If you’re looking to lower your risk of death by stroke and heart disease, then look no further than the second letter of the alphabet.

A new study finds that simple, common B vitamins can help save your life.

Japanese researchers studied data on 23,119 men and 35,611 women between the ages of 40 and 79, and divided them into five groups based on their intakes of folate, B6 and B12.

The researchers found that over 14 years of follow-up, men with the highest levels of folate and B6 had a significantly lower risk of death by heart failure than those with the lowest. Women with the highest levels of those nutrients had the lowest risk of death by stroke and heart disease, according to the study published in the American Heart Association journal, Stroke.

Try getting those results from a med… or better yet, don’t try–because you’ll have a hard time finding anything that effective on a prescription pad.

The new study isn’t the first to show how these B vitamins protect the heart. Folate, B6 and B12 all work to reduce levels of homocysteine, an amino acid that can turn your heart into a ticking time bomb. Elevated homocysteine levels can damage the arteries and cause blood clots.

The researchers found that the benefits of B6 and folate held whether the patients got their vitamins from a supplement or, better yet, their own diets. You can get yours from food, too:

The best sources of folate include liver, spinach, beans, peas and asparagus. And you can get vitamin B6 from bananas, garbanzo beans and chicken breasts.

Cereals are fortified with plenty of B6 and folate, but most of them are also “fortified” with enough sugar to sweeten your coffee for a month, so avoid them if you can.

If you find you need help getting these nutrients, turn to a good multivitamin or a supplement– B vitamins are easy to find and inexpensive.

The researchers didn’t find any heart benefits for vitamin B12, but that’s no reason to skip the liver (in addition to folate, it’s packed with B12).

This key nutrient has been linked to brain health, especially in seniors. In fact, one study found that people with lower amounts of B12 have smaller brains.

The B vitamins may not always get the most attention, but they’re a crucial part of your overall health. And as the latest research shows, they could help save you from stroke and heart disease.

So if you’re looking to “B” healthy, make sure you get busy with these Bs.
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I hope this gets in. I have been trying all morning

Demi

I had a chance to interview many great candidates, but Elena stood out. I met her nearly 20 years ago, when she took a break from teaching to join my staff in the Senate.

She helped us confirm Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and even then, it wasn’t hard to picture a day when we’d be helping Elena prepare for confirmation hearings of her own.

Since that time, I’ve followed her career, and today, I believe Elena Kagan is an inspired choice for the Supreme Court.

Throughout her career, she’s been a trailblazer, breaking glass ceilings in both academia and government.

She’s been a consensus-builder, earning praise for her work with Republicans in the Clinton White House and her support for the free exchange of ideas as the dean of Harvard Law. She’s flat-out brilliant, easily one of the best legal minds I’ve ever met.

But most importantly, she’s also someone who understands that the application of the law holds real consequences for Americans in all walks of life.

Now her nomination goes to the Senate. I’ve been through this process more than once, and I’ve learned that the success of any nomination is strongly influenced by the public response in the first few days.

Will you stand with the President and me to support Elena Kagan? Sign on to help us show that the American people back her nomination.

As a young attorney, Elena clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall. She often calls him her hero.

Now, she’s following in his footsteps as the Solicitor General of the United States, the chief legal advocate for our government. If Justice Marshall were with us today, I’m sure he’d be proud of the clerk he used to call “Shorty.”

To see why, look no further than her role in the Citizens United case. It was a legal battle that most experts agreed would be impossible for the government to win.

But as Solicitor General, Elena chose this as her first case. She recognized that rolling back bipartisan election law would allow special interests to dominate campaigns across the country and drown out the voice of the American people.

Though she knew she’d probably lose, she chose to make it her fight all the same. That’s character.

That kind of decision defines Elena’s career. With her resume, she’s had no shortage of lucrative opportunities.

But her parents were both public servants — her mother a school teacher and her father a housing lawyer who fought for tenants’ rights — and she has always followed their example.

Like her dad, she’s used her legal knowledge to serve others, and like her mom, she’s been an educator, working to pass her knowledge on to another generation.

Now, it’s time to bring that heartfelt, principled commitment to the Supreme Court.

In these crucial early days, help us show that public support for this extraordinary nominee is overwhelming:

http://my.democrats.org/SupportKagan

Thank you,

Vice President Joe Biden

I hope this gets in. This is my 11th try. I want to warn men about taking statins.
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Statins linked to low testosterone

Looks like those statin drugs lower a lot more than just cholesterol levels–a new study finds that men who take these meds face shrinking testosterone levels, too.

Ouch!

Italian researchers made the alarming discovery when they looked at data on nearly 3,500 men with sexual dysfunction who visited a clinic at the University of Florence between 2002 and 2009.

When they looked at the records and separated the men on statins from the rest, they found that the men taking the drugs had double the risk of low testosterone, according to the study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

That’s a real kick in the manhood… but the journal’s editor, Dr. Irwin Goldstein, isn’t surprised. He told HealthDay News that he sees patients several times a week who say they’ve had sex problems after starting on statins.

The authors of the study say the drugs appear to block the pituitary gland from signaling the testicles that they need to make more testosterone. So they stop… and you pay the price.

And if those low testosterone levels keep you from performing in the bedroom, then your spouse is feeling the statin side effects, too.

Now that they’re trying to give these meds to millions of new patients who have perfectly normal cholesterol levels, it’s possible that we’re going to see a new wave of lonely nights in bedrooms across the nation.

Even without testosterone problems, these meds are bad news. Statins have been linked to debilitating muscle pain, kidney damage and even kidney failure. Yet tens of millions of Americans take them every single day, and are expected to keep taking them until the day they die, despite the fact that there are easier, safer ways to keep your cholesterol levels under control.

The first and best approach is something I’ve written to you about before: Keep your weight in check and get some steady exercise. Not only will these lifestyle changes help lower your cholesterol levels, but they will also keep you healthier overall and can even improve your sex life rather than harm it.

And that’s true whether you have a cholesterol problem or not.

For a little more help, be sure you’re getting enough omega-3 fatty acids. You might also want to talk to your doctor about phytosterols and red yeast rice, two natural (and far safer) alternatives to statins.

You don’t have to kill your sex life just to lower your cholesterol levels.
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My keeps insisting that if I don’t lower my cholesterol with the statin he has prescribed that I could have a heart attack. I still refuse.

Arthur