New Paradigm for Heart Disease Treatment and Prevention

OLD PARADIGM FOR HEART DISEASE TREATMENT:

• “Take this pill for the rest of your life” – it will help your heart.

NEW PARADIGM:

• Take charge of your own health with a healthy lifestyle. Prevent and reverse coronary artery disease by having your doctor guide and monitor your progress.

OLD PARADIGM FOR HEART DISEASE:

• Old age causes disease. Because doctors expect old people to be weak and sickly they are ignoring the side effects of heart medications that are muscle, cognitive and neuropathy related.

Researchers found that doctors are dismissing the side effects of statin drugs such as Lipitor and Zocor, by mistaking these for symptoms of old age. Typical symptoms include a lack of energy, cognitive problems, mood changes and muscle weakness. (Drug Safety. 30(8):669-675, 2007)

NEW PARADIGM:

• People can stay healthy regardless of age. Decline in mental function, for example, is related more to coronary heart disease than to age. A healthy lifestyle that lessens your risk factors is your best protection.

OLD PARADIGM FOR THE PREVENTION OF A HEART ATTACK:

• Since heart medications are “high tech,” you don't really want to know what they actually do to “thin your blood,” lower your blood pressure or your cholesterol. And if you have been warned by your doctor, you will have to take a pill to take care of these risks, and add another pill for any unwanted side effects.

NEW PARADIGM:

• The book on risk factors for heart disease is still being re-written by medical researchers. Cholesterol is no longer the big bad villain – it is just one of many indicators. High homocysteine as a marker for inflammation is considered to be a serious risk, as are low glutathione levels. These can be altered with diet, vitamins and supplements better than with medication.

Spotting risk factors is no longer rocket science: YOUR WAIST SIZE is your main indicator. IF your waist measures more than 40” (102 cm) if you are a man, or 35” (89 cm) if you are a woman, you are at risk.

There is no quick-fix pill to reduce your waist line, and even liposuction does not give the heart benefits of losing weight.

The New Paradigm:

• How Nutrition Helps Heart Health Compared to Meds What medical researchers say about how nutrition helps heart health compared to meds.

• Best Heart Disease Prevention Diet Researchers sort out the best heart disease prevention diet, putting low fat diets and statin medications head to head with the Mediterranean diet and foods shown to prevent cardiovascular disease.

• What Nutrition Helps Heart Health Best? Determining what nutrition helps heart health best has some surprises, especially how quickly a change in nutrition can help heart health.

• Simple but Overlooked Cause of Congestive Heart Failure? Researchers identify an overlooked vitamin as congestive heart failure nutrition, linking heart failure to its deficiency.

• Nutrition or Meds for High Blood Pressure? Researchers show how nutrition lowers high blood pressure as effectively as do anti-hypertensive drugs.

• Why High Blood Pressure Can Make You Fat Research finds key to both high blood pressure and unsuccessful weight loss, showing how to lower risk of arteriosclerosis and lose weight where medications fail.

• Coumadin Side Effects: Brain Strokes Found To Be Warfarin Side Effects New studies show serious warfarin side effects -- the blood thinner Coumadin side effects. Also some simple but effective ways to improve STROKE RECOVERY.

• New Research Links Heart Rate Variability and Nutrition Researchers find “double whammy” showing how “bad” fats can cause sudden cardiac death through arrhythmias.

• New Discoveries For Heart Surgery Nutrition New science shows strategies for protection and better recovery with pre-heart surgery nutrition as well as better heart surgery postoperative nutrition.

• Lowering Cholesterol Without Meds Researchers effective in LOWERING cholesterol and AVOIDING use of Statins e.g Lipitor, Zocor, Pravachol, Simvastatin and their negative side effects, using dietary interventions.

• Better Predictor than Cholesterol for Heart Disease Studies shows new indicators for prevention arteriosclerosis than cholesterol.

• How I Lowered my Cholesterol Naturally Shirley H., Registered Nurse: How I brought my cholesterol back to normal when using statins did not help and were causing concern and muscle weakness.

• Dark Chocolate As Good As Heart Meds? Having a chocolate habit – dark chocolate -- may substantially reduce your risk of heart disease: heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure, hypertension and high cholesterol.

Beyond Diet and Exercise: How Emotions and Pollution Play a Part

• Hardening of the arteries is also being linked to air pollution. For example, researchers at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California have found a 3-6% increase in the long-term risk for heart attack based on exposure to air pollution.

• Heavy metals, especially mercury, are problematic. A Finnish study found a 50 percent to 70 percent greater risk of heart attacks, heart disease and cardiovascular disease in men ages 42 to 60 who had elevated levels of mercury in their bodies, in spite of eating fish and omega 3’s. Jyrki Virtanen with the Research Institute of Public Health at the University of Kuopio in Finland says that the evidence is strong enough to warrant urging middle-aged men to avoid eating high-mercury fish.

• Resolving negative emotions has also been linked to prevention. “We know that pressures such as anger and hostility can release certain chemicals in the body that may increase the risk of heart disease,” (Belinda Linden, British Heart Foundation).

• Hostility during marital disputes was found bad for women’s hearts, while controlling behavior during marital disputes was bad for men’s hearts according to research done by Professor Tim Smith and other psychologists from the University of Utah.

Heart disease prevention, say researchers, involves the environment, creating harmonious relationships as well as the right diet and exercise. So, be happy and value your friends and family!

New Paradigm for Heart Health: Coronary Artery Disease, Heart Disease and Heart Attack

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