arteriosclerosis. I think in terms of three types of supplements:

1. A GOOD MULTIVITAMIN
In a perfect world, we would get all the vitamin, minerals, and antioxidants from the food we eat. But with less than optimal eating habits, soil depletion, and restaurant foods, most of us can’t count on our eating habits or foods to provide all the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants we need.

Generic and popular brands of multivitamins provide the basic vitamins and minerals. A multiple vitamin is far less expensive than taking vitamins and minerals individually. It also insures that vitamins and minerals are in healthy proportions to each other. (Too much of one vitamin or mineral can inhibit the use of certain other vitamins or minerals.)

Besides cost, the differences between a generic or common brand name multivitamins and premium multiple vitamins are that the premium brands are more likely to:

use higher dosages

use the most effective variations of vitamins and amino acids
Example: Vitamin E has eight chemical variations with four tocopherols and four tocotrienols. Many multivitamins use less expensive variations of E rather than the more effective bioidentical d˗alpha variation with d˗gamma tocopherols.

use multiple versions of a vitamin.
Example: Vitamin D has two physiologically relevant forms D2 and D3. While D3 is believed to be metabolized more effectively, the vitamin is poorly understood and D2 may have a unique contribution to our health. Thus, some multiple vitamins include both.

include trace minerals and antioxidants (e.g., extracts from vegetables, fruits, and berries).

Thus, I take a very good comprehensive multiple vitamin with trace minerals and antioxidants. If you are willing to invest in the extra insurance of a premium multivitamin, there are several highly regarded premium multivitamins. My preference is SeaHealth|Plus, which has 17 fruit and vegetable extracts and 72 trace minerals.

2. PARTICULAR HEALTH ISSUES

If you have particular health risks, you may want to consider supplements that help with that issue. For example, if you have frequent urinary tract infections you may want to drink cranberry juice or spare the calories and take cranberry juice extracts (if you aren’t taking SeaHealth|Plus which has cranberry extract anyway). If you recently took an antibiotic, you might want to eat some yogurt that is rich in probiotics or take a probiotic supplement such as acidophilus.

Being a male I take saw palmetto to reduce my risk or prostate cancer. Since I am high risk for cardiovascular problems, I take supplements as well to enhance cardiovascular health. I get several blood tests a year and use the results to help make adjustments in which supplements I use and the doses.

3. FISH OIL

Fish intake has been associated with decreased risk of heart disease. On the basis of available data, the American Heart Association recommends that patients without documented heart disease eat a variety of fish – preferably omega-3-containing fish – at least twice a week. Examples of these types of fish include salmon, herring and trout. Patients with documented heart disease are advised to consume about 1 gram of EPA + DHA (types of omega-3 fatty acids), preferably from fish, although EPA+DHA supplements could be considered, but consult with a physician first. For people with high triglycerides (blood fats), 2 to 4 grams of EPA + DHA per day, in the form of capsules and under a physician’s care, are recommended.

A shift in Americans’ diet to more processed foods, corn oil, and soybean oil greatly increased omega-6 fatty acids in our diets. Further, these days few parents give their children cod liver oil (which is high in omega-3 fatty acids). Consequently, the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids has gone from a healthy 1:2 to 1:20. Having too much omega-6 fatty acids relative to omega-3s results in inflammation. There is an increasing consensus among researchers that inflammation is the common denominator of most chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

You could correct the imbalance by eating lots of fish such as tuna, salmon, and sardines, but that would expose you to a lot of PCBs, mercury, and other toxins in the fish. Unless highly refined, cod liver oil has the same problem. The easiest way to increase omega-3s is to take fish oil supplements.

While an aspirin is an aspirin and vitamin C is vitamin C whether it is generic or a brand name, with fish oil it is extremely important to remove the PCBs, mercury, and other toxins the fish have consumed. This requires an expensive distilling and refining process. The person who has done the most research on fish oil and is extraordinarily thorough in removing the toxins is Dr. Barry Sears. You may choose to take chances on the quality of other vitamins but don’t compromise on quality of the fish oil you consume.

Dr. Barry Sears is the creator of the Zone Diet, which balances healthy carbohydrates, fats, and proteins in Mediterranean style diet. In his latest best seller, Toxic Fat, Dr. Sears describes how inflammation is a major underlying cause of chronic diseases including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and arthritis.

Benefits of fish oil:

Cardiovascular health The best known and best documented benefits are cardiovascular. Even the American Heath Association, which tends to focus on prescription medications and shun supplements, recommends fish oil supplements. Research finds that fish oil:

reduces plaque deposits that “clog” arteries
reduces heart arrhythmias
reduces triglycerides
lowers LDL “bad” cholesterol
slightly raises HDL “good” cholesterol
slightly thins the blood, which reduces the risk of heart attack

Side effects: While thinning the blood is usually desirable (the reason daily low dose aspirin is recommended), thinner blood slightly increases the risk of bruising or bleeding, nosebleeds, or stroke from hemorrhaging. It tends to have a cumulative effect with aspirin, Plavix, or Coumadin.

Other health benefits Research indicates that fish oil also:

helps with weight loss
helps reduce arthritis, diabetes, and other autoimmune diseases
enhances brain functioning and the brain’s gray matter volume
reduces macular degeneration (an eye disease)
may help with Alzheimer’s, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia
fosters healthy skin, hair, and nails

With most supplements, the risk from using a generic brand is low—just that they may have cut corners to keep the prices low and dosages may be unreliable. With fish oil, however, the risks are high. Inexpensive fish oil is likely to contain lead, mercury, and PCBs.

Dr. Barry Sears has focused his career on fish oil. His Omega|Rx fish oil is the gold standard. It goes through two refining processes to make sure it is the purest anywhere—and I believe it is the only fish oil that has every single batch tested. Consequently, it is the best there is and the safest there is. Cut corners if you must on other supplements, but do not cut corners on fish oil.

I’m delighted to be able to offer you a 10% discount on your first purchase of Omega|Rx, SeaHealth|Plus, and other Zone health, weight loss products, and books.

Just click here and use the promotional code AGELESS at checkout. There is a lot the zonediet.com website. My recommendation is to select Omega|Rx fish oil and SeaHealth Plus. I also highly recommend a copy of Dr. Sears’ latest best seller, Toxic Fat, in which he shares his latest research on inflammation, metabolism, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and what it really takes to lose weight.

CLICK HERE and use the promotional code AGELESS at checkout OR call 1-800-404-8171 and use the promotional code, AGELESS.

If you can just afford two supplements, Omega|Rx and SeaHealth|Plus should be the ones.

Books & CDs

52 Baby Steps to
Grow Young
Featured on
Oprah and CNN
Anti-Aging Hypnosis CDs

Anti-Aging Positive Psychology

Holistic Health Wellness

At the Ageless Lifestyles Institute, Dr. Michael Brickey and associates help people grow young and live with purpose. The Institute provides research, motivational seminars, speaker services, publishing, and life coaching for holistic health and wellness, & anti-aging psychology.

"Change can be quick, easy, and painless when you know how to engineer it," says Dr. Brickey. To learn the psychology of a youthful mindset at every age men click here / women click here.

Want anti-aging research on holistic health, positive psychology and wellness? We have anti-aging articles, newsletters, press releases, and news and news and media interview information.

Archive for the 'heart disease' Category

Causes and Cures for Cardiovascular Disease

Posted by Dr. Brickey on 11th October 2010

Host: Anti-Aging Psychologist Dr. Michael Brickey

Broadcast and podcast on webtalkradio.net. The podcast is also on the links below

Causes and Cures for Cardiovascular Disease [ 24:42 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
(to download, right click download and select “save target as.”)

Today’s program is on the causes and cures for cardiovascular disease. For this program I am made an exception to the usual format of interviewing experts and share two ten minute speeches I gave at Toastmasters on unconventional views of cardiovascular health. The first presentation is titled The Cholesterol Conspiracy. The second presentation focuses on what we can do to prevent or reverse cardiovascular disease. Here are some notes from the presentions:

Has your doctor ever told you or have your read or heard that:

• 50% of all heart attacks occur with people with normal cholesterol levels?

• Aspirin, the best drug for reducing heart attacks, has no effect on cholesterol?

• Your liver produces 80% of the cholesterol in your body?

• Your cholesterol can be too low and impair production of sex hormones and neurotransmitters?

• The primary mechanism for statins helping doesn’t appear to be from lowering cholesterol but from lowering inflammation—and you could lower inflammation by taking fish oil supplements at a fraction of the price and with none of the risks and side effects?

• Did you know that some of the cultures with the highest consumption of fat, such as Masai tribes in Africa, Eskimos in Greenland, and natives of Crete have some of the lowest rates of heart disease?

• While statin medications slightly lower your risk of dying from heart disease, it increases your risk of dying from other diseases?

• Let’s look at the full page Lipitor ad with the picture of artificial heart inventor Dr. Robert Jarvik that has been running in many magazines. The headline says: “Lipitor reduces risk of dying of a heart attack by 36%*” That’s impressive–until you read the footnote that says: “That means in a large clinical study, 3% of patients taking a sugar pill or placebo had a heart attack compared to 2% of the patient taking Lipitor.”

• While some of the research studies have included women, none has found that statins help women reduce overall mortality.

Generic needs for good health include:

• good nutrition, e.g., a “Mediterranean” style diet

• a very good multiple vitamin/mineral/antioxidant supplement, fish oil* 2,000 mg a day—higher if cardiovascular history, and probably vitamin D

• stable blood sugar levels (most from food choices, some supplements can help)

• exercise: strength, cardio (especially interval challenges), flexibility, and balance

• good stress management

• a sense of purpose, optimism, and gratitude

• some good friends

• bonus: have a hair sample tested for minerals and toxic metals

– if toxic metals are high pursue blood chelation

– if minerals are low, e.g., magnesium, manganese, supplement as needed

— be careful with calcium supplements and pair them with D and possibly K

Some of the most common vitamin/mineral deficiencies in the US:

• Omega 3 fatty acids (fish oil)

• Vitamin D

• Common causes of “adrenal burnout syndrome” include chronic stress, overuse of stimulants, poor diet, and insufficient sleep. Common symptoms include fatigue, depression, anxiety, insomnia, weight gain, an unusual number of infections. The syndrome often results in deficiencies in calcium, magnesium, manganese, sodium and/or potassium.

Supplements that are especially helpful for cardiovascular problems

• low dose aspirin (three times a week is probably sufficient), CoQ10 (especially if you are taking a statin), grape seed extract, pomegranate, coca polyphenols (e.g., high quality dark chocolate or in a supplement), garlic, Indian gooseberries (Amal), green tea, black tea, niacin (warning may cause harmless but very uncomfortable facial flushing)

Two relatively new theories about cardiovascular disease:

1. inflammation is the primary cause of cardiovascular disease and most other chronic diseases (e.g., diabetes, arthritis, fibromyalgia, cancer). –best explained in Dr. Barry Sears’ book, Toxic Fat

2. hormone unbalance greatly aggravates cardiovascular and other diseases and prompts the body to produce more cholesterol (an essential component of hormones). –best explained in Dr. Sergey Dzugan’s Your Blood Doesn’t Lie

The Life Extension Foundations’ 17 Independent Heart Attack Risk Factors

When I gave the presentation, I gave listeners a four page what to do about it handout that I put together. I subsequently found a more detailed explanation of treatment options on the Life Extension Foundation’s website and defer to their recommendations. To their list I would add excess iron (which can be treated by donating blood, reducing consumption of foods and supplements with iron, and if still a problem chelation). The Life Extension Foundation just addresses biochemical causes. Equally important is exercise, nutrition, and stress management.