Participants: Kevin Bryant, Don Mackintosh
Series Code: HFAL
Program Code: HFAL000040
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00:52 Hello and welcome to "Health for a Lifetime"
00:54 I'm glad you've joined us, and we hope that today's program 00:58 WILL give you health that lasts for a lifetime, 01:00 And to help us with that, is Dr. Kevin Bryant 01:04 from Wichita, Kansas. 01:05 Dr. Bryant is a specialist in family practice, 01:09 and one of his real interests is heart disease. 01:12 Is that right? That's correct. 01:13 And you know, we have many traditional approaches 01:16 to dealing with heart attacks 01:19 and all of these different types of things. 01:21 There are lifestyle issues, 01:24 and there are things that we could do. 01:26 We can exercise, we can take care of our bodies, 01:29 but assuming all that has been done, 01:31 we've looked at those different things, 01:32 this is really the foundation from which we look at 01:36 something like our subject for today. Is that right? 01:40 That's correct, and it is important to remember 01:45 that the lifestyle changes are really the most important. 01:48 What we're going to cover today, while they may be helpful 01:52 ...attitude, supplements, they don't replace 01:55 the lifestyle changes that one might need to make. 02:00 So, it's also important to remember that these 02:04 herbal preparations natural remedies may, in fact, 02:10 interact with medications that someone is on, 02:14 so it may be important for them to talk with their physician, 02:18 and let them know. 02:21 We have an optimistic amount of things we're 02:23 going to look at today, and we want to give an overview of them 02:26 but maybe it would be helpful for you to work through 02:28 what we're going to talk about. 02:30 Yes, we wanted to look briefly at some of the evidence 02:34 relating to oat bran, look at vitamins, 02:38 antioxidants, folic acid, 02:41 and then 2 herbal compounds, 02:45 one called "gugulipid" 02:48 Gugulipid... I know it's one you don't hear about too often, 02:52 and certainly most Americans may not have heard of it, 02:54 but in India, it's VERY well-known. 02:58 Hawthorn berry will be the last one we'll be looking at. 03:01 Well let's jump into it! Let's start out. 03:03 I mean, some of this maybe people have heard something 03:05 about oat bran, but what can you tell us about oat bran? 03:08 Oat bran may not be big news right now; 03:11 a number of years ago, it certainly was. 03:15 And the story is told of Dr. Anderson 03:18 from the University of Kentucky, 03:19 that did the original research, that when he went to 03:22 get a supply of oat bran, 03:24 he had marked difficulty even finding it. 03:27 It had been milled out in the process of 03:31 producing oat products, 03:32 and we thought that it wasn't even a useful item. 03:36 Well his research has shown us that it can be very 03:39 helpful in lowering cholesterol. 03:41 It works by going through the intestinal tract; 03:46 it's not digested. 03:48 Bran is not a digestible food item, 03:51 so it goes right on through, 03:52 and as it goes through, it attaches to bile salts. 03:57 Bile salts are made by the liver and usually are reabsorbed 04:03 but when they become attached to bran, oat bran in particular, 04:07 it's carried on out of the system, 04:09 and thereby, takes cholesterol out of the body... 04:13 and that's how it lowers the cholesterol level. 04:16 Normally we talk about at least 2 ounces of oat bran 04:21 being mixed with food. 04:23 So you sprinkle this on your cereal, 04:25 or you do something with it, but get 2 ounces' worth 04:27 and then it does the magic of taking stuff out. 04:29 It goes on through, and does its work... 04:32 And the interesting studies have shown a 04:35 10 to 15% decrease in total cholesterol... 04:39 That's rather significant! 04:40 I mean, it seems anyway; what does that mean? 04:43 If I have my cholesterol that's cut by 10-15% 04:47 what does that mean in terms of my risk for 04:49 a heart attack or heart disease? 04:50 Well there are a number of other studies that show us that 04:53 for every percent drop in cholesterol, 04:56 a drop in heart disease risk is 2 to 3%. 05:02 So a 10-15% drop can be anywhere from 30-45%. 05:07 WOW... just by sprinkling that oat bran! 05:10 It's amazing, something as simple as that. 05:13 You told the story about, they didn't even know what it was. 05:15 Can we find it now in stores; is it readily available? 05:18 Could you go down to wherever your local supermarket 05:21 and say, "Give me oat bran, 05:22 and they know what they're talking about? 05:24 Well, that is an important point because it needs to be 05:27 the crude unprocessed oat bran, not just simply oatmeal... 05:34 It's oat bran, so that's an important distinction. 05:40 You know, that leads into the next thing we want to look at, 05:44 and that is the area of vitamins and antioxidants. 05:50 Another item in nature that is recently being found 05:56 to be very important, and particularly there are 06:00 2 vitamins that are most studied 06:04 and that's vitamin E, and vitamin C. 06:07 And they are called antioxidant vitamins. 06:12 Again, they're the vitamins that help protect our 06:16 bodies against the harmful effects of what are called 06:19 "free radicals" and these are dangerous 06:23 byproducts of our own metabolism; 06:27 sometimes we get it from the environment, 06:28 and they can damage our cells. 06:31 So they're sort of like... an antioxidant is kind of like 06:36 a molecule that's gone bizerk. 06:38 It's kind of just banging against 06:40 things and messing things up. 06:41 Right, free radicals are, and the antioxidants 06:45 scavenge those... calm those down or knock them out! 06:48 Neutralize them. 06:51 Are there free radicals that we can ingest, 06:53 or, from the outside, something we eat; 06:55 there are oxidized things we can eat, and then there are 06:58 things inside our own body, is that what you're saying? 07:00 Yeah, and one of the major source in America today, 07:04 an external consumption of free radicals is smoking. 07:09 Smoking? Right 07:11 As the cigarette burns, and people inhale that smoke, 07:15 there are an overwhelming number of free radicals in that smoke, 07:20 that then does its damage. 07:21 I don't think you're suggesting we could smoke if we take 07:24 vitamin E or vitamin C though, right? 07:26 No, they've looked at that, and found it doesn't protect enough. 07:31 Okay, so vitamin E, vitamin C, can you just get that in a 07:34 supplement form, or is it better to take it in a plant source? 07:38 There are plant sources for both of those. 07:40 Obviously, vitamin C is going to be found high in your 07:43 fruits and a lot of your vegetables. 07:46 Vitamin E is more in the grains, and some in the nuts. 07:52 But collectively, in the fruits and vegetables, 07:56 not only are your getting those antioxidant vitamin C and E, 08:02 there are hundreds and thousands of what are called... 08:06 "phytochemicals" 08:08 "Phyto" is a word that means plant; so plant chemicals 08:12 which until just in the last decade or so, 08:15 we really didn't understand what they were doing... 08:18 And now we're finding out a lot of them are antioxidants. 08:22 They're knocking out those bad guys. 08:23 So, is it better... I think what I hear you saying is... 08:28 If you had a choice between getting a plant, 08:31 or eating a banana, or eating an apple, or eating a strawberry 08:35 or eating a whatever it is, and buying a bottle of 08:39 the same thing, you're going to get more by 08:42 eating it nature's way usually, than in a bottle, 08:45 because it's just one narrow part of what's in that big 08:49 strawberry! 08:51 Right, you get a combination of them, and it's important, 08:55 WHY do we need the antioxidants? 08:57 What is it that they're doing? 08:59 And that comes back to the issue of cholesterol 09:03 and heart disease, and now we know that cholesterol 09:07 by itself, until it becomes oxidized, 09:11 or damaged by these free radicals, 09:14 is not nearly as dangerous to promoting heart disease, 09:18 so it's in an attempt to prevent cholesterol from being damaged 09:23 by these free radicals that we need the antioxidants. 09:27 So God knew what He was doing when He said eat 09:29 plants, fruits, nuts, grains and vegetables. 09:32 Yeah, He knew there was a tremendous plentiful supply 09:36 of antioxidants to help prevent that. 09:39 What else do you have for us in your pharmacopeia of 09:41 natural remedies? 09:43 Well, another vitamin that has been highlighted now 09:46 just in the last few years, is vitamin B, 09:49 one of the B-complex vitamins, folic acid, 09:52 and where it comes to play is in a new risk factor that 09:57 has been discovered in the last few years for heart disease, 10:00 and that's an amino acid called "homocysteine" 10:06 ...That when that amino acid is at too high a level 10:11 in our bloodstream, it's been associated with promoting 10:15 and causing atherosclerosis... hardening of the arteries, 10:20 which leads to heart disease and other strokes 10:23 and vascular disease. 10:25 Okay, so they can do a lab test and find out whether 10:27 your homocysteine level is up, if you want them to now. 10:29 That's true. 10:31 Folic acid acts on that. Right 10:34 Folic acid is an important vitamin needed for our body 10:40 to take the homocysteine, 10:42 convert it into another amino acid, 10:45 which is not dangerous... 10:47 does not cause the disease process to occur. 10:53 Are there plant sources, or what should we eat for that? 10:58 Again, we come back to the fruits and vegetables that are 11:01 high sources for the vitamin B6... 11:04 And particularly the legumes, the lentils and the beans 11:09 are a good source. 11:10 So a legume would be what? What's a legume? 11:12 Legume is beans and lentils. 11:16 It's also in a lot of the green leafy vegetables are good 11:21 sources for it. GREAT! 11:24 So, anything else about folic acid you want to share with us? 11:28 ...And we were talking about how for every percentage drop 11:33 of cholesterol, the heart disease risk drops by 2-3% 11:39 With homocysteine, it turns out that for every 1% 11:43 drop in your homocysteine level, that translates to 11:47 1% decrease in heart disease. Wow! 11:50 And so increasing the folic acid intake by 400 mcg/day 11:58 which, if someone is getting the 5-9 servings of 12:06 fruits and vegetables a day, 12:08 they will DEFINITELY increase the folic acid level, 12:12 and that can drop that homocysteine level 12:15 sometimes 20, 30, to 40%; 12:18 translating to 20-40% drop in that person's heart disease risk 12:24 So, eating, what did you say... 6-9 servings of 12:28 fruits and vegetables a day, you wouldn't have to worry about it. 12:31 It's not like you have to say, "Okay, what's my level now?" 12:34 But, should they take a supplement to be sure, 12:38 or, what do you think? 12:40 Taking a supplement would be fine. 12:43 I think you're missing out again on ALL the other 12:46 good things in those fruits and vegetables. 12:49 So, in other words, if you eat the fruits, you get all those 12:52 thousands of other phyto plant chemicals that help you. Right 12:56 Well, why don't we talk a little bit... 12:58 I think there's another one we want to get to before 13:00 the break and just introduce it. 13:01 L- arginine... what's that all about? 13:04 L- arginine is another amino acid, 13:07 interestingly enough, that is important. 13:11 We've just been finding this out in the last few years 13:15 that is converted in the body in the cells that line the 13:21 inside of the artery. 13:22 It's converted into a substance called "nitric oxide" 13:26 So that's like that nitroglycerin people 13:28 take a little pill or a little squirt.. same thing. 13:31 That causes those coronary arteries to dilate to open up. 13:35 Blood gets through them better... 13:36 And wet can get this from a plant source? 13:38 Right... we can get it from a plant source. 13:41 We've been talking with Dr. Kevin Bryant. 13:44 When we come back, we're going to talk a little bit more 13:46 about L-arginine and some more natural remedies for your heart. 13:51 We hope that you join us. 14:06 Have you found yourself wishing that you could shed a few pounds 14:09 Have you been on a diet for most of your life, 14:12 but not found anything that will really keep the weight off? 14:14 If you've answered "yes" to any of these questions, 14:17 then we have a solution for you that works! 14:20 Dr. Hans Diehl and Dr. Aileen Ludington 14:23 have written a marvelous booklet called... 14:25 "Reversing Obesity Naturally" 14:28 and we'd like to send it to you FREE of charge. 14:30 Here's a medically sound approach successfully used 14:33 by thousands who are able to eat more, 14:35 and lose weight permanently without feeling guilty or hungry 14:39 through lifestyle medicine. 14:40 Dr. Diehl and Dr. Ludington have been featured on 3ABN 14:44 and in this booklet, they present a sensible 14:47 approach to eating, nutrition and lifestyle changes 14:50 that can help you prevent heart disease, diabetes 14:52 and EVEN cancer. 14:54 Call or write today for your free copy of... 14:56 "Reversing Obesity Naturally" 14:57 and you could be on your way to a healthier, happier YOU! 15:01 It's ABSOLUTELY free of charge, so call or write today. 15:17 Welcome back, we've been talking with Dr. Kevin Bryant 15:20 about heart disease. 15:21 We've gone beyond normal medications, 15:25 normal treatment for that. 15:26 We've been talking about natural remedies for heart disease. 15:29 It doesn't take the place of those other things 15:31 that the doctor has suggested, 15:33 but it is very fascinating; it is very helpful. 15:36 We've talked about oat bran. 15:38 We've talked about certain vitamins... vitamin E and C 15:42 We've talked about antioxidants, 15:46 and then we talked about folic acid and L-arginine. 15:51 Yeah, let's come back to this L- arginine. 15:54 Anything else you can tell us about it? 15:56 We've said that it vasodilates; 15:59 it opens up the blood vessels, 16:00 and that's what you've shared with us from a natural source, 16:03 but anything else? 16:04 Yeah, Dr. Lerman reported in the Journal "Circulation" in 1998, 16:11 that he studied 26 patients who were having chest pain, 16:15 heart pain, angina pain, but who didn't have 16:20 blockages that they thought were causing these heart pains, 16:25 so they determined that these patients' coronary arteries, 16:29 the arteries supplying blood to the heart, were actually 16:32 going into a spasm and cutting 16:35 the circulation off to their heart. 16:37 He gave these patients L- arginine 3 grams, 3 X per day 16:44 and was able to show that as this was converted 16:48 into this nitric oxide, it opened their 16:51 coronary arteries up and INCREASED the circulation 16:55 150% in those coronary arteries... Wow 16:59 And their chest pains went away. 17:01 So double the amount of flow, just opened it up! Right 17:06 Just from a natural source! 17:08 So this is really something we should think about 17:10 especially if we have heart disease. 17:12 Right, I think it's a natural thing that anyone can do, 17:16 and there are sources in the plant kingdom for this 17:21 L- arginine... this amino acid can be found in the beans; 17:26 interestingly enough in almonds and black walnuts, 17:31 and in lentils, soybeans and 17:34 in pumpkin kernels are the highest sources. 17:37 Pumpkin pie okay? I think it has to be the kernel. 17:42 And so they are a good source. 17:44 Now, commercially, they do make 17:46 capsules that have 500 mg of it in there. 17:51 So L-arginine is a whole new area of research that we're 17:56 finding can improve coronary blood flow and circulation. 18:02 We've got quite a few things in 18:04 our shopping cart today, natural remedies. 18:05 But, the next one fascinates me, the name is "gugulipid" 18:11 Gugulipid, yes. This is a whole new area, 18:14 I've never heard of gugulipid before. 18:16 If you lived in India, this name would not be so unfamiliar. 18:22 In India this medication is used frequently. 18:27 It's an herbal medication, but it's prescribed 18:30 by physicians over in India for the treatment of 18:34 high cholesterol levels. 18:36 It's taken from the Mukul Myrrh tree; 18:41 it's the resin of that tree that they extract, 18:45 they compound gugulipid from. 18:48 Now, it does a number of things. 18:50 Some pretty big words here, 18:53 you're going to have to help us with this. 18:54 Right, it slows down the process of putting fat in fat cells. 19:02 It helps to stop or slow down the liver's production of 19:08 cholesterol and this is similar to some of the 19:10 prescription drugs that are prescribed in America. 19:14 This is what they do, cholesterol-lowering drugs 19:17 do this thing; they suppress the 19:20 liver's production of cholesterol. 19:22 It helps to stimulate fat coming out of the fat stores. 19:27 It also acts kind of like oat bran in binding 19:32 to bile acids and taking bile acids out of the body; 19:36 taking cholesterol out of the body. 19:38 So, a number of different ways in which this gugulipid works; 19:44 fascinating how it works. 19:47 Most of the studies have been done in India. 19:51 There are some that have been done in America, 19:53 and the well-controlled studies show us that it does 19:58 ALL the right things. 19:59 It lowers the bad cholesterol, LDL, by as much as 17%. 20:07 It increases the good cholesterol by 14%, 20:12 and lowers triglyceride levels 24%. 20:15 Wow, these are significant things. 20:17 So, I think before we were talking that, 20:20 you know, LDL is the "lousy" type; 20:23 and you want that to go down because it's not good for you. 20:26 That's the type, you correct me if I'm wrong, that goes right 20:29 into your artery walls and makes them thicken, 20:32 and you don't want that. 20:34 Right, so lowering that is good. 20:36 And then the HDL, the "happy" 20:39 or the "healthy" density lipoprotein. 20:43 Those are the ones that take away the bad or whatever. 20:46 Take the cholesterol out of the plaques, 20:50 and so you want that to go up. 20:53 This is helping elevate that. 20:55 And then the triglycerides... 20:57 does something good with those too. 20:58 That's the fat in the blood that's actually circulating. 21:01 That's different than cholesterol. 21:03 It's lowering that... Okay, it's lowering that. 21:06 Now, there's one problem with this, I mean, look at this name 21:10 "gugulipid"... I might feel embarrassed telling someone 21:13 I'm on gugulipid... how do I get over that? 21:16 Maybe there's no way! 21:18 Well, just remember the last part of the name "lipid" 21:21 That's what it's for, to lower the lipids, the fat, 21:24 and the cholesterol in your blood stream. 21:26 And, an important thing to bring out at this point is 21:32 the importance of what are called standardized doses. 21:36 In Europe and most of the rest of the world, 21:41 where herbal medications are used considerably more 21:44 than they are here, prescribed, in fact, in Europe 21:48 90% of the time physicians prescribe herbal preparations. 21:53 They do a very good job of making sure that the 21:58 quality control is there, so that when you read 22:02 the amount that's on the bottle, 22:06 that you can be sure it's that amount. 22:09 America, to this point in time, has not got 22:13 quite the same process of being sure 22:16 that everything is standardized. 22:17 One thing that is helpful when you're looking at 22:20 an herbal preparation, and looking at the ingredients in it 22:23 if they say "standardized," you can feel better 22:28 that they have the quality control to keep that in there. 22:32 I mean, you seem to know a lot about these things... 22:34 I know that you run a lipid clinic. 22:36 I know that you follow up these people that go through 22:38 the health program that you run several times a year, 22:41 and you look at them on a monthly basis. 22:43 But how do we find people like you? 22:45 Let's say that I don't live in Wichita, Kansas, 22:48 or I'm not near someone like that, 22:50 how would you go about finding out who it is? 22:53 Just ask around and see who has an interest? 22:55 Talk to your physician, see who they know, 22:57 and try and find someone? 22:59 Actually in the last few years, the area of what's called... 23:04 "alternative medicine," herbal medications has become 23:07 more and more highlighted in traditional medicine. 23:11 So, our American physician is becoming more aware, 23:18 and depending on that physician he may have read more. 23:21 So talking to your physician, you may find that he has 23:24 an interest in this area, or is willing to at least look into it 23:28 Are there any side effects for gugulipid? 23:30 That's one of the nice things about it, it's very low in 23:34 side effect, and by and large, most of the herbal preparations 23:40 are low in side effect... not all of them. 23:42 And that's why it's helpful to 23:43 talk that over with your physician. 23:46 He can find out some unbiased information about them, 23:50 and find out, "do they have possible side effects," 23:53 might they interact with some medication you're already on. " 23:58 So, how often should I take it? 24:01 Let's say I find the standardized type, 24:03 I know it's good; how often do they usually take it? 24:06 The dosage is considered about 500 mg 3 X per day. 24:12 Let's go on to our next one. 24:14 Hawthorn extract. 24:17 We've saved a few minutes here, tell us about this. 24:19 Hawthorn berry... well, this is moving into a 24:23 different area of heart disease. 24:25 Today there are over 4.7 million Americans that have 24:31 congestive heart failure. 24:33 That's where the heart gets big, it's not pumping well. 24:36 It's kind of falling apart. 24:37 It's failing as a pump, fluid congests in the lungs. 24:42 The person becomes weak, fatigued, 24:44 short of breath when they're walking... 24:46 And in Europe, one of the primary medications 24:52 used for this is hawthorn berry. 24:55 We've know for 200 years that digitalis is helpful 24:59 for congestive heart failure. 25:01 It used to be called "dropsy. " 25:03 So digitalis is actually taken from the flower of the 25:08 foxglove plant, and it's an herbal preparation. 25:12 The problem with digitalis is that it can be toxic 25:16 if you get too much of it and it doesn't take too much. 25:19 Hawthorn berry on the other hand is NOT as toxic, 25:23 and can be tolerated much better. 25:26 So it can do everything that digitalis does well... better! 25:30 It can do probably close to its effective as digitalis, 25:35 but much less toxic, and in Europe they use 25:40 it for what's called stage II heart failure. 25:44 There are 4 stages to heart failure, 25:47 and stage II would be a milder form of heart failure. 25:52 So severe heart failure, they don't use it for that, 25:56 but they have shown that it can increase the heart's 25:59 ability to contract and pump the blood. 26:03 And so, they use it in Europe frequently either 26:09 as a first line, or sometimes adding it to digitalis. 26:15 Now for anyone listening today that is on digitalis, 26:20 digoxin, or lanoxin, you want to be careful about 26:24 just going out and getting some of this and adding to it 26:26 without talking to your physician because 26:28 it CAN interact with digitalis sometimes 26:31 and RAISE that level... 26:33 So you need to be working with your physician on this. 26:36 So dosage then? 26:37 Dosage starts at around 100 and can go up as high 26:42 as 900 mg per day... 26:46 usually divided throughout the day 2 or 3 different doses. 26:50 Is this really something someone that is not a 26:52 medical doctor should be doing? 26:54 I mean thinking through how much they're taking? 26:56 I mean, I would feel kind of nervous about that. 26:59 In Europe, it's prescribed by the physician, 27:04 controlled by the physician... And we're going to get there 27:07 in America, you think; we're moving that way. 27:10 I think that we're moving in that direction. 27:13 This hawthorn berry was just highlighted in one of the 27:16 journals that looks at alternative medications, 27:19 so I think more and more physicians may be 27:21 becoming aware of its use. 27:25 We've been talking with Dr. Kevin Bryant 27:27 He's a specialist in family practice. 27:30 We've been talking about natural remedies for the heart. 27:34 This is assuming, doctor, that the people that have 27:38 been with us had been doing all the right things 27:40 in terms of lifestyle; they've 27:42 been following through with their physicians. 27:43 You've given us some really tangible things to think about; 27:47 some alternatives to try; 27:50 things that don't have side effects that have been 27:52 produced as God would have them. 27:54 We hope that this has been helpful to you, 27:56 and that as a result, you'll have health that lasts 27:59 for a lifetime! |
Revised 2014-12-17