Reducing Inflammation with Dr. Raj Anand

george grombacher 0:00
Come on Well, life lead this is George G. And the time is right. welcome today’s guest strong and powerful Dr. Rajan on Dr. Raj, you ready to do this?

Dr. Raj Anand 0:21
I am. Thank you.

george grombacher 0:22
Yeah, let’s let’s go Dr. Raj. He’s a retired cardiology specialist. He’s got over 60 plus years medical field. He was a professor for 40 plus years. He’s an inventor. He’s done a lot of really, really cool things. He is an author. His newest book is healthy diet and mindfulness to prevent coronary heart and disease to prevent coronary heart disease. excited to have you on Raj, tell us a little about your personal life smartbots your work and why you do what you do.

Dr. Raj Anand 0:56
I do what I do, because I love it. And I was a professor of cardiovascular diseases at University of Massachusetts Medical School for 41 years. Before that, I was trained in cardiology at Harvard University Hospitals, Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and Massachusetts General Hospital. Then I came over here as professor and I have been director of coronary care unit, Director of non invasive cardiovascular laboratories, and director of Cardiovascular Research Laboratories, I enjoyed my 41 years of teaching, learned a lot and now retired and now have been interested very much in healthy lifestyle. And so, that is why I decided to write a book so that everybody can take advantage of it, I found that there are a lot of things which other books do not mention, they usually talk about things in generalities, eat fruits, vegetables, beans, whole grains, but nobody tells you, if you go to supermarket and want to buy bread, how to choose which one is the best for you. You want to buy eggs, which eggs not to buy and which ones to buy and why. If you are buying oil, which oil and why not others, if you are traveling, how to have the ability and knowledge to choose foods, when you are staying at hotels that are healthy for you. You go to a restaurant or salad, why you should tell the server to make sure to take out seeds from tomatoes. So this is more specific in details. And that was one reason I decided to write this book. And second reason was healthy diet alone is not enough. You have to have a healthy lifestyle for which you need healthy diet, regular exercise, and even more importantly, reduce the stress. And there’s plenty of stress these days. There are eight, chronic, debilitating and eventually deadly diseases. And they are a heart disease, high blood pressure stroke, a loss of memory leading to Alzheimer’s and dementia and depression, cancer and leaky gut syndrome where the stomach is always upset and bloating, diabetes and lastly are Fridays. And all these diseases are caused by chronic low grade inflammation and in all over the body and these can be significantly reduced. And these diseases can be eventually eliminated if we reduce that chronic low grade inflammation and that can be done if the stress is reduced, plus healthy diet and regular exercise and that’s what I mean healthy lifestyle So that is why this is the first book ever, which is on healthy diet, as well as mindfulness, because I have mentioned it technique is simple technique, which you have to practice only 10 to 15 minutes a day to reduce the stress. Of course, stress will not be reduced, it will be there all around you, but it will not affect you.

So, that was the reason I wrote this book. And of course, my wife unfortunately died two years ago, after 57 years of marriage, she died of cancer. And therefore, I thought it would be a good idea to write this book. And the proceeds from the book, all of the proceeds from Amazon will go directly to Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, for cancer research, and support of those who go there for treatment and cannot afford to live. And they are fully expenses paid, they stay there, they get treated there. Everybody knows that. So it is in the loving memory of my wife, that all the proceeds will go there. So these are the three reasons why I wrote this book.

george grombacher 6:32
Well, I certainly appreciate I appreciate all of those. And I appreciate, appreciate the the amazing accomplishment of 57 years of marriage, and I’m sorry for your loss and appreciate you taking the time to write the book and then to donate all the proceeds. So thank you,

Dr. Raj Anand 6:49
if I may just mentioned quickly, the book is designed to equip the reader with the knowledge so that they can decide for themselves which foods are healthy for them, and which they should avoid. Nice.

george grombacher 7:09
There’s so much that goes into having a healthy lifestyle, being a healthy person. And you’ve certainly talked about all of those things. And then there’s all the things that are sort of lined up against us stressful lives, fast and convenient food, which is not healthy for us. Not understanding that I shouldn’t be eating, you know, seed oils versus avocado oil and things like that. There’s just there’s hundreds and it’s complex, and it’s confusing when you started teaching 40 years ago, was was was there considerably less inflammation versus where we are today.

Dr. Raj Anand 7:49
You mentioned 40? And the answer is yes. Because 40 years ago, there was not that much stress. 40 years ago, people used to socialize more or not as much on social media as in person. So the answer to your question is yes, and I must add, for a healthy lifestyle is healthy diet and regular exercise and stress reduction are important. But there are three other things and if you complete a list of six you are leading a healthy lifestyle. And those other three are adequate sleep, six to eight hours sleep every night and I’ve discussed that in the book, socializing in person, not through social media. And lastly, once a year physical checkup. And in that checkout, when you go to a doctor, they usually order blood tests cholesterol, triglycerides, good cholesterol, bad cholesterol etc. I have mentioned one test, which if you do not tell the doctor they will not do and that is a must to avoid coronary artery disease, it tells you right away in what risk group you are. And that is there in the book also.

george grombacher 9:21
Got it. What What role does does alcohol because I am I am a bit of a caveman in a lot of ways Raj and sometimes when I socialize, I drink alcohol. How does that factor in?

Dr. Raj Anand 9:37
Okay? There are studies and that those who drink no more than two drinks a day. Whether it is wine or hard liquor, and no more than 13 drinks a week. The incidence of coronary heart disease is less, they live longer. The study was done on more than 16,000 people of all ages, and both sexes, and those results were obtained. But you have to limit yourself to that. And that does not mean all the 13 drinks in two days or a week, no more than two drinks a day. Secondly, if you drink always drink slowly, and in between, have sips of water. Now French, they drink lots of wine. And yet in Europe, including France, their men live two years longer than men in USA. Women also live longer than over here. And for this, American scientists went there to study and found out the number one, when they eat their meal. They take at least one hour to finish the meal. They eat very slowly, and they drink very slowly with it. So when you eat slowly, the food is getting metabolized converted into energy storage at the same time. So blood sugar levels do not go up as they work if you eat fast, and here in USA, we eat on the run. So eating slowly is very important and eat all when you are hungry. It is better to have three or four small frequent meals during the day rather than one or two large meals. So coming back to your question, drinking is not bad, as long as you are disciplined and take your drinks, as I had mentioned. If you can, it is better to have the brain than wait for about 40 minutes to an hour before you eat the meal. Because that way, your drink gets metabolized. And then you go for the food. Otherwise, liver looks at the drink as a toxin it toxic material and consider its priority to detoxify it before digesting you’re metabolizing your meal. And if you’re taking them together, the liver is busy dealing with alcohol. And food glucose especially from it is circulating and keep circulating in the blood. And during that every time it re enters the liver liver converts into fat. And that fat goes and gets deposited either in the arteries, including coronary arteries, or at the places like belly hips where it is very difficult to get rid of. So if you keep those things in mind, then alcohol is okay. Bye. Bye. I answered your question.

george grombacher 13:39
You did. Thank you, sir. So I, I try and be as practical as I can. And I’m fond of saying I’d rather be useful than brilliant. And it sounds like you’ve you’ve accomplished that by making this a very user friendly, very prescriptive book by this. Don’t Don’t Don’t don’t buy that here’s a 10 minute simple practice, you could take on a daily basis for mindfulness to reduce your stress levels. What I’ve you certainly know better than better than probably anybody how challenging it is for Americans to have healthy lifestyles. So when somebody picks up the book, what how are you hoping that they’re going to consume it and then more importantly, apply things?

Dr. Raj Anand 14:30
Well, I’m hoping that by reading the book, and feeling free to going to my website, Raj qian.com, which is one word ra J, K and nd they can contact me if they have any question. There is my email address and I always answered email. So I will answer their questions. And I’m not saying Don’t eat this don’t eat that you decide yourself. But remember one rule, the old grandmas rule, eat everything in moderation. And that way you can enjoy everything. For example, people love desserts, my search fine, you want dessert after the meal, go for a dark chocolate and have half an ounce to one ounce of dark chocolate, not dark milk chocolate because all dark chocolates are not the same. Make sure it says on the packet right outside that it has a cacao content of 75% or more you can start with 70% and then build your taste but never buy if the cacao content is less than 60% whereas in dark milk chocolates the cacao content is less than 35%. And therefore if you develop a taste for dark chocolate I have in my own life every night after dinner I have half house of dark chocolate with cacao content of 88% To begin with, it may be a little bit on for you but start with 75 and then go on to 7877 they are available and that way you can enjoy your dessert and award the coronary disease it has a lot of antioxidants in it which help these days what other things have antioxidants I’ll be glad to discount if you want me to. So that is what I’m hoping for.

george grombacher 16:59
I love it yeah, I find that the things just have to fit right they have to fit into our lifestyles because we can’t just go without so the idea of

Dr. Raj Anand 17:11
I’m sorry, you mentioned in our lifestyle here now okay, you want to remain non vegetarian for fact me all right. Make sure have eat small pieces of meat have lean meat remove all the fat and if you can make your by the meat of the cows which are fed on grass and not on corn me or so being you. But if you can’t get that just make sure it is a small piece and it is a lean meat. I’m not asking you not to eat meat unless you already have current disease. So I allow practically everything in moderation.

george grombacher 17:59
What’s the problem with with with with the grain fed or the soybean fed meat over grass fed

Dr. Raj Anand 18:06
Okay. soybean and corn they have to have fatty acids fats, which are called omega six fatty acids and they cause inflammation. And therefore, it is recommended that if you buy me meat by the one of which is from grass fed or pasture fed animals same thing for eggs, you go buy eggs they are available it says pasture fed or pasture and if they are non GMO also nursing grade. There is a myth that brown eggs are better than white eggs and that is I brown eggs are more expensive. There is no truth to it, they taste the same that nutrition is the same. The only difference is that the hands that les brown eggs they are bigger in size, they consume more meal. So it is more expensive to raise them and therefore brown eggs are more expensive. But from nutrition point of view, there is no difference. And they are also if the rights pastured eggs, non GMO, that’s great. So these small small things matter.

george grombacher 19:36
Fascinating. So when I’m eating grass fed beef over grain fed, the actual animal itself in a grain fed a grain fed cow has a higher level of omega sixes then does a grass fed cow.

Dr. Raj Anand 19:53
That is correct. Not only that omega three fatty acids are the ones That neutralize the effect of omega six, and they are healthy fats. It has been found that the grass fed or pasture fed animal, their Omega three levels are also higher than the grain fed. Same way in eggs, those hands that are grass fed or pasture, their eggs, are they contain more omega three than the others?

george grombacher 20:32
Does that have anything to do with like, like percentage of like body fat on the animal? Or is that irrelevant to the to the actual type of omega six versus omega three? Well,

Dr. Raj Anand 20:45
that is irrelevant. But at the same time, if you buy that meat, there will be lot of fat on the meat. And that contains saturated fat in it. And saturated fat can go and deposit in the arteries and cause coronary disease. So that is why I say always remove the fat. So in that aspect, it is available. Got it.

george grombacher 21:13
Interesting, fascinating stuff. Doctor, I’m certainly grateful for the work and the amount of time that you put in and the very accessible way that you’ve structured your knowledge and give it back. But after 41 years, it doesn’t surprise me that you know how to teach this stuff. So you’re ready, kind. So give us the Tell us again where people can pick up a copy of healthy diet mindfulness to prevent coronary heart disease and your website again, please, sir.

Dr. Raj Anand 21:47
Yes, the website is Raj K allah.com. It is one word Ra, J, K and nd. And when you go on Raj kiana.com, there is homepage you will learn something about me. And then there is a card on also says shop if you click on that in directly connecting to Amazon. And you can review the book also it is $13.99. It is also available in the download Kindle form which is only 299. And then there is my podcast. This one will be there too. They can listen to it. And after that if they have any questions. There is a button that says contact. They can push that and it gives them my email address. They can contact me anytime and I promise I will answer the email in reasonable time. And I will emphasize again that monies do not come to me all the proceeds from the book go directly from Amazon, to Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston for taking care of the patients with cancer as well as research.

george grombacher 23:17
Excellent. Well, if you enjoyed this as much as I did show, raise your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciates good ideas go to Raj K amnon.com. It’s our a jkanand.com. Pick up a copy of the book healthy diet and mindfulness to prevent coronary heart disease. And check out all the great resources check out the other podcasts and shoot Dr. Rajan email as well. Thanks again, Raj.

Dr. Raj Anand 23:48
You are most welcome and thanks for giving me the opportunity.

george grombacher 23:51
Welcome. And until next time, keep fighting the good fight. We’re all in this together.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai