More American patients seek treatment abroad to escape high medical costs

October 31, 2011 · Posted in cholesterol · Comment 
Tom Ramstack – AHN News Legal Correspondent

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The number of Americans heading abroad for medical care rose sharply last year amid high health care costs and a poor economy in the United States, according to medical tourism industry figures.

Some of their preferred locations for life-saving surgeries and other procedures are India and Mexico, the health information company Health Digital Systems reported.

Surgeries like hip replacements, dental implants and heart bypasses can cost half as much in Southeast Asia and Latin America compared with the United States.

Among the six million Americans who traveled abroad for medical care last year, 45 percent traveled to Asia, 26 percent to Latin America and 2 percent to the Middle East, according to industry statistics.

Health care officials in the countries treating foreigners are upbeat about their patients. Medical tourism, primarily from the United States and Europe, represents a nearly $100 billion a year industry.

Mexico’s Health Ministry recently produced a report saying “the globalization of health services can offer excellent medical care at lower costs than developed countries.”

The health ministry has developed a strategic plan to encourage medical tourism by continuing “the effort to improve the perception of public safety and promote [Mexico's] image as a global capital of culture and entertainment.”

Any success by Mexico’s health providers in reaching American patients is most obvious in border cities like Monterrey, Tijuana and Chihuahua, according to the Health Digital Systems. Pharmacies, hospitals and medical specialty practices have sprung up to take care of them.

However, patients also assume risks by trusting their health care to foreign medical standards.

Only 2 percent of Mexico’s hospitals have earned “Joint International Commission” certification.

The certification means a hospital and its staff have met international standards that would allow them to be reimbursed by foreign medical insurance companies.

India’s medical tourism industry is losing patients to competing hospitals in Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia amid concerns about poor sanitation.

Indian hospitals have been struggling with a “superbug” that is resistant to disinfectant.

As a result, some patients are reporting they become sick when they enter Indian hospitals for other treatments.

Nevertheless, the discount price of foreign medical treatment is creating a backlog of patients for hospitals with good reputations.

Mediescape, an Indian medical tourism company, reports that India’s hospitals offering medical services to patients from the United States and Europe say their booked up to December.

Between 15 percent and 20 percent of India’s hospital income now comes from medical tourism, according to industry data.

There were 800,000 foreign patients in India last year. They are expected to generate a $3 billion a year industry for India by 2015, up by more than a third from 2010.

Behind the figures on rising medical tourism is the desperation of patients who cannot afford health care in the United States, where about 40 percent of the population lacks adequate medical insurance, according to U.S. government statistics.

Some Americans are even treating themselves for serious ailments, not always with successful outcomes, according to a recent survey by TMD Limited, a medical tourism company.

“Today we are seeing many breast cancer patients that self-treated for years,” said Antonio Jimenez, a doctor raised in New Jersey who now runs the Hope4Cancer Institute in Mexico’s Baja California. “Unfortunately, cancer treatment is not a do-it-yourself project.”

Many of the women search for treatments on the Internet.

“We see more and more women who have spent thousands of dollars on supplements and wonder cures they used at home,” Jimenez said. “When those treatments fail, they look for a clinic that can help.”

The American Cancer Society reports that 230,480 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year. Of those, 39,520 will die.

Article © AHN – All Rights Reserved

View full post on Health Treatment Stories

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Give Yourself The Gift of Goji

April 6, 2011 · Posted in diets to lower cholesterol · Comment 

Certified organic Goji juice is the most effective because Goji is absorbed better by your body when taken in liquid form. It is free of chemicals, preservatives and is not mixed with another juice for enhanced flavor. I first learned of this little miracle juice when I took home a CD from the local health food store that explained its benefits and history. Fun ways to stay updated on health topics and learn about hidden gems like Goji are by gathering information online from reliable sources, watching interesting and informative shows on TV networks like Discovery Health and taking advantage of free reading materials and CD’s from your local health food store.
Goji grows in South Eastern Europe and in Asia and wasn’t shipped to the U.S. until recently, even though its history dates back to ancient times. Ningxia Goji is the most pure and potent type of Goji juice. The first person to ship it here to the U.S. was Doctor Gary Young when he learned of its benefits. An Olympic swimmer from China came along next and admitted her secret to outperforming all of her competitors was drinking Goji juice.

She had to let the cat out of the bag in order to protect herself from being accused of taking drugs! The word was out, and companies in the United States wanted in. Goji eventually graced the shelves of health food stores across America and in a few select grocery stores. It is easier to buy it today as it is more abundant, but you must understand that Goji juice is expensive to distribute and to buy. Some companies find that it is a greater benefit to sell less expensive, diluted versions of this juice, as it is more affordable and more likely to sell. Uninformed consumers can assume that these versions of Goji juice are just as beneficial as the real thing when in fact they’re not. You can find the closest form of Goji to the real thing at various health food stores if you know what you’re doing. The “good stuff” is only found in China.

There are numerous reasons why you should at least consume one ounce of Goji juice every day (more if you’re feeling under the weather). I have gained many benefits from doing just that. As soon as I drank my first drop of this amazing super juice, the first thing I noticed is that my eyes became clearer. I was amazed at the clarity because I didn’t even notice that my eyes were cloudy until everything became bright and clear. The next thing that I observed is a general sense of contentment. I was relaxed, de-stressed and in a great mood. Goji improved my sleep-wake cycle. I sleep deeper and wake up more rested than ever before. I can also recall the dreams I had when I was sleeping which rarely happens. Blemishes on my skin disappeared one week after religiously taking my morning Goji shot. My skin started to glow and my fingernails were so shiny that it looked like I was wearing clear nail polish. Ladies, if you want to look beautiful, eat organic and take your daily dose of Goji!
Goji helps your body rid of waste naturally and if taken along with eating organic (and perhaps a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar with mother) it will help you shed some extra pounds. I didn’t need to lose weight when I started drinking Goji, but I did have some unnecessary, unwanted meat on my hips that slowly began to disappear. Goji gets rid of that pocket fat that collects in certain areas of your body. My hips became narrower and if I gain weight, it will now be evenly dispersed rather than clumping into those trouble areas! These are just a few of the ways Goji has helped me. This juice works inside and out, optimizing the functions of your mind and body. Here is a partial list of the many amazing benefits of Organic Goji juice:
* Balances skin tone and helps to reduce dry skin * Antioxidants help prevent aging * Reduces risk of cancer * Increases energy * Helps to maintain a stable mood * Improves metabolism * Regulates blood pressure * Cleanses your blood * Improves memory * Improves heart function * Fights Hepatitis B * Boosts your immune system * Lowers cholesterol * Helps regulate blood sugar level I’m assuming you’re ready to buy it, so your probably questioning what you should be looking for in an effective Goji juice. Here are some pointers of what to look for before you buy your “happy berry” juice:
* #1 100% Certified Organic Goji berry juice
* Get pure concentrated Goji juice that is not mixed with another juice so you’ll get the full effect. If you’re spending good money on your Goji, you don’t want it diluted with other juices you can buy for just a few dollars at the grocery store.
* Do not fall for cheaper “natural” versions of Goji juice, as it will at the very least contain a preservative like Sodium Benzoate. This preservative is a carcinogen so it defeats the purpose of taking Goji in the first place.
* You may choose Goji that is sold in a glass container vs. plastic because it stays fresher longer.
Celebrities that swear by Goji juice:
* Mischa Barton * Madonna * Liz Hurley * Mario Lopez * Paula Abdul * Lisa Edelstein

About Author
Frank helps people learn about Dish Network Satellite TV, and how they can save money every month with popular Dish Network Packages. Frank and his team also help people determine if satellite internet is right for them.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

On Health Law’s Anniversary: Predictions For Next Year

March 21, 2011 · Posted in high blood pressure and cholesterol · Comment 

Washington, DC, United States (KaiserHealth) – The health care law has been on a roller coaster ride since its passage one year ago, moving forward with implementation plans even as opponents throw up legal and legislative challenges to stop it in its tracks.

At Kaiser Health News, we wondered where these moving parts might be in March 2012, at the measure’s two-year mark. So we asked players and experts from across the nation what they thought the landscape would be like – and, in their view, should be like.

They discussed issues ranging from the new insurance marketplaces called exchanges to the future of accountable care organizations: combinations of hospitals, doctors and sometimes insurers. Here are their edited responses:

Bill Hazel

– Secretary of Health and Human Resources in Virginia, one of the states challenging the constitutionality of the law.

We will be extraordinarily busy. We will probably have designed the new marketplaces – the exchanges – as best we can, but we will still have to go back to the General Assembly for implementation. We’ll have a whole lot to do in a very short period of time. Unless something changes with the law, we will have the whole issue of getting the benefit exchange up and running. Getting it implemented will be a technical challenge.

Currently, everything is in a state of flux. We suspect that aspects of the bill will change with this Congress and we also have the lawsuits, which likely will not be resolved by this time next year.

In Virginia, we’ve authorized the Bureau of Insurance to enforce the law as it stands today. We’ve been told by the General Assembly to plan an exchange and bring it back for approval next year. And we have money budgeted to build an infrastructure that will allow us to determine eligibility for both the formerly eligible and the people newly eligible for Medicaid. We’re trying to streamline and automate the process and are well into that.

Lloyd H. Dean

– President and CEO of Catholic Healthcare West

Over the next year you’ll see more ACOs and more sharing of data and integrating ourselves with other providers.

We’ll begin to see the cost curve bending in the organization. Last year we were one of the first organizations in the country to launch a major accountable care organization – I like to call it a triumvirate, with CHW, Blue Shield of California and Hill Physicians. That’s been a success: We’ve reduced hospital admissions by 22 percent; we’ve reduced the length of stay and hospital days by almost 13 percent. A year from now we’ll be relatively far along in the path of implementing our new electronic health record.

What’s important here is that we’re not sitting on the sidelines waiting for something to happen in Washington, D.C., before we all get in the game. When you look at us a year from now, we’ll be more efficient, with better medical outcomes and better alignment with our physicians and others in the communities we serve.

Tom Goldstein

– Attorney, co-founder of SCOTUSblog

One year from today we should be waiting for a ruling from the Supreme Court. The courts of appeals should have decided the constitutionality and upheld the statute of the reform bill by this fall and the cases should have proceeded quickly to the Supreme Court for expedited consideration.

During the appeals process, I will be watching whether a court invalidates the individual mandate and therefore the entire law. I think that there will have been vigorous dissents on the Commerce Clause so the issue of the fate of the law will still be unsettled by the time it gets to the Supreme Court. But once the cases have been argued, I think the conventional wisdom is that the statute will be upheld because the justices have taken a very broad view of Congress’s power.

Wendy Schiller

– Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, Brown University

The health care message is going to get more complicated for the American voter in 2012. The Republicans clearly ran against the health care bill in 2010, but they’re going to have to come to the table in making cuts to Medicaid and Medicare in the next year. You can’t even get close to cutting the deficit if you don’t cut entitlement spending. It’s going to be much harder for the Republicans to make this a key issue in the 2012 elections.

In Obama’s favor, a lot of the provisions of the health care bill will kick in. And the more people who actually benefit, the more entrenched these programs will be. As we see with Medicare and Medicaid, once a program is entrenched and voters see clear benefits, the [program is] almost impossible to get rid of.

Independents are the only [voting] group you’re really looking at in terms of health care. And the issue will be the battles for the key states — Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Florida and California. It’s really, ironically, going to be a much more localized issue than it is a national issue. From this point forward, it’s the implementation of the health care act that will matter much more for Obama in 2012 than the passage of the act itself.

Ceci Connolly

– Senior Adviser, McKinsey Center for U.S. Health System Reform

What I will be watching are the Republican presidential primaries and the CMS innovation center. I want to be keeping an eye on that, because I feel strongly that the real transformation in health care will come from the private sector. So I am very eager to see if and how quickly seed money from the innovation center can foster truly significant change. Will the innovation center grants help us find a way to deliver the right care at the right time for the right price?

I think what has been striking about health care to date here in the U.S. is this: We have amazing one-off success stories. We can point to them dotting the landscape but the real question is, can and will those be replicated or expanded? That’s why I’m eager about the private sector, but also hopeful that at least this grant money could help nudge it along.

Steven E. Wojcik – Vice President, Public Policy, National Business Group on Health

By March 2012, we hope to convince Congress to adopt medical liability reform that limits how much providers pay in non-economic damages and restricts attorneys’ fees. The administration has signaled that it is open to changes, and there’s a significant gap in the health care law to reduce the unnecessary, added costs we all pay for defensive medicine.

We also will have made sure health care payment reforms pilot projects called for in the health law get implemented quickly and widely throughout the Medicare program because we want to be paying for outcomes and quality not just care. We expect to work through the regulatory process to make sure “consumer directed” or high-deductible health plans are allowed to be offered as rules get drawn up for new insurance exchanges. These plans are the key to getting health costs under control.

Sarah James – Analyst, Wedbush Securities

One of the insurance industry’s main focuses in the next year of health care reform is medical loss ratio [provision, which requires insurers to spend 80 percent of premium revenues on medical care] and how it may change. There’s a push to change the definition of MLR to exclude brokers’ commissions. If it goes through, it would be very positive for the managed care plans. Also, removing broker commissions from premium revenue would make it easier for plans to stay in states like Maine.

Also, there’s the impact of exchanges. Each state’s exchange could be different, creating some favorable markets and some less favorable markets. Another negative aspect is the potential repeal of the individual mandate, which fines people for not having insurance. If you remove that, you’re more likely to have healthy people stay out of plans.

Meanwhile, a lot of insurers are diversifying to areas outside the U.S. with a particular interest in Asia, and also in the technology area. There’s a lot of federal money coming into health information technology.

Katie Mahoney – Director of regulations, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

By March 2012, we hope to persuade Treasury to clarify how the health law bans employers from giving richer health benefits to high paid executives than their employees. We want the regulations to be made clear so employers are not unfairly accused of discriminating against their employees.

The Chamber also hopes to convince regulators to define “essential benefits package” in a less extensive way so it doesn’t make the cost of coverage unaffordable. We don’t want every desirable benefit to be required, because that will drive up costs. The Chamber expects to work through the regulatory process to make sure that employers continue to have important flexibility to design workplace wellness programs. The health law expands the incentive amount that employers’ can offer to workers for participating in wellness programs beginning in 2014. The Chamber also hopes to convince Congress to change the health law’s provision that bars employees from using their flexible spending accounts from buying over-the-counter medications unless they have a doctor’s note.

Howard Bedlin – Vice President for Public Policy and Advocacy, National Council on Aging

Seniors will become more aware of what’s in it for them, because there’s still a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about the implications of health care reform in general. If you’ve been looking at the Kaiser tracking polls, many people don’t even know it’s law.

People will gain a greater understanding of what this means, the fact that some of the Medicare reductions did not cut benefits or impede access to care. They did not cut payments to doctors. They will have access to physicians and may have better access to primary care physicians. Hopefully more will avail themselves of preventive services, annual wellness visits.

I do think an important issue next year, particularly in the fall before the elections, will be what the trends are with regards to Medicare Advantage plans. It will vary a lot by geographic region. What happens next year will have particular implications for folks. We’re talking about a quarter of beneficiaries.

I anticipate that sometime next year, the CLASS program [voluntary long-term care insurance] will be made available for people to sign up. That will affect baby boomers more than seniors, because there will be a work requirement. But seniors who are working will be eligible to sign up. It will provide some meaningful benefits for folks that will be interested in it.

Thomas Johnson – President and CEO, Medicaid Health Plans of America

By March 2012, we want to have regulations on accountable care organizations that ensure managed care plans can play a major role in these new payment and delivery systems. We hope to convince more states to carve drug benefits back into Medicaid managed care. Many states now exclude drug benefit from being managed by their Medicaid managed care plans. We hope to have more guidance on how Medicaid will interact with the insurance exchanges. There should be a recognition that Medicaid health plans have experience in dealing with this population with complex medical histories, and we think our health plans are well suited to be in the exchange. Medicaid health plans should have the option of offering coverage to small business and individuals in the exchanges. We don’t think there should be any barriers that limit their participation.

David Godfrey – Medicaid director, Minnesota

I think we will have made a lot of progress in terms of trying to put the pieces together necessary at the state level to prepare for the creation of the exchanges, although a lot of work will still need to be done on that. But we’ll have a framework, I believe. Also (we’ll be) pursuing different grant opportunities through the ACA, and also begin thinking about policy and program redesign and response to the ACA as well. There’s a lot of interest in administrative simplification. We think this is an opportunity for that. There’s still a lot of work to be done in that area, and we’re still waiting for a lot of the guidance from CMS in terms of just what our programs need to look like by 2014.

The backdrop to all this is we have a significant budget deficit, and there’s going to be incredible pressure in trying to find cost savings in the Medicaid program in response to that and just trying to manage those pressures but still moving forward and putting into place the building blocks we need for 2014.

Rose Ann DeMoro – Executive Director, National Nurses United

(What will you be doing this time next year?) Same thing we’ve been doing: Fighting for a single payer health system, Medicare for all. We’re working with [Sen.] Bernie Sanders in Vermont on his campaign for single payer.

It’s incumbent on us to figure out a way to pay for it and how to get the ideological opposition groups out of the way. We see the Obama thing as essentially a setback in fighting for genuine reform. Obama says he is trying to figure out a way to provide health care for all, and the industry turns around and raises rates to make it unaffordable. We’ve done massive protests in an effort to get insurers to get rate increases rolled back. The problem is that Obama and the Democrats are bipartisan, but the right wing is not.

– Provided by Kaiser Health News.

Article © AHN – All Rights Reserved

View full post on All Stories

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Obama Reiterates Bipartisan Efforts; Ready To Listen, Work For Americans

November 5, 2010 · Posted in high blood pressure and cholesterol · Comment 
Tejinder Singh – AHN News Correspondent

Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – President Barack Obama on Wednesday took in stride the reversal of fortunes at the mid-term elections with an expression of somberness. “It feels bad,” he said. “I take responsibility for it.”

The president reiterated with a touch of resignation that he was ready to work with the Republicans who wrested control of the House from the Democrats on Tuesday

“No party has a monopoly on wisdom,” Obama declared. “The most important contest we face is not the contest between Democrats and Republicans.” Instead it is “between America and our economic competitors around the world,” he added.

“No one party will be able to dictate where we will go from here, we must find common ground,” cautioned the president at his first post-mid-term election press conference.

“I do believe there is hope for civility, I do believe there is hope for progress,” Obama told journalists, noting that his upcoming trip to Asia is about promoting exports of American goods and services globally and to generate jobs at home.

With a somber face and low tone, Obama accepted that the message delivered by the voters is that the “number one concern is economy” and that they are “deeply frustrated” by the high unemployment.

“They want jobs to come back faster, they want paychecks to go further,” he told journalists.

Obama reiterated that the economy is on the path of recovery.

But “people aren’t feeling that progress,” he said, adding, “We have not made as much progress as we need to make.”

For immediate relief for the suffering unemployed, Obama called on the incoming Congress to reauthorize extended unemployment insurance, saying, “I think it makes sense for us to extend unemployment insurance because there’s still a lot of folks out there hurting.”

With this session’s expiration date looming at the end of November, Congress has less than two weeks to reach an agreement on the subject when they reconvene on Nov. 15.

On health care reforms and Bush-era tax-cuts, Obama hinted his readiness to compromise so long as the good of middle-class Americans wais kept in focus.

Article © AHN – All Rights Reserved

View full post on All Stories

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Foods To Lower Cholesterol – Types Of Food To Eat For High Cholesterol, Revealed

July 16, 2010 · Posted in cholesterol · Comment 

If you have been asking yourself about what type of foods to lower cholesterol levels should you consume on a daily basis, I can only assume that you are taking your health very seriously. So here is the good news. There is no need to travel to the jungles of Borneo to seek out a certain, exotic food to eat for high cholesterol. Every list of foods that help to lower cholesterol can be found at your local mart.

Cholesterol reducing diets does not mean liquid diets. You can be assured that there are actually numerous choices of food to eat for high cholesterol. But it is helpful to remember that a daily consumption of cholesterol is usually recommended at or below 100 milligrams per day.

Quite obviously, it is a cumbersome task to keep track of the amount of cholesterol consumed per day, so, here is a handy tip – cholesterol is found in products of animal origin. Knowing this, you can roughly gauge the type of foods that lower your cholesterol (Nutritionists recommend writing down and keeping track of your daily intake of calories, cholesterol, etc.).

Foods to lower cholesterol – Meat, Rice, Vegetables and Potatoes

As alluded to earlier, going on a cholesterol reducing diet does not mean starving yourself of the good stuff. Take meat for example. Though cholesterol is found in products of animal origin, this does not mean you have to become a vegetarian. You can reduce cholesterol levels simply by removing the fats from meat, throwing in a couple of vegetables and stir-fry them.

“But, isn’t oil bad for my cholesterol,” you ask? Not vegetable oils like, canola, safflower and olive oils. But, a better alternative would be cooking sprays. You can save on fats and calories with such sprays. It would be a good idea to use cooking sprays instead of oils and they do come in a variety of flavors as well.

Rice and potatoes go great with that meat and vegetable dish but why don’t you substitute white rice for brown rice? Brown rice contains more nutrients. And try yams or sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes for better nutritional value as well. While you are at it, keep an eye out on your portion size. If you really want your food to help lower cholesterol, then monitor your intake of food per serving. You can be guilty of eating too much of the right foods.

Keep consumption of red meat like beef, to about once a week. Make it a habit to eat more fish, or even shellfish. You would have probably heard that shellfish is high in cholesterol but in fact, shellfish are far less rich in cholesterol and contains less fat than red meat. Chicken makes for a good addition to foods that reduce cholesterol too (just remove the skin and fats).

When you are removing saturated fat from your diet, you are not just lowering your bad cholesterol, but you are also reducing your risk of getting diabetes, digestive disorders and even certain kinds of cancer.

Foods to lower cholesterol – Soup

So many folks underestimate the power of soup when it comes to health. Soup should really be added to the list of foods that help to lower cholesterol. It is a great example of moderating your food portions as soup is usually taken with a spoon (unless you are from certain parts of Asia where drinking soup from a bowl is a sign of respect). Minestrone soup is a good way to go. Be creative with what you add to it. You can make soup a main meal by taking it with wholegrain bread.

And when it comes to vegetables, there is no shortage of variety. Nutritionists usually recommend eating vegetables of a different variety as often as possible to extract the best possible nutritional value from them. So, look up on all the different kinds of vegetables available and add them to your list of foods. If you are ever stuck on what kind of food to eat to lower cholesterol, you will never go wrong with vegetables.

Foods to lower cholesterol – Sandwiches and Salads

Who can resist a tuna or chicken sandwich? Almost everybody loves a good sandwich and it is another fantastic addition to – food to eat for high cholesterol. What will make a good sandwich even better for health is to lay that tuna or chicken in whole grain bread. Replace regular mayonnaise with low-fat mayonnaise. Sandwiches are ideal for a low-fat meal and it is so quick and easy to make. Do not overlook its simplicity. You can create a great-tasting cholesterol reducing sandwich in as little as five minutes for all the nutritional value you can get for a day.

Salads are another fantastic addition to your diet, but you should keep in mind that regular dressing and croutons are high in fat and calories. Go for the low-fat options to reap the benefits of a salad dish. Again, add a variety of vegetables with chicken or fish. Like soups, salads can be made into a main dish.

Food to eat for high cholesterol – Fibrous Food

Here is something else to think about – recent studies have shown that we need to consume at least 35 grams of fiber a day to reduce the risk of suffering from heart disease. This proves you need to consume fiber found in certain types of foods – to reduce bad cholesterol. There are so many benefits you reap from a fiber-rich diet that it is impossible to list all of them here. But, know that grabbing an apple instead of a bag of chips is a very wise choice for someone trying to eat to lower cholesterol!

How you can get more fiber into your day

  • Start your day off with whole-grain cereal topped with bananas, raisins and berries.
  • Fit more vegetables into your main meals as mentioned earlier. But to gain more fiber out of vegetables, try eating them raw, microwave or steaming vegetables instead of frying them.
  • Instead of juicing fruits, eat them as they are with the skin on where possible. You are extracting every bit of fiber from fruits this way. Snack on fruits instead of the usual chemically laden products. This is a great way to curb your appetite and lose weight at the same time because fiber-rich foods, such as fruits are more filling than other types of food.
  • Throw in beans where you can – like into soups, salads and stews.

A powerful natural source to reduce cholesterol – Garlic

Such a common spice but yet one of the most powerful natural medicines for lowering cholesterol could already be lying about in your kitchen. Studies have been proven to show that garlic has the properties to ease the damaging effects of cholesterol on your artery walls, lower cholesterol and blood pressure, stop the growth of cancer cells, fight infections and prevent heart attacks. Add to that, garlic has been proven to stop the heart from aging.

Garlic is such a powerful source of medication for lowering cholesterol and maintaining a healthy heart that it would be silly not to include this common yet wonderful spice to your daily diet. Work garlic into soups, pastas, stews whole-wheat French bread, vegetables, etc. Sometimes the most common types of food are the best types of cure.

Author: Rafael Todorini
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: WordPress plugin Guest Blogger

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Powered by Yahoo! Answers