Sweet Heart – Affairs of the Heart

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heart health

What, actually, is the definition of “heart”? Technically, it is a hollow muscular organ of vertebrate animals, that by its rhythmic contraction acts as a forceful pump maintaining the circulation of the blood. But get out a dictionary and it’s defined as a lot more:

  • The graphic symbol doodled and represented from the time we’re old enough to get crayons in our hands
  • A suit of playing cards that can get people in trouble if they bet on them showing up in a five-card flush
  • A personality, as in such a cold heart
  • A generous disposition, such as a person with heart
  • Our innermost character or feelings… a man after my own heart
  • Grabbing your chest as in be still my heart
  • This being Valentines, let’s not forget love and affection, such as won her heart

It’s even an idiom wonder:

Cross my heart. Whole hearted. Sick at heart. Have a heart. Have your heart set on. Even artichoke hearts.  Get the idea?

But let’s get to the heart we should be most concerned with.

Your Most Significant Other

Our hearts are what pump life into us. But they can also take it away. The fact is, heart disease is now our No. 1 killer with more women dying of it than men. Enough said.

Jeez, the Jargon

More than a muscle, the heart is a puzzle, a complex whirling bedlam of interconnected parts that all depend on each other. It’s hard, or nearly impossible for us to understand everything that’s involved. Its physiology alone, can sound like scary gibberish:

  • Ventricles
  • Pericardium
  • Myocardium
  • Endocardium
  • Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD)
  • Angioplasty
  • Atherosclerosis
  • Pericarditis
  • Saphenous vein
  • Tachycardia
  • Mitral stenosis
  • Superior and inferior venae cavae
  • Sinoatrial node

And you thought antidisestablishmentarianism was a tough one.

The Tic, Tic, Tic of Your Ticker

There are some things about your heart that can be explained in plain English. They’re actually pretty informative and even fascinating.

  • A human heart is roughly the size of a large fist
  • Your heart pumps 60-80 times a minute, 100,000 times a day and 3 billion times over the course of a lifetime
  • The heart weighs between 10 to 12 ounces in men and 8 to 10 ounces in women
  • The heart pumps blood to almost all of the body’s 75 trillion cells. Only the corneas receive no blood supply
  • A kitchen faucet would need to be turned on all the way for at least 45 years to equal the amount of blood pumped by the heart in an average lifetime
  • Because the heart has its own electrical impulse, it can continue to beat even when separated from the body, as long as it has an adequate supply of oxygen
  • Every day, the heart creates enough energy to drive a truck 20 miles. In a lifetime, that is equivalent to driving to the moon and back
  • Some heavy snorers may have a condition called obtrusive sleep apnea (OSA), which can negatively affect the heart
  • Christiaan Barnard (November 1922 – September 2001), was a South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world’s first successful human-to-human heart transplant
  • French physician Rene Laennec (1781-1826) invented the stethoscope when he felt it was inappropriate to place his ear on his large-buxom female patients’ chests in order to listen to their hearts. We couldn’t resist adding this one.

Heart and Soul

What’s to love about feeling out of whack all over? Anxiety. Fatigue. Sleep problems.

What’s going on? Usually you attribute these things to something else, when in fact, it could be that your hormones are out of balance. Which can make your whole life feel out of balance. Hormones can become unbalanced anytime throughout your life regardless of age or sex. But here’s something you’ll love; at Denver Hormone Health, Dr. Stephan A. Goldstein can get you going full speed again. With his unparalleled experience and expertise in the field of Hormone Replacement, he knows just what to do. Simple tests will tell him what’s really going on, and from there, he creates a treatment tailored exactly to resolve your problems. Give yourself the valentine of feeling your best and call for an appointment now.

One visit and you’ll know his heart’s in the right place.

Sweet Heart – Once Upon a Time

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Once there was a guy named Valentinus who supposedly helped a young blind girl see. Just before being executed for some probably heinous crime or another (or not), he sent a note to her, signed “From your Valentine.”  This was February 14, 270 A.D. There was another theory relating to February 14, as the day of romance and love. It has been said that St. Valentine’s Day was the day on which the birds, returning in the very early spring, chose their mates. (Spring was often thought to begin in the middle of February in 14th-century Europe.) Where was Hallmark then?

Not Just an Organ, an Icon

While “heart” normally makes people think of the thump, thump, thump of their ticker and the job of keeping it thumping, the heart is a star, featured in songs, television and on the big screen. As an example, in the TV series, Once Upon a Time, (a modernized fairy-tale, complete with Snow White, Robin Hood, Aladdin, Captain Hook and even Rumpelstiltskin), the Evil Queen can reach into someone’s body, rip out their heart and crush it to death. Which, is on the kind of creepy side. On the other hand, the heart goes hand in hand with love. Getting struck by Cupid’s arrow may very well take your breath away and make your heart go pitter-patter. No wonder it’s become such a pop icon.

The Price We Pay for Love

The Beatles insisted finances and fondness were unrelated. “I don’t care too much for money,” they sang. “for money can’t buy me love.”

But money can buy a heapful of cards and candy, and even cushy little teddy bears with big red hearts emblazoned on their chests. The amount spent on this holiday is actually enough to make you grab your heart and say, “are you kidding?” In 2016, Valentine’s Day sales soared to an all-time record $18.9 billion, which represents an 8.5% increase from 2014, when Americans spent $17.3 billion. So, who’s shelling out most of these big bucks? When it comes to Millennials, they pull out all the financial stops, spending an average of $290 on their special Valentines. Talk about sealed with a kiss.

Gotta Love It

This zealousness for passion kind of goes on in other ways, too. Apparently, there is such a thing as the most romantic city in the US, and it is ranked by how much each city’s spending increases on Valentine’s Day gifts during the first half of February. Tucson took the huge chocolate heart with a 68% percent jump in spending, and Portland bottomed the list as the least romantic city with a mere 15% increase in spending. (Maybe the rain and crummy weather kept them from getting out to shop.) And as a one-up on plushy teddy bears, it’s no secret that we love our pets, and that we spend more than we’d ever like to admit on making their life as comfy as possible. This includes spending $700 million on Valentine’s Day gifts for them. What a woof!

A Labor of Love

For all the love in the air this month, you should be floating. So why do you feel like you’ve been hit by a train reeling off its track? We’ve got a simple answer to that one: unbalanced hormones. When they are in proper balance, hormones help the body thrive, which makes you feel great. But even small problems with hormones can cause serious and potentially life-altering symptoms. Oh, brother. But the answer to that is with Stephen A. Goldstein, M.D, F.A.C.S. at Denver Hormone Health. No one in the Denver area knows more about, or is more experienced in the field of Hormone Replacement. With simple tests, he can tell exactly what your problem is, then compounds a uniquely tailored treatment to make you feel your absolute best. Call for an appointment now. You’ll be glad you did.

Cross our hearts.

LET’S TALK TURKEY – Food Coma

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Food Coma

Why is it you feel so sleepy after Thanksgiving dinner?  Is the turkey really the guilty party?  Who is the true culprit of the lethargic feeling experienced after a heavy Thanksgiving dinner?  Is it just an act to get out of dish duty?

Let’ so start with the facts:  We know Turkey contains L-tryptophan, an essential amino acid with a documented sleep inducing effect- a natural sedative.  The body cannot produce L-Tryptophan; we have to get it and other amino acids from food.  L-Tryptophan helps the body produce niacin, which assists in the production of serotonin, a chemical that acts as a calming agent in the brain.  So it sounds like the turkey is the guilty party after all, however, it is not.  L-Tryptophan only has those effects if it is taken on an empty stomach, without other amino acids or protein.

So why is it we desperately want to conk out after a heavy thanksgiving dinner if it’s not the turkey?  I suppose the word “heavy” may be the key here.  Thanksgiving dinner is heavy and high in carbohydrates, as well as fats.  Carbohydrates fuel the pancreas to emit insulin, which causes amino acids to battle L-Tryptophan and causes it to leave the bloodstream and enter muscle cells, which in turn amplifies the concentration of L-Tryptophan in the bloodstream. Serotonin is synthesized and you begin to feel sleepy.  Fats take a significant amount of energy to digest, which also results in fatigue.  If you throw alcohol into the mix you are going to intensify the feeling even more.

Lullaby…

Ever notice it’s hard to keep our eyes open once we haven’t been able to keep our mouths shut? Oh, for the sofa…just a little nap. We really should have exercised some restraint, but the only thing we give our bodies Thanksgiving Day is a digestive workout. And instead of stimulating us, we poop out. Even conversation seems an effort. All the food may explain the “food coma” many people experience after a big meal (and beyond.) Although popular wisdom holds that Thanksgiving drowsiness is caused by L-Tryptophan, it has been shown that the amount isn’t significant enough to affect most people. The culprit is food fatigue.

 

FOOTBALL BINGING

Whether you’re a breast man (or woman), leg man (or woman), heck, even a wingman (or woman), there’s something you all have in common. People are eating earlier not to digest their turkey parts and hordes of trimmings, but to ingest more football, a tried and true part of the Thanksgiving tradition. But this is merely a sitting sport for the overly indulged. Hour after hour of not moving except to stand up and scream at appropriate moments in the game. Something is wrong here. The players are out there running across the middle and pushing their bodies to the limit. No way around it, though, binge watching is a derelict distraction from getting the exercise you should be getting. And binge watching doesn’t burn calories. Sorry.

NO PAIN, NO PIE

The only thing that is going to help you get back on track, is getting back to exercising. How to start? Don’t go anywhere near a scale or mirror. Ever seen a python after it’s swallowed an animal? Sheer terror. Next, don’t fast. Fasting after binging raises the risk of triggering a binging-fasting cycle. Fasting can make you hungrier so that you subsequently overeat. Also, fasting could alter your metabolism so that you do not burn as many calories as you normally would, since fasting may make the body think that it should conserve energy. And don’t binge exercise. Enough with the excess.

Start by just moving. Then ease into resuming your regular exercise program.

This is the smart way to go. But we live in a frantic world of the exercise-obsessed.

At Crunch gyms across the country Thursday morning, dozens of eager exercisers will turn up for the Turkey Burn N’ Firm Ride, a 75-minute workout combining spinning and Pilates-based abdominal work. For others, it’s an early bout of tortuous kick-boxing. Pre-Thanksgiving workout feasts are filling up faster than anyone could fork in the food. And morning-after classes are as brutal as the previous days’ merciless and voracious sprees. It’s as much a mental thing as a physical thing. It takes an hour on the elliptical to burn 365 calories, but only five minutes to eat a piece of pumpkin pie with the same calories. Manic Thanksgiving exercisers are doing too much math.

BE GRATEFUL

ONE THING MOST PEOPLE NEVER EXERCISE AT THANKSGIVING IS RESTRAINT. THEY EAT. GO FOR SECONDS. SCARF DOWN WHATEVER THEY WANT WITHOUT RESERVE OR THOUGHT. AND THEN THEY PAY FOR IT. THEY FEEL LIKE A TRUCKLOAD OF FROZEN TURKEYS HAS RUN THEM OVER AND THEY CAN BARELY MOVE. THEIR GUTS ARE IN TURMOIL. THAT’S THE POINT WHEN THEY SHOULD MAKE AN APPOINTMENT TO SEE DR. STEPHEN A. GOLDSTEIN, M.D, F.A.C.S. AT DENVER HORMONE HEALTH. THE CULPRIT TO YOUR INTENSE DISCOMFORT MIGHT NOT JUST BE MILE HIGH PLATES OF FAT AND CARBS YOU’VE CONSUMED. IT COULD BE THAT YOUR HORMONES HAVE GONE ROGUE. DR. GOLDSTEIN IS THE BEST WAY TO FIND OUT. HE HAS YEARS OF EXPERIENCE AND EXPERTISE IN BIOIDENTICAL HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY, A NATURAL WAY TO MAKE SURE THE HORMONES IN YOUR BODY ARE SENDING THE RIGHT MESSAGES TO YOUR CELLS TO DO THE WORK THAT KEEPS EVERYTHING IN YOUR BODY WORKING RIGHT. WHEN YOU MEET WITH DR. GOLDSTEIN, HE DOES A COMPREHENSIVE EVALUATION. THEN WITH SIMPLE TESTS, HE CREATES A TOTALLY UNIQUE TREATMENT PLAN TO GET YOUR HORMONES BACK ON TRACK. PART OF THAT PLAN ALSO INCLUDES GETTING BACK ON A HEALTHY EATING PLAN AND EXERCISING MORE. EXERCISING IS EQUIVALENT TO PRESSING A BUTTON TO LAUNCH THE HORMONES THAT HELP YOU FEEL GOOD. AND FEELING GOOD IS HIS GOAL FOR EACH AND EVERY CLIENT.

SO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT TODAY.

AND DON’T JUST THINK OF IT AS FOOD FOR THOUGHT!