In an effort to inform the public about the devastating effect of stroke on families and the community, Unicity International has joined with the American Stroke Association to observe American Stroke Month this May.

What is a Stroke?
A stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is suddenly interrupted or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts, spilling blood into the spaces surrounding brain cells. In the same way that a person suffering a loss of blood flow to the heart is said to be having a heart attack, a person with a loss of blood flow to the brain or sudden bleeding in the brain can be said to be having a "brain attack."

Brain cells die when they no longer receive oxygen and nutrients from the blood, or when they are damaged by sudden bleeding into or around the brain.

Ischemia is the term used to describe the loss of oxygen and nutrients for brain cells when there is inadequate blood flow. Ischemia ultimately leads to infarction, the death of brain cells which are eventually replaced by a fluid-filled cavity (or infarct) in the injured brain.

How Do You Recognize a Stroke?
Symptoms of stroke appear suddenly. Watch for these symptoms and be prepared to act quickly for yourself or on behalf of someone you are with:

• Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body
• Sudden confusion, trouble talking, or understanding speech
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, or loss of balance or coordination
• Sudden severe headache with no known cause

If you suspect you or someone you know is experiencing any of these symptoms indicative of a stroke, do not wait. Call 911 emergency immediately.

There are now effective therapies for stroke that must be administered at a hospital, but they lose their effectiveness if not given within the first 3 hours after stroke symptoms appear.

Every minute counts!


Stroke Statistics

• Each year about 700,000 people experience a new or recurrent stroke. About 500,000 of these are first attacks, and 200,000 are recurrent attacks. (GCNKSS, FHS, ARIC, NHLBI)
• On average, every 45 seconds someone in the United States has a stroke. (AHA computation based on latest available data)
• Stroke causes about one in 15 deaths. (AHA)
• Each year, about 46 000 more women than men have a stroke. (GCNKSS)
• When considered separately from other cardiovascular diseases, stroke ranks number three among all causes of death, behind diseases of the heart, and cancer. (NCHS mortality data)
• Every 3 minutes someone dies of a stroke. (NHLBI)

Cost of Stroke to the United States

• Total cost of stroke to the US: estimated at about $43 billion/year
• Direct costs for medical care and therapy: estimated at about $28 billion/year
• Indirect costs from lost productivity and other factors: estimated at about $15 million/year
• Average cost of care for a patient up to 90 days after a stroke: $15,000*
• For 10% of patients, cost of care for the first 90 days after a stroke: $35,000*
• Percentage of direct cost of care for the first 90 days*:
• Initial hospitalization = 43%
• Rehabilitation = 16%
• Physician costs = 14%
• Hospital readmission = 14%
• Medications and other expenses = 13

* From "The Stroke/Brain Attack Reporter's Handbook," National Stroke Association, Englewood, CO, 1997

How Cholesterol Levels Contribute to Stroke Risk

Most people know that high cholesterol levels contribute to heart disease. But many don't realize that a high cholesterol level also contributes to stroke risk.

What is Cholesterol?
Cholesterol, a waxy substance produced by the liver, is a vital body product. It contributes to the production of hormones and vitamin D and is an integral component of cell membranes. The liver makes enough cholesterol to fuel the body's needs and this natural production of cholesterol alone is not a large contributing factor to atherosclerosis, heart disease, and stroke.

Cholesterol is a Lipid
Cholesterol is classified as a lipid, meaning that it is fat-soluble rather than water-soluble. Other lipids include fatty acids, glycerides, alcohol, waxes, steroids, and fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and E.

Lipids and water, like oil and water, do not mix. Blood is a water-based liquid, therefore cholesterol does not mix with blood. In order to travel through the blood without clumping together, cholesterol needs to be covered by a layer of protein. The cholesterol and protein together are called a lipoprotein.

The Good and the Bad Cholesterol: Two Types of Lipoprotein
There are two kinds of cholesterol, commonly called the "good" and the "bad." Good cholesterol is high-density lipoprotein, or HDL; bad cholesterol is low-density lipoprotein, or LDL. Together, these two forms of cholesterol make up a person's total serum cholesterol level.

Most Cholesterol in the Body is in the Form of LDL
LDLs circulate through the bloodstream, picking up excess cholesterol and depositing cholesterol where it is needed. But when too much cholesterol starts circulating in the blood, the body cannot handle the excessive LDLs, which build up along the inside of the arterial walls.

The buildup of LDL coating on the inside of the artery walls hardens and turns into arterial plaque, leading to stenosis (narrowing of the artery) and atherosclerosis. This plaque blocks blood vessels and contributes to the formation of blood clots.

The Good Guys
The other form of cholesterol, HDL, is beneficial and contributes to stroke prevention. HDL carries a small percentage of the cholesterol in the blood, but instead of depositing its cholesterol on the inside of artery walls, HDL returns to the liver to unload its cholesterol. The liver then eliminates the excess cholesterol by passing it along to the kidneys.

A Person May Lower the Risk for Atherosclerosis and Stroke by Improving Cholesterol Levels

Click here to discover the safest, most effective way to naturally improve cholesterol levels.

It’s a Fact : Cardiovascular Disease is Devastating
Today alone, cardiovascular disease will kill 3,500 Americans. That’s at a rate of more than two deaths a minute. However, cardiovascular disease isn’t unique to the United States alone—similar and growing mortality rates are reported in almost every country in the world.

What’s Amazing is that Cardiovascular Disease is 80% Preventable!
Most deaths caused by cardiovascular disease could have been prevented just by drinking a revolutionary, scientifically developed supplement called Bios Life 10 minutes before each meal.

But before we tell you more about this innovative supplement, let’s take a closer look at why improving your cholesterol levels can help you avoid cardiovascular disease. 

The Cholesterol–Cardiovascular Disease Connection
One of the most effective ways to determine the health of your cardiovascular system is to have your cholesterol levels checked. As a general rule, the lower the level of good cholesterol and the higher the level of bad cholesterol in your body, the higher the risk you have of developing cardiovascular disease.

Why is this important? Because health officials estimate that roughly 50 percent of all adults have unhealthy levels of cholesterol and that 42 million adults have dangerously unhealthy levels—and you could be one of them without even knowing.

The Weakness of the Traditional Approach to Controlling Cholesterol
For the past decade, the medical community has treated the problem of managing
cholesterol by prescribing statin drugs. Statin drugs work in the liver—causing
it to produce less cholesterol. Statin drugs can be credited with savings
thousands of lives.

However, nutritional science has made significant advances in the past few
years—uncovering three additional approaches to improving cholesterol levels!

The combination of these four approaches to improve cholesterol levels has
been patented, and is available for you today in a safe and effective
non-prescription form.

Only Bios Life Improves Cholesterol Levels Four Ways
When taken 10 minutes before eating, Bios Life’s patented, unique combination approach
improves your cholesterol levels in 4 different ways:

1. Trapping and eliminating the cholesterol in your bile acid
2. Preventing your body from absorbing cholesterol from the food you’re eating
3. Decreasing the amount of cholesterol manufactured by your liver
4. Boosting the enzymatic breakdown and removal of cholesterol

Clinical Results Show Just How Effective Bios Life is at Improving Cholesterol Levels
In clinical studies, Bios Life was proven to lower LDL cholesterol by an astounding 31%. Some participants reported decreases of more than 52%!

What’s equally amazing is that the average increase of HDL cholesterol was 29%, with some achieving increases of up to 85%! Keep in mind that statin drugs have little or no effect on good cholesterol.

Your results may be dramatically enhanced if you take Bios Life Complete in combination with a healthy diet and exercise.

What’s more, if you’re already treating your cholesterol levels with prescription statins, Bios Life will help you reduce your LDL cholesterol even further.

In addition to improving LDL and HDL levels, Bios Life lowers triglycerides—the form in which most fat exists in food as well as in your body and blood. Bios Life has also proven to stabilize blood sugar levels. No other supplement is more comprehensive for treating your entire lipid profile than Bios Life.

And one more thing—Bios Life’s only side effect is weight loss!

10 Minutes Before Each Meal IS the Best Time to Improve Your Cholesterol Levels
By taking Bios Life 10 minutes before each meal your daily cholesterol levels will improve and the dangerous build-up of cholesterol in your body can be slowed, stopped, and even reversed. After all, if you improve the levels of cholesterol in your body, you’ll lower your risk of cardiovascular disease.

Taking Bios Life will make your next meal and every meal that much more enjoyable by knowing that you’re improving what may be the biggest factor in determining the quality of your health and the length of your life.

Click here for more information on Bios Life.

Unicity’s Cellular Essentials® Shows Promising Results in the Reduction of Stroke Symptoms

You can go a long time without giving your blood a second thought. Everyday your heart propels your blood through more than 60,000 miles of blood vessels carrying essential oxygen and nutrients to every part of your body and lugging away carbon dioxide and other waste.

A narrowing or blockage in any one of your body’s arteries or veins can create a traffic jam of catastrophic proportions—the nutrition and oxygen your body needs to survive is slowed or even stopped altogether. If the blockage happens in an artery leading to your heart, you suffer a heart attack. If the artery leads to your brain, you suffer stroke.

You may not die, but the quality of your life can change forever. Interestingly, the vast majority of survivors of heart attack, stroke, or aneurysm would have characterized themselves as in good health the day before. It’s hard to determine if you have a life-threatening blockage often until it’s too late.

Dr. Verdegem was invited to present the results of the study to the scientific and medical community at the 6th Annual Conference on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology.

"Very strikingly, you have achieved what can be considered a reversal of heart disease over the past year. Specifically, you now have much fewer lesions since last year and an improvement in the calcium volume score. As described in the accompanying notice to our radiologist, this finding most assuredly means an important stabilization and improvement in your coronary health. Congratulations on your encouraging progress. Whatever you're doing, keep up the good work."

"Dr. Wayne Moss has undergone three electron beam ultrafast CT scans on his coronary arteries at the Colorado Heart Imaging in Denver, Colorado.

“Medical literature shows that individuals left untreated experience a worsening of his or her calcium volume score of about 35 percent per year. Treated appropriately, many people will generally show either regression of plaque or a slowing of progression, so the average worsening is about 14 percent per year.

“In July of 1997, Dr. Moss had a total calcium volume score of 368. This score significantly improved to a score of 308 one year later, representing true reversal of heart disease.

Dr. Moss writes:

“I encourage everyone to include Cellular Essentials in your daily regimen and to share the news about the need for early prevention with everyone! Let's share the benefits of these incredible products.”