Tag Archives: Antioxidant

Straight, No Chaser: Beeting Back High Blood Pressure and Poor Blood Flow to the Brain

August 28, 2015Diet and Nutrition, Cardiology/Heart, Detoxification, General Health and Wellness844-SMA-TALK, Antioxidant, beet juice, beetroot juice, Behind the Curtain, high blood pressure, Sterling Medical Advice, SterlingMedicalAdvice.com, Straight No Chaser, superfoodJeffrey Sterling, MD

Writing this makes me feel like your mother telling you to eat your spinach, but that’s another conversation. We’ve been talking a lot lately about brain health, and we’re always into improving your baseline health through actions such as lowering your blood pressure. Today’s Straight, No Chaser offers you a challenge that doesn’t involve dumping ice on your head.
In my mind, I’ve reduced much of life to having good blood flow, allowing for delivery of oxygen and other nutrients to essential parts of your body. Much of our performance in various ways is related to just that. To that end, if you’d like to include your blood flow to your brain, consider adding a bit of beet juice into your life.

No, not Beetlejuice…

Yes, that’s better.

Beet juice contains substances known as nitrates, which when metabolized within the body (into nitrites) relax blood vessels and promote better blood flow. Better blood flow equals better oxygenation and delivery of nutrition throughout your body, notably your brain. This blood flow activity isn’t just theoretical. Brain scans and MRIs taken shortly after and even a day after ingesting 8 ounces of beet root juice decisively demonstrate better blood flow and brain activity. This stuff works, and it’s natural!
The good news isn’t just limited to your brain. Beet juice has long been known as a powerful detoxifier, which your liver appreciates. It is a great source of antioxidants, which helps your entire body. Also, appreciate that beet juice has been shown to lower your blood pressure. Recall that blood pressure is a measure of the force the heart needs to pump blood throughout your body. We’re better off with a lower pressure, which is a sign of a more efficiently performing heart. Beet juice is a simple way to reduce your blood pressure by about 10 points.
Here are a final few fun facts for your consideration:

Beet juice is even better than eating cooked beets.
One to two cups a day is sufficient to get the desired health benefits.
Be advised that drinking beet juice may change your urine and bowel movements to a reddish color. This does not represent a danger.

Here’s to your health. Now beet it!
Order your copy of Dr. Sterling’s new book Behind The Curtain: A Peek at Life from within the ER at jeffreysterlingbooks.com, iTunes, Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and wherever books are sold.
Thanks for liking and following Straight, No Chaser! This public service provides a sample of what http://www.SterlingMedicalAdvice.com (SMA) and 844-SMA-TALK offers. Please share our page with your friends on WordPress, like us on Facebook @ SterlingMedicalAdvice.com and follow us on Twitter at @asksterlingmd.
Copyright, Sterling Initiatives, LLC. 2013-2015

Straight, No Chaser: Superfoods – The Battle of Antioxidants and Free Radicals

May 18, 2015Diet and Nutrition, General Health and WellnessIllnesses, Mother Nature, Oxidative stress, Parkinson's disease, Prostate cancer, Radical (chemistry), Sterling Medical Advice, SterlingMedicalAdvice.com, Straight No Chaser, health, 844-SMA-TALK, Alzheimer, Alzheimer's disease, Antioxidant, brain health, Disease, Free radicals, Good healthJeffrey Sterling, MD

People engage in a lot of fads and off the wall activity to pursue health instead of following tried and true principles of basic science. One thing that I wish didn’t fit that trend is use of supplemental antioxidants. Before talking about using antioxidants, this Straight, No Chaser will discuss why they’re necessary.
Free radicals are like the Tasmanian Devil. These molecules are byproducts of many activities that create cell damage. Think about cigarette smoke, trauma (even vigorous exercise), excessive heat and sunlight (and its radiation), to name a few examples. The process of creating and releasing these molecules is called oxidation. The key point is free radicals are unstable and too many of them lead to a process called oxidative stress. This process is implicated in the development of many illnesses, including Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, cataracts and other eye diseases, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.

Antioxidants are substances that prevent or delay cell damage caused by free radicals. Antioxidants may be natural or artificial (e.g. man-made). The healthy diets we’re always asking you to eat (e.g. those high in fruits and vegetables) contain lots of antioxidants; in fact this has a lot to do with why we believe they’re good for us. Superfoods are those especially rich sources of antioxidants, as illustrated above.
Of course, now you can get many forms of antioxidants in pills. That’s where things get a little less certain. Logically, you’d think that if some antioxidants are good, a lot would be better, and they would really be effective against free radicals. Furthermore, you’d think a convenient and efficient way of doing this would be putting a lot of antioxidants in a pill. Unfortunately, medical science (including over 100,000 people studied) has shown this not to be as simplistic as our logic would have us believe. I can’t say this any simpler. Antioxidant supplements have not been shown to be helpful in preventing disease. In fact, high-dose supplementation has been shown to have harmful effects, including increasing the risks of lung and prostate cancer. In short, our body doesn’t function in as linear a manner as we would like to think.
Here’s your take home message: We have yet proven that we’re able to cheat Mother Nature. You will not find your health in a bottle. Diet and exercise remain the champions of the battle of pursuing good health. Get your antioxidants the old fashioned way – in your fruits and veggies. Here’s a nice chart for your reference.

Thanks for liking and following Straight, No Chaser! This public service provides a sample of what http://www.SterlingMedicalAdvice.com (SMA) and 844-SMA-TALK offers. Please share our page with your friends on WordPress, like us on Facebook @ SterlingMedicalAdvice.com and follow us on Twitter at @asksterlingmd.
Copyright © 2015 · Sterling Initiatives, LLC

Straight, No Chaser: The Battle of Antioxidants and Free Radicals

August 15, 2013Health PreventionProstate cancer, Alzheimer, Alzheimer's disease, Antioxidant, Disease, Free radicals, Good health, health, Illnesses, Mother Nature, Oxidative stress, Parkinson's disease, Radical (chemistry)Jeffrey Sterling, MD

We engage in a lot of fads and off the wall activity to pursue health instead of following tried and true principles of basic science. One thing that I wish didn’t fit that trend is use of supplemental antioxidants. Before talking about using antioxidants, allow me to discuss why they’re necessary.
Free radicals are like the Tasmanian Devil. These molecules are byproducts of many activities that create cell damage. Think about cigarette smoke, trauma (even vigorous exercise), excessive heat and sunlight (and its radiation), to name a few examples. The process of creating and releasing these molecules is called oxidation. The key point is free radicals are unstable and too many of them lead to a process called oxidative stress. This process is implicated in the development of many illnesses, including Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, cataracts and other eye diseases, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.
Antioxidants are substances that prevent or delay cell damage caused by free radicals. Antioxidants may be natural or artificial (e.g. man-made). The healthy diets we’re always asking you to eat (e.g. those high in fruits and vegetables) contain lots of antioxidants; in fact this has a lot to do with why we believe they’re good for us. Of course, now you can get many forms of antioxidants in pills. That’s where things get a little less certain.
Logically, you’d think that if some antioxidants are good, a lot would be better, and they would really be effective against free radicals. Furthermore, you’d think a convenient and efficient way of doing this would be putting a lot of antioxidants in a pill. Unfortunately, medical science (including over 100,000 people studied) has shown this not to be as simplistic as our logic would have us believe. I can’t say this any simpler. Antioxidant supplements have not been shown to be helpful in preventing disease. In fact, high-dose supplementation has been shown to have harmful effects, including increasing the risks of lung and prostate cancer. In short, our body doesn’t function in as linear a manner as we would like to think.
Here’s your take home message: We have yet proven that we’re able to cheat Mother Nature. You will not find your health in a bottle. Diet and exercise remain the champions of the battle of pursuing good health. Get your antioxidants the old fashioned way – in your fruits and veggies. Here’s a nice chart for your reference.