By Michael Roizen, M.D., AND Mehmet Oz, M.D.

Triglycer-WHAT? Long overshadowed by LDL — the lousy cholesterol — triglycerides are easy to overlook on your latest blood-test results, but getting to know this forgotten fat could protect your ticker and save your brain. The latest: One in three Americans have higher-than-healthy triglyceride levels, a situation that can double your risk for stroke and make your chances for a heart attack six times higher than average.

One big medical group (the Endocrine Society) says, in a recent headline-making report, that adults should have this oft-overlooked fat checked every five years. Funny thing is, you’re probably doing that already! Triglycerides get tested during almost every fasting cholesterol check, and your doc should be having you do that every five years — or more frequently if your readings are high. Better advice: Pay attention to your triglyceride results, and spring into action if they’re on the high side.

The “tri” in triglycerides means there are three molecule-sized fat droplets in each artery-damaging glob. They come directly from the fats and carbs (yup, your body turns some carbs into fats) in that muffin you munched for breakfast and the chicken salad you enjoyed at lunch. Triglycerides ferry these fuels to your muscles to use for energy or to your fat cells for storage (hello, elastic-waist sweatpants!). Trouble happens when you eat too much, weigh too much, sit too much — and wind up with a triglyceride overload that boosts inflammation and messes with the silky-smooth linings of your arteries.

What can you do to tame this other blood fat? Start with these six strategies:

No. 1: Know your number. How do your triglycerides stack up?  Generally accepted levels: under 100 is optimal; up to 150 is normal; 150-200 is borderline high; above that is high. We disagree and think that over 100 is too high.

No. 2: Watch your weight. Eating 300 fewer calories a day could reduce your triglycerides by 23 percent. Losing 5 percent to 10 percent of your body weight could cut levels by 20 percent.

No. 3: Step up. Clipping on a pedometer and logging an extra 5,000 daily steps (about 2 1/2 miles) could slash your triglyceride level by 19 percent in just six weeks. Exercise helps by slowing down production of triglycerides in your liver.

No. 4: Fix your fats. Replacing bad fats with good fats is a proven way to lower triglycerides. So steer clear of any food that contains trans fats, full-fat dairy products and creamy salad dressings loaded with saturated fat. Skip red meat and processed meats, poultry skin, palm and coconut oil. Instead, eat good fats — snack on walnuts, add avocados to your salad, drizzle olive oil on your salad greens and cook with canola oil.

No. 5: Add odd omegas to your diet. The good-for-you omega-3 fatty acids in salmon, trout, fish oil or DHA capsules have the power to lower triglycerides, too. Aim for at least two meals of fish a week and pop 900 milligrams of DHA omega-3s from algal-oil capsules daily. If your triglycerides are really high, talk with your doctor about getting 4 grams of omega-3s a day for a short while; this can slash levels by 33 percent. Then you can return to the 900 mg maintenance dose. A few animal and human studies indicate that 210 mg of purified omega-7′s can reduce high triglyceride levels without raising LDL levels.

No. 6: Feast on red and green produce. A compound called alpha-lipoic acid — found in spinach, broccoli, peas, Brussels sprouts, collard greens and chard — lowers triglycerides by up to 60 percent in lab studies. Adding plenty of fresh tomatoes to meals (why not scramble them up with your morning eggs, have tomato salad at lunch, saute with those greens for dinner) could cut levels in just six weeks thanks to disease-fighting phenols that seem to keep unhealthy blood fats in line.

Bonus: Adding pomegranate seeds to your fruit salad (they contain another odd omega, omega-5, or punicic acid) also helps cut triglycerides down to size.

Mehmet Oz, M.D. is host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” and Mike Roizen, M.D. is Chief Medical Officer at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute. For more information go to www.RealAge.com.

(c) 2012 Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.

Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

By Michael Roizen, M.D., AND Mehmet Oz, M.D.

A seemingly endless array of herbal supplements fills the shelves of drugstores, supermarkets, health-food stores and even gas-station quick marts. The appetite for these “alternative cures” has created a $5.2 billion market for everything from aloe vera to Zingiber officinale (that’s ginger).

If any of that money’s coming out of your wallet, you owe it to yourself to tap into another herbal trend: Reliable research into botanicals (that’s another name for herbal supplements) that provides scientific evidence about which are safe, smart and effective – and which are dumb or even dangerous duds. Both types show up on the latest list of top sellers. You want to be sure you’ve got a winner.

Best picks? According to our favorite herbal info resource – the Cleveland Clinic Wellness website’s (yes that’s Dr. Mike’s Cleveland Clinic!) Supplement Review – the following popular herbs are generally safe and have some scientific backing as effective remedies:

Turmeric (the yellow in yellow mustard) for easing inflammation of ulcerative colitis in conjunction with standard medications.

Aloe vera cream for healing mild skin burns (it may work better than some prescription preparations).

Saw palmetto for benign prostatic hyperplasia; this herb seems to block hormones that makes a guys’ glands swell.

Garlic to help control blood pressure and cholesterol, and slow down hardening of the arteries. Results are modest, but it could help you stay healthy.

Thinking about popping an herbal product or wondering whether one you already take is worth continuing?

Check the science.  These days, you can get the latest, impartial 411 on an herb before you buy it or try it by logging on to some terrific websites that review and boil down the latest research findings.  We already mentioned our favorite, The Cleveland Clinic Wellness Supplement Review. Two others are Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s Integrative Medicine website and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Talk with your doctor. If you plan to take anything for more than three days – and this applies to herbs, other supplements and over-the-counter drugs, check with your doctor first. Why? If you’ve self-diagnosed a health problem, you probably should get medical confirmation before you treat it.  In addition, lots of herbs interact negatively with medications – including some you may take now or might take later. Your doc may also suggest a more effective, better-studied or less-expensive way to reach your health goal. Case in point: You could take a red rice yeast supplement to lower high LDL cholesterol, or you could choose a statin drug that’s covered by your health insurance and get the same active ingredient (yup, exactly the same!) and the same results, while parting with less cash (up to $140 dollars less each month).

Look for “USP” and “Made in the USA.” Choose products that have a gold, black and green emblem on the label that says “Verified Dietary Supplement – USP.” It means that the supplement maker meets quality standards set by the U.S. Pharmacopeia (an independent, nonprofit scientific group) and that the product really contains the ingredients listed on the label at the potency and levels promised, doesn’t contain harmful levels of other compounds and was made under safe conditions. We also like supplements made in the U.S. and are wary of products coming from overseas after a string of Food and Drug Administration warnings about contamination in imported remedies (everything from recognized drugs being added in without appearing on the label to toxic substances being substituted for benign ones).

Stop before surgery. You should quit some herbs and EPA-containing brands of fish oil – not DHA though – at least three days before scheduled surgery.  And stay off them for as long as your doctor says. Many herbs can affect blood clotting (especially the family, including garlic, ginger, gingko and ginseng) and can interact with drugs you may be given before, during and after surgery.

Mehmet Oz, M.D. is host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” and Mike Roizen, M.D. is Chief Medical Officer at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute. For more information go to www.RealAge.com.

(c) 2012 Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.

Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

By Michael Roizen, M.D., and Mehmet Oz, M.D.

Got a plan for staying safe if an environmental disaster strikes your town? This summer’s string of toxic emergencies — a refinery fire in California, a chemical blaze in a Baltimore train tunnel, explosions at a PCB-riddled New York recycling company — all sent plumes of hazardous chemicals into the air breathed by tens of thousands of people. These events raise an important question we want you to ask yourself today: Would you know what to do to protect yourself and your family if such an event happened in your town?

We’re not trying to be a pair of paranoid Chicken Littles here; just the opposite. Almost everyone lives downwind of a highway, a train line, a pipeline or a manufacturing facility where toxic trouble could flare up fast. Case in point: In August, an early morning fire ripped through an electrical equipment recycling plant in West Ghent, N.Y. Local firefighters rushed to the scene, but didn’t have the resources to immediately warn residents to stay indoors and shut the windows. Smart people did what the local fire company president now advises everyone, everywhere, to do: “Every citizen,” he wrote in an extremely frank editorial in the local newspaper, “ought to have his or her own plan for how to respond to an emergency. …

Sitting around passively waiting for police or fire to arrive with detailed instructions on how to respond isn’t a winning strategy.”

And even now, Ghent-area residents are worried that toxins from the plant — including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), lead, chromium and volatile organic compounds in the smoke and soot — became airborne and settled on farms, backyards and in water. (It’s imperative that thorough, long-term sampling and testing of air, soil and water continue for some time after an environmental assault such as the one in Ghent.)

Clearly, it’s up to you to know how to stay safe. Here’s how:

No. 1: Know where danger lurks. You can’t anticipate everything, but being aware of the sources for potential emergencies in your area will help you react faster if something happens.

No. 2: Create a family emergency kit and plan. FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) recommends stocking non-perishable food, plenty of bottled water, a flashlight with batteries and a battery-powered or hand-crank radio. Add in plastic sheeting and duct tape, too. Also plan for how you’ll communicate and where to meet up if your family is dispersed when disaster strikes. Designate an out-of-town relative or friend as a contact person. You’ll find a form for creating a complete plan on FEMA’s website, at www.ready.gov/make-a-plan.

No. 3: Shut the windows. If a fire, explosion, chemical release or other hazardous materials foul the air, bring kids and pets indoors ASAP. Shut windows and turn off air conditioners that draw in outdoor air. Seal gaps at doorways, windows and vents with wet towels or plastic sheeting and duct tape.

No. 3: Keep the indoors clean. If you must go out, take off shoes and clothes at the door to avoid carrying toxics inside.

No. 4: Drink bottled water. Think twice about using tap water until the danger is past.

No. 5: Have a getaway strategy. If you’re downwind in a toxic emergency or if the threat’s serious, you may have to leave home in a hurry. Always keep your car’s gas tank at least half-full. Gather the family (and pets), roll up the car windows and head toward cleaner air. Stay away until the danger passes, if possible. (Put clothes and shoes you wore in sealable plastic bags or containers; ask emergency authorities about disposal.)

No. 6: Eat smart. Afterward, steer clear of locally grown produce that may have picked up toxins from rain and the soil. Load your plate with cruciferous veggies and berries (raised elsewhere) and flavor with curry, saffron and hot pepper. According to our friend Mitchell Gaynor, M.D., an integrative oncologist and author of “Nurture Nature Nurture Health: Your Health and The Environment,” these support your body’s natural detox processes.

Mehmet Oz, M.D. is host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” and Mike Roizen, M.D. is Chief Medical Officer at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute. For more information go to www.RealAge.com.

(c) 2012 Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.

Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.