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Expert Q&A: Heart-Healthy Eating
Dean Ornish, MD, has already shown us what it's possible to do with a healthy lifestyle. Now he's showing us how to do it.
Ornish's plant-based diet, exercise, and lifestyle plan can reverse heart disease. But the strict Ornish plan only shows what's possible, not what might be right for you. In his new book, The Spectrum, Ornish puts the emphasis on finding your own personal place in a spectrum of healthy choices. For Ornish it's not all about diet and exercise. He gives equal weight to stress reduction via mindfulness and meditation.
Expert Interviews
Got a question about diet or nutrition? WebMD asked the experts for answers
about eating healthy and losing weight.
So how do you go about making the changes needed to improve your overall heart health? WebMD turned to Ornish for some answers.
What is mindfulness? Why do you say mindfulness is part of healthy eating?
Mindfulness is just the practice of paying attention to something. Meditation helps to promote mindfulness, because when you pay attention to something you do it better.
And on the sensual level, when you pay more attention to something, whether it is food, music, sex, art, or massage, you enjoy it more fully and you don't need as much of it to get an even greater amount of pleasure.
Pay attention to how things affect you. Then your choices come out of your own experience. It's not just because some book-writing doctor told you to change. You change because you connect the dots between what you do and how you feel.
When you exercise, eat healthier, and meditate, many changes occur -- quickly. You think more clearly. You have more energy and you need less sleep. Your skin doesn't wrinkle as much. Your heart gets more blood, so you have more stamina. And your sexual organs get more blood, so you have more sexual energy.
These changes are sustainable because they come from your own experience.
Which is more important to avoid, cholesterol or saturated fats?
Saturated fat will raise your blood cholesterol levels about twice as much as the same amount of dietary cholesterol will. But both are important. You only find cholesterol in animal products. You often find products that say they are cholesterol free, but may contain palm oil, which is high in unsaturated fat. So it is important to take note of both.
Are unsaturated fats beneficial?
I don't know that unsaturated fats are necessarily good. That is one of the few differences I have with people like Walt Willett at the Harvard School of Public Health. They say it does not matter how much fat you eat as long as it is unsaturated -- but it does.
First of all, fat is very dense in calories, and it doesn't matter whether it is unsaturated, monounsaturated, or saturated. Fat has 9 calories per gram, protein and carbohydrates have only 4 calories per gram, so when you eat less fat you are going to consume fewer calories without having to eat less food.
And studies show that total fat is related to diseases, such as breast cancer, and not just to saturated fat. So it is important to be mindful of both.
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Health & Diet Guide
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INDICATION
Vivelle-Dot is used after menopause to: reduce moderate to severe hot flashes; treat moderate to severe dryness, itching and burning in or around the vagina; help reduce your chances of getting osteoporosis (thin weak bones); and treat certain conditions in which a young woman's ovaries do not produce enough estrogens naturally. Vivelle-Dot 0.025 mg/day is only used to prevent osteoporosis from menopause. If you use Vivelle-Dot only to treat your dryness, itching, and burning in and around your vagina or if you use Vivelle-Dot only to prevent osteoporosis from menopause, talk with your healthcare professional about whether a different treatment or medicine without estrogens might be better for you.
IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION
Estrogens increase the chances of getting cancer of the uterus (womb). Report any unusual vaginal bleeding right away while you are taking estrogens. Vaginal bleeding after menopause may be a warning sign of cancer of the uterus (womb).
Do not use estrogens with or without progestins to prevent heart disease, heart attacks, or strokes. Using estrogens with or without progestins may increase your chances of getting heart attacks, strokes, breast cancer, and blood clots. Using estrogens with progestins may increase your risk of dementia (decline in memory and thinking skills).
Vivelle-Dot should not be used if you have unusual vaginal bleeding; currently have or have had certain cancers, including cancer of the breast or uterus; had a stroke or heart attack in the recent past (for example, in the past year); currently have or have had blood clots; currently have or have had liver problems; or think you may be, or know that you are, pregnant.
The most common side effects that may occur with Vivelle-Dot are headache, breast tenderness, and back pain.
You and your healthcare professional should talk regularly about whether you still need treatment with Vivelle-Dot.
You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088.
Please see Full Prescribing Information for Vivelle-Dot.
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