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Articles On
Heart Disease |
Angina? What To Do!
Angina pectoris refers
to the squeezing type of chest pain sometimes experienced by patients
who are not getting enough blood and oxygen to the heart muscle, usually
due to
arterial blockages and plaque build up. Often the pain will come
on with exertion, and can be relieved by taking nitoglycerin
medications. Many angina patients who see cardiologists end
up on a conveyor belt that inevitably lead them to have
invasive and questionably effective surgical and diagnostic
procedures like angiograms, angioplasties, and bypass
surgery.
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Arteriosclerosis
Atherosclerosis has usually been thought of as a chronic
degenerative process that resulted from damage caused by
various stressors on the interior of the arterial wall.
Today more evidence is accumulating that an inflammatory
component may in fact lie at the core of the plaque-forming
process. |
Prednisone and Heart Disease
When patients get sick, they expect their
doctor to do something dramatic that will help them feel better right away.
Prednisone therapy (the major glucocorticoid) is one of those “miraculous”
interventions that can cause a quick turnaround in the patient’s condition.
But there is a price you have to pay for this “miracle.” |
Testosterone and Heart Disease
Many women and men tremble at the mention of a
suggested hormone program including testosterone because of imagined links of
"over-aggressive behavior."
Like a lot of other things that require balance in our lives, the right amount
of
testosterone is good, and too much or too little is bad.
Testosterone is very
important for the maintenance of health in both men and women, and deficiency
conditions are very common. |
How We Use The Ultrafast CT
Scan
The heart check CT scan is a non invasive method of
screening patients for the presence of “silent” coronary
disease. It does so by measuring calcification in the
coronary arteries, which statistically directly correlates
with arteriosclerotic plaque burden and the risk of a
coronary event. Without the risk associated with
angiography, valuable information can be obtained which can
serve to help patients prevent future heart attacks. |
Pomegranate
Juice and Arteriosclerosis
The commonly
available juice of the pomegranate may have some uncommonly
good effects on the human circulation. A 3 year study in
Israel concluded that daily consumption of 8 oz. of this
juice resulted in reduction of carotid artery plaque, a
frequent cause of mini-strokes. |
Opening
Blood Vessels: Viagra or Arginine?
Viagra has
had quite a good run of sales since it was introduced in the
late 1990’s. Sales must be sagging, however, since we are
now starting to hear that the drug can actually be good for
cardiovascular patients. That would have been blasphemy just
a few years ago, yet it makes sense when viewed from the
perspective that endothelial cell dysfunction and low
nitrous oxide levels are involved in arteriosclerosis.
However, just because there may be market for a particular
drug for a specific indication doesn’t mean that it’s the
best way to go. |
Thick
Blood
In the process of treating patients at CMRS, we often perform
procedures which involve needles and blood: for example, starting
IV’s and doing Prolotherapy injections.
Sometimes I will comment that a Prolo patient’s blood is nice and
red and flows freely, and explain to them that is a good
thing. The reason that the nurses and I notice this in the
clinic is that many of our sickest patients instead have
blood that is dark in color and does not flow well at all.
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Hormone Replacement and Cardiac Risk
Everyone remembers the panic that ensued after the WHI study results
came out several years ago. Gynecologists and women patients
abandoned hormone replacement (HRT) as rapidly as they had
originally embraced it because of the risks of cancer and other
problems. |
Fibrinogen and Heart Disease
While the pharmaceutical companies fatten up on profits from
their successful public cholesterol "education" campaign, a
large list of identifiable and treatable cardiac risk
factors goes virtually unnoticed by the medical profession
and the public at large. Because the profession is so
dominated by the pharmaceutical mentality, orthodox
physicians find themselves stuck in a small box with the
enemy being cholesterol, the victims their heart patients,
and their tools the prescription pad and samples of statin
drugs. |
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