Green Tea, Pharmaceuticals and Your Hypertension

Recently an article was published on various online news outlets about green tea and its effects on a certain medication for hypertension. This same study is slated to be published in the journal Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics which will lend it much credibility in the eyes of many in the medical establishment. The study says, in part, that if a person is being treated for hypertension with a drug called nadolol (market name Corgard) they should not drink green tea. After careful consideration of the study findings I believe some of the issues associated with the study itself and the effects of green tea should be discussed.

"The Study"

Let us begin with the fact that this study was conducted with ten (10) people. Yes, you read that correctly and it is not a typo. Only ten people were used for this "study" and they were consuming the drug nadolol for only for two weeks. In addition, the ten individuals used in the study were between the ages of 20 and 30 with no known health issues including hypertension. None of them had high blood pressure so the effect of the green tea's interaction with the drug and its supposed effect on preventing the treatment of hypertension could not be established since it was not (and could not be) studied.

Also, no evidence of a cause and effect relationship between the drug nadolol and green tea was established. The researchers do not know why or how green tea is affecting the absorption of the drug or if it is affecting it at all. The scientist involved in the study "believe" that the antioxidant ECGC found in the tea is the culprit. As far I as can tell belief is a matter of faith and faith belongs firmly within the realm of religion and spirituality not science. If scientist wish to tell people that green tea is hazardous to their health they should diligently provide proof using the very scientific method we were all taught in grade school.

To add insult to injury the "test" subjects drank 3-4 cups of green tea per day. This represents an amount of tea that is double the average amount of green tea consumed by average tea drinking Americans. This fact makes the study dubious and misleading on its own.

Benefits of Green Tea

The sad irony of this study is that one of the many benefits of green tea is its ability to lower blood pressure. Angiotensin-converting enzymes (ACE) contributes to high blood pressure under certain situations and green tea helps to inhibit its production. Many people are on blood pressure lowering medications known as ACE inhibitors that have harmful side effects. Green tea is a natural ACE inhibitor with no known side effects. It should be noted the nadolol is not an ACE inhibitor but a beta blocker, however, the point of this message is the blood pressure relieving powers of green tea. 

Also, green tea helps to do many things like stimulate brain activity for increased clarity, reduce the chances of bacterial food poisoning by preventing the growth of E. coli and other harmful pathogens and helps to maintain proper blood glucose levels for those wishing to prevent or control diabetes. 

There are many more benefits offered by consuming green tea that are therapeutic and pleasing to the body without harmful side effects. It should, in no way, be demonized especially by such a crudely crafted study.

Conclusion

The unfortunate truth these days is that we live in a sound bite world where most people get their news from headlines. Even television news stories have taken on the cloak of superficiality and seldom report the details of anything. Not only is this practice costly but potentially devastating especially to our health. It is important more and more that we move beyond the headlines and peek behind the veil for the full story especially when it pertains to our health!

The Story of Cholesterol: The Beginning

One of my chief goals is to help others achieve radiant health by exposing erroneous, and often times intentionally misleading, information. There are many areas of our lives where these errors adversely impact our health and one of them is cholesterol. I must admit that prior to becoming a certified holistic health practitioner (holistic health coach) I would see the commercials for cholesterol lowering medications and agree wholeheartedly with its use. After all, one of the main ways to prevent heart disease and heart attacks was to ensure cholesterol levels were kept in check by lowering the amount in the bloodstream, right? I was convinced of this "fact" and all it took was a series of 30 second commercials to convince me and millions of others. Now the alarms are being sounded as more and more evidence would suggest that cholesterol is not what we think it is.

The Story of Cholesterol: The Beginning is the first article in what will be a continuing series on the cholesterol story and how it affects each and everyone of us. Whether you are taking a cholesterol lowering medication now or you pay insurance premiums to help cover the cost of those who do we are all paying a hefty price only to decrease what we hope to increase: our health.

The history of cholesterol as the boogie man!

Like most pharmaceutical success stories ours starts in the lab with a guy in a white coat who promises to save your life if you buy what they are selling. Enter Ansel Keys, Ph.D. He was one of the first to begin making the extraordinary and revolutionary claim that cholesterol was at the heart of cardiovascular disease (also known as the lipid hypothesis) and lowering it would reduce heart attacks and other adverse cardiovascular events. And so the myth was born and from that point in the 1950's until this very day many millions continue to believe this unsubstantiated myth (more on this in another article). The commercials haven't stopped and the myth is continuously perpetuated because statins and other cholesterol lowering drugs are a $31 billion a year industry all by itself!

What is cholesterol?

Have you ever wondered what cholesterol is and why we have it. I know personally I never stopped to consider it. The truth about cholesterol and what it does for our bodies is astounding. Here are a few things about cholesterol that you may not know:

• The brain is approximately 60% cholesterol (one of the listed side effects of statin drugs is reduced cognitive function!)
• Cholesterol is so important that it is manufactured in almost every cell in the body
• Cholesterol is an important structural molecule that is the basis of how many other molecules get built
• Cholesterol is the body's natural inflammation fighter
• Cholesterol helps to synthesize Vitamin D
• Without cholesterol we would be unable to produce bile affecting our ability to digest dietary fats
• Without cholesterol sex hormones like testosterone, estrogen and progesterone cannot be made (one of the listed side effects of statin drugs is reduced testicular and ovary size!)
• If we were able to remove all the cholesterol from our bodies we would die very quickly

As you can see cholesterol plays an important part in our health and well being. So the question becomes: How and why has cholesterol been so vilified and who profits from our media/doctor induced manic hatred for such an essential element in our lives? There is more to come shortly. Stay tuned!

Constipation and Your Health: The Beginning of the End Part II

Our modern lifestyles have helped to usher many new and wondrous things into our lives but also some downright devastating ventures. How and what we eat, how we handle stress, and the excessive amounts of drugs, pharmaceutical and otherwise, damages our health through constipation.

Highly processed foods have become a main stay in the average American diet. Highly processed foods (bleached and enriched bread products, junk food, refined sugar, etc.) not only tend to be void of nutrition but also notoriously difficult to eliminate from the system with any kind of efficiency. Highly processed food (if you can call it food) which is not easily eliminated causes a log jam (no pun intended) in the intestines that becomes increasingly worse with each passing day. The lack of soluble and insoluble fiber in our diets only serves to compound the problem.

Stress is known as a silent killer that affects the cardiovascular system but what is often not known is how stress affects our digestion. We know that stress can create ulcers in the stomach but did you know it can lead to other gastrointestinal issues like constipation? In extreme cases stress can cause peristalsis to become extremely weak. Peristalsis describes the involuntary contractions of the colon which helps eliminate waste. Weak peristalsis makes the colon dysfunctional and constipation ensues. Also, highly stressed people tend to be enzyme deficient leading to poor digestion setting them up for constipation.

As previously mentioned Americans spend approximately $700 million annually on laxatives. While occasional use may be fine chronic laxative use can cause more harm than good. Laxatives stimulate contractions in the intestines by affecting the nerves. These stimulations are abnormal and can lead to a slow paralysis of those nerves making constipation a lifelong issue. In addition, common medications like antibiotics tend to disrupt natural intestinal flora (the balance between good bacteria and harmful bacteria). A buildup of toxic material in the intestines is a result causing constipation. Other drug types that cause constipation as a side effect are anti-inflammatory drugs, analgesics, antacids, antidepressants, antihypertensive drugs and diuretics.

The treatments for constipation will be discussed in the next post.

Cleanse Naturally with Powerful Herbs that are Gentle and  Therapeutic!