Heart Problems
With the death rate from heart problems so high and the number of Americans suffering with heart related disease, we need to look at our approach to heart health.
Fortunately, we are slowly evolving from an era where a headache has been treated as an aspirin deficiency into an era of molecular or nutritional medicine, where we can now find the biochemical defects (missing nutrients) that predispose people to many symptoms.
- The main reasons for so many deficiencies today arc dual:
- We are the first generation to eat so many processed foods that have been stripped of their nutrients to expand shelf life.
- We are the first generation to ever be exposed to and be detoxifying so many chemicals on a daily basis. This process of detoxification requires and actually uses up, or depletes, many nutrients.
For example, most grocery stores' cooking oils and margarines are purified and hydrogenated. This means the oils and margarines have been processed with strong chemicals that remove most of the vitamins and minerals. This is so the product can last for months and not go bad. Unfortunately these nutrients are the very ones that are necessary to prevent arteriosclerosis, early heart attacks, high blood pressure, impotence, Alzheimer's presenile dementia, strokes, premature aging, etc.
Furthermore, hydrogenation means that the product has been exposed to a temperature in excess of 1,000 F, which causes a twisting of the molecule. Normally, lipid (fat or oil) molecules fit into the membranes of cells to protect them and promote proper function. When these heat twisted molecules are ingested, they fit into the membranes like broken keys. They lock into the structure, but they stop it from functioning properly, and they prevent the good molecules from entering to perform their functions. Meanwhile, the twisted molecules are capable of causing the very same damage that saturated fats (from bacon, cheese, steak, etc.) cause.
What do doctors who have not studied nutrition recommend to heart patients? Margarines, artificial eggs, etc.
Margarines are as much as 35% trans (the "bad" twisted molecules) fatty acids. Corn oil, artificial ("plastic") egg substitutes and most "natural whole grain health breads" (made with hydrogenated oils) contain significant amounts as well. So U.S. cardiologists could have actually been accelerating disease. U.S. cardiologists are blamed specifically, because European doctors are either more aware of biochemistry, are not so egocentric that they cannot listen to doctors who do read about the latest scientific discoveries or perhaps are not as controlled financially by other interests, like food and chemical manufacturers. Europe won't even allow the sales of our margarines there because they are so notoriously high in damaging trans- fatty acids.
Another point is that more than 51% of the heart patients in a recent study were low in magnesium in one study. These are the patients who died from a recalcitrant arrhythmia, induced by an undetected mineral deficiency.
For example, in patients who had suffered heart attacks, had bypass surgery and all the best modern drugs and yet were found to be relentlessly persistent in closing off new vessels with arteriosclerotic deposits, diet and lifestyle changes were able to reverse these lesions in one year, as proven by PET scans. Yet, cardiologists commonly treat irregular heartbeat (cardiac arrhythmia) with various drugs, like calcium channel blockers, even though magnesium is nature's calcium channel blocker.
In a time when government studies reveal that the average American diet only provides a small percent of the daily requirement for magnesium, is it any wonder that there is such an upsurge in the use of calcium channel blockers? The problem is that by artificially fixing the minerally deficiency symptom with a medication instead of correcting' the underlying cause, the deficiency is allowed to progress and cause other serious conquences, like sudden death.
In terms of chronic care, the cardiologist can actually be contributing to disease. For example, mineral deficiency may be a solo cause or one of several causes of hypertension and cardiovascular disease, which is the number one cause of chronic illness and death in the U.S. However, the main category of drug prescribed for chronic hypertension, a diuretic, is notorious for causing mineral deficiency.
So the very drug that is prescribed to treat (mask) the symptom, is actually worsening the underlying cause. The patient has only one option: to get sicker. As his mineral deficiency worsens, the patient may suffer chronic back spasms, chronic fatigue or depression, cardiac arrhythmia or even sudden death. If that were not enough, these diuretics also elevate serum lipids (cholesterol and triglycerides), thereby accentuating another cause of arteriosclerosis. And this occurs because we are drug-oriented and merely mask the symptoms, rather than look for the biochemical causes.
Doctors, in general, do not read bio-chemistry research journals, even though one of the roles of research biochemists is to make important discoveries about human health. Physicians instead normally read medical journals that are between 10 and 45 years behind actual scientific discoveries.
Should anyone take a preview peak into the literature and report it before the self-appointed medical authorities do, he immediately gets proclaimed a quack, or the information is labeled unsubstantiated. This is almost as though there is an unwritten rule: "It shall not be discovered and announced and taken for common knowledge until we are ready."
Historically, nutritional care has not only taken a back seat, but has taken a beating from drug-oriented medicine. Meanwhile, the politics and pace of change in medicine may make it necessary for you to take charge now until the cardiologists and other doctors catch up with the molecular era of nutritional medicine.
In another report, a research dietitian warned that the popular low fat, high-carbohydrate diet Americans are being encouraged to follow isn't necessarily best for everyone - and could endanger the health of some individuals.
OK, What can I do? Seek correction not just treatment (symptom relief) for your health problems.
- If you have a heart related problem
- Make sure no subluxations affecting the heart go uncorrected.
- Ask us for a complete lab work-up and Vega exam to find if there are any nutrient problems relating to the underlying condition.
- Start a regular exercise program.
- Ask about stress reduction.
Your lifestyle changes can make all the difference in the world.
There is hope.