REVERSE HEART DISEASE NOW
Editor’s note: According to the American Heart Association
estimates for the year 2003 are that 71,300,000 Americans had
one or more forms of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Of those
65,000,000 individuals suffered from high blood pressure followed
by 13,200,000 with coronary heart disease, 7,200,000
with myocardial heart disease (acute heart attacks), and
5,500,000 with stroke.
In 2003 cardiovascular diseases claimed 910,614 lives (37.3
percent of all deaths or 1 of every 2.7 deaths). This figure far
outdistances the combined total of cancer deaths at 554,643,
accidents at 105,695, and HIV (AIDS) at 13,544 in that year.
Their figures also indicate coronary heart disease, which is
caused by atherosclerosis, the narrowing of the coronary arteries
due to fatty build-ups of plaque, caused 479,305 deaths in 2003.
And was the single leading cause of death in that year. It was also
stated that about 330,000 people a year die of a coronary attack
in an emergency department or without being hospitalized. Most
of these are sudden death caused by cardiac arrest.
That year it was estimated there were 13,200,000 individuals
who currently had a history of heart attack, angina pectoris or
both. Also that an estimated 1.2 million Americans would have
a new or recurrent coronary attack.
Pretty sobering statistics particularly if you are a male. Or
to look at it from another angle, 71 million probably accounts
for 50 percent of all individuals in the country over 35 years of
age. And most of us with serious cardiovascular disease probably
have no idea we are afflicted by this insidious threat to our
health and mortality. Particularly when according to the authors
of Reverse Heart Disease Now, an important new owners guide to
heart health, “Cardiovascular disease kills in an instant by heart
attack or stroke. Fifty percent of the time the very first symptom
is cardiac arrest. Without warning, half of all the people who
have the disease die without every knowing they had it.
“CVD can also silently and slowly strangle the vitality of the
most important muscle in your body—the heart muscle—which
pumps life-sustaining blood and nutrient through 60,000 miles
of blood vessels. The lining of those blood vessels becomes in-
flamed and can even be destroyed. Blockages develop and the
blood can’t flow.”
For those of you who are regular readers of totalhealth magazine
you are aware that our mantra is to become co-captain of
your own health care team in partnership with a physician who
practices integrative nutrition-based medicine. Leading integrative
cardiologists Dr. Stephen Sinatra and Dr. James Roberts,
authors of Reverse Heart Disease Now draw on their collective
50 years of clinical cardiology research to inform you how to
combine the benefits of modern medicine, over-the-counter
vitamins and supplements, and simple lifestyle changes to have
a healthy heart—whether you have acute or chronic disease or
just want to prevent cardiovascular disease from developing.
Focusing on crisis prevention, Reverse Heart Disease Now
provides practical information and strategies you need to stop
heart disease in its tracks. For instance:
- You can combat heart disease before the first heart attack
- Your arteries can become enveloped in inflammation and plaque that lead to heart attack, stroke, and heart failure and what to do about it.
- Medications, scientifically proven supplements, and lifestyle changes can extinguish the flames of disease and purge and stabilize arteries—even for the most compromised cases
- CoQ10, along with L-carnitine and D-ribose, can powerfully recharge weak and ailing hearts.
The breakthrough integrative program found in Reverse Heart
Disease Now, shows how you can become more involved in your
own healing process and, more importantly, even prevent heart
disease before it strikes.
The following is an excerpt from Reverse Heart Disease Now
Most doctors today prescribe drugs for specific effects
such as lowering cholesterol or blood pressure. When
the drugs don’t work, surgeons may be called in to
perform lifesaving bypasses or heart transplants. In integrative
medicine, we use or recommend these approaches as well. But
we have learned to do something extra, something normally
ignored, absolutely simplistic, and bargain basement cheap
compared to dazzling, big-ticket technology. We optimize nutritional
status—with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other
natural substances—to help the body heal itself.
Today we realize that vast numbers of people eat poorly and
do not get the proper nutrition from their diets that their bodies
need to sustain good health. Moreover, a global wave of
positive nutritional research has rendered the conventional
medical viewpoint on supplementation utterly obsolete. Many
thousands of published studies have shown that individual Nutrients
at doses higher than those usually present in food have
a significant preventive and therapeutic effect for serious diseases,
not just nutritional deficiency states.
Sick people need this nutritional upgrade…and they benefit
magnificently. It often keeps them out of the hospital. Sometimes
the supplements work rapidly like magic. Patients suddenly
become rejuvenated as their nutritionally starved bodies
respond to healing nutrients missing for years. Other times we
see a steady but remarkable return to health by patients who
previously sputtered along on near-empty tanks. Now, with
their tanks full, they move actively forward in life, feeling better
than they have in years.
Supplement Teamwork: A Misunderstood Principle
used alone, single nutritional supplements can often generate
powerful effects in the body. We strongly believe, however, they
work best in combination—as a team—rather than just one or
two alone. As an example, we can best combat the oxidative damage
from free radicals with a combination of antioxidants, each
packing different strengths and abilities. Vitamins C, E, CoQ10,
bioflavonoids, alpha-lipoic acid, beta-carotene, lycopene, and selenium
are a few of the important antioxidants. Having just one
working for you—like vitamin C—but none of the others is like
fielding a team with one all-star and no supporting players. We
want the whole team in action, not one player alone.
Nature expects us to take in hundreds of nutrients each
day to support the body’s constant health protection and healing
operations. And that’s where nutritional supplements can
make a big contribution, above and beyond eating a variety of
wholesome foods.
Some of the individual supplements we recommend may
be part of a multiple nutrient formulation. Others are needed
in larger individual quantities than what may be contained in
the multiple. This principle of team nutritional medicine makes
perfect sense and many studies are proving, supplement combinations
have enhanced effects.
Multivitamin/Mineral with Antioxidants
First and foremost, as a foundation for any supplement program,
you need a broad-spectrum “multi”—capsules or tables
packed with combinations of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants,
and other nutritional factors. unfortunately, the really good formulas
with potent amounts of therapeutically important substances
cannot be crammed into a single pill. usually, a daily
serving involves, two, three, or more pills. Our patients take
multiformulas that consist of up to eight pills twice a day.
Most medical studies on supplements involve single nutrients.
Very few consider multiple vitamin formulas because they
have such diverse ingredients and potencies. Two studies on
multivitamins have impressed us: one in Sweden, reported in the
Journal of Nutrition in 2003, and the other in the Canadian Journal
of Cardiology in 1996. Both made similar conclusions: multiple
vitamins substantially lower the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Supplement Fundamentals
- Nutritional supplements work better together, in combination.
- When used alone, particularly in synthetic form or at the wrong dose, you don’t get the maximum effect.
- When you stop taking supplements, you lose the benefits.
- Don’t be confused by negative news reports. Educate you self. Do some research. The Internet offers many authorit- tive and noncommercial resources on supplement research, including the Linus Pauling Institute (lpi.oregonstate.edu) and the u.S. government’s National Library of Medicine (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/).
- Vitamin A has come under scrutiny. Long-term use of vitamin A supplements—over 20 years—may increase the possibility of hip fracture. We don’t recommend more than 5,000 units of pure vitamin A (retinyl palmitate) a day. We prefer natural carotenoids (such as beta-carotene), which the liver converts into vitamin A as needed. Beta-carotene supplementation cannot produce vitamin A overload.
- Patients often ask when to take supplements if they are also taking medication. Your best bet is to take them separately, an hour or two apart. Sometimes minerals will interfere with the absorption of a particular prescription medication. In some instances, absorption could be enhanced.
- Quality is king. Avoid inferior supplements and products with artificial dyes and sugar. If you have doubts, consult with a nutritionally oriented health professional who can recommend supplements for you.
Four examples of the power of individual nutritional supplements
as reviewed in Reverse Heart Disease Now:
Pomegranate Juice
Pomegranates are one of the richest sources of antioxidant
flavonoids—healing nutrients found in plants. Recently, Israeli
researchers have shown that these compounds slow the
development of atherosclerotic plaque in mice and humans
and help prevent LDL oxidation. In 2004, they reported on an
experiment in which ten patients with severe carotid artery
disease drank approximately 8 ounces of 100 percent pomegranate
juice every day for one to three years. At the end of the
study period, the researchers compared pomegranate juice
drinkers to a matched group of patients who did not drink the
juice, and they found a number of eye-opening differences:
- A 20 percent drop in systolic blood pressure in the juice drinkers.
- A 19 percent reduction in oxidized LDL antibodies—a test for cholesterol oxidation activity—in the pomegranate juice drinkers.
- A reduction in thickness of the carotid artery walls (30 percent, as compared to a 9 percent increase in the control group).
Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10)
More than 4000 scientific studies and 12 international conferences
have distinguished CoQ10 as a healing superstar and lifesaver.
It does all these things:
- Presents disease and slows down the aging process
- Helps patients with all forms of heart disease
- Reduces mild to moderate hypertension
- Generates energy, strength, and vitality, even for older people
- Fortifies the immune system against illness, including cancer
- Counteracts the adverse effects of cholesterol-lowering drugs (statins)
- Improves nervous system and brain disorders
- Protects against gum disease, a condition affecting most adults.
CoQ10 is a fat-soluble vitamin. Despite strong scientific evidence
for CoQ10’s benefits, most doctors either haven’t heard of CoQ10
or ignore its importance. To us this represents a major tragedy,
because simply putting patients on a risk-free CoQ10 supplement
pays off with health, energy, and therapeutic dividends.
Vitamin C
Most people taking vitamin C for protection from colds would
never guess that they are getting a big heart and artery boost to
boot. Consider these benefits of vitamin C:
- Decreases the need for repeat angioplasty by 57 percent
- Reverses endothelial dysfunction
- Improves recovery after bypass surgery and cuts the risk of post-operative arterial fibrillation in half
- Improves recovery following heart attack
- Helps control blood pressure
- Keeps CRP in check
- Helps neutralize Lp9a0 and vascular wall damage due to homocystine
- Promotes conversion of excess cholesterol into bile acids that aid in digestion of fats
- Gets the lead out of your system
- Do you know of any other medication that can do so much?
Other Recommendations
Most every adult should take 1,000 mg of vitamin C as part
of a daily supplement regiment. We often recommend larger
doses for patients, depending on their Lp(a) and CPR levels, and
our estimate of their degree of arterial inflammation. For best
results, split the dosages into two or
three servings throughout the day. If you
are forgetful, it is better to take 1,000 mg
in one dose rather than forget subsequent
dosages.
Garlic
In Bram Stoker’s classic 1897 tale Dracula,
the fair heroine Lucy uses a braid of
garlic to fend off the blood-sucking count.
Modern science has never gotten around
to proving that garlic repels vampires, but
it has repeatedly confirmed what healers
throughout the ages have known: garlic
is indeed nature’s wonder drug.
Containing a veritable pharmacopoeia,
including powerful sulfur and selenium
compounds, garlic has been used for
the prevention and treatment of disease
for thousands of years—from infections
to heart conditions.
In more recent times, garlic has gained
the reputation as a natural antibiotic. The
germ-killing property is attributed to allicin,
a sulfur compound that gives garlic
its distinctive odor. Researchers have
developed stabilized garlic compounds
for use with supplements and found they
have considerable promise against antibiotic-
resistant bacterial strains.
Pathogens contribute to inflammation.
Thus, garlic belongs in the armory
of anti-CVD supplements. Another good,
natural weapon against inflammation.
Garlic is great in food; however, some of
the garlic’s medicinal potency is lost in
cooking.
Selected Research
Studies show that garlic reduces multiple
cardiovascular risk factors, including
blood pressure, cholesterol, homocysteine,
and platelet aggregation and
adhesion, while stimulating nitric oxide
generation in endothelial cells and raising
HDL.
Other Recommendations
For people with CVD, supplement with a
minimum of 1,000 mg a day. Garlic also
contributes to thinner blood. If you take
Coumadin, you can still eat garlic, but
don’t use a garlic supplement.
We see an exciting time ahead for cardiology
because so many new tools and
so much new information are constantly
emerging. The day is coming when no one
will have to die from arterial disease.
But even today we can put out the
flames of arterial disease with the best
that alternative and conventional medicine
has to offer. We can now determine
the presence of nasty constituents within
the blood—such as toxic metals—that
poison the arteries We can determine
with new imaging technology the extent of
a patient’s calcification and whether hard
plaque or soft plaque is building up.
We are beginning to utilize genetics to
hone in on a patient’s specific weaknesses
and map out individualized remedies.
One day soon, we will be able to genetically
test babies shortly after birth and determine
enzyme deficiencies that may set
them up for heart disease 40 years later.
The genetic age in medicine is coming.
Soon we expect to be able to monitor
endothelial function and check on the
status of this critical one-cell layer that
lines the arterial walls of the body. In the
not-too-distant future, we may even have
vaccines against atherosclerosis.
We see metabolic cardiology, electromagnetic
frequency devices, and other
forms of energy medicine getting noninvasively
to the heart of the matter, raising
adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the body’s
basic fuel, and rejuvenating failing hearts.
The future of cardiology isn’t just
about applying high-tech gadgetry and
research. Arterial and cardiac health still
require that patients do their share, applying
the low-tech (and low-cost) healing
power of diet, nutritional supplements,
and lifestyle changes. These are
the basics that benefit not only the cardiovascular
system but also the body as
a whole. We are often amazed at how, in
the shadow of high-tech medicine, we
consistently achieve powerful healing effects
with our patients by using simple,
standard nutrients like vitamin E and niacin
and CoQ10 and fish oil.
The future of cardiovascular medicine
and medicine in general, must integrate
the principles of a holistic approach that
seeks to correct underlying causes with
those of conventional medicine that addresses
acute problems. We must have
smart medicine in which physicians consider
combinations of nutrition, lifestyle,
pharmacology, and surgery to prevent or
treat CVD. Hopefully, this union will occur
in time to help you and your family, and
before our expensive disease management
approach bankrupts the Medicare
and Medicaid programs.
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