Bypassing Heart Surgery

[The latest scientific research has created a new paradigm for treatment of cardiovascular disease, offering exciting alternatives to performing needless and futile operations. In the following article, Dr. Garry Gordon provides an overview of these alternatives and explains why the conventional approach for treating heart disease is all too often an expensive failure. Garry is a good friend of mine, a “walking encyclopedia” when it comes to medical research, and a pioneering innovator in holistic treatment methods for chronic disease conditions. He is also a member of 1HealthyWorld.com’s Medical Advisory Board.



For more about Garry, see: http://www.1healthyworld.com/advisoryBoard/GarryGordon.cfm.]



Is the end of surgery for cardiovascular disease coming soon? Quite possibly, according to dramatic new cardiac research. The most significant finding is that the old culprit-hard arterial plaque obstructing the artery-has been demoted into a secondary role. The focus is instead on a significantly different kind of plaque that is estimated to be responsible for 85% of all heart attacks and strokes. This deadly variety is called vulnerable plaque.



Vulnerable plaque has come under scrutiny only very recently. It has not been noticed during traditional cardiovascular diagnostic testing because it builds up within the wall of the artery itself, extending outwards very little. It is made up primarily of "soft" cholesterol rather than the more crystalline type of obstructing plaque. This is contained by a fibrous cap that is thinner and weaker than obstructing plaque and so is more easily-much more easily-ruptured. Further, the body tends to respond to vulnerable plaque as an infection. It sends defensive blood cells to the spots that attack and inflame the cap. This tendency to breakage is what gives vulnerable plaque its name. The interior of the plaque contains powerful coagulants that if released into the blood can create massive, lethal clots. This is what makes it so deadly.



The "discovery" of vulnerable plaque did not come from the alternative medical community, but from conventional researchers. Studies have been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and other mainstream publications. One of the recognized authorities on the subject is Dr. Valentin Fuster, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Cardiovascular Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and President of the American Heart.



Seen and Unseen Plaque



An understanding of vulnerable plaque allows us to comprehend why some people with little or no blockage can have a heart attack while others with almost completely blocked arteries may not ever experience any of the symptoms of cardiovascular disease.



All arterial plaques are actually thought to be the body's way of repairing damage to the arterial wall. Small tears might be caused by high blood pressure from stress, the effects of smoking, or a number of other factors. In response, collagen, clotting proteins, and a number of other substances are released into the bloodstream. These adhere to the injured site and attract platelets, special cells responsible for clotting. The core of the plaque contains many lipid-rich (fat-laden) cells derived from white blood cells (leukocytes), which in turn contain a large amount of tissue factor, a powerful coagulant. This core is separated from the bloodstream by a fibrous cap. It is the integrity of the cap that determines the stability of the plaque.



The body has a tendency to treat the build-up of soft cholesterol in vulnerable plaque as an infection. It sends in germ-fighting blood cells that inflame the plaque, and enzymes called metalloproteinases that eat away at the fibrous cap. Vulnerable plaque is a lethal combination of powerful thrombogenic material (clotting substances) stored in the artery wall, separated from the bloodstream only by a weak cap that is being attacked by the body's defense mechanism. Biomechanical studies have shown that it can take no more stress than that caused by a normal heartbeat to rupture these plaques.



Blood vs. Blood Vessel



This information strongly suggests that current surgical approaches to cardiovascular disease are as misguided as removing your lung if you have pneumonia. The focus has to be on the blood, not the blood vessel.



The economic powers that have so much influence on the direction of medical care are happy to embrace these new findings because there is still money to be made. Over one million angiograms are performed annually in the U.S. As noted, these do not reveal vulnerable plaque deposits, but this test can be replaced with another that does: vulnerable plaque can be spotted using an Ultra High-speed MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scanner. The MRI Industry Report newsletter reported that purchases of MRI equipment in the U.S. in 1998 totaled almost $1 billion dollars. A new test, necessitating more Ultra High-speed MRI machines, will certainly take the financial sting out of performing fewer angiograms. Further, the pharmaceutical industry sees tremendous opp^rtunity in developing new, patentable drugs specifically aimed at stopping vulnerable plaque from rupturing.



This is where the alternative medicine community parts company with the medical establishment. Conventional medicine is just beginning to look for new drugs specifically targeting vulnerable plaque. But for over twenty years, many alternative practitioners have been prescribing natural substances and supplements that effectively do the job. There are already natural formulations that balance the blood itself, remove the elements that attack and rupture the vulnerable plaque, repair existing artery lesions, and prevent their further formation.



Most of us are familiar with the hard, obstructing kind of arterial plaque and the role it plays in artherosclerosis—hardening of the arteries.” This is the narrowing of arterial blood channels due to the build-up of cholesterol deposits on the interior of the artery walls. This reduces the flow of blood and, it was thought, makes us susceptible to a blood clot completely stopping blood to a vital organ. If blood stops flowing to the heart it causes a myocardial infarction—a heart attack. If blood stops flowing to the brain, it causes a stroke. This still does occur, but on a far less frequent basis than was previously believed. This familiar plaque is easily seen on an angiogram, in which opaque dye is injected into the heart arteries and sequential X-rays are taken of its progress through the blood channels. For years, cardiologists have blamed high cholesterol levels as the cause of the narrowing of the arteries, and viewed artherosclerosis as the primary culprit in heart attacks and strokes.



Artherosclerosis in humans is not new. Careful studies have shown that the arteries in ice-age man were loaded with obstructing cholesterol plaque. We find the same condition in Egyptian mummies, and onward to the present time. When arteries close down slowly, the body generally produces brand new collateral circulation to go around the blocked area. A person may not ever even know that a significant artery in their body gradually closed off, because it was safely and reliably replaced by tiny blood vessels that are not visible on the usual arteriogram studies in hospitals.



Conventional medicine’s surgical remedies for heart disease have been to re-route the blood flow with a by-pass operation or squeeze open the channel with an angioplasty balloon. Approximately half a million Americans receive a by-pass operation each year, at a cost of about $50,000 each, and only slightly fewer receive an angioplasty, which runs a bit over $20,000. Billions of dollars are also spent on patented “cholesterol-lowering” and “blood-thinning” drugs. It is virtually irrefutable that what alternative physicians, and many conventional cardiologists, have been saying for years is true: these procedures have been for the most part futile, have put patients at unnecessary risk, and been a mind-boggling waste of health care resources and expense.



What is exciting today is that we finally have the means to analyze the components in the bloodstream, and improve risk factors identified therein. We can focus upon the sick or unhealthy components of our bloodstream that cause irreparable damage, and, rather than cutting out the areas in which they became lodged, we can provide the blood itself with the nutrients and other factors that will restore it to health.



Infections, Inflammation, Metabolism



Researchers are finding that long-term use of anti-inflammatory drugs is a major factor in helping to prevent heart attacks and strokes. It is common wisdom that taking an aspirin when one is having a heart attack can increase survival, but this should be a temporary emergency measure only. Statistics show that the great majority of us seem to need some long-term anti-clotting, but there is a serious downside to taking a daily dose of aspirin and/or other NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). These can cause internal bleeding, plus liver and kidney damage, and are linked to 20,000 deaths and over 125,000 hospitalizations annually. Herbalists have long used willow bark (from which aspirin was originally derived) and feverfew. Rutosid, a plant-derived bioflavenoid, similar to heparin but with anti-viral properties, can also be prescribed.



There are also important nutritional and metabolic aspects of this disease. One of the key elements involved is homocysteine. This amino acid is a normal by-product of protein metabolism, specifically of methionine, an amino acid found in red meat and milk products. In a healthy body, the enzymes are present to convert methionine to homocysteine, and homocysteine to the harmless amino acid cystathionine. But in individuals deficient in the necessary enzyme, homocysteine levels will be abnormally high. Excess homocysteine can generate free-radicals that are capable of oxidizing cholesterol, creating substances called oxysterols. Oxysterols are a major factor in damaging vessel walls. If sufficient antioxidants (such as vitamins B6, Folic acid, C, E and beta-carotene) are present, the oxysterols can be neutralized and injury prevented. But the body's supply of antioxidants is easily depleted and significant damage can occur within weeks. Current research clearly shows that homocysteine is such an important risk factor that the cholesterol levels we have wasted so much time and money on virtually pale in comparison.



This enzyme deficiency that used to be a rare, in-born metabolic err^r has become a virtual epidemic. Doctors looking for a rational explanation are focusing on a combination of contributing causes. For the most part, these causes could be characterized as dietary deficiencies of many essential nutrients, as well as excessively high protein intake. For instance, our bodies today have on the average 1,000 times more lead than was present before the industrial age. Among the many proven adverse effects of this elevated lead is the poisoning of zinc-dependent enzymes. This impairs the efficient metabolizing of protein, which most of us consume excessively, leading to the build-up of homocysteine.



All this information points to new parameters of heart health: the need to build up our autoimmune systems; the need for essential nutrients; the need to purify our blood; the need to reduce heavy metals from our tissues and organs; and the need for a safe anti-inflammatory. The time has arrived to standardize our approach to optimal health with more comprehensive, nutritionally balanced supplements.



No longer can we remain secure by following the old, completely inadequate recommendations made by the American Heart Association and other so-called health authorities. Their recommendations have led to today's unhealthy, "one-size-fits-all" fat-restricted diets, which lump beneficial and detrimental fats together, along with using the ill-advised cholesterol-lowering drugs so commonly relied upon. The fact is that cholesterol, unless it is oxidized, is a valuable nutrient that the body has to manufacture every day in order to help build the membranes of the new cells that we must continually create to replace dead and dying cells.



Natural Remedies



It seems as if, when a substance cannot be patented, even a 91% decrease in death rates from heart attacks, compared to anticipated norms, gets no attention. But we do not have to wait for new blood-thinning drugs from the pharmaceutical companies. There are documented blood-thinning, anti-clotting, anti-platelet activities from substances like Vitamin E, garlic, gingko biloba, salmon oil (EPA) and red algae.



Virtually unpatentable natural, nutritional cardiovascular support formulas, such as the one Dr. Lester Morrison's Institute spent over $10,000,000 developing, are given little attention in the highly competitive world of pharmacology today This formula works, but it works slowly. It does not override our natural healing process, but supports it. It works best with people who are willing to take some responsibility for their own progress and cure. These are people who choose to follow nutritional advice, rather than wait for a new drug formula to offer them an overnight cure without any dietary or lifestyle changes on their part.



Hopefully this knowledge will make it clear to everyone involved in trying to treat and prevent heart disease that all of what we have been doing is not enough. Dr. Dean Ornish, expanding on the work of Dr. Nathan Pritikin, has proven that those who are able to follow his rigid approach of exercise, meditation, and dietary change have continued to improve over the years. He has shown that all arteriosclerosis is absolutely reversible. With such knowledge, why would anyone take the chance of dying on the table or incurring severe brain damage induced by an operative procedure which more and more experts are admitting often does not deal with the right disease?



These breakthroughs in the area of vulnerable plaque should allow us to help all patients live a longer and healthier life, using the most natural approaches with the least potential for harm. If we base our natural supplement recommendations on these important new developments, I am convinced from my own experience that we can actually make death from heart attacks and strokes virtually a thing of the past.



New Diagnostic Protocols



There are many aspects to this revolution in heart disease. Even your doctor may not be informed regarding some of the recent important developments that have surfaced so rapidly. The literature being published is escalating; so too is the information regarding those tests that are recognized as significant in determining risk factors.



If your doctor keeps up with current published literature, the tests he would prescribe for you would not just include cholesterol and its subtests of Lpa and oxidized cholesterol. It is important to look at vascular and intercellular adhesion molecules (VCAMs and ICAMs). These make the blood too sticky, and have been implicated in the impaired circulation capillaires, which can eventually lead to loss of vision from such common conditions as macular degeneration and glaucoma.



The physician should also be doing platelet aggregation testing, fibrinogen testing, and also looking for markers of free-radical damage, such as lipid peroxides. He or she should be monitoring you for the level of activity of various infectious agents, such as chlamydia and CMV, associated with the vascular disease. And last, but certainly not least, homocysteine levels should be carefully measured.



All these tests are available through licensed specialty laboratories in the United States. Two such are Immunosciences in Beverly Hills, California (800-950-4686) and Great Smokies Diagnostic Lab in Asheville, North Carolina (800-522-4762).





Unabashed Plug



Learn the Truth about Heart Disease, Stroke and Hypertension. Most of what conventional medicine has to offer for treating these conditions is based on faulty and potentially dangerous assumptions. Discover the real causes behind these diseases and learn what you can do today to prevent and reverse them using safe and natural alternatives that have been scientifically proven to be effective. Read the critically-acclaimed eBook Burton Goldberg’s Definitive Guide to Heart Disease, featuring the contributions of Dr. Garry Gordon, Dr. Stephen Sinatra, and many other leading heart specialists. To order or to find out more about this potentially lifesaving guide, visit

http://www.1healthyworld.com/ebooks/Heart-Book-Info.cfm.



by Garry Gordon, M.D., D.O., M.D.(H.)





The Health Plus Letter, September 16, 2003, Vol. 1, No. 11. Copyright © 2003 by Larry Trivieri, Jr. All rights reserved.