Papaya - A Powerhouse of Nutrients!

The papaya is an wonderfully rich source of the proteolytic enzymes. These are the chemicals that allow the digestion of protein. Papain, which is the mainly important of these enzymes in the papaya, is extracted and dried as a powder for use to aid the digestion, and it be often used as a meat tenderizer, the enzyme somewhat breaking down the meat fibers digesting them in fact.

Papaya is regularly eaten raw, minus its skin and seeds, but the seeds are edible and have a spicy, sharp taste. Grinded seeds of papaya preserve be used as a black pepper substitute. Papaya seeds have antimicrobial properties, so ingesting them can avoid and eliminate intestinal worms. Unripe papaya can be obsessive cooked or raw, and is often used in salads or added to stews and curry dishes.

Papayas are also rich in fiber, therefore it is known to inferior high cholesterol levels. Folic acid establish in papayas converts a substance called homocysteine into benign amino acids. When it remains unconverted, homocysteine can directly injure blood vessel walls and when level get too high, can reason a stroke or even a heart attack.

Severity of Heart Attack Can Be Affected By The Time of The Day

Cardiovascular diseases are considered group of diseases in which it affect approximately a higher proportion of the population. This is because of numerous interlinked factors which are contributory to the development of these cardiovascular diseases. One of which is unhealthy lifestyle which includes poor eating habits that can lead to expenditure of high caloric food choices, and lack of physical and regular exercises which can build or initiate formation of cholesterol plaques in the vessels which supplies blood to the dissimilar parts of the human body.

Also, another factor can be due to stress which puts the person into great deal of discomfort causing a lot of biological alterations which may include high blood pressure. Moreover, cardiovascular diseases can lead to the growth of heart attack. New research says that the severity of heart attack that a person can experience can be affected by the time of the day it occurs.

According to statistics, heart attack or coronary heart disease is careful one of the leading causes of deaths for both men and women in the United States. Heart attack is the failure of the heart to pump blood to the different parts of the human body since of the damages in the muscle of the heart itself. This damage is caused by the narrowing of vessels particularly the coronary arteries which are responsible for supply the muscle cells of the heart with nourishment and oxygen. When narrowing occurs, this result to manage of blood supply leading to decrease in oxygen supply which in turn damages the heart.

Benefits of Drinking Water

Drinking water helps you lose weight since it flushes down the by-products of fat breakdown. Drinking water reduce hunger, it’s an efficient appetite suppressant so you’ll eat less. Plus, water has zero calories. Helps to reduce headache and back pains due to dehydration. Although a lot of reasons contribute to headache, dehydration is the common one. You’ll look younger when your skin is appropriately hydrated. Water helps to replenish skin tissues, moisturizes skin and increase skin elasticity.

Drinking water regulate your body temperature that means you’ll feel extra energetic when doing exercises. Water also helps to increase your muscle. Your brain is generally made up of water, thus drinking water helps you think better, be more alert and more concentrated. Drinking water raises your metabolism since it helps in digestion. Fiber and water goes hand in hand so that you can have your daily bowel progress.

Drinking plenty of water helps fight alongside flu and other ailments like kidney stones and heart attack. Water adds with lemon is used for ailment like respiratory disease, intestinal problems, rheumatism and arthritis etc. In another words one of the benefits of drinking water is that it can get better your immune system. Related to the digestive system, a few studies show that drinking a healthy amount of water may reduce the risks of bladder cancer and colon cancer. Water dilutes the absorption of cancer-causing agents in the urine and shortens the time in which they are in contact with bladder lining.

Fish Oil Might Help Fight Gum Disease

Eating even moderate amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, typically found in foods such as salmon and other fatty fish, may help ward off gum disease, new research suggests. Researchers divided nearly 9,200 adults aged 20 and up participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1999 and 2004 into three groups based on their consumption of omega-3 fatty acids. Consumption was assessed by asking participants to recall exactly what they'd eaten during the prior 24 hours. Dental exams showed participants in the middle and upper third for omega-3 fatty acid consumption were between 23 percent and 30 percent less likely to have gum disease than those who consumed the least amount of omega-3 fatty acids.

Specifically, the researchers found that the omega-3 fatty acids docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) were associated with less gum disease. The association with linolenic acid (LNA) was not statistically significant. "Eating a very feasible amount of fatty fish seems to have a lot of benefit," said senior study author Dr. Kenneth Mukamal, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. "But we found no benefits to eating tons of this stuff." Since the study was a snapshot of a single day's diet, Mukamal said researchers could not determine exactly how much fish oil people should consume regularly.

The following guidelines from major organizations such as the American Heart Association, which recommends eating fatty fish at least twice a week, is probably a good idea, not just for gum disease but for overall health, they noted. "There are a lot of benefits of omega-3 fatty acids. We have good evidence they prevent sudden death caused by heart rhythm disturbances. We have some evidence omega-3 fatty acids can reduce the risk of heart attacks and stroke," Mukamal said. "This is a great example of another potential benefit." In the study, researchers took into account other factors that could affect the likelihood of having gum disease, such as age, income, education and other health and socioeconomic factors.

Chest Scans May Incidentally Help Spot Heart Disease Risk

Chest CT scans taken for routine diagnostic purposes even those not related to cardiovascular disease concerns can be used by radiologists to screen for signs of heart disease risk, new research suggests. "Radiologists can predict cardiovascular disease fairly well using incidental findings of calcifications of the aortic wall on CT, along with minimal patient information, such as age, gender and the reason for the CT," study lead author Dr. Martijn Gondrie, of the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care at the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands, said in a news release from the Radiological Society of North America.

"Ultimately, this easily executed extra risk stratification has the potential to reduce future heart attacks or other cardiovascular events," Gondrie added. The study findings were released online Sept. 28 in advance of publication in the November print issue of Radiology. Gondrie and colleagues pointed out that chest CT scans have increased in quality and frequency of use over the past decade, resulting in a greater pool of incidental findings that clinicians can theoretically use to assess risk for all sorts of additional health complications. Such incidental findings can be a bonus because they do not expose the patient to additional radiation or additional scanning costs, the study authors explained.

To assess the potential usefulness of such findings, Gondrie's team analyzed incidental data regarding a number of different aortic abnormalities that had been gleaned from nearly 1,200 chest CT scans conducted for reasons having nothing to do with heart health. The researchers found that when all the various types of abnormalities cited were taken as a whole, the incidental heart-related findings were in fact helpful in predicting future heart disease risk. The authors concluded that their work "generates the much-needed insights that allow more effective utilization of the increasing amount of diagnostic information, and it could potentially change the way radiologists contribute to the efficiency of daily patient care."

FDA Panel to Mull Ban on Diet Drug Meridia

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will ask an expert panel later this week whether or not the diet drug Meridia should be banned due to suspected heart risks. In documents released Monday ahead of the panel meeting, which begins Wednesday, the agency said that members of its Endocrinologic & Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee will be asked to consider a number of options, including taking no action, adding label warnings and/or restrictions to the use of Meridia, or to withdraw from the U.S. market. The meeting comes on the heels of a study released earlier this month that linked the drug to an increased risk of nonfatal heart attacks and stroke, although taking the drug did not seem to up the risk of death in patients with a history of heart problems.

The trial involved almost 11,000 older, overweight or obese adults with type 2 diabetes or heart disease or both who were randomized either to take Meridia or a placebo and followed for about 3.4 years. In the group taking Meridia, 11.4 percent had a heart attack, stroke or died as the result of a heart problem, versus 10 percent in the control group, a 16 percent increase. People taking Meridia also had a 28 percent higher risk for nonfatal heart attack and a 36 percent raised risk for nonfatal stroke, compared to those taking placebo, the authors found. The study stirred mixed reactions from experts. According to the authors of the trial, which was funded by Meridia's maker, Abbott, the findings are generally in line with what has been known about the drug and shouldn't change how it is used.

"The only time you've got an increase in heart attacks or strokes were in those patients who had had previous heart disease or strokes, in other words, the people who should never have received the drug in the first place," said Dr. Philip T. James, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in England, and first author on the paper, which was published in the Sept. 2 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Since January, sibutramine (Meridia) has carried a label warning that it should not be used by people with preexisting heart disease, so "the current prescription is entirely appropriate," James said. However, not everyone agreed. According to Dr. Greg Curfman, executive editor of the NEJM and co-author of an accompanying editorial, the FDA's January warning was based on preliminary information only. The new study results represent the first hard data, "the first outcomes trial," he said.

Winter Sports Tourists at Higher Risk of Heart Attack

Skiers and other winter sports tourists who visit the Alps are at increased risk for heart attack due to low temperatures, high altitude and inadequate conditioning for intense physical exertion, finds a new study. The risk is greatest during the first two days of vacation, said a research team of cardiologists at the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria, who focused on winter tourists in the Tyrolean Alps. "Every year, millions of tourists visit the Tyrolean Alps to participate in a variety of winter sports, each of which carries a certain risk of accident and injury," study senior author Dr. Bernhard Metzler, an associate professor of cardiology at the university, said in a news release from the European Society of Cardiology.

"Previously it had been shown that sudden cardiac death accounts for a staggering 40 percent of the total fatalities amongst winter sports tourists in the Austrian Alps and, of these, acute [heart attack] is the leading cause," he added. Metzler and colleagues analyzed data from 170 patients who suffered a heart attack during a winter sports vacation between 2006 and 2010. About 56 percent of the patients suffered their heart attack within the first two days of beginning intense physical activity, although just 19 percent had a known cardiac condition. Prior to their vacation, more than half of the patients got less than the minimum levels of physical activity recommended by the European Society of Cardiology.

Altitude may have been a major factor, the study authors noted. The patients' heart attacks occurred at a mean altitude of 1,350 meters (4,429 feet), compared to the mean altitude of 170 meters (557 feet) where they lived. The researchers also found that about 70 percent of the patients had at least two risk factors for coronary artery disease, including smoking, diabetes or high cholesterol levels. People planning winter sports holidays in the mountains need to prepare themselves with regular exercise beforehand, the study authors suggested. Once at the resort, they should increase their level of physical activity gradually, they added. The researchers presented their findings last week at the European Society of Cardiology Congress, in Stockholm, Sweden.

Clues to Heart Attack, Stroke Risk From Fat-Filled Artery

A number of factors put patients with abnormal fatty deposits in an artery at high risk for heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular death, a new study shows. Patients in various stages of this condition atherothrombosis are at increased risk for heart attack and stroke stemming from reduced blood flow from the artery blockage, but some are at greater risk than others. In an analysis of more than 45,000 patients, the researchers found that patients with abnormal fatty deposits in an artery were at highest risk if they had a prior history of heart attack or other emergencies linked to an artery blockage.

Narrowing of the arteries in various locations also substantially increased the risk for patients with atherothrombosis, as did diabetes for all the patients even those with only the risk factors for atherothrombosis.Knowing that these factors boost the risk can help physicians take preventive action, according to the researchers, who are from the VA Boston Healthcare System, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. The researchers analyzed data from 45,227 patients enrolled in an international study known as Reduction of Atherothrombosis for Continued Health (REACH) between 2003 and 2004. They collected detailed information from the patients when they enrolled and conducted follow-ups one, two, three and four years later.

They found that 81.3 percent of the patients had hypertension, 70.4 percent had high  cholesterol levels in the blood, and 15.9 percent had polyvascular disease . In addition, 48.4 percent of the patients had "ischemic events" prior heart attacks, unstable angina or other problems related to the artery blockage, with 28.1 percent of those patients having had such an event within the previous year. During the follow-up period, 2,315 patients suffered cardiovascular death, 1,228 had a heart attack, 1,898 had a stroke, and 40 had a heart attack and a stroke on the same day. The researchers found that patients with atherothrombosis with a prior history of heart attacks and other events related to a blood vessel blockage had the highest rate of subsequent cardiac emergencies linked to blood flow problems.

Generics As Good As Costly Blood Pressure Meds, Study Finds

Costly, brand-name blood pressure-lowering drugs are no better at preventing cardiovascular disease than older, generic diuretics, reveals long-term data from a large study. It included more than 33,000 patients with high blood pressure who were randomly selected to take either a diuretic or one of two newer drugs a calcium blocker or an ACE inhibitor. Data from the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial released in 2002 showed that after four to eight years of follow-up, the diuretic was better than the calcium blocker in preventing heart failure and better than the ACE inhibitor in preventing stroke, heart failure and overall cardiovascular disease.

Differences between the drugs narrowed after eight to 13 years of follow-up, the findings show. However, the diuretic was still better in two areas. Compared with patients taking the diuretic, those in the ACE inhibitor group had a 20 percent higher death rate from stroke, and those in the calcium channel blocker group had a 12 percent higher rate of hospitalization and death because of heart failure. The results were to be presented Friday at the China Heart Congress and International Heart Forum in Beijing. "We are continuing to mine data that we collected during the trial," Dr. Paul Whelton, president and CEO of Loyola University Health System and chairman of ALLHAT, said in a university news release. ALLHAT is sponsored by the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.