Breathing Zone iPhone App

espresso shot
Originally uploaded by andy.s.

We recently found the Breathing Zone app, which does an approximation of what Resperate does, and Mr. C has successfully used it on the (very packed) train on the way into work without people thinking he is crazy. He tells me it's good, and he would recommend it for travelling although it certainly won't be replacing our Resperate machine as it doesn't have all of the features or flexibility.

A good way to cancel out the effect of your morning coffee then? :-)

Kill or Cure?

Damn you, Daily Mail
Originally uploaded by floongle

I spend a fair bit of time reading health-related news items, so this website tickled me. It aims to "help to make sense of the Daily Mail’s ongoing effort to classify every inanimate object into those that cause cancer and those that prevent it". The number of things which are claimed do both (e.g. alcohol, milk), according to various studies, should remind us just how much research there needs to be before a definitive answer is found.

Which reminds me of the site Sense about Science, which I urge anybody using the internet to read up on health issues to take a look at.

News Roundup from CASH and the BPA

While I've been offline, CASH have of course been continuing their excellent work (for which they've received an award from the Chief Medical Officer), highlighting the sodium levels in foods targetted at those on special diets (I have one of those nasty nut allergies, so a subject close to my heart).

Also, the Blood Pressure Association has confirmed what your gran always told you, that porridge is the best possible breakfast, and that there may be an explanation for how vegetables help to lower your BP. Know Your Numbers Week was last month, and a survey showed that black cab drivers throughout the country, like many of us, have high blood pressure, and don't know it.

Also in the news - I have heard that restaurants and retailers are continuing to lower their sodium levels. More on this soon...

Beetroot Lowers Blood Pressure, Apparently

Beetroots
Originally uploaded by Anushruti RK

Recent research suggests that beetroot may lower blood pressure.

"HeartBeet", a new, palatable beetroot juice (it has apple juice added to it) has now come onto the market and is available from Holland & Barrett.

Resperate - Update

Just wanted to post a quick update on Resperate, which Mr C has had some success with.

It's a small unit with headphones, which plays musical notes at you - the idea is that you breathe in time with them, and that it gradually slows your breathing down by slowing down the music. Really what it is doing is getting you to meditate. Although Resperate doesn't seem to have been checked out by NICE yet, it's been approved by the FDA in the US, and also the principle has certainly been proven - regular meditation lowers your blood pressure. It's been demoed on This Morning, the item is on YouTube here.

Reducing our dietary sodium (and also alcohol consumption) brought Mr C's blood pressure down from 174/112 to 141/99 in 6 months - but this was obviously still too high. 6 weeks of regular Resperate use has brought it down, I am pleased to say, to 140/88, which is within the normal range (just!). It seems he is the perfect candidate for it, as he is otherwise very healthy, and has no underlying condition which is causing the high BP.

Resperate is £199, and is for sale online here (I'm sure you could find it cheaper elsewhere, but this site has a 30 day money back guarantee), although we got ours from our local Lloyds Chemist.

Another (albeit slightly obscure) reason to cut down on salt...

fingerprint
Originally uploaded by Toodlesnot

It seems criminals would be well-advised to follow a low sodium diet, according to recent research from the University of Leicester.

A diet high in salty foods results in saltier sweat, which can produce mild, fingerprint-shaped corrosion on metals such as bullet casings, which can then be spotted by new fingerprinting techniques.

The Evidence Builds in Favour of Chocolate...

The evidence that eating a little dark chocolate every day reduces blood pressure continues to mount.

At this rate I may start a campaign to get chocolate available on prescription.

UK Salt Intake Has Fallen by 3000 Elephants

Elephants
Many thanks to kjdrill for the beautiful photo

Great news for our health - the BBC reports that the average salt intake in the UK has fallen by almost a gramme in the last seven years - from 9.5g to 8.6g a day. This means that more people will be reaching the goal of not more than 6g a day.

You can read the full report here, and CASH's (Consensus Action on Salt and Health) response here. They have calculated, usefully, that this has removed 19,700 tonnes of salt from the UK diet, equivalent to 3000 male elephants.

Dark Chocolate Can "Ease" Blood Pressure

Green & Black's Espresso Chocolate
Originally uploaded by faerieenigma

This is an article from ages ago, but one I hadn't seen until I saw it stuck on the chocolate display in the chemists yesterday. Our local pharmacist Derek always has the health of the community at heart :-)

Thanks to faerieenigma, a fellow chocolate lover, for the photo.

Sources of Potassium

Avocado
Originally uploaded by **Shutterbug Gal**

Potassium counteracts the effects of sodium. It's something to do with the Sodium-Potassium pump, which I can vaguely recall from A level Biology. The FSA page on potassium is here - it seems that increasing your potassium intake can help with lowering blood pressure, as well as decreasing your sodium.

Some foods which are good sources of potassium are:

- fruit and veg (apricots, grapefruit, melon, spinach, kiwi, bananas, peaches and avocados are all good)
- pulses
- nuts and seeds
- milk
- fish and shellfish
- beef, chicken and turkey
- bread

What the Government Say

Now there's a post title to get you excited.

I really do need to include this as a starting point though, so bear with me. There's an excellent Food Standards Agency salt/sodium site here, which I will leave you to read. Honestly, it's worth a look. There is a lot of useful, well-explained information on there, and also a picture of the wonderful Jenny Eclair.

In summary, you should have no more than 6g of salt a day for a normal diet. That's not a lot - it's about a teaspoon-full, and equates to 2.4g of sodium. Most people eat a lot more than that, on average over 9g. The advice for children varies by age - my 6 year old daughter should be getting half that recommended for an adult, at 1.2g sodium a day. A "low sodium" diet is often referred to as either less than 1.5g or 1g of sodium a day - GPs will give different advice to different people.

Quick Reference:

Salt = Sodium x 2.5

1 to 3 years - 2 g salt a day (0.8g sodium)
4 to 6 years - 3g salt a day (1.2g sodium)
7 to 10 years - 5g salt a day (2g sodium)
11 and over (including adults) - 6g salt a day (2.4g sodium)

On this blog I refer to sodium levels rather than salt, as sodium is the significant bit for health, and can come from sources other than salt (such as sodium bicarbonate in scones). We're aiming for less than 1g sodium a day, to allow us to have the occasional lapse by eating out, and to be low enough so we can eat with the kids (something we don't really do enough of).

The Food Standards Agency categorises foods as follows:

High is more than 1.5g salt per 100g (or 0.6g sodium)
Low is 0.3g salt or less per 100g (or 0.1g sodium)

So that also gives us a "Medium" category with a huge range of 0.1ish to 0.6ish sodium per 100g.

At the risk of stating the obvious, how much salt you actually get depends on how much of that particular food you eat. Naturally, it's more of a concern when things that you eat a lot of (such as bread) are very high in sodium, than things that you only have a small amount of (such as anchovies). Unless of course you eat an awful lot of anchovies.