Tag Archives: LDL

Probiotic for your Heart?

fixitplan newsL. Reuteri – A probiotic that targets cardiovascular disease

As promised in the Progress Report I posted a few weeks ago, I want to tell you about something new we’ve learned.   It all started during Bill’s checkup in April last year when Dr. Crandall encouraged us to look into a probiotic for heart health.  Well.. you don’t have to ask me twice!  I researched it as soon as I got home, and Bill started taking it that very week.  It’s called Lactobacillus Reuteri 30242, or more commonly known as L. Reuteri.  It’s a specific strain of Lactobacillus–a friendly bacteria that lives in our bodies and is found in some fermented foods like yogurt. These friendly bacteria are also called probiotics.

fixitplan L. Reuteri for heart health
By Reyesangel3 (Own work) CC BY-SA 3.0

The American Heart Association reported this probiotic lowers bad (LDL) cholesterol and total cholesterol in people with high cholesterol.  In the study, a dosage of 100 mg taken twice daily was used, and after only 9 weeks total cholesterol dropped an average of 9.1% and LDL dropped 11.6% as compared to the study participants taking the placebo.

And so did Bill’s!  He began taking L. Reuteri in April in a dose of 2.5 Billion CFU (colony forming units) twice daily with food.  At the end of September his new lipid profile showed his total cholesterol had dropped 6.9% Continue reading Probiotic for your Heart?

Blueberry Nectarine Crumble

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Tropical Storm Crumble?

Tropical Storm Erika

Tropical Storm Erika threatened to interfere with baking this weekend, but by Saturday morning she had weakened to a tropical wave.  So I fired up the galley oven and baked this yummy fruit crumble!

It’s a hard to beat  combination of blueberries and nectarines, but you could also use plums, blackberries, peaches, apricots, cherries.. you get the idea.

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Nectarines have a good amount of beta-carotene, plus a small though healthy amount of anti-oxidants. They’re also a healthy source of Continue reading Blueberry Nectarine Crumble

Progress Report ~ Spring 2015

Reversing Heart Disease … How Are We Doing?

“We cannot make good news out of bad practice.” ~Edward R. Murrow

Good News Reverse heart disease progress reportDr. Crandall walked into the exam room, test results in hand, grinned at Bill and said his stress test results were GREAT!–adding less than 2% of his patients score so well on the test.   The nuclear images were all good and Bill’s blood pressure response during the treadmill exercise phase of the test was also good.

Taking a good look at Bill, patting him here and there, he was happy to see him looking so fit, obviously keeping up with his exercise.

It’s a little more than two years now since Bill’s heart attack, and more than a year since Dr. Crandall said he was healthy enough to get off all the medication (he now takes only a baby aspirin and niacin daily).  So this consultation was a big deal for us! It was time to get our report card and see the results from the lifestyle changes we’d put in place more than two years ago.  To take a closer look at Bill’s heart, a nuclear stress test was prescribed (you can read about it here), a heart ultrasound, and advanced lab work. This was his first heart ultrasound.  The ultrasound looks at the structure and the valves of the heart where, in contrast, the stress test looks at the arteries.  So we were very interested! Continue reading Progress Report ~ Spring 2015

Progress Report ~ Winter 2014

Progress Report  Report A small

The exciting news about this post is that nothing much happened, and in this case that’s pretty darned good.   We’re talking about Bill’s latest checkup.  The big event in this un-event was Bill’s labwork, the first since Dr. Crandall let him off the last of the prescription meds eight months earlier.   So what was the report card going to show?  For those of us like me that want to know the nitty details on these things it went like this:

Progress Report Fixitplan EKG

 

The first order of business was an EKG.   No surprises and all was good.

 

Progress Report Fixitplan Chauncey Crandall office

 

Next we waited to see Dr. Crandall  and I used this time to review my list of questions (I always have questions and blessfully Dr. Crandall is very patient with every one.)

 

 

 

Dr. Crandall was pleased Bill is maintaining a healthy weight and looking fit and  strong.  And now it was time to review the results from his blood workup. Continue reading Progress Report ~ Winter 2014

Progress Report

Progress Report Progress Report Fix It Planand Dr. Crandall’s new book!

Dr. Chauncey Crandall, author of Fix It and The Simple Heart Cure, congratulates Bill on his progress to reverse his heart disease.       I’ll never forget the look on Dr. Crandall’s face as he joined us in the exam room and spotted Bill!  His expression broke into an irrepressible, ear to ear grin.  He kept saying how great he looked, patting Bill’s shoulders and back and nodding approval all the while.  “This is really good, what have you been doing?” he wanted to know.  And Bill said “Dr. Crandall, I’ve been doing exactly what you told me to do!” This had turned into a pretty good start to our review of Bill’s latest lab work.  His weight was down 20 more pounds (total 42), he’d “graduated” from cardiac rehab and was working out almost daily. Continue reading Progress Report