Happy February! We Love having you as patients and friends!
Announcements:
Fee Structure Change:
Please note: Dr. Waters’ fee structure will be changing effective Monday, March 18, 2019. The new fees will be as follows:
For Cash Patients-
Initial visit: 90-104
follow up visit: 70
package of 5 regular visits: 325 (average of 65 ea)
For Insurance Patients please contact us to see how these changes will affect your specific insurance plan.
*This change will not affect Medicare patients.*
If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to call (949) 586-2731 or email [email protected]
Massage Therapy:
Massage therapy appointments are available Monday-Thursday and every other Saturday. Susan Hart takes appointments Mondays and Tuesdays, and Sue Anson takes appointments Wednesdays, Thursdays and every other Saturday. Please contact the front desk for more information and to schedule your massage appointments.
Saturday Hours: Dr. Waters will be in Saturday, February 9th and Saturday, March 9th by appointment only. Appointments fill up quickly, so please contact the front desk to request your spot.
Wellness Workshop: We will not have a December workshop but please mark your calendars for our January workshop. Wednesday, February 27th at 6:15 PM in the office. This month’s topic will be Heart Health. Dr. Waters will discuss the importance of heart health, myths and facts concerning blood pressure and cholesterol, and give practical ways you can keep your heart as healthy as possible. Classes are fun, free and friends and family are encouraged to attend. To RSVP please contact the front desk at (949) 586-2731 or mention during your next appointment.
Please enjoy the following article as an introduction to myths and facts concerning cholesterol. Please let us know your thoughts during your next appointment.
Yours in Health,
Waters Family Wellness
Lowering Cholesterol Confusion
https://www.the100yearlifestyl...
SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 BY KAIN QUECK
There is a lot of confusion about cholesterol right now. For years, the media has pointed fingers at high cholesterol for being the main cause of heart disease. This has created an era of low fat, low cholesterol diets, which has allowed the processed carbohydrate and sugar industries to boom. If America is decreasing the amount of cholesterol in their diet and distributing cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, why is heart disease still the leading cause of death in the United States?¹ It’s time to clear up the cholesterol confusion!
Cholesterol is essential for life. It makes up almost 60% of your brain, allows your nervous system to communicate, is a component of key hormones in the body, mediates digestion, aides the immune system, and does many other things essential for our bodies to function. Cholesterol is so important, the liver has a built in production line to protect the body if levels get too low. So how did a nutrient that plays so many roles in the body get labeled as “the cause for heart disease?”
Early research from Russian scientists found plaques in the arteries of rabbits that were fed a high cholesterol diet. These plaques had a similar composition to those found in humans that have died from heart attacks.² However, there are many fallacies in this study. First, rabbits are normally omnivores and were not allowed sufficient exercise. This study also never explained the process of how a fat soluble substance like cholesterol, which is able to freely pass though the membranes of any cell, ended up stuck on the walls of an artery.
Having excess sugar in the blood, known as hyperglycemia, creates an environment where glucose can bind to a lipoprotein by a process called gylcation. Just as if you were to spill a sugary drink on the counter, the glycated lipoprotein becomes sticky in your body. Inflammation caused by sugar constricts the blood vessel, which brings the glycated molecule close to the vessel wall. This easily allows it to stick to the walls. The now immobile molecule attracts abnormal cholesterol that has been oxidized -possibly from excess sugar or smoking tobacco- which builds a plaque made mostly of cholesterol. The plaque grows until it restricts the blood flow, leading to major complications such as heart attacks. This plaque would have never occurred without the help of sugar.
The Great Cholesterol Myth² says the single dietary factor that has the strongest correlation with heart disease is sugar. The book cites evidence that over fifty percent of the people who die from heart disease have perfectly normal cholesterol levels. It devotes a whole chapter explaining more in-depth how the sugar metabolism ends with glycation, oxidation, and inflammation mentioned above. Combine that with studies that show the addictiveness of sugar, and we see why heart disease is such a major problem in the United States.
Still not convinced cholesterol isn’t so bad after all? Let’s take a look at patients using statin drugs that effectively lower cholesterol. A study conducted by the ACC showed that “there is ample evidence that lowering cholesterol does not consistently lower Cardiac Heart Disease mortality.³” If we remember the roles of cholesterol in the body mentioned earlier, it makes sense why confusion, amnesia, sexual and muscular dysfunction, and hypersensitivity reactions are just a few of the adverse effects that occur within patients.
Cholesterol is a vital nutrient in the body, and heart disease is not prevented with a pill. It is more likely to be prevented with a lifestyle.
Works Cited
1. National Center for Health Statistics. Health, United States, 2016: With Chartbook on Long-term Trends in Health. Hyattsville, MD. 2017.
2. Bowden J, Sinatra S. Great Cholesterol Myth: Why Lowering Your Cholesterol Won’t Prevent Heart Disease. Rockport Publishers, 2012.
3. Stone NJ, Robinson JG, Lichtenstein AH, Bairey Merz CN, Blum CB, Eckel RH, Goldberg AC, Gordon D, Levy D, Lloyd-Jones DM, McBride P, Schwartz JS, Shero ST, Smith SC Jr, Watson K, Wilson PW, American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2014 Jul 1; 63(25 Pt B):2889-934.
