Rose’s Green Tea: Using Tea Leaves to Tell your Future

By James H O’Keefe, MD

My great-grandmother Rose Cartier grew up in Montreal, Canada. We called her Ma Mere (French for “My mother”), and I recall her as a delightful lady with a loving disposition, a stout constitution, and a mind that remained sharp and active throughout her long life. She took pleasure in chatting with her family and friends; and spoke French when discussing issues with my grandmother and my mother that she didn’t want to share with us kids. At age 94, after a full and contented life, Rose went to bed one evening, fell asleep peacefully, and just never woke up. Even as a child, I remember thinking, what a great way to live—and die.

The only medication she took regularly was aspirin, for her “rheumatism”. Rose loved good food, and when they could afford it, she enjoyed a glass of red wine before her evening meal. Yet, it was tea—green tea specifically—that was her defining habit. Rose would always have loose leaf green tea steeping in a teapot on the kitchen counter. I recall her playfully reading the tea leaves at the bottom of our cups to “tell the future”. If you want your future health to be bright and rosy, I would suggest that you take a cue from my great grandmother, and make tea (green tea whenever possible) one of your beverages of choice. The accumulating scientific evidence indicates Rose’s daily habit of drinking green tea probably played a big role in why she was so healthy, happy and clever for almost a century.

People who make a habit of drinking 4 or more cups of green tea daily are 44% less likely to suffer from depression; theanine may be the reason. Theanine, an amino acid present in green tea, is a unique compound that induces a mental state of “relaxed awareness”. Theanine is a stimulant that energizes you and increases alertness, while at the same time reducing anxiety. Stimulants such as coffee and other caffeinated beverages like Red Bull, especially in excess, can make you jittery and anxious. On the other hand, agents that reduce anxiety, like alcohol or Xanax, tend to reduce your energy level and make you feel fatigued. So, if you are feeling like you need an energy boost that will also leave you feeling relaxed and calm, green tea may be your answer.

Many recent studies looked have focused on the health effects of drinking coffee and tea, and the results are generally encouraging. The research shows that a routine of two to four cups of coffee per day is linked with lower risks of heart disease, diabetes, and Parkinson’s disease, and a slightly reduced the risk of death from all causes. Tea consumption has been linked to even stronger health benefits; for instance, drinking three to six cups of tea daily is associated with a 45 percent lower risk of death from heart disease. Long term generous consumption of tea has also been shown to lower blood pressure and improve cholesterol levels. Studies suggest that green tea might play a role in preventing Alzheimer’s disease, macular degeneration (the most common cause of blindness in adults), and several cancers including cancers of the mouth, lung, and prostate, and leukemia. Tea can aid digestion, strengthen bones, and improve the health of gums and teeth. Studies also indicate that frequent tea consumption is linked to better longevity. In one large study of 40,000 Japanese followed for 11 years, those who drank more green tea were less likely to die from all causes, and seemed to be especially protected from cardiovascular death.

A study focusing on Chinese people offered a fascinating insight into how tea might improve longevity. Men who consumed three or more cups of tea daily were genetically younger than those who consumed less tea. In this study the tea drinkers had significantly longer telomeres—the protective caps on the ends of DNA strands that keep them from unraveling. Enthusiastic tea drinkers’ telomeres showed substantially less wear and tear, translating into a genetic age about 5 years younger than the non-tea drinkers.

Drinking a lot of tea can be helpful if you are trying to lose weight. Besides being a tasty and healthy calorie-free drink, tea also cranks up your metabolism which burns off belly fat. Studies show that drinking at least 3 or 4 cups of tea, especially green tea, will help to flatten your tummy and trim your waistline—which is not only great for your figure, but also for your health. Excess belly fat is one of the biggest sources of chronic inflammation that predisposes to everything from diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease, to heart attack and stroke.

The health benefits of tea may be due to the high levels of antioxidants and other plant chemicals in the beverage. Studies show that you tend to absorb more of these beneficial antioxidants from your tea if you add a slice or squeeze of lemon. Tea, whether iced or hot, green or black, is naturally calorie free. Try to learn to enjoy your tea unsweetened; both sugar and artificial sweeteners make it a less healthy beverage. Your abdominal fat will really melt away if you substitute green tea for Coke and other sweet drinks.

Bottom line: try to include tea into your daily routine. Green tea and white tea are probably best for health benefits; and if caffeine bothers you, drink the decaf version. Or, if you just can’t or won’t drink green tea regularly, consider taking a daily supplement in the form a capsule of tea antioxidants. Getting your tea antioxidants in the form of a daily capsule has been shown to significantly lower cholesterol and blood pressure, and help to trim excess belly fat.

I have been impressed that my patients, family and friends seem to feel better and be healthier when they add either green tea, or a tea supplement to their daily routine. As for me, I’m following Ma Mere’s example and drinking at least four cups of green tea daily; and I love it as much as she did.

by James O’Keefe, MD, FACC

Headlines on the morning news TV shows, newspapers, etc. concerning a study published in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine may have caused unnecessary concern about the effectiveness of omega-3 oils. Please be aware that this study did not involve typical DHA and EPA omega-3 supplements, but rather margarines. Researchers assigned 4,837 patients, aged 60-80 (78% men), who had had a myocardial infarction and were receiving state-of-the-art care, to four trial groups. Each group was given one of four margarines, one supplemented with 400 mg EPA and DHA, one with 2 g ALA (alpha-linolenic acid) , one supplemented with EPA+DHA and ALA, and one placebo margarine.

The end result showed no benefit from any of the supplemented margarines. Please note that 400 mg of EPA+DHA falls far below the American Heart Association’s guidelines of 1,000 mg DHA-EPA per day for individuals with diagnosed heart disease. The AHA does not recommend ALA supplementation. Additionally, margarine is high in calories, and is a food to be used sparingly, if at all. Encouraging the liberal daily use of margarine is not a good idea if one is trying to improve health.

Bottom Line: If you have diagnosed heart disease or other risk factors, follow the American Heart Association’s guidelines and aim for 1,000 mg DHA+EPA per day. The AHA recommends 500 mg DHA+EPA daily for those without heart disease. If you have high triglycerides you may need much higher daily doses of DHA+EPA, and you should discuss this with your physician.

Be honest. How many times have you or your children had one of these? This slide show may be enough to swear you off any of these so called “drinks” forever. Did you know that one Snapple Agave Melon Antioxidant Water (1 bottle, 20 fl oz) has as much sugar as two Good Humor Chocolate Éclair bars? The word antioxidant in the name can easily trick people into thinking this “water” is healthy. Not so folks.

The simple truth is, your body wants nothing more than just plain water.

Think of a rain forest trying to survive without the rain. It would dry up and turn brown like the desert. And we expect our body’s to survive without the same nourishment. What would happen to your car if you decided to stop feeding it gasoline and went with something cheaper or more convenient instead? You need six to eight glasses of water every day. No exceptions. Coffee and tea are fine as long as you do not add high fat creamers, sugar, or non-nutritive sweeteners (Stevia, NutriSweet, Splenda, and aspartame). Remember no caffeine after noon.

Here are some healthy options: (reposted from my June 8 blog, “Free Soda Pop Today: At Your Child’s School.”

-Water: Learn to drink water again. Everything does not have to be flavored.
-Tea and Coffee (limit caffeine after noon and avoid sweeteners) Be careful! We mean tea bags in water when we say tea; not bottled green teas, etc. Even tea from the soda fountain can be full of sugar. Drink only unsweetened green or black tea.
-Sparkling waters (we like LaCroix, Mendota Springs and Ice Mountain)
-Have access to ice and a water cooler and provide cups – getting water needs to be as convenient as getting a can of soda pop (and providing it free of charge helps).

Let the Music Play – De-Stress and Get Moving

It’s early afternoon and I’m getting ready for a small dinner party with some dear old friends. I love to entertain, but I’m just no good at it. I get stressed out about the house being messy, worry if the bath towels are folded, is there kid “stuff” all over the house, etc. Of course, my husband, who shares none of my worries, has eaten the avocados I had hidden in the back of the refrigerator for this evening and has mysteriously disappeared. These are very good friends and deep down I know that they could care less about how my house looks or if the bath towels are folded, but I’m still really stressed.

Now, you should know that I’m also a self-professed news junkie. I have Headline News on ALL DAY when I’m home. Of course, Headline News replays the same stressful stories all day long on repeat, so by about 2:00, I’d heard the same stressful stuff over and over again. I finally realized that this is doing nothing for me but adding more stress. I turned the TV off and turned on MIX 93.3, my favorite radio station and on came Train, Katy Perry, and Pink and some really fun music. To the chagrin of my family, I’m moving, twisting, twirling and jumping. I am mortifying my kids because this is the music that THEY listen to and here’s mom with a slotted spoon for a microphone TOTALLY embarrassing my kids!

I am having fun and not only am I relieving stress, but I’m burning some serious calories. This was no planned exercise session, just an impromptu deal. Not only was all the work done by the time our company arrived at 5:30, but I was stress-free and had burned more than 300 calories per hour!

The moral of my story is that the next time you’re stressed or need some exercise, just put your favorite music on – I DARE YOU not to move!!!!

What kind of exercise does your cardiologist do? Exercise doesn’t have to involve a treadmill or weights. In fact, some of the best work outs are things you’d never consider “exercise.” Check out this article about a unique workout James O’Keefe, MD, Chief Medical Officer of CardioTabs loves.

via Working out with spare tires can help you get rid of your spare tire – KansasCity.com.

Osteoporosis is a condition of decreased bone mass. You may have had a bone density screening in the past to test for signs of osteoporosis. Normal bones have small holes throughout, but an osteoporotic bone has large holes or appears “porous.” These large holes or pores are caused by insufficient amounts of calcium in the bones and many factors contribute to this. Inadequate calcium intake is one factor, but other lifestyle habits can be leeching calcium from your bones as well. Even if you already have osteoporosis or are at risk for the condition, there are lifestyle changes that you can make now that will help make your bones stronger and help you prevent the bone fractures all too common with osteoporosis.

8 Simple Lifestyle Steps for Preventing Osteoporosis

1. Adequate Calcium Intake – You’ve heard it time and time again and this one is never going to change. You’ve got to get enough calcium folks! Calcium in milk has a greater bioavailability than calcium in supplements, but if you can’t do milk products, supplements will suffice. If you simply don’t prefer milk products, please at least split the difference. I recommend taking your calcium plus vitamin D supplement with milk. This is a simple way to try to fool the body into thinking that the calcium supplement is as bioavailable as the calcium in milk.

2. Vitamin D – Calcium is not absorbed as well without vitamin D available in the system. Those with low Vitamin D levels do not absorb calcium well. Make sure you get your vitamin D levels checked and keep them up. Make sure you take your calcium with vitamin D.

3. Watch Your Sodium Intake.  Sodium will leech calcium from your bones. Keep your sodium intake to less than 1500 mg per day. The salt shaker is completely off limits, folks. Strictly limit processed foods and limit eating out – both are terrific sources of sodium. Sodium does occur naturally in milk and meats; however, you need these in your diet (see #1). Meats are complete protein sources and they are necessary to build and rebuild muscle mass broken down with exercise. Try whey protein isolate (I like CardioWhey ). Whey protein is not only a complete protein with every amino acid, but is a terrific way to build muscle and contains very little to no fat and sodium.

4. Alcohol.  Limit your alcohol consumption to one drink per day at the most. Consuming more than one drink per day is a risk factor for bone loss.

5. Pump Some Iron.  Weight lifting is very important for preventing osteoporosis, but why? When you work your upper body and build a strong core, you are building a strong, stable body. The more muscle you have, the more your bones have to carry around all day – and this is a good thing! More muscles lead to stronger bones.

6. Skip the Elliptical and Stair Climbing Machine.  Instead, run walk or jump. Good “pounding” exercises like these will strengthen your bones while whittling your weight. Jumping is the most effective bone building cardiovascular exercise that we know. Jump rope, do jumping jacks, jump on the kids’ trampoline, anything will work.

7. Follow exercise with whey protein.  Use whey within one hour of your workout (before or after). Working out breaks down muscles and whey protein gives the body the tools it needs to rebuild those muscles.

8. Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables.  Fruits and veggies are incredibly important as they help to prevent the leeching of calcium from your bones. Fruits and vegetables help balance the acid: base ratio in your body. Junk foods like cookies, donuts and potato chips make your body more acidic and this promotes calcium leeching from the bones. Excess sodium, junk food, and even meats will increase the acidity of your body’s fluids, but colorful fruits and vegetables will help to balance it and in turn help keep calcium in your bones where it belongs.

For more information about osteoporosis click here.

Be Picky about Your Protein

James O’Keefe, MD, FACC

Lean protein cranks up your metabolism and keeps you full longer after a meal. However, you must be very particular about your protein. The two highest quality protein sources are egg whites and whey protein. Nature designed both of these foods so they contain the precise amino acid building blocks needed to nurture young and developing animals and help them grow strong new tissues.
Fish, seafood, chicken or turkey breast meat, and non-fat dairy foods, are other great sources of animal protein. Even red meat is fine if it’s lean (92 to 100 percent fat free), fresh, and is not burned or over-processed. Also, consider nuts or legumes, like soybeans, lentils or red beans, for one of your protein sources each day.

Portion Sizes
Portion size is important also; an ideal protein serving size is about the size of the palm of your hand, with a width about as wide as your little finger at the middle joint. Fatty meats like full-fat hamburger and prime rib are off limits, as are over-processed meats like bacon and sausage. Jerky and deli meats, although often low in fat, are too high in salt and preservatives to eat on a daily basis.

Fruits and Veggies
Ideally, for each meal, you should be eating about three servings of colorful, fresh or fresh frozen vegetables and fruits to go along with your serving of healthy protein. Remember to start downing those fruits and veggies at breakfast, or you’ll have a tough time hitting your daily target of nine. Beverages should predominantly consist of non-caloric options like water, tea and coffee, or low-calorie, high-nutrient choices, such as low sodium V-8 juice, skim milk or soy milk.

You Are What You Drink
As important as what you choose to eat and drink is what you choose to avoid consuming. Pass up processed foods, especially those containing sugar, white flour, trans fats or high fructose corn syrup. Avoid products with long lists of ingredients and those bearing health claims like low fat or low carb–they are usually full of other bad stuff!

Go for Vegetables, Not Vegetarianism Part 1
By James H. O’Keefe, M.D.

America today is a land that indulges our freedom of choice. You can choose to have green hair and blue eyes, or to watch Sponge Bob Square Pants around the clock, or for your morning coffee you can choose to have a vanilla, half-caf, 1 percent, extra-hot, no-foam latte—but you can’t yet choose your genes. Those genes, the blueprint your cells use to build and maintain you, specify the kinds of foods upon which you will either thrive or decay. That’s why not all diets are created equal, and why food cannot be like fashion fads that come and go.

Many vital nutrients are found predominantly in meat, fish, eggs, dairy, and other animal by-products.   These include:

• essential amino acids
• DHA (an omega-3 fat)
• Vitamin B12
• Vitamin A
• Vitamin D
• Calcium
• Zinc

So paradoxically, while fresh produce (vegetables and fruits) is the single most important component of a healthy diet, strict vegetarianism does not foster optimum human health. The traditional vegetarian diets, as in India, always included eggs, dairy, and/or fish, which provided these nutrients.

Unfortunately, most animal-based foods in our modern diet are over-processed and unhealthy due to unnaturally high levels of saturated fats, sodium, nitrites, preservatives, and other additives; giving meat a bad reputation in many nutritional circles. Yet if you want a strong body, a sharp mind, and a powerful and vigilant immune system, you should try to consume lean, healthy, fresh protein three times a day.

Next week:  Part 2: Be Picky About Your Protein

Got your attention, didn’t I? Parents and health experts are outraged by childhood obesity, but kids aren’t the only ones suffering. I do a lot of workplace wellness talks and I keep noticing that soda pop and other high-calorie, sugary drinks are the most readily available beverages in most offices. How many of you have soda machines, sugary coffee creamers and other unhealthy beverages within 20 feet of your desk? I see many more soda machines than water coolers and this really drives me nuts.

Scientific data show that consumption of one or more sugary soft drinks during the day increases the chance of developing Type 2 diabetes by 67%. Non-caloric, diet soft drinks are no better. Artificial sweeteners not only turn on the sweet tooth for the day, thereby increasing daily calorie intake, but research shows that regular consumption of artificial sweeteners increases the likelihood of developing the metabolic syndrome by 40%.

Reality is most employees spend all day sitting at a desk. They’re not exercising and chances are they’re drinking sugar all day, whether as coffee creamer, soda pop or lemonade, causing constant spiking and crashing of the blood sugar and increasing disease risk. Business owners and managers bring me in to talk about health and wellness in an effort to improve employee health, but also to improve health insurance costs. Bottom line is employers themselves need to do a better job of getting healthy beverages (we’ll talk snacks later) into the workplace and employees need to ask for them.

Here are some healthy options for workplace beverages:

• Water: Learn to drink water again. Everything does not have to be flavored.
• Tea and Coffee (limit caffeine after noon and avoid sweeteners)
• Sparkling waters (we like LaCroix, Mendota Springs and Ice Mountain)
• Have access to ice and a water cooler and provide cups – getting water needs to be as convenient as getting a can of soda pop (and providing it free of charge helps).

Whole Foods discontinues krill, citing ’sustainability issues’.

Read about the sustainability of CardioTabs Ocean Safe Omega-3.  http://www1.cardiotabs.com/oceansafefaq.asp

You can get a free sample of Ocean Safe Omega-3 from CardioTabs.  Simply send an email requesting yours to info@cardiotabs.com.