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Give Thanks for Your Heart Health
You haven’t heard from me in a while because I’ve been busy finishing my new book Salt: Black America’s Silent Killer. I hadn’t planned to write an entire book on this topic, but the more I researched, the more appalled I became. Not only are Black Americans are two...
My Arteries Are Rusting on the Inside like My Car Is Rusting on the Outside
You wouldn’t think that rust spots on your car and fat in your arteries would have anything in common, especially since you can see rust spots all too readily and you can’t see the fat build up in your arteries at all. Allow me to explain their shared traits by...
Fat in the Artery: You Will Believe It Only After You See It
“Get out of here! Is that’s what came out of the artery?” shrieks the patient’s wife when I show her the fat that was blocking the blood flow to her husband’s legs. I am used to this reaction when I show people the cholesterol I’ve removed during surgery. “I...
From Dance Floor to Boxing Ring
I remember boxer Tommy Morrison, who recently died at just 44 years of age. In 1993 he beat then heavy weight boxing champion George Foreman. The news of his premature death made me think of a way to explain how and why fat deposits in the arteries. In previous...
Cardiovascular Disease—Is It All About Fat?
Jane did not want accept that the fat build up in the artery carrying blood to her brain had gotten worse and that she was at risk for a stroke. “What do you mean my artery is getting clogged up?” she cried. “I have been popping cholesterol-lowering pills for many...
Salt, Sugar and La Pieta
As you take a close look at this magnificent sculpture created by Michelangelo, I want to tell you about the day my daughter was born in order to explain the connection between salt, sugar and La Pieta. Life changed in big way for me with our firstborn. I remember the...
Heart Disease Is Coming To a Person Near You
Just in case my prior blog post did not wake you up, here is a quick recap. The Heart Foundation says there are 80 million Americans with some type of heart disease. That is just about everybody in America over the age of 50. (We know that since heart disease...
The Impact of Fat Build-Up In the Arteries
Fat is building up in your arteries even as we speak, and it’s building up faster in some of you than in others. Why should you even care? Heart attacks, the most common human global health problem, is caused by fat that has built up in the arteries to the point that...
Ravana
While I was watching an old movie the other day, I came up with a good way to explain why we should not be adding salt to our food. This idea ties into explaining the term not physiologic, used by Dr. Dahl in reference to our habit of adding salt to our food. ...
The Chicago Salt Experiment
People who give up salt find that within a few weeks they can not only do without it, but do not actually like it just as most people find after a time that tea is actually nicer without sugar. Many physicians have reported the same. —Lewis K Dahl; 1972 My wife...