TriVita Article on Loneliness and Heart Health

Can loneliness kill you? According to medical science, yes it can!

As humans, we need each other. Children die when they are deprived of human contact and even young adults have significantly higher blood pressure if they feel lonely. This high blood pressure can follow them into middle age where they are far more likely to suffer from heart attacks, strokes, obesity, and diabetes.

Adults cope better – especially women – but the diseases of emotional famine disable many people. Conditions that have been linked to loneliness include:

• Chronic back pain
• Ulcers
• Migraine headaches

The good news is that many of these problems subside when a person feels connected to a community. Indeed, it is only in community that you can experience life in its robust diversity.

Loneliness and the heart
Emotional turmoil causes an inflammatory reaction in the circulatory system. The blood vessels stiffen and your heart has difficulty pumping blood. Blood pressure increases and the increase damages delicate organs, such as the lungs, kidneys, eyes, and especially the blood vessels themselves. That’s why heart attacks and strokes are so common among lonely people.

Interestingly, the illnesses suffered by lonely, bored, and emotionally starved people are the same as those experienced by people under great emotional stress, such as those engaged in active combat in war. Both extremes – too much stimulation and too little – trigger the “fight or flight” mechanism. This emergency/survival mechanism interferes with the enzymes that block inflammation. Inflammation is like a heavy burden on an over-taxed system: the weakest link is sure to break!

Many people in North America have weakened their hearts with high salt/high fat foods, a sedentary lifestyle, poor sleep, and chronic stress. Loneliness adds a burden that is just too much for the human body to take – the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back – and a heart attack, stroke, or other crisis becomes inevitable. That’s the medical description for the impact of loneliness. How can we prevent this chain of events from killing us?

Women save humanity – again!
Interestingly, the amount of time spent alone does not determine the degree of loneliness. For instance, undergraduate students rated their loneliness and then reported on their social interactions and other habits throughout the school year. Those most lonely and those least lonely did not spend significantly more or less time in social contacts with others. The lonely students did, however, perceive that their social contact made demands of them that they simply could not meet.

The same report shed light on an interesting phenomenon: spending time talking with women – for both sexes – provided protection from feelings of loneliness. Many theories have been advanced to explain this but consensus from scientists appears elusive. Communication styles differ between men and women. Men seem to prefer transactional conversations while women typically exemplify negotiation, compromise, empathy, and forgiveness.

When feelings of loneliness are eliminated, high blood pressure is reduced. For instance, normal systolic blood pressure is about 120 mm/hg. Chronically lonely people typically experience an increase in blood pressure that may take them above 150 mm/hg (the “danger” zone is any systolic pressure above 140 mm/hg). Social integration yields a reduction in blood pressure of 10 to 30 mm/hg. As a comparison, achieving a weight loss of 25 pounds or more for the obese can reduce their blood pressure by 5 to 20 mm/hg and regular physical exercise reduces blood pressure by 4 to 9 mm/hg.

It is even as Robert McAfee Brown noted, “How does one keep from ‘growing old inside?’ Surely only in community.”

Source: TriVita VitaJournal February 17, 2007

TriVita Weekly Wellness, Reduce Your Risk of Blood Clots

by Dr Brazos Minshew, TriVita Chief Science Office

Over 300,000 people in North America die each year from stroke. Another 700,000 die each year from heart attack. The most common type of both stroke and heart attack is ischemic disease, caused by a blood clot. Damage occurs when the blood clot reduces – and then totally blocks – circulation in an artery. The tissue nourished by that artery begins to die almost immediately.

The nature of blood clots
Blood clots are a miracle when they occur in the right place at the right time. If a blood vessel is injured it sends out chemical distress signals that cause platelets to seal the leak. Platelets are small, white cells that are normally very slippery. They become sticky when the lining of the blood vessel (the endothelium) is damaged.

1. The endothelium sends chemical messages to the platelets.
2. The platelets send chemical messages to attract fibrin proteins.
3. Fibrin proteins are like string that becomes very sticky and ties the groups of platelets together. This is an immature or “white” blood clot.

If the leak is not sealed by this “white” clot, larger red blood cells are tied to the platelets by fibrin to form a “red” clot.

Blood clots in the wrong place – at the wrong time
Problems occur when these clots happen in the wrong place at the wrong time. For example, one probable cause of migraine headaches is inappropriate communication between blood vessels and platelets. If a single blood vessel cramps or spasms it can signal platelets to become so sticky that they restrict circulation in the rest of the brain. Ischemic strokes and heart attacks are often caused by mature red clots breaking free of the injured area and blocking arteries in the heart or brain.

Interestingly, blockages from blood clots can occur in any area of the body. For instance, a person can have a “stroke” that injures the lungs or kidneys. Deep vein thrombosis in the legs is the exact same kind of vascular disease that causes stroke or heart attack.

The key to preventing damage is to make sure that the clots form only when and where they are supposed to. This is only possible with accurate communication between the endothelium in the blood vessels and the clotting mechanisms in the red blood cells, platelets and fibrin. Simple nutrients can have profound effects on improving this communication – and I make several suggestions later in this report.

Working smarter, not harder
Blood thinners force platelets and fibrin to ignore clotting signals from the endothelium. When a person is having a stroke these drugs are life-saving because the blood vessels, platelets and fibrin are getting the message to clot in the wrong place at the wrong time. One new class of drugs triggers the release of nitric oxide to open the blood vessels. Nitric oxide also helps the blood vessels, platelets and fibrin proteins communicate clearly. To prevent blood vessel miscommunication in the first place, high nitric oxide levels are needed.

Nitric oxide is made from nitrogen; nitrogen comes from fruits and vegetables. Eating up to nine servings of fruits and vegetables every day will make your clotting system very smart! Plant-based foods have been proven to improve your health – including the health of your circulatory system.

Smart nutrients

TriVita Adaptogen 10 Plus® Dr. Nathan Bryan, cardiologist and specialist in nitric oxide communication, recommends TriVita Adaptogen 10 Plus to help increase nitric oxide. Adaptogen 10 Plus also helps protect against stress. Stress alone – without any help from cholesterol – causes blood vessel spasms which may result in blood clots. So, a good first step in improving the health of your circulatory system is to eat your fruits and vegetables every day and take whole-food supplements like Adaptogen 10 Plus.

TriVita OmegaPrime® Essential fatty acids such as those in OmegaPrime can help keep the platelets from getting sticky at the wrong time. Dr. Dwight Lundell, cardiologist and specialist in bypass surgery, recommends the Omega-3 EFA in TriVita OmegaPrime as a prime tool to help protect against inappropriate clotting. We need 1–4 grams of Omega-3 every day (2–6 OmegaPrime soft gels).

TriVita HCY Guard® Dr. Kilmer McCully, cardiologist and specialist in vascular health, recommends the protective nutrients found in TriVita HCY Guard to help your body reduce homocysteine (HCY). HCY is one culprit in forming clots at the wrong place and time. Taking a single HCY Guard sublingual lozenge daily can help your body reduce homocysteine up to 35% – in as little as 42 days!

Other nutrients such as Vitamin E, turmeric and ginger, and Vitamin C all provide information for your blood clotting system to work smarter. Smart nutrients are the key to making good decisions about where and when to activate this miraculous system!

Source: TriVita Weekly Wellness Report January 31, 2009.