Do you know what diseases rapidly increase among women after menopause?
The diseases are stroke and heart attack which are life-threatening blood vessel diseases. The cause is menopause. After menopause, the secretion of female hormone (estrogen) which protects women’s body decreases, causing not only wrinkles and sagging but also hardening of blood vessels, and makes it easier to have lifestyle-related diseases. The decrease of female hormone happens to all the women with age and it is not avoidable. That has been the common sense of medicine. However, it has tuned out that a substance protects the body instead of female hormone. The substance is Equol. If you can get Equol, the blood vessels that arteriosclerosis progressed with age can be rejuvenated. The prevention of stroke and heart attack also can be expected. Another good news is that it can be expected that wrinkles will disappear and you look younger, and the prevention of cancer also can be expected. Equol is not only effective for women but also effective for men and the same effect such as rejuvenation of blood vessels can be expected. What kind of substance is Equol? Equol can be extracted from urine of pregnant horses. Why does Equol protect the body instead of female hormone? Because the chemical structure of Equol is very similar to female hormone, so Equol has the same function as female hormone. There is a research result that administration of Equol makes age of blood vessels younger, and Equol prevents breast cancer for women and prostate cancer for men. In fact, you can create Equol in your body without depending on urine of horses. How can Equol be created in the body? Equol protects blood vessels like female hormone (estrogen). Equol improves wrinkles, shallowing the depth of wrinkles and shrinking the area of wrinkles. There are people who can create Equol and who can’t create Equol, and among people who can create Equol, there are people who can create Equol a lot and people who can’t create Equol very much. The secret to create Equol is Soy Products (Fig. 1). Equol is created in the intestine. When Soy products come to the intestine, the intestinal bacteria break down soy products and create Equol. If you regularly eat soy products for a long time, the number of the intestinal bacteria creating Equol increases and more Equol is created. How much soy products have been eaten until now decides whether you can create Equol or not. The foodstuff helping increase Equol if you eat with are burdock and onion. Burdock and onion contains Fructooligosaccharides which are food of the intestinal bacteria. Fructooligosaccharides increase good bacteria in the intestine, making better environment to create Equol. Other foodstuff containing Fructooligosaccharides are tomato, banana, garlic and asparagus. Even if you can’t create Equol, if you continue to eat soy products for a long time, there is a possibility that you can become a person who can create Equol.
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Antiaging
A prefecture is the highest of all the prefectures in Japan about both the average life span and the healthy life expectancy in both men and women. Average life span: Men: 80.88 years old, Women: 87.18 years old Healthy life expectancy: Men: 79.46 years old, Women: 80.04 years old What kind of food are the people in the prefecture eating? There are 3 factors considered to have a healthy and long life. 1. Reducing salt High intake of salt can cause high blood pressure and can result in sudden death due to stroke. The prefecture’s countermeasure is encouraging the people to increase vegetables when they eat soup (miso soup). Increasing vegetables reduces the amount of soup which contains salt and vegetables are rich in potassium which excretes salt from the body. 2. Preventing cancer by eating Mushrooms Mushrooms have the effect to suppress cancer. Enoki mushrooms, Nameko mushrooms and beech mushrooms are known to prevent cancer. 3. Eating Agar which is the king of dietary fiber Agar which is vegetable gelatin is rich in dietary fiber. (Fig. 1) The dietary fiber of agar is very good to absorb water. 1 gram of agar absorbs more than 100 ml of water. It is important for health to eat dietary fiber containing a lot of water. Health Effects of Agar (1) Prevention of Obesity Agar jelly (Fig. 2) containing a lot of water makes you feel full, preventing over eating which leads to obesity. (2) Improvement of Constipation Agar jelly containing a lot of water increases the amount of stools and makes the stools softer, so it is effective to improve constipation. (3) Prevention of Rapid Elevation of Blood Sugar Elevation of sugar in the body ages the body. Sugar damages the blood vessel from the inside of the blood vessel, causing aging of the blood vessel. Sugar also attaches collagens in the skin and damages them, causing flaccid skin. (4) Decrease of LDL Cholesterol Continuous eating of agar jelly decreases LDL cholesterol which is the cause of hardening of the blood vessel. How much agar should be eaten a day? It is effective to eat 2 grams of dried agar stick (about one fourth of a stick) a day. The causes that the capillary decreases Q6. Which shoes decrease the capillary? (A) Tight sneakers (B) Loose sandals A6. (A) Tight sneakers Shoes that don’t fit well can cause ghost vessels. Especially tight shoes compress the capillary and make the blood circulation bad. It is necessary to choose the shoes which perfectly fit your feet. Even if you wear shoes fitting your feet, exercising with wearing the shoes for long time accumulates waste products in the feet and makes the feet swollen, so it is important to take off shoes and release the pressure. High heels put a weight on the toes and compress the capillary of the toes, causing ghost vessels. To prevent the decrease of the capillary, it is better to take off high heels every 2 hours and massage the feet. Clothes tightening your body such as skinny jeans also decrease the capillary, so it is better to wear such clothes not every day but a few times a week. Q7. Which sitting posture decreases the capillary? (A) Leaning against backrest (B) Stoop A7. (B) Stoop The heart is located in the front side of the body so blood is delivered from the heart through the back side of the body. Stoop posture makes the curve of the blood vessel steep and decreases the blood delivered to all over the body. If you continue the stoop posture for a long time, the blood circulation of all the body becomes bad, causing ghost vessels of the capillary (Fig. 2). Sitting with crossing your legs is not good for the capillary as well. There is an artery behind the knee which delivers blood to the tip of toes. Crossing the legs compresses the artery, preventing the blood circulation to the toes. Proper sitting posture is straightening the back to reduce the curve of the blood vessel and spread the blood to the peripheral capillary. Q8. In which part of the body does the capillary decrease if you massage strongly? (A) Face (B) Legs A8. (A) Face Continuous strong pressure on the face cuts the capillary because there is less fat and muscles on the face. So it is better to massage the face as lightly as possible. How to increase your capillaries within a week Q9. Which is more effective to increase the capillary? (A) Massaging ears (B) Rotating wrists A9. (A) Massaging ears (Fig. 3) The important thing is massaging peripheral parts of the body such as the ear because it increases blood flow and sends blood to the ghost vessels, resulting in healthy capillaries. It is good to massage the ears, twisting and pulling the ears a little bit for about a minute. It is effective that the ear becomes red and you feel warm on your face (cheek). Massaging the tips of the fingers increases blood flow of all the arms. Massage the sides of the nail and top and bottom of the nail for about 40 seconds a finger. Rubbing the skin of the arm toward the heart increases blood flow more. Q10. Which has a lot of capillaries and is effective to increase capillaries by giving stimulation? (A) Achilles’ tendon (B) Calves A10. (B) Calves A lot of capillaries are concentrating in the calves. Stimulating the calves makes the blood tending to be stored in the lower body start flowing. That leads to increase the capillary. Flexing and extending the ankles make the blood easily go back to the heart. (Fig. 4) When you can’t take off your boots due to swelling of the legs, doing this exercise makes easier to take off your boots. It is good to do this exercise 20 times a day in the morning and at night. Q11. Which ingredient stops the decrease of the capillary? (A) Honey (B) Cinnamon A11. (B) Cinnamon Cinnamon contains a substance which activates Tie2 which prevents the capillary from becoming ghost vessels. Taking cinnamon prevents 90 % of the leakage of blood from the capillary which causes ghost vessels. The cause of ghost vessels is that wall cells are peeled off from the capillary. Tie2 connects the wall cells to the capillary and keeps them strong. About 0.6 gram (1/2 teaspoon) a day is good. Too much intake of cinnamon can cause disorders of other organs. Rooibos tea, piper longum and Chinese quince (as a candy) also can activate Tie2 (Fig. 5). Q12. Which cooking method prevents the decrease of the capillary? (A) Grilled meat (B) Shabushabu (thin slices of meat parboiled in hot soup) A12. (B) Shabushabu AGE contained in a burnt deposit damages the capillary! When AGE reacts with RAGE which is contained in the blood vessel, that stimulates and damages the blood vessel. A burnt deposit of any food contains AGE. Q13. Which bathing method can be expected to increase the capillary? (A) 42 degrees C (107.6 degrees F) for 3 minutes (B) 40 degrees C (104 degrees F) for 10 minutes A13. (B) 40 degrees C (104 degrees F) for 10 minutes Soaking in warm water of about 40 degrees C activates parasympathetic nervous system, the blood vessel expands and blood circulation gets better, leading to the increase of the capillary. On the other hand, soaking in warm water of 42 degrees C contracts the blood vessel and the blood pressure goes up. It is recommended to soak in lukewarm water for a little long time until you get slightly sweat. If you soak up to the chest, 10 minutes is good and if you soak up to a little above the navel, 20-30 minutes is good (Fig. 6). Q14. Which bathwater additive can be expected to increase the capillary? (A) Carbonated bath additive (B) Bath salt A14. (A) Carbonated bath additive Babbles of carbonated bath additive stimulate the capillary near the skin and increase blood circulation. High concentrated one is more effective. What is the capillary?
(1) How many capillaries are there in the body? There are about 10 billion capillaries in the body. 80 % of the body except the muscle and the bone is the blood vessel and 99 % of the blood vessel is the capillaries. If 10 billion of the capillary are connected, the length becomes two and a half rounds of the earth, about 100 thousand km. (2) What does capillary do? The artery is the blood vessel to pump out the blood from the heart. The vein is the blood vessel to return the blood to the heart. The capillary is the blood vessel to provide nutrition and oxygen to the cells and to collect carbon dioxide (CO2) and wastes from the cells between the artery and the vein. The capillary trades unnecessary things for necessary things. The capillary has a lot of holes and there is proper amount of leakage from the holes to provide nutrition and oxygen to the cells around. But if the wall cells which protect the capillary are damaged, the amount of the leakage increases, drying up the capillary and losing the function of the capillary. If the blood flow continuously stops in the capillary, the capillary itself disappears. This is ghost vessels. (3) How old does the capillary easily decrease from? The capillary easily decreases from 40s. According to a research, the number of capillaries of 60s is 40 % less than 20s. The capillary and dangerous diseases Q1 Which is worsened by the decrease of the capillary? (A) Effect of medicine (B) Quality of sleep A1. (A) Effect of medicine Even if the medicine is very effective, the decrease of the capillary makes the effect of the medicine drastically reduced. An anticancer agent was administrated to a mouse developing cancer. The anticancer agent reached only some of the area. The leakage from the capillaries leaks the anticancer agent as well, so the anticancer agent doesn’t reach the required area. Q2. Which can be caused by the decrease of the capillary? (A) Easily having an attack of anemia (B) Easily catching a cold A2. (B) Easily catching a cold The decrease of the capillary causes the decline of the immune system, resulting in catching a cold easily. White blood cells which are immune cells and protect the body from the pathogens, but they can’t go to the place where they need to fight against the pathogens because of the disappearance of the capillary, resulting in catching a cold easily. Q3. Aging of the skin is closely related to the decrease of the capillary. Which are not spread all over the cells of the skin and becomes the main reason of the aging of the skin? (A) Oxygen and nutrition (B) Oxygen and water A3. (A) Oxygen and nutrition New cells are produced by the oxygen and nutrition delivered by the capillary. Healthy skins exchange old cells to new cells, which is the metabolism of the skin. Water is necessary, but the cell has the ability to produce water from the oxygen and nutrition. The thickness of the capillary is 5 to 10 micron so a red cell which is 8 micron can pass through somehow (Fig.1 ). The thickness of the capillary is about one tenth of a hair. Q4 Which is the reason that the risk of stroke and heart attack rises by the decrease of the capillary? (A) Because high blood pressure tends to happen (B) Because thrombosis tends to happen A4. (A) Because high blood pressure tends to happen If the blood flow of the capillary is not good, nutrition and oxygen are not provided sufficiently. The heart detects the abnormality and rises the blood pressure to provide more blood. The blood vessel becomes hard to bear the high pressure of the blood from the heart. That makes the pressure even higher. High blood pressure rises the risk that the blood vessel ruptures. If the rupture happens near the brain, it causes stroke and if the rupture happens near the heart, it causes heart attack. Q5. Which risk becomes higher due to the decrease of the capillary? (A) Alzheimer’s disease (Dementia) (B) Pneumonia A5. (A) Alzheimer’s disease (Dementia) The brain which requires 15 % of all the body’s blood is filled with capillaries. If the blood flow becomes poor and oxygen and nutrition are not delivered, the function of the brain declines, resulting in dementia. Osteoporosis: Bones contain a lot of capillaries, so if the capillary decreases and required nutrition is not delivered, the density of the bone decreases and becomes easily broken. Diabetes: The oxygen and nutrition are not delivered to all the body so the surplus nutrition taken from the meals remains in the blood vessel as excessive sugar. As a result, blood sugar is elevated, causing diabetes. Sensitivity to cold: The capillary delivers oxygen, nutrition, immune substance and temperature. Our body temperature is maintained by the blood delivered by the capillary. So the decrease of the capillary can cause sensitivity to cold. How to Improve Imbalance of Autonomic Nervous System to Prevent Aging of Blood Vessel (2/2)5/5/2017
How to Improve Imbalance of Autonomic Nervous System to Prevent Aging of Blood Vessel (1/2)5/3/2017 By the recent medical research, it turned out that imbalance of autonomic nervous system could be related to aging of the blood vessel. There are various other symptoms caused by the imbalance of autonomic nervous system such as diarrhea, constipation, dizziness, stiff neck and shoulders, insomnia, depression, intolerance to cold, palpitation, shortness of breath, irregularity of menstruation, etc.
What is the autonomic nervous system (ANS)? The autonomic nervous system is a control system that acts largely unconsciously and regulates bodily functions such as the heart rate, digestion, respiratory rate, pupillary response, urination, and sexual arousal. As an experiment, a person was asked to solve a simple numerical calculation (subtraction). At that moment, various changes in her body happened such as contraction of the blood vessel, perspiration, increase of the heart rate, enlargement of the pupils, etc. The autonomic nervous system consists of the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is activated by nervousness and stress, while the para sympathetic nervous system is activated by relaxation and rest such as eating or sleeping. In other words, the sympathetic nervous system is the accelerator and the parasympathetic nervous system is the brake. When one system is activated, the other system is inhibited. But if the sympathetic nervous system is continuously activated and the parasympathetic nervous system is not activated, that condition is considered the imbalance of the autonomic nervous system, and the cause is stress (Fig. 1 and 2). How to check the imbalance of the autonomic nervous system (1) Whether or not you are moved to tears when you watch a touching movie The sympathetic nervous system gets activated before being moved to tears and at the same time as being moved to tears, the parasympathetic nervous system gets activated. Therefore, people with tears has proper autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system of the people who aren’t moved to tears at the same scene is that the sympathetic nervous system is continuously activated and the parasympathetic nervous system is continuously inhibited. (2) Whether or not you sweat right after eating hot spicy food and afterwards the sweat dries People whose sweat doesn’t dry and who continuously sweat while eating can be considered their autonomic nervous system is abnormal. While in the case of people with normal autonomic nervous system, the sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system are activated alternately, in the case of people with abnormal autonomic nervous system, the sympathetic nervous system is continuously activated and the parasympathetic nervous system is not activated. Is any kind of tears good for the autonomic nervous system? Whatever kind of tears inhibits the activation of the sympathetic nervous system and activates the parasympathetic nervous system. Aging of Blood Vessels Caused by Imbalance of Autonomic Nervous System Why is aging of the blood vessel caused by the imbalance of the autonomic nervous system? A recent research discovered that the imbalance of the autonomic nervous system is related to the blood pressure. The imbalance of the autonomic nervous system keeps the blood pressure high even during the time the blood pressure should be lower such as during a meal and during sleep, damaging the blood vessel and resulting in arteriosclerosis (hardening of the blood vessel). The sympathetic nervous system should be active during daytime and the parasympathetic nervous system should be active during night time, but the sympathetic nervous system of the people whose autonomic nervous system is imbalanced is active during night time as well, making the risk of high blood pressure higher. Another cause of the imbalance of the autonomic nervous system Stress is a cause of the imbalance of the autonomic nervous system, but there is another cause. That is aging. The function of the parasympathetic nervous system becomes weaker with age.
Influence on your health caused by Ghost Vessels The total length of the capillaries in our body is 2 times as long as going around the earth. More than 90 % of blood vessels in our body is the capillaries. If the capillaries in the hands and feet become ghost, required oxygen and nutrition is not delivered to the area sufficiently, making the area cold. If a part of the capillaries in the heart becomes ghost, that can cause heart attack. Cancer cells tend to increase around the area of ghost capillaries. Summary of diseases caused by ghost capillaries Head: Hari loss and gray hair Face: Pigmented spots and wrinkles Neck and shoulder: Tightness Heart: Heart attack Hands and feet: Coldness Serious disease: Cancer 3 Major Causes of Ghost Vessels The width of the capillary is one size of the red blood cell. If the width of the capillary becomes smaller by some reasons, required blood is not delivered. 1. Lack of Exercise We need to deliver nutrition through the capillaries to every muscle to move our body. But if you don’t move your body, our body judges that delivering nutrition is not necessary and the capillaries decrease. 2. Overweight When you gain weight with unnecessary fat, the capillaries go to the fat as well. But since the blood delivered to the whole body is constant, the blood is delivered to the excess fat, so the capillaries can’t receive sufficient blood. That causes the capillaries to become ghost. 3. Overeating When you eat food, blood gathers to the stomach and intestines. People who eat and drink too much or always eat something between meals have blood in the stomach and intestines chronically, making the blood in the limbs stagnate, damaging the capillaries. Ingredient to improve Ghost Vessels Long Pepper (Fig. 7), sometimes called Indian long pepper (Pipli), is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. (from Wikipedia) In Ayurveda, long pepper is used as medicine to remove coldness. In the sixth or fifth century BCE, Hippocrates discussed it as a medicament rather than a spice in Greece. It is recommended to use long pepper instead of other peppers like black pepper. It is good to take a half of tea spoon a day (1 gram). Maximum is one tea spoon (2 grams). Ginger and cinnamon are also recommended. There are people whose neutral fat and LDL cholesterol are normal but arteriosclerosis is progressed.
When you have a blood test, blood is taken and the blood is centrifugalized. The centrifugalized blood has three parts which are separated to serum and blood cells. If your neutral fat is within the reference value, the serum is yellowish and clear. If it exceeds the reference value, the serum becomes white and cloudy. Postprandial hyperlipidemia When you eat something, fat is absorbed from the small intestines and changes to neutral fat and is delivered to the whole body by the blood. So everybody’s neutral fat after a meal increases to some extent. But as soon as neutral fat starts to increase, a substance decomposing neutral fat called Lipoprotein Lipase (LPL) is secreted. If you are healthy, even if neutral fat increases after a meal, LPL decomposes the neutral fat immediately. So healthy person’s neutral fat doesn’t exceed the reference value even after a meal. But if the function of this enzyme (LPL) becomes weak, the decomposition after a meal can’t catch up with the increase of neutral fat and the measured value exceeds the reference value. Serum which was clear when it was taken before a meal becomes cloudy after a meal. In addition, if you take a next meal before the elevated neutral fat doesn’t go down, the value of neutral fat goes up again and the condition that neutral fat is always high continues all day. Why isn’t it found at the usual medical examination? In the case of the usual medical examination, the blood is sampled without eating anything after dinner of the previous night, so neutral fat value returns to the normal range during sleep. If high neutral fat state continues all day, the wall of the blood vessels is damaged and LDL cholesterol forms plaques, resulting in the progression of arteriosclerosis. What type of people tend to have postprandial hyperlipidemia? People whose weight has gained compared to they used to tend to have postprandial hyperlipidemia. What is the cause of postprandial hyperlipidemia? That is visceral fat. Visceral fat is easily affected by meals and exercises. People who gained weight compared to they used to have high possibility that they have visceral fat. People with a lot of visceral fat tend to have postprandial hyperlipidemia. Why does visceral fat cause postprandial hyperlipidemia? Because it is difficult for people with a lot of visceral fat to decompose neutral fat. Increase of visceral fat makes the function of neutral fat decomposing enzyme lower leading to increase of neutral fat. If your neutral fat is high at the usual medical examination, the one after a meal is much higher. But the progression of arteriosclerosis can be about the same as people who have postprandial hyperlipidemia. How to improve postprandial hyperlipidemia easily 1.Eat water soluble dietary fiber first. Water soluble dietary fiber is rich in sticky food such as natto (fermented soybeans), okra, nameko mushrooms or yamaimo yam and seaweeds such as seaweed laver, kelp, wakame or agar and root vegetables such as daikon radish, calotte or burdock. Water soluble dietary fiber changes to gel after absorbed in the intestines and attaches to the inner wall of the intestines suppressing the absorption of fat that you eat later. In addition to that, water soluble dietary fiber activates Lipoprotein Lipase (LPL) which decomposes neutral fat. So if you eat water soluble fiber first, you can suppress the sudden elevation of neutral fat after a meal. 2.Walking between 30 minutes and 1 hour after a meal for 10 minutes. Fat taken from a meal becomes neutral fat and flows into blood stream between 30 minutes and 1 hour after a meal. If you do aerobic exercise at that time even if it is for 10 minutes, you can suppress the amount of neutral fat effectively. The above two methods improve postprandial hyperlipidemia and prevent the accumulation of neutral fat in the body, leading to decrease of visceral fat. 58 years old female whose neutral fat after a meal was high tried the above two methods for a week. Her blood sample became clear (Fig. 1) and neutral fat 2 hours after eating changed from 164 to 68. The amount of visceral fat decreased by 10 % (Fig. 2). Arteriosclerosis is hardening thickening of blood vessels by age, causing various life-threatening conditions. There are various causes such as aging, obesity, stress, smoking or lack of exercise, but the major cause is dietary life. Especially fat becomes a big risk factor of arteriosclerosis. Arteriosclerosis Quiz Q1. Which person tends to have arteriosclerosis? (A)A person who likes fried food (B)A person who likes fatty part of meats A1. (B) A person who likes fatty part of meats Why does a person who likes fatty part of meats tend to have arteriosclerosis? There are vegetable fat such as sesame oil or canola oil often used for fried food and animal fat contained in fatty part of meats. Animal fat more easily changes to neutral fat than vegetable fat in the liver. Neutral fat is an important energy source for us to live. Neutral fat is delivered to the whole body containing in a container. At that time, LDL cholesterol rides together in the same container. Neutral fat and LDL cholesterol are in the ratio of 4:1. But if you take too much animal fat causing too much neutral fat, more neutral fat comes into the container, the space left for LDL cholesterol in the container becomes small. That downsizes LDL cholesterol. When the downsized LDL cholesterol comes to blood stream, it invades small wounds on the walls of blood vessels where usually can’t be invaded. The invading downsized LDL cholesterol starts to form plaque and it gradually becomes bigger. Fig. 1 shows a blood vessel that arteriosclerosis happened. Taking a lot of animal fat increases neutral fat and downsizes LDL cholesterol, leading to the progression of arteriosclerosis. What increases neutral fat is not only animal fat. Q2. Which increases neutral fat when you eat too much? (A)Soba (Buckwheat noodles) (B)Udon (Wheat noodles) A2. (B) Udon (Wheat noodles) Sugar contained in carbohydrate is one of the things which increases neutral fat. Both Soba and Udon are carbohydrate. Why does Udon increase neutral fat? Sugar contained in Udon is absorbed faster in the small intestines than the sugar contained in Soba. If you eat too much Udon, sugar in the blood rapidly increases a lot. The surplus sugar which was not consumed as energy in the body goes to the liver and increases neutral fat. As a result, if the plaque formed in the blood vessel breaks, blood vessel is blocked and the blood flow stops, possibly causing serious condition such as heart attack. If you are worried about arteriosclerosis, what should you be careful about? Q3. Which action more easily breaks plaque? When you enter a cool room after you were under the brazing sun, (A)Drinking beer (B)Smoking a cigarette A3. (B) Smoking a cigarette The biggest trigger that bursts the plaque likely to burst is sudden contraction of the blood vessel. When you enter the air-conditioned room from the outside under the brazing sun, the cool air contracts the blood vessel. At that time, if you smoke a cigarette, the blood vessel is contracted more. The speed of the blood flow becomes faster and by that stimulation, plaque gets ruptured. That makes the possibility to have heart attack or other serious condition higher. Blood vessels become easy to be damaged with age.
LDL cholesterol invades blood vessels from the damaged place and forms plaque which is a mass of fat. The wall of the blood vessel becomes thicker and becomes easy to be broken any time soon. This is hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis). Blood vessels are sometimes filled with cholesterol as shown in Fig. 1 One of the major causes of hardening of the arteries is LDL cholesterol. What increases LDL cholesterol is irregular diet, lack of exercise, etc. A lot of people have lost their lives due to heart and brain diseases caused by hardening of the arteries. A food decreases LDL cholesterol The biggest cause of vascular diseases such as stroke or heart attack is hardening of the arteries. According to a report of United States Department of Agriculture in 2004, age of 30-50 whose cholesterol is higher than normal ate the food for 5 weeks and their LDL cholesterol decreased by 13.8-17.4%. According to a research of University of Minnesota in 2007, 155 people whose cholesterol is higher than normal ate the food for 6 weeks and their LDL cholesterol decreased by 9-15 %. The food which decreases LDL cholesterol and prevents hardening of the arteries is Barley. Barley beta-glucan which is a type of dietary fiber and is contained a lot in barley has the function to excrete bile acid made of cholesterol from the body. When barley beta-glucan which is water soluble dietary fiber comes to the intestines, it dissolves in water, transforms into gel holding water, envelopes bile acid in the intestines and excrete it from the body with stools. Liver collects cholesterol from the blood to supplement the shortage of bile acid. As a result, LDL cholesterol in the blood decreases, leading to the prevention of hardening of the arteries. Does drinking beer or barley tea get the same effect? No, because beta-glucan is filtered out in the production process. Barley suppresses blood sugar after meals Barley beta-glucan is mixed with carbohydrate and makes digestion and absorption slow down, resulting in suppressing the sudden elevation of blood sugar after meals. How much barley a day should we eat to prevent the hardening of the arteries? According to a report of University of Minnesota, taking 3 g of barley beta-glucan a day decreases LDL cholesterol. That makes 4 cups of 30% barley rice (barley 30% and white rice 70%). It seems too much to eat so it is necessary to include barley in other dishes such as a soup, source of pasta or hamburger. A 49 years old female’s LDL cholesterol is 151.2 mg/dl (Reference value: less than 140 mg/dl) due to having cookies and other snack while she works and eating slices of bread right before going to bed in addition to dinner. She tried barley meals for 2 weeks. Eating barley dishes made her stop eating while she was working and at midnight. In 2 weeks later, her LDL cholesterol became 121 mg/dl which is within the reference value. |
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