Heart disease is a leading killer in the USA. The typical treatment consists of stents (now largely disproved), surgery, and drugs. Recent research suggests that drug therapy beats invasive procedures. Stents are problematic in that they do not address underlying causes. They simply mash the obstruction into the arterial wall, opening blood flow, but for how long?

There are some wonderful therapies that conventional doctors will not share with you. Here is a video of a senior gentleman who tells what chelation therapy did for him:

The conventional doctors told him his arterial age has been turned back by objective measurements.

Another similar case is in a man about 55. He had a heart attack and developed congestive heart failure, despite stents. Heart failure develops in some 550,000 new cases in America each year. This is a staggering toll. Heart failure manifests as the hearts inability to pump out the blood sitting in the ventricle. The normal heart will “eject” 60% or more of the blood in the left ventricle, which pumps to the entire body. Someone really fit will reach 70%. I am generally satisfied with 50% in someone with known heart damage. Less will begin to show up in symptoms especially related to exertion, as there simply will not be enough blood supply (oxygen) to meet demands.  As the ejection fraction lowers below 30%, the disability greatly escalates.

We have had many patients with heart failure. While no one can guarantee results, including the surgeon, our clinical results have been very favorable. We typically see an improvement of ejection fraction of at least 50%. And interestingly, the lower the ejection fraction, the higher percentage improvement. Why might this be?

It is well known that vascular injury incites a pattern similar to an eclipse, where there is a small zone of totality (total cell destruction) and a much larger zone of “partial”, where in the case of damage, the cells might be injured, and non or poorly functional,  but alive, and most importantly, salvageable.

Modern medicine generally adopts a wait and see attitude, as it offers scant little to promote health. It concentrates on mitigating disease symptoms.

For decades modern medicine decried chelation therapy. Gerald Lamas, MD, famous cardiologist, stunned attendees at a major heart association meeting several years ago reporting that chelation is NOT quackery but definitely works. Yet, still, cardiologists will not offer this detoxifying therapy originally reported in the 1960s to relieve angina.

Ozone therapy is being employed more frequently these days as its mechanism of action directly improves oxygen metabolism and delivery. So, injured (due to low oxygen), but viable cells can be given the principle need to repair and recover. Oxygen is the single most important need for all cells.

There are nutritional supplements that improve heart function and vascular function. Among these are CoQ10, hawthorn and bioflavonoids, ribose, minerals (like magnesium and potassium), garlic, and more.

We believe in a combined approach. We first emphasize proper diet. Even common wheat might be scarring your arteries as it contains a lectin called WGA (wheat germ agglutinin). It can directly attack the endothelium (inner lining) of your vessels. A Paleo type diet is a first step. Exercise. Stress reduction. Detoxing heavy metals by some form of chelation, oral, rectal, and/or intravenous. (We all have burdens of mercury and lead which can directly attack circulatory factors). Chelation generally involves administration of a very safe molecule, EDTA to bind and remove toxic metals.

Most of our patients receive ozone therapy. It has been shown to improve blood rheology (flow), oxygen delivery by red cells, and mitochondrial oxygen uptake and consumption.

Exercise with oxygen therapy also is a practice that can be done at home to improve circulation. You can find out more about this at www.liveO2.com.

In nearly 70 years of combined practice, we have not seen more than 5 patients between us go on to “need” a bypass surgery. The few stents we’ve seen have been put in for patients who were having symptoms deemed significant enough for an urgent procedure. The second patient mentioned above was still symptomatic with an ejection fraction of 40% or less, despite the best conventional cardiologists had to throw at him. After several months working with us (lifestyle, supplements, chelation, ozone), his cardiologist told him, “I don’t know what you are doing, but keep it up.” His ejection fraction had normalized to 60% and the patient is a most happy camper.

If you have heart disease, hypertension, etc., consider consulting with an integrative physician to learn what might be done in your case to help actually reverse the process.

I will have more on the “cholesterol” non-connection to heart disease in a future blog. Needless to say, we have never prescribed a statin drug except in unusual cases of genetic issues with extremely high cholesterol levels.