Skip to content

Top 10 Heart Tests, Alzheimer’s Prevention, Exercise for Eyes, Potassium, MTFHR Testing

WulfWorks Wellness News

Top 10 Heart Tests, Alzheimer’s Prevention, Exercise for Eyes, Potassium, MTFHR Testing

In This Issue: 

    • Top 10 Tests for Heart Disease
    • Fast Walk Away from Alzheimer’s
    • Exercise Saves Eyes
    • Why You Need More Potassium
    • MTFHR Testing and Why You May Want It

You’ll Find More Fascinating Health Posts my Facebook Page –

facebook.com/HealItAll/ – and lots of great recipes in my

Whole Foods Plant-Based, Gluten Free Diet & Recipes Group

Message from Bernadette Wulf

Health Nutrition Coach Bernadette WulfGreetings!

Aside from raging local fires and the COVID quarantine, things are looking pretty good around here at the moment. Harvest season is in full swing. Everyone seems to be looking for ways to get rid of excess zucchini and apples are falling from the trees.

I wish I could say that the troubles of this year are over, but my intuition (and planetary alignments) tells me that this winter will bring even more challenges. Please make sure you stock up on healthy staple foods, TP, water and any other essentials you may need. We may be in for a big economic shake up and interruption of our food supply chains (already beginning to happen). I hope not, but as the Boy Scouts say, “Be prepared!”

On a lighter note, my Merlin’s Path course got off to a great start, with a lot more sign ups than I was expecting. Who knew Merlin was so popular? If you are interested in finding out more, check it out here – https://www.celticmysteryschool.com/celtic-magic-courses/merlins-path-faery-magic-course/

This month we have some great articles on disease prevention and helpful tests that can give you a heads up on potential health issues before they land you in the hospital. Knowing how well your heart, your brain, your eyes, and the rest of your body are doing and taking preventative measures to protect them will go a long way to supporting your peace of mind.

Have questions or comments? Email Bernadette Please use this link and do not hit reply to this post, because I may never get your message that way.

To your health and happiness!

Bernadette Wulf

HealItAll.com & Plant Based for Life

heart healthTop 10 Tests for Heart Disease

I thought this article by Dr. Ann Louise Gittleman was so good that I’m including a large part of it here. Please read the entire article if you have any issues with heart health – or even if you don’t.

From annlouise.com:

    1. Inflammation – [ ] inflammation – not cholesterol – is the main predictor of heart disease. (read the article here) [ ] There are many causes of inflammation in the body, including high blood sugar, high insulin, Advance Glycation End products (AGEs), excess metals, hormone imbalances, nutrient deficiencies, and more. [ ] The number one test [ ] for inflammation specific to the cardiovascular system is the cardio-CRP (C-Reactive Protein), also known as the hs-CRP [ ] the lab’s normal range is usually 0-3mg/dL, the optimal range is less than 1.0 mg/dL for women and less than 0.55 mg/dL for men.
    1. Homocysteine – When you have one or more MTHFR gene mutations, as up to 50 percent of the population does, your homocysteine levels can rise. Elevated homocysteine [is] a risk factor for early heart disease. You may feel weak, fatigued, and dizzy when levels are high, and have renal disease. Your blood tests may show that you are low in vitamins B6, B12, and folate. – High homocysteine is one of the few health issues treated exclusively by supplementing with vitamins. Because it is most commonly caused by the MTHFR gene mutations, supplementing with the methylated forms of vitamins B6, B12, and folate are the fix for this risk factor.
    1. Iron – [ ] Oxidation [ ] happens to excess iron in the body, which basically “rusts” us on the inside and leads to heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, arthritis, and more. Iron overload is most common in men and postmenopausal women. It comes from the water we drink, foods we eat, cookware, we use, and the supplements we take [especially heme iron from liver, meat and seafood – Ed.].
    1. TMA for Minerals – Electrolytes like calcium, magnesium, sodium, chloride, and potassium help regulate everything from muscle relaxation to fluid balance and can put stress on the heart when they are either deficient or in excess. 
    1. Fasting Insulin – We are all familiar with insulin as a key player in blood sugar control, but did you also know it’s a marker of inflammation in the body and tied to heart disease? Once you start overproducing insulin as a response to chronic stress or a high carb sugary diet, [or especially a high fat diet – Ed.] then it isn’t long before inflammation and weight gain follow. 
    1. Glycosylated Hemoglobin – [ ] Several studies show that glycation alone is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease – and this process starts with how you cook your food. – When you cook your food over high heat, the proteins or fats in those foods react with even small amounts of sugars and form inflammatory molecules through a process called glycation. [ ] The Hemoglobin A1c test is a measure of glycosylated – or glycated – hemoglobin molecules in your blood. So, while this is a measure of your blood sugar control, it’s also a measure of the AGEs you have in your body, and also a good indicator of your risk of heart disease from them. For optimal health, your Hemoglobin A1c should be 5.6% or less.
    1. Healthy Fats – We have heard for years about the importance of Omega 3 essential fats for your heart health, but did you know there’s a blood test that measures both Omega 3 and Omega 6 fat levels and calculates the ratio of them for you? This test is a must-have in my book. Not only is it a good way to find out if your diet and supplement protocol is working well for you, but also gives you a good idea of your fat metabolism and fat balance. 
    1. Cholesterol Quality – Not all cholesterol is bad. When your body sends it to help repair injured tissues, your total blood cholesterol may look elevated, when in fact, that cholesterol is sorely needed for healing. A typical cholesterol test only looks at HDL, LDL, and Triglycerides, but more in-depth testing is needed to understand whether the cholesterol you have circulating is actually associated with an increased risk of heart disease. – In my article, Super Heart Health Today, I talked about the VAP test, the most accurate cholesterol test available today. It measures 15 different components of blood cholesterol and identifies the patterns associated with an increased risk of heart disease. If you have high levels of LDL-B or Lp(a) fractions, then your risk of heart disease is higher. 
    1. Hormones – There are many different hormone imbalances that are risk factors for heart disease. Low testosterone in men, estrogen dominance in both men and women, low thyroid hormones, high cortisol levels, and high insulin levels are all risk factors for heart disease. 
    1. Coronary Calcium Score – If one or more of the above tests comes back with concerning levels, and you have a personal history, family history or genetic predisposition to heart disease, then I recommend getting a Coronary Calcium Score done. This inexpensive and very quick CT scan of your heart measures the amount of calcium deposition that’s in each of the main arteries to your heart.

Read more about early signs of heart disease – https://annlouise.com/articles/my-top-10-tests-of-heart-disease

Preventing Alzeheimer'sFast Walk Away from Alzeheimer’s

Recent studies show that the combination of mental lapses and a slower walking pace can be early warning signs of dementia. The good news is that you can counter these negative effects by getting a little more exercise and cleaning up your diet.

If you’ve been a reader of this newsletter for long, you probably already know that a whole plant foods diet is protective of brain health. Not only can a healthy low fat diet help to protect you from dementia and Alzeheimer’s, it is also the best way to lower the blood pressure that can be a contributing factor.

From awakeningfromalzeheimers.com:

Researcher Manuel Montero-Odasso, of the University of Western Ontario in Canada, recommends incorporating exercise and replacing junk food with more fruits and vegetables for an effective dementia prevention lifestyle. Dr. Montero-Odasso says there’s no reason to wait, “in light of emerging evidence that lifestyle interventions — such as physical exercise, incorporating Mediterranean diets, or intensive blood pressure control — may help delay progression to dementia in older adults at risk.”

Remember that “Mediterranean diets” is doctor lingo for a relatively improved diet that they think most people will be willing to follow. That doesn’t mean it is the best diet – or that is a good idea to guzzle lots of olive oil just because it is Mediterranean. It actually means lots of whole fruits and vegetables with some beans and complex carbohydrates and very minimal animal products, if any.

Small amounts of olive oil appear to be harmless, but any high fat meal will raise insulin resistance and clog your arteries with fat for several hours. How often do you really want to do that to your body?

Read more about preventing Alzeheimer’s – https://www.awakeningfromalzheimers.com/your-risk-for-alzheimers-may-be-hiding-in-plain-sight

Eye HealthExercise Saves Eyes

Not only does exercise help prevent dementia and Alzeheimer’s disease, it looks like it can also help save your eyesight. No surprise, really. Exercise promotes healthy blood flow to all your organs. The eyes are no exception.

From naturalhealth365.com:

According to researchers, regular exercise helps to reduce the harmful blood vessel overgrowth that occurs in the eyes, which is a significant contributor to eye diseases like macular degeneration – the leading cause of vision loss. In fact, not only did the study find that exercising helped prevent the loss of vision, it found that it helped reduce the severity of macular degeneration, too.

Exercise doesn’t have to be strenuous or boring. Do some housework or gardening. Take a walk. Turn on your favorite music and dance in your living room. Play tennis. Just make sure you get your body moving every day, at least a few times a day.

Read more about how exercise can help save your eyes – https://www.naturalhealth365.com/vision-loss-eye-health-3487.html

bananas for potassiumWhy You Need More Potassium

I love salt, but I’ve cut way back on it over the past several years. This article from nutritionfacts.org explains one good reason:

Even a single high-potassium meal, containing the equivalent of two to three bananas’ worth of potassium, can improve the function of our arteries, whereas a high-sodium meal—that is, a meal with the amount of salt most people eat—can impair arterial function within 30 minutes. While potassium increases nitric oxide release, sodium reduces nitric oxide release. So, the health of our arteries may be determined by our sodium-to-potassium ratio.

This is especially problematic for people who eat at restaurants a lot, because restaurants tend to pile on the salt – and it is rarely even good quality salt like Celtic Sea Salt or Himalayan Pink Salt. On top of that, restaurants usually serve big portions of high sodium animal products with a few vegetables when we should be doing just the opposite to maintain a healthy balance of sodium and potassium.

Bottom line, just about everyone could benefit by cutting way back on salt and eating a lot more high potassium fruits and vegetables. That’s exactly what you’ll be doing when you eat a whole plant foods diet with minimal salt. And by the way, potatoes are a great source of potassium!

Read more about your potassium/sodium balance – https://nutritionfacts.org/2020/08/11/how-to-lower-your-sodium-to-potassium-ratio/

genetic testingMTFHR Testing and Why You May Want It

Did you know that there is a genetic test that can indicate your propensity for developing a wide range of health issues? It is called the MTHFR (Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase). But why would you want to know that there is a ticking time bomb in your genes?

Here’s why it might be helpful. Even if you do have a genetic marker for particular disease it can be turned on or off by your thoughts, your lifestyle choices, your diet, or the right medications. In other words, just because you have a gene for thyroid cancer doesn’t mean you have to develop the disease. It means you could if you didn’t take proper care of yourself.

From naturalhealth365.com:

Simply put, you may want to consider MTHFR (Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase) – the genetic test every doctor should be performing that could help save millions of dollars in healthcare costs by educating individuals about serious health issues before symptoms arise.

The article goes on to say:

A faulty MTHFR gene that goes unchecked could:

    • Increase the likelihood of developing depression
    • Complicate thyroid issues
    • Influence fertility
    • Reduce the body’s capacity to eliminate inflammation related to autoimmune disease and other illnesses

Once you “de-code” MTFHR – diet, nutritional supplements and other lifestyle changes can be prescribed to help optimize health, if a mutation is detected. Discovering a mutation isn’t necessarily negative, but leaving it unchecked could be problematic.

Research the science of epigenetics if you want to know more about this. It is fascinating!

Read More About the Value of MTFHR Testing – https://www.naturalhealth365.com/lab-test-thyroid-disease-3477.html