After watching the 2015 documentary film, The WIDOWMAKER, I felt compelled to blog about other information regarding heart health to round out the discussion.
The film addressed technology for the problem of death due to sudden cardiac arrest, but it did not delve into the long occurring breakdown in health that got people into trouble in the first place.
So, I offered 6 points of information and covered 1-3 in my Part 2 blog post.
What's Missing?
1- We need to talk about the nervous system
2- We need to talk about collateral arteries
3- We need to discuss why animals don't get heart attacks
4- We need to stop talking about cholesterol and change the subject to inflammation
5- We need to talk about the Jupiter study
6- We need to talk about the Poly-pill study
As a chiropractor, I offer people natural ways to maintain their health. In fact, anything unnatural adds more stress to the body which is ultimately problematic and illogical. These natural ways allow them to achieve health with their own efforts (with the exception of chiropractic: someone else has to adjust the spine, but it is still a natural approach) giving people a sense of empowerment and accomplishment.
When someone is in the midst of a health crisis, things are pretty scary and the level of anxiety pushes someone into a vulnerable state of helplessness.
When someone is in an emergency situation, the trauma team at a hospital intervenes. A life is saved with technological advancements, but the patient now has the daunting task of finding new life style habits to prevent a recurrence. I don't believe it is daunting because the freedom and sense of personal achievement is powerful in healing. On the down side, the medical establishment turns to a slew of maintenance prescriptions that need constant monitoring for side effects.
I do not prescribe drugs. I don't want to. As a consumer of health products, I am aware of the limitations of medicine and the risk of chemicals in the body. I am also aware of the limitations of a body riddled with tissue damage. When your tissues are drowning in the acidic soup of inflammation, the true source of inflammation must be addressed, and drugs only add to the fiery soup. My goal is to educate people on what is actually needed to stay alive and thrive.
My dad died in his sleep from a coronary occlusion. But how am i sure of that? The autopsy found the blockage, but was it really his nervous system strangled under inflammatory conditions? It was a long time ago when he was constantly given a clean bill of health after running a few minutes on a treadmill once a year. His numbers were perfect according to his doctors . He was taking blood pressure medication along with bile acid sequestrants. I can't remember how low his blood pressure was under medication, but his doctors were pretty happy.
Now I blame his love of margarine for his death in his early 70's. But I need to consider multiple factors affecting the state of his nervous system. He was exposed to a lot of chemicals on the job that could have made his arteries stiff. The bile acid seqestrants interfere with nutrient absorption, so I believe he lost minerals like magnesium and B vitamins that are critical for heart function.
According to the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation, we're no better off than 20 years ago. Some websites state heart disease has decreased, but it is still the number one cause of death. And what about quality of life?
4- We need to stop talking about cholesterol and change the subject to inflammation
Author, David Seaman, states in his book, The Deflame Diet, cholesterol is "an 'innocent bystander' being unjustly blamed for clogging arteries." He also cites recent studies that show inflammation is the culprit in atherosclerosis, not cholesterol. Cardiovascular researchers know this is the case and the old view is no longer substantiated in the literature. (See Chapter 20 of The Deflame Diet) There are so many other authors out there who have already covered this topic I don't feel the need to give my readers a science lecture.
Chronic inflammation is an underlying cause of heart and vessel dysfunction. But you have to learn about it on your own because the medical establishment still tells you to eat low fat. Processed food and soft drink manufacturers give money to health associations. They will all tell you to eat anything in moderation so the money keeps flowing.
The most inflaming foods are sugar, grains and seed oils which tends to add up to 60% of the average person's diet. Asking someone to change 60% of his or her diet can create quite a panic, so there needs to be some type of emotional preparation. Still, freeing someone from an inflammation catastrophe has numerous benefits in addition to improving heart health.
5- We need to talk about the Jupiter study
Statin medications are the doctors' favorite for reducing cholesterol. But, actually measuring if patients are better off is very difficult to prove. I recently listened to talk by David Diamond who had to evaluate his health status. Fifteen years ago he was overweight and had terrible lab numbers. He has improved all his heart disease risks by eating a low carb high fat diet and has never taken a statin medicine. I liked his approach with the audience. I liked that he was straightforward about the carbohydrate problem regarding overall heart and blood sugar health. I am impressed that he is a neuroscience researcher. He understands the brain and mental function. His critics complain he is not a heart expert, but they are missing the point that the brain and heart need the same nutrition for health. He certainly knows how chemicals damage the brain!
He also has been critical of statin studies that poorly state their case of effectiveness yet media talkers brag about a number that is really insignificant yet blown up as major breakthrough in managing heart conditions.
Read here: a summary of his objections to the Jupiter drug study.
What I find interesting and helpful is really delving into the meaning of cholesterol since low cholesterol sets people up for poor health increasing their risks of infection and cancer. Older people who have higher cholesterol in actually in better health, so it is seen as protective. As far as the damage to the brain, this is right up Dr. Diamond's alley. Here in this link he reiterates his years of work in a rebuttal after other professionals complained of his debate with another doctor on a radio program.
Dr. Diamond has never taken a statin and 15 years later he has had no heart attacks. Imagine that! What I find comical is that his doctors didn't like the fact that he used a low carb high fat diet to regain his health. Here is a video of one of his entertaining talks.
6- We need to talk about the Poly-Pill study in Part 4.
I'm sorry that I'm taking so long to write this. It takes a while to gather the information, even though it is readily available on the internet. If you read David Seaman's The Deflame Diet, you will learn about the poly-pill study of researchers who want everyone over the age of 55 to take a daily pill that contains 2 blood pressure meds, an aspirin, a B vitamin (synthetic, of course), and a statin. They did a 12 week study and took out a patent on their idea. I'll let you know about this in Part 4.
Thanks for reading.
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