Dr. Seth Baum's Heart Health Tips
CBN.com Learn more about how to read your cholesterol test and why the LipoProfile is a more accurate assessment of heart health. Also, find out what foods rank high on health, what exercise you should be doing, and why incorporating your faith and a positive attitude goes a long way to your quality of life. It’s all in this interview with cardiologist Dr. Seth Baum, author of Age Strong, Live Long: Lessons From My Patients.
PAT ROBERTSON: Well, Dr. Baum is with us today. And it’s an interesting book, Age Strong, Live Long. Doctor, it’s good to have you back. Thank you for being here. What’s the key, or is there a key? Your book cites several different things we need to look for.
DR. SETH BAUM: Well, I’d say there is no one key. There are a multitude of things that we have to try to do in order to improve our cardiovascular and other health. And I would say the starting point is recognizing the fact that we have a responsibility to do something, that we have the capability of doing something; and then going from there we look at a whole bunch of other issues, which I’m sure we’ll be talking about.
PAT: Yes. You pointed out in your book that it’s not a one-size-fits-all diagnosis either. You pointed out about a wife who went on her husband’s diet and started all these weird symptoms. Tell us about some of that.
DR. BAUM: That’s true. And that was actually a very, very interesting case. I put her husband on a diet, a low carbohydrate diet. And she’s a baker, so she started cooking all these different foodstuffs for her husband, and she was using Splenda. She began to get sick, and she would develop headaches and insomnia. She spent several months, actually, under the care of another physician having a multitude of tests, CAT scans, MRIs, blood tests. You name it, she had it. Ultimately, her daughter, I believe it was, looked on the Internet and found some references to these abnormalities that can occur with Splenda. She stopped then; her symptoms went away. The more interesting part about this is, some time down the road, unbeknownst to her, her husband had purchased some English muffins that had Splenda in them, and she didn’t realize this and redeveloped the symptoms. When she stopped them, then the symptoms went away. So this is proof that this had a negative impact.
PAT: Well, the Splenda, of course, is—they treat sugar with chlorine, and I guess the chlorine is harmless to most people, but to her it must have been bad. Well, some of these cases in here are fascinating. Well, what do you tell your patients? Is it that? Is it the stress level that’s the killer? What is it?
DR. BAUM: Well, Mrs. Mitch, first of all, is a brilliant and fascinating lady. Stress is clearly a killer. And stress is really our perception of what’s going on in our world and how the things in our world will impact on us. And in order to deal with that, in order to approach stress, we have to be self aware. So we constantly have to survey our own goings on, our own internal workings. And if we do that effectively, we’ll note when we’re stressed, and then we can approach the stress with stress reduction modalities. But again, self awareness is the key.
PAT: What is this time indulgence you write about?
DR. BAUM: It’s a crazy world. It’s a crazy, busy world. And we’re constantly on the move where everybody is on cells phones, and there is no down time. And I am as guilty as the next in terms of not permitting myself to have down time. Time indulgence really is allowing yourself the ability to take a break and just to be at peace with yourself, whether it’s walking, meditating, praying. These are things that are gifts to yourself. And if we don’t do that, then we just run around like rats on a wheel and you get sick.
PAT: People won’t unhook. It’s just unbelievable. You go on vacation. Those things, they’re ringing all the time. They drive you crazy if you’re in their presence.
DR. BAUM: Yes, it’s true. And I don’t know about you. I have one with a BlackBerry that has the e-mail, and it has a little buzz every time I get an e-mail. So I’m constantly being bombarded by these things. There are times I just want to throw my phone across the room.
PAT: Have you seen some dramatic results with your patients? Because heart disease, as I understand, it’s the number-one killer in America. It’s really very serious.
DR. BAUM: It’s the number-one killer in America in men and women. And it’s something women don’t often recognize. It’s important to approach it aggressively. And what I mean by that is to manage the multitude of risk factors, starting with the LDL issue, which we’ll talk about, and the stress reduction, and exercise and dietary modifications, the down time. When you do this, I’ve seen dramatic results.
PAT: Well, Kristi is going to talk now about a test we had that Dr. Baum set up with Gailon Totheroh, and she’ll talk more about Age Strong, Live Long. But Kristi, let me throw it over to you and tell us about that fascinating test you and I took.
KRISTI WATTS: Well, as I said, Pat, we told you about a new and improved cholesterol test called the LipoProfile. Well, in the spirit of Skinny Wednesday, Pat and I agreed to be guinea pigs for that test.
PAT: Kristi, we survived. Dr. Baum is here now with the results of my test and your test to tell us whether we’re going to live or not.
DR. BAUM: Well, first of all, I want to say you’re both very brave.
KRISTI: Thank you very much.
DR. BAUM: So let’s start with yours.
PAT: All right.
DR. BAUM: Your test result was very good. Well, first of all, let me just define the issue here if I could, just for a moment. Cholesterol is carried in LDL particles. Fat and water don’t mix, so our body very smartly has these little particles that carry the cholesterol, LDL particles. The problem is they don’t all have the same quantity of cholesterol. So some have little amounts, some have more. That’s why it’s important to know the number of particles. With you, your particle number was 1319, which is a good range. And your LDL cholesterol was 112. There should be about a ten to one relationship, so there is what is called a slight disconnect there, where you have a little more particles floating around than your LDL cholesterol would indicate.
PAT: OK
DR. BAUM: So you demonstrate that, but you’re in good shape. The rest of your numbers were very good. You have many, many more years.
PAT: Oh, I’m so glad. Thank you.
KRISTI: I want to remind our audience again that a lot of people got their cholesterol test, but we got our lipids tested, right? Describe the importance of that.
PAT: Well, my cholesterol came back at 177, but Gailon Totheroh said that doesn’t really mean anything, so go ahead.
DR. BAUM: That goes back to the issue of the particles. The cholesterol that’s carried in these particles—and they’re called lipoproteins—the LDL is a low density lipoprotein. Each cell is a high density lipoprotein. It’s important to know the number of these particles, because it’s the particles themselves that bombard our arteries and cause damage. It’s not the cholesterol content that matters so much; it’s the number of particles. It would be the equivalent of, for instance, somebody shooting at you with a machine gun with a multitude of bullets flying out versus somebody taking one shot with one bullet. You’d rather have somebody shooting—you’d rather not have anybody shooting.
KRISTI: So let’s break it down doctor, what was mine?
DR. BAUM: Now yours was superb.
KRISTI: Did you hear that, Pat?
PAT: I heard superb. That’s off the chart. I heard it.
KRISTI: Thank you very much.
DR. BAUM: It wasn’t off the chart. Your LDL particles were 795. Optimal is under 1,000. Now, you had the opposite, though, which is very enlightening. You had an LDL cholesterol of 122. An LDL cholesterol of 122, although it’s good, it’s not optimal, optimal being under 100.
PAT: 100 is mine, Kristi.
DR. BAUM: Exactly.
KRISTI: Thank you, Pat.
PAT: You have low particles.
KRISTI: Yes, the important thing is the LDL, right? My particles are better than your particles is what he’s trying to say, Pat.
DR. BAUM: Well, I’m going to stay out of this one. I brought a few other ones.
PAT: All right. Keep going. She was off the chart on the particles.
DR. BAUM: I agree.
KRISTI: Thank you very much.
DR. BAUM: You’re welcome. OK. Next is a nameless person who had an LDL particle number of 1621, which is in the high zone. But this person’s LDL cholesterol was 91, lower than both of yours.
PAT: Wow.
DR. BAUM: Yes. So this person would go to his doctor, and the doctor would say, ‘Oh, look, you have great LDL cholesterol. You’re fine.’ In fact, the patient is not fine. The patient requires intervention to lower this number.
KRISTI: Well, let’s talk about the different ways that we can lower cholesterol or the different things that can help our hearts.
PAT: Well, he’s got one more before we go.
KRISTI: Oh, I’m sorry. OK.
DR. BAUM: All right. Let me get you a good one. In truth, there are some pretty bad ones. Here is an LDL particle number of 1968, very, very high. An LDL cholesterol of 112. So this person looks really good, but in fact is at very high risk. Unfortunately, when we did the first analysis last spring, if you compared a standard lipid profile to the LipoProfile from LipoScience, 75 percent of the people had a different therapy based upon the LipoScience result.
KRISTI: That’s phenomenal.
DR. BAUM: Which really leads us to the question, why would you just look at a standard lipid profile when you can look at it all, the standard and this?
PAT: As Kristi said, let’s get a look.
KRISTI: Yes. What we have right here are different kinds of foods, and these are foods that are supposed to be healthy to our hearts. Correct?
DR. BAUM: Correct.
KRISTI: Let’s talk about some of them.
PAT: Tell us about them.
DR. BAUM: Let’s talk about the not-so-obvious. Let’s take the eggs. Eggs used to be banned because they were the not-go-to food. Now, they’re actually no longer on the American Heart Association’s list of foods not to eat. They’ve removed them. And, in fact, there is an egg that is an Omega 3-containing egg that’s very healthful. What they do is they feed the chickens alfalfa and flax seed and even fish oils. The chickens produce high Omega-3 content eggs.
KRISTI: Now, I’ve noticed, Pat, I’m looking at your green tea. You’re always talking about green tea, so that’s good for your heart.
PAT: Good for your heart.
KRISTI: My favorite, the chocolate. Go ahead and talk about it, doctor.
DR. BAUM: Well, I will talk about the chocolate. Chocolate is very good for you. In fact, there are some studies that have shown that chocolate is the highest antioxidant food, even when compared to berries.
KRISTI: Really?
PAT: What about the sugar, though?
DR. BAUM: Even with the sugar. The antioxidant capacity of the chocolate is high.
PAT: You’re killing me.
DR. BAUM: Obviously, dark chocolate is better than milk chocolate. It’s got less sugar in it. So I would definitely go for the dark chocolate. I just read yesterday that Mars is actually going to launch a program of medicinal chocolate. I just want to mention the coffee also. Not bad for you. People think coffee is bad for you. In fact, it has catechins like the green tea, antioxidants. Those stabilize blood sugar in diabetic patients. It is OK in moderation. Everything should be in moderation.
PAT: Here is a tempting bunch. Tell us about these various nuts.
DR. BAUM: All nuts have healthful attributes. They differ in terms of their mineral contents and their oil contents, but they’re all healthful. The problem with nuts is they’re very fattening.
KRISTI: Yes, that is true.
DR. BAUM: So in moderation, an ounce a day.
PAT: You’ve got some fish over there, it looks like.
DR. BAUM: Fish is certainly very good for you. We have to be careful of the mercury issues and the contaminated fish with regard to PCBs as well. But, obviously, the meat—meat is not so bad. There are saturated fats in meat. I would not make it a staple where you’re eating it two or three times a day. But to eat meat in moderation is OK. There are some fats, stearic acid and lauric acid, which are actually not so bad for you.
PAT: Hear is something else in your book that you’ve talked about. This is olive oil, extra virgin olive oil. Is that good?
DR. BAUM: Very good for you. And it has monounsaturated fat. It’s healthful, cardio-protective, definitely something to include. Coconut oil, very scary, because most people say, ‘Don’t ever touch coconut oil.’ Like everything else, or like most other things—I shouldn’t say everything else—it does have some healthful attributes.
KRISTI: Just like chocolate.
DR. BAUM: Just like chocolate. In fact, it’s very high in content in lauric acid. Lauric acid is a fat that is present in mother’s milk that is immuno-enhancing.
PAT: Where do you get coconut oil? I don’t see that very much. Is that a specialty store where they sell it?
DR. BAUM: Well, at health food stores.
PAT: Health food stores. All right. You’ve said, doctor, that exercise is the addiction we all need. What kind of exercise do you recommend?
DR. BAUM: There are three points of exercise. From a cardiovascular standpoint, aerobic exercise, which is using large muscle groups for prolonged periods of time, is the most beneficial. It helps the heart muscle. It helps the blood vessels. It helps your lung function. We’re now recommending 30 to 60 minutes a day.
PAT: A day?
KRISTI: Absolutely.
PAT: Now that would be bicycles, gliders . . . .
KRISTI: Walking.
DR. BAUM: Walking, swimming, rowing. Right.
PAT: Thirty to 60 minutes a day?
DR. BAUM: And the elliptical machine is very good. It is very easy on the body. I don’t know if you’ve used that.
KRISTI: I have one at home, doc.
DR. BAUM: Well, you’re on track.
PAT: That’s why you went off the chart on that test.
KRISTI: And why I’m still eating chocolate. All right, let’s talk about the dumbbells.
DR. BAUM: The dumbbells—don’t forget resistance training. It’s a great weight-loss technique. And stretching is very important as well.
KRISTI: The supplements.
DR. BAUM: I think a daily multiple, a good daily multiple, is very valuable. And fish oil, a good quality fish oil supplement, has great health benefits as well.
PAT: Is that it? No other supplements?
DR. BAUM: Well, I’m talking about for the general population. Now a good daily multiple, I think, should have 100 percent of the recommended daily value, no more, because some people actually don’t do as well with high dose antioxidants. There are studies coming out now looking at higher dose vitamin E being counterproductive. I did a study a few years back looking at high dose antioxidants and showed that it could actually worsen your antioxidant status.
PAT: Incredible.
DR. BAUM: Yes.
KRISTI: And don’t forget about the woman in Gailon’s story, the 90-year-old woman who was also a teacher. She says that the key to her successful life was because she had God at the center of her life. So that’s also part of it as well, reading the Word, studying the Word, and having peace in your life.
DR. BAUM: Yes.
KRISTI: Not having contention with people.
DR. BAUM: That’s correct.
KRISTI: Why are you looking at me, Pat, when I say that?
DR. BAUM: And she’s a remarkable lady. I get a Bible lesson every time she comes to my office.
PAT: Doctor, I want to recommend again your book Age Strong, Live Long: Lessons From My Patients. It has lessons along with practical information. Man, it’s so good to have you with us.
KRISTI: Thank you so much. And thank you for the chocolate.
