The Circulatory System, Heart Health, K2,CoQ10 & Omegas

Janet talks to Dr. Erna Wong, a pediatrician with over 30 years of practicing experience as well as an expert in supplementation, about understanding circulatory and heart health and the vitamins and supplements K2, CoQ10 and Omega that help to achieve better circulatory and heart health. 

Together, we'll build Healthy Cells, and a Healthy You!

Transcript

 Janet Walker 
Welcome, everyone to healthy cells healthy you. I'm your host, Janet Walker. I've been working in the healthcare community for 30 years and for 16 of those years, I've been a writer and producer for the award winning national PBS Health Information Programs, American Health Journal, and innovations in medicine. We've interviewed 1000s of doctors, scientists and researchers on every topic related to health, medicine and medical technology. You can watch current episodes of innovations in medicine on your local PBS channel, or you can stream our programs on the American Health Journal channel, the better health channel and TB healthy kids. This podcast is sponsored by the good folks at life farm Incorporated, a company whose innovative cellular repair products are backed by extensive science, research and clinical studies. With February being American Heart Month, we're focusing our cellular repair journey today on a healthy circulatory system, a healthy heart, and how omegas play a role in improving our circulatory and heart health. Your circulatory system is like the highways and byways you travel on to get to work, school and all the other places your busy life takes you. When those highways are clear and there's no traffic, you can travel faster, easier and with less stress on your body. But when there's a lot of traffic or an accident, clogging up the road you're on it slows you down. The same is true with your blood vessels. When they're clear, your blood and other nutrients can travel quickly and easily through your body to keep you healthy. But the more clogged they become, the harder it is for your body to function. Today we're speaking with Dr. Erna Wong. Dr. Wong is a board certified pediatrician practicing neonatal NICU and pediatrics. She's worked in the healthcare field for over 30 years. Having formally mid trained as a medical doctor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Dr. Wong also has a great interest in global health care, and has traveled to medical missions around the world. Because of her great passion and desire to help others obtain a better quality of life and health. Dr. Wong is a scientific advisory board member for life farm Incorporated, and advises on the research and science that's helping to build better products for cellular repair. Welcome, Dr. Wong, and thank you for talking with us today and helping us better understand circulatory heart health and the Omega connection.

Dr. Erna Wong
Very good. I'm really excited to participate and share what I have learned to my career.

 Janet Walker 
Thank you. Well, let's get started then with our first question, what's the connection to circulatory health and our hearts?

 Dr. Erna Wong
Very important, our heart is the main role for the circulatory system, understanding that you need to have a pump. And then you need to have a transporting system. It's like as far as your car has an engine that runs the car. But it also needs to send the energy to say the brakes and the wheels and so on to make a move. So let's say you compare the car, the engine is your heart and then once it generates energy, it has to distribute it to make the car work. So our circulatory system comprises the heart and all the blood vessels that takes nutrients and oxygen and everything else it needs to the cells down to the basic cells that need to function. And then the circulatory system brings back the waste products. So you have to do both, you have to provide nutrients, energy, etc. The cells needs to function, but you need to remove waste, otherwise you have backup of waste and that is harmful to your system as well. So circulatory system is really key without it, you won't survive. And that's why if you know the Dow the ABC used to be for for resuscitation is changed to see a b You must restore circulation. Otherwise your airway and your breathing will not do anything. It won't go anywhere. So you need a transport system, which is your circulation and the pump provides the force of energy to move the products.

 Janet Walker
Interesting. So what are the benefits of a strong circulatory system? If someone has a really good functioning circulatory system, you know, what benefits can they expect from that?

 Dr. Erna Wong
You would expect number one, that you would have optimum health. You are deficient in If you can't receive at the cell level, all the things you need to function prime would be oxygen. And then you also need the energy source. And you also need such things as vitamins and minerals and so on, that comprises a healthy body. So if you have an optimum functioning circulatory system, you should be very healthy and even remain young, you can actually remain young and not age and not have any disease, that's really ideal that you are healthy. As almost if you were brand new baby again, and never aged, how would you like to be a baby? In terms of yourself? Not necessarily mentally, but we're talking about your body is functioning like a young baby able to heal, able to be active without any disease, that would be an ideal to be young body, and yet in mature mind.

Janet Walker 
I would love that. So are you saying that, that we have an opportunity to reverse the damage that's been done to our circulatory system

 Dr. Erna Wong
lately, there is methodologies and things we can use to reverse the and I know, I am actually an example of that. I have reverse aging, and with knowledge and improving your diet exercise, I call it the five legs of health. You know, if you have a store and you have a five legged stool versus a two legged stool, which is unstable and unhealthy, or a three legged stool, I mean, more legs you have on your stool, the healthier you'll be, if you think about it, one leg breaks off, you still have four legs. But if you have three legged stool, you break off one leg of the stool, you're going to fall over. So Truthfully, when teaching about good health, you do need to have as many components that supports that, quote unquote, stool to be stable. So we can actually repair damage by in the sense putting back another leg of that stool. So there is I am now very, very passionate and involved with holistic natural supplements and other modalities that can reverse aging. You know, this is possible you see people around you, you can't believe it, they look like they've lost 30 years. They're now reverse the aging from say 60 to 30 years old. So if you're smart, you never age, but if you're aged, then we can reverse the aging, that would give you a very improved quality of life.

Janet Walker
That's exciting. I love to learn more about that. Let me get back though to the circulatory system and ask you what are the signs and health issues that arise when someone has a poorly functioning circulatory system?

Dr. Erna Wong
Definitely, number one, you're not going to have energy, you'll feel tired fatigue and lack of energy because your circulatory system very very prime is providing you with oxygen. Oxygen gives you the energy without oxygen, you feel you can't function. Think about it, you'll die within how many minutes of lack of oxygen because your cells relied on it, and who and what transports it is your heart and your circulatory system as much as you rely on your lungs, but without the heart and circulatory system, that oxygen is going nowhere. And then you know very well the byproduct of our energy from oxygen. And what it does in your cells is carbon dioxide and waste products without the circulatory system to remove it, you will die too, because you'll accumulate the carbon dioxide and waste, you know people who need dialysis because they build up waste products. So if you have waste products, you'll die from that it's like being poisoned, which it is. Waste products are poison. So very, very important. The circulatory system, providing the ability for you to be healthy and you'll see it very immediately. You can you don't even need to run a test. You can have poor circulation, you can see you don't have good blood flow. When you push down your skin. Your capillary refill isn't there, which is signs that there's no blood flow to the cell level. You squeeze your hands and it stays pale. But if it's good capillary flow or blood flow circulation, it picks up so that's a very easy test for you to know if your circulation is good or bad. Last but not least, you know about neuropathy, which is nerve damage. So let's say you're sitting down for a long time you feel your foot Falling asleep, it gets numb or starts to tingle, then it's a warning sign, you're lacking circulation to those cells and they can die. If you sit on your leg long enough without circulation, you literally your leg would die. It's like putting a tourniquet and tying around a limb, you don't have blood flow, that limb will turn purple and the closer died those cells. Without oxygen, blood flow will die. So no fancy tests, very simple. You can see on your own body or feel that you have poor circulation.

 Janet Walker
So February is American Heart Month, and we're talking about the circulatory system as it relates to good heart health. But it sounds like really our entire body, the health of our entire body really relies on a good functioning circulatory system.

 Dr. Erna Wong
Absolutely. Because I tell you, if you have a heart, and it has no good transport system, no matter how much your heart is pumping, pumping, but your circulation is inadequate, they will die too. So they go hand in hand, the circulatory system has to have all the components, right? It's like you have an engine, but you have no way to transmit the energy to your car to make it run all the engine working and the rest of it not there, your car is going to stand still.

 Janet Walker
What are some of the ways that people lose their circulatory system health? What are some of the things that contribute to a failing circulatory system or a less healthy circulatory system?

 Dr. Erna Wong
We know the biggest one is diabetes, it's so rampant. And it's a multi system disease, just because the sugar level is felt by every cell in your body. Unfortunately, you understand we rely on sugar as an energy source mainly. But there are other energy sources. So if you have excessive sugar floating around in your bloodstream, then it indicates number one is not getting into your cells to where it needs to work and provide you the energy. So diabetes is a state where you really have so much sugar in your bloodstream, it's not getting to where it needs to work. So that's one major disease. The other one that contributes to poor circulatory system, would you believe is tobacco smoking is a real big one, you have tobacco in your system now only robs of your oxygen and you get more carbon dioxide that alters your pH and pH is so critical for the functioning of your cells. So people who smoke they have you seen the data. Number one, heart disease is smoking, you have atherosclerotic heart disease, you have damaged your lungs because of smoking, and that compounds the issue of your health because without your lungs working properly, you will have not oxygen that the heart needs itself to survive, that also the oxygen that your heart pumps to the rest of your body. So you see, these are the two major diseases. Certainly, if you are lacking in nutrients, such as your fats, your vitamins and your minerals, they are critical people who are deficient in magnesium or zinc, or you know, even the electrolytes your potassium, sodium, but you have your so many things in our diet will contribute to disease of the cardiovascular system. And therefore really, as I said before, you've got to look at almost five or six legs of the stool for health, because you don't have control of your blood sugar. With diabetes. You don't have control of your lung and heart because of smoking. You don't have control because you have poor diet and lacking in the nutrients that are critical for a proper functioning heart and circulatory system.

 Janet Walker
So it sounds like some things that people can do to improve their circulatory system is stop smoking. A better diet and anything else exercise? Absolutely.

Dr. Erna Wong
I could go into quite a few even Do you know reducing stress is really important. There's a mnemonic D R E S S, D is for diet. R is for repose or meditation relaxation, it's to reduce stress. So make Maybe the art should stand for reduce stress, stress is a killer, do you understand because it releases cortisol. When your stress, you release cortisol, and cortisol increases blood sugar, if you increase blood sugar, you're actually quote unquote, it similar to diabetes. So people who are constantly in chronic stress will be disease because they also cause inflammation, then the E is for exercise. S is for sleep, if you don't sleep properly, get good quality sleep, where your body's rejuvenating, and restoring and healing, then you will also have disease and compromise. And then the last one is supplements. Because until we have everything in our food, water, that is, has Optimum Nutrition, we have to take supplements. So we still have a long ways to go because we really have depleted our food of nutrients. We have poor quality food now, multiple reasons, but I could go into it, but it's made a big impact. That's why we have so many people with diseases right now.

Janet Walker
Is there a diet that you would recommend for good circulatory health?

Dr. Erna Wong
Absolutely, you need to focus on the all the components of a diet in comprises of your fruits, vegetables, your protein source, and for those people who are vegan, you really still need to have some animal protein, otherwise, you're missing certain amino acids that are important, that is not in vegetables alone. So being aware of your sources of the nutrients, and in the proteins in in comprises. You should also include your fats. It is wrong when they said a low fat diet, you actually need to have an adequate fat diet because fats are used to make our steroids, our brain matter. There's many things that are fats are important. We all know about omega threes. We also know about cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL, LDL. So it's not just having you know, fats at all, but you need to know what kind of fats are good fats for us. And then of course, your carbohydrates are really important. Carbohydrates are energy source, because we derive glucose from there. So it is important to look at your diet that is providing optimum of those categories. Because in your fruits of vegetables, and so on, you've got to think about minerals that you require for certain functions, and then vitamins, you know, whether you have enough sunshine for vitamin D, or get it from some sort of supplement, but you have your Vitamin K, Vitamin C, Vitamin A, all those vitamins are critical. Without them, you can't function properly. So the diet will have to comprise all those important nutrients.

Janet Walker
So rather than a, you know, current fad diet, or keto or paleo or no fat, rich, really a good balanced diet with supplementation to fill in the holes that you recommend.

 Dr. Erna Wong
But the other part is deficiencies, of course. So if people who say Well, I'm strictly vegan, they're really endangered, because they really need to know that there are animal proteins that we need, because they are not found in vegetable proteins, the structures that build us

Janet Walker
What about vegetarians who incorporate some animal products

Dr. Erna Wong
and do fine, you know, but they just need to be cognizant of, you know, the minerals and vitamins that everyone needs. So that's really critical. So that's a whole nutrition lecture. But that's why we have dietitian and nutritionist to help. But the kind of like basic framework is, you eat a balanced diet that incorporates the quote unquote, traditional different food groups. But in terms of, you know, what proportions and stuff that is a longer lecture that would be given to guide and advise people.

 Janet Walker
Let's talk a little bit about supplements. You mentioned a few earlier, and I know that supplements are very important to the circulatory system. I want to start with vitamin K two and you mentioned vitamin K. I'm sure a lot of people aren't even really aware of this vitamin. So what is vitamin K to and why is it so important?

 Dr. Erna Wong
Well, you have to remember, most people think of vitamin K. So as Vitamin K has been taught to people, it is functioning in our clotting system. And if you don't have adequate amounts of vitamin K, you'll bleed. So that's important. So you have babies, given a vitamin K injection, were you aware when they're born? Because the mom, oh, yes, you have to have permission to give the mom, the baby when it's born a shot of vitamin K, the reason being is there may be many moms who are deficient in vitamin K. And if you don't give the baby a vitamin K shot, they actually can hemorrhage down the line bleeding. So it's really important. Vitamin K is in our clotting system, you have to eat green leafy vegetables to acquire vitamin K. Now, the vitamin K two is that they've discovered, it's not just any vitamin K, you need to have the one that's proper and optimum for what your body needs. And so vitamin K has been researched to let people know it's vitamin K to not just any vitamin K. But k two is important in the function of the circulatory system.

 Janet Walker
So it would be important for pregnant women to eat lots of good healthy greens and try to build up the vitamin K in their system so that their baby is not going to be deficient. That's when their baby is born. Is that right? 

Dr. Erna Wong
correct. But you know, just for the mom herself, right? If she's delivers, and she doesn't have vitamin K adequately, she could hemorrhage postpartum. Right? If she's deficient babies deficient as well, because they share the blood circulation. And therefore the nutrients are shared between mom and baby.

 Janet Walker
Interesting. Now let's talk a little bit about CO q 10. Up until, I don't know 10 years ago or so I never really heard much about CO q 10. And now I see it everywhere and everyone's talking about it. I want to ask you the same question that I did for vitamin K too. So what is CO q 10? And why is it so important?

 Dr. Erna Wong
Well, there are many. How should I say coenzymes. They're their products that we need in our diet, to help us with good functioning, heart, and circulation. And this is one of them. So in terms of how we can acquire it, people are now understanding a little bit better, the importance of it, it's difficult, because sometimes we don't get enough of it in our own diet. So the supplementation is really important. We have vitamins and then we have vitamins that need to have coenzymes to work. So that's part of what co Q 10

 Janet Walker
Is, is CO Q 10 derived from something like we said k two is derived from leafy greens is CO Q 10 derived from something in nature.

Dr. Erna Wong
It is from vegetables, so how much you have to eat of it to acquire it, you have to you know, and again, I say we're having challenges because our products are not as good as it once was. In other words, our plants don't have as much nutrients as it once was. So that's why the interest to provide a good quality of CO Q 10 source.

 Janet Walker
So what does co q 10 do for our body? Why is it so important?

Dr. Erna Wong
It's very critical for cellular energy and the thought of it is I mean the research is an antioxidant which everybody is all being educated because oxidation is similar to like rusting a metal. So, you think about it rusting your cells, an antioxidant is to reverse or prevent it. So, the CO Q 10 naturally produced in the cells your body will produce cell energy required for cell growth in regular function. And then the oxidation is to neutralize and protect us from stress from you know oxidative process like the resting and this of course, leads to good health because you when you have oxidative stress, it causes cell damage. So because as we age, the CO Q 10 is not made as much. That's why we're now having supplementation, the production of it and starts to decline. 

 Janet Walker
So I know that the next supplement I want to talk about is something that people have a lot have interest in, you see them on every store shelf. And I think there's a lot of confusion about which is the right one to take. And that's omegas. What are omega fatty acid supplements made out of?

 Dr. Erna Wong
the sources can be from fatty fish, such as salmon is an example. And some of the trout, it can be from some vegetable sources as well. So you have within the Omega threes, have you heard of DHEA? Right? That's one of them. Yeah, en da, and then a la. So Al is from plant source, and the other two are more from your fatty fishes, that's a good source of the Omega threes. So it's important where your sources because there can be omega three, that is not as nutrient, strong. And it's like many things, you have to look at your source. But omega threes are critical for heart health.

 Janet Walker
So what's the connection between omega is in good circulatory and heart health.

Dr. Erna Wong 
So they have been shown to play an important role in like, say, blood pressure, for the heart functioning, because you understand part of the circulatory system has to do with blood pressure, if you don't have adequate blood pressure, then your circulation is impaired. And likewise, if you have high blood pressure, then you're impeding the movement of your blood flow. So omega three has been shown to help with blood pressure in your system for one of its very important effects. It also reduces inflammation, which is important because inflammation, damages your tissues, whether it be your heart, your joints, so on. So the Omega 369. Oils are really important in multiple areas of our health, that includes, you know, inflammation, and inflammation is responsible for damage to pretty much all cells. But of course, critically if you have inflammation of your heart, and then you have, you know, because omega threes can help reduce absorption of the bad fats, the lipids and cholesterols that are you remember LDL is the one that's harmful, whereas HDL is good. So it can help with the absorption of the good one and block the bad ones. That's a very important function.

Janet Walker
Excellent. So other than our heart, what other systems in our body benefit from omegas.

Dr. Erna Wong
So it has been demonstrated. That's why there's formulas supplemented with DHEA is for Eye Health. They discovered that vision is improved when you have adequate and proper Omega three, so we can prevent decay of our vision with such things as macular degeneration that can lead to blindness. So by using or taking adequate amounts of Omega three, you can delay deterioration of your vision.

 Janet Walker
Excellent. Are there different types of omegas that are helpful for different parts of our system? I know there are some omegas that are krill, some omegas that are it fish.

 Dr. Erna Wong
If you think about it, if you look at the anatomical structure, the Omega three should be omega three irregardless if the source is krill, or fatty fish or whatever. So that's all that once you have, you know, whoever manufacture it, they're going to verify that the Omega three is the same, whichever source it comes from. And there's multiple sources. You could even get ELA from soybean fermented soybean was noted by the Japanese to have a benefit for their heart health and vision and so on.

 Janet Walker
So are you saying that fermented soy contains an omega?

Dr. Erna Wong
Yes, it could they derive Omega three the Japanese have used fermented soybean, and they eat that and they have good heart health.

 Janet Walker
And that's natto the product, right?

Dr. Erna Wong
It's interesting because we Chinese have similar product. We have a fermented soy bean product, soybean cake that's fermented. So it's really interesting. Well, because Asians have similar diets. Yeah. We use a lot of seaweed for iodine. And we have fermented products that give us good nutrients. So it's really interesting over the centuries, if you think about it, what are the oldest civilizations, you would look at India and China,

 Janet Walker
talking about the fermented soybean and Eastern medicine. One thing I really love about life farm supplements I know that you're on their scientific advisory board is they really incorporate a blend of western and eastern ingredients, so that these whole food supplements are well rounded, as well as well researched. We're going to be talking to you a little more on our next podcast about the product Omega three plus that life farm incorporated provides for us. So I want to thank you so much for being here with us for giving us information about the circulatory system and some of the supplements that are important for the circulatory system for heart health and for general well being. So thank you so much, Dr. Wong, will you come back and talk to us a little more about the Omega three plus product that life farm is promoting for heart health and good circulatory health?

 Dr. Erna Wong
Absolutely. It's my pleasure to participate in this really important educational piece. Yeah.

 Janet Walker
All right. Well, thank you so much, listeners. Stay tuned, because on our next podcast, we're going to have Dr. Wong back and she's going to tell us a little bit about Omega three plus, which is a great supplement for a good circulatory system, good heart health, and just a general supplement for omegas and the other vitamins we need for good cellular repair. Thank you so much for listening to the healthy cells healthy podcast with me, your host, Janet Walker, and thanks to the people of like farm, who care about providing the highest quality supplements for health and cellular repair. You can find us on Apple podcasts, I Heart Radio, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, subscribe and tell your friends together. We'll build healthy cells and a healthy view