Are you healthy?

Hmm... when I was asked this qn, I really pondered. A lot of people around me will definitely be stumped. How do we know if we are really healthy?
"I have no illness, no symptoms, so I am healthy." This seems right? However that is not really the case. No illness and symptoms does not necessarily mean you are healthy. This is the actual scenario in all big developed cities.
If you had read the papers, you might have realised that in January, 14 people died of sudden death. In fact, 14 is because that's the number of cases published in papers. There are definitely more than that in reality.
Now what is sudden death? Sudden death refers to natural death from cardiac causes, heralded by abrupt loss of consciousness within one hour of the onset of acute symptoms.
The most frequent underlying cause of sudden death is Coronary Artery Disease (CAD), accounting for 80% of sudden death.
It is happening from age group of 30-60 years old. It can happen anytime. Only few people have symptoms before sudden death.

Lifestyle is a very important factor in determining CAD.
1. Emotion; emotional stress is a big factor which can cause roller coaster ride for your heart.
2. Smoking; nicotine leads to vasoconstriction (narrowing of your blood vessels) which will lead to increase blood pressure (BP). The cigarette tar will also kill the alveoli (the bubble like part of your lung that is responsible for oxygen intake).
3. Sleep; irregular sleeping hours, sleeping too little, sleeping too much will also affect.
4. Working hours; working long hours is also a factor. Recommended to take short breaks in between long working hours.
5. Obesity; Every 1kg of fat mass will increase 709km of capillaries in your blood vessel network. In an average person, blood network is about 100,000km (2.5 times Earth diameter).

4 symptoms that may signify possibility of cardiac problems.
1. short of breath
2. dizziness
3. irregular heart beat.
4. feeling 'heavy' in the heart
*above symptoms do not mean definite cardiac problems.

For a normal healthy person
BMI 18.5 ~ 24
Waistline: Male <90cm
Female <>
Exceeding the range will increase possibility of cardiac problems.

333 Principle
Exercise 3 times per week, for at least 30 mins each session, making sure heart rate goes to 130 beat per min.
*if you have not been exercising for a long period of time, please increase your exercise intensity gradually.

What are the symptoms of cardiac pain?

• Minor pain, with breathing ok
• Referred pain; pain can go all the way from heart towards jaws, shoulders and hands. Atypical pain where the root cause of the pain is not at that location.
• Heart feeling heavy and tight. Breaking cold sweat.

We are all aware of cholesterol being a big factor in causing congestion of blood vessels. LDL cholesterol is the bad cholesterol.

Figure 1 – blood vessel. (reproduced by myself to avoid copyright issues)
Vessel lumen is where the blood flows.
Endothelium (single cell layer) is the inner lining of the blood vessel.
Subendothelial space is an empty space between endothelium and smooth muscle of blood vessel.

What exactly happens that leads to congestion of the blood vessel? LDL cholesterol (bad ones) enters into the subendothelial space and is easily oxidized by free radicals turning into oxidized LDL (oxLDL)

Monocytes (white blood cells) enter the subendothelial space and attempt to remove the oxLDL by engulfing them. This leads to the monocytes becoming damaged, and start to stick onto the endothelium, along with the huge amount of oxLDL it has engulfed, leading to accumulation of fats on the walls of blood vessels.

A complicated process that is termed inflammation of blood vessels is known in recent years to be the cause of atherosclerosis.

Root cause of heart disease is inflammation of the blood vessels due to oxidative stress.

• Oxidized LDL
• Homocystine
• Excessive free radicals

Above are some factors involved in the inflammation.

True prevention of CAD

1. Vitamin E
1. Fat-soluble
2. Incorporates itself with LDL (armour suit for LDL), protecting it against free radicals by giving out free electron to stabilize free radicals.
2. Vitamin C
1. Water soluble (flows through blood stream)
2. Preserve and protect the function of endothelium
3. Regenerates Vitamin E & intracellular glutathione
3. Glutathione
1. Made by our cells naturally
2. Most potent intracellular antioxidant
3. Requires selenium, Vit B2, niacin, cysteine
4. Bioflavanoids
1. Naturally occurring in fruits and vegetables
5. Decreasing homocysteine level
1. Increase in homocysteine is responsible for 15% of all heart attacks & strokes.
2. It occurs due to over-consumption of methione (present in canned foods, etc)
3. Methione will become homocysteine which is bad for blood vessel. In order to break it down back into methione and cysteine, our body requires folic acid, Vitamin B12, B6, otherwise the homocysteine will remain in that harmful state.

In summary

· Don’t smoke

· Be emotionally stable (be happy and optimistic always); avoid emotional stress

· Sleep regular hours

· Exercise regularly

· Ensure a proper diet balanced by good supplements (multivitamins and protein)
*Make sure to get good multivitamins. (that will take another chapter to explain)

Above are excerpts gotten during a health talk I attended, reproduced to the best of my knowledge. Health talks will be held monthly and I hope everyone will benefit from above information.