What Causes Blockages to Develop in the Arteries?
Dr. Filice was on staff from 2003 until 2007
What causes blockages to develop in the arteries? Essentially, there is agreement that atherosclerosis develops as the result of damage to the interior lining of the blood vessel with the repair process then going haywire. What is not agreed upon is what causes the damage, and how the repair process ends up creating a blockage in the artery.
The best theory today about the cause of the initial insult to the lining of the artery (the endothelium) is that it results from some combination of mechanical stress (stretching of the arterial wall, as from high blood pressure...the lower pressure veins never develop plaque, or nicks caused during the process of angiography) and oxidative stress (free radicals released in the process of metabolism that are not neutralized by internal antioxidants).
The body attempts to heal all such damage, and under ideal circumstances is able to do so without trouble. However there are many things which can derail normal healing, and cause the beginning of plaque in the vessel wall. Such factors taken in total will predispose the patient to heart disease. All of the modifiable risk factors for coronary disease can be categorized as stressors which damage the artery lining or conditions which impair the body's healing response.
Stressors include hypertension (high blood pressure) and anything that creates it (like stress), and anything that produces more free radicals (like poor diet, smoking, heavy metal toxicity, increased homocysteine levels, elevated blood fats, medications, and excess iron).
Healing response interference would come from factors such as inadequate anti-oxidants, hormonal deficiencies or excesses, other nutritional deficiencies, insulin resistance, elevated blood sugars, increased lipoprotein (a), levels, and increased clotting tendency of the blood).
The average cardiologist's approach to coronary disease and atherosclerosis consists of this: Invasive testing to demonstrate blocked arteries, medication to control blood pressure, and diet and/or medication to control elevated cholesterol levels.
Our approach at CMRS involves careful attention to and testing for over 20 modifiable risk factors including the emotional state, non-invasive assessment of the condition of the arterial system, non-drug natural medicine and life style correction of risk factors, and intravenous chelation therapy.
What is the number one, most important risk factor for arteriosclerosis and accelerated aging? Read this week's Dr. Filice Newsletter
Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease
Robert Filice, M.D.
Heart disease is a huge problem today. Fully two of every three people will eventually develop some form of it. It is the number 1 cause of death in individuals between 25 and 65 years of age, and every day coronary heart disease alone ends the lives of 800,000 people (figures from 1996).
The process of hardening of the artery walls due to calcifications (arteriosclerosis) may begin early in life, and is almost universal. Atherosclerosis, or the blocking of blood flow due to deposits within the arteries, is a separate but related process. Suspected causes are cholesterol, oxidative stress, mechanical stress, homocysteine, and the vitamin C/lipoprotein (a) connection.
These theories will be discussed in detail in future issues. For now, you should know that it is possible to accurately determine and modify all known risk factors for cardiovascular disease, and that process needs to go far beyond the measurement of blood cholesterol levels. For example, diet, life style habits, hormone levels, blood sugar levels, homocysteine levels, insulin resistance, coronary artery calcifications, heavy metals, lipid peroxides, hypertension, fibrinogen, percent body fat, cholesterol/HDL and Triglyceride/HDL ratios, renin levels, increased emotional stress, nutritional factors, waist/hip ratio, and high iron all dramatically impact the risk for cardiovascular disease, and every single one of them is modifiable without drugs and with dramatic reduction in cardiovascular disease risk.
Everyone knows what their cholesterol level is, but the cholesterol theory of heart disease is full of holes. It has poor scientific support, many facts about cardiovascular disease cannot be explained by the cholesterol theory (for example arterial plaque is only 5% cholesterol), levels are difficult to control through diet alone, and anti-cholesterol drug sales, not proven scientific fact, provide the momentum and incentive for the huge public propaganda campaign about cholesterol to which we have been subjected. In reality, cholesterol is probably one of the less important cardiovascular risk factors. You can't always believe what you hear on TV, or in the print media.
Three of the main points that I have learned as a result of my 22 years experience in alternative medicine are things that you will never hear on TV or read in popular magazines.
First, heart disease can be prevented and even reversed.
Second, life style and natural medicine approaches should be tried before medications, which should be tried before surgery.
Third, rescue-medicine techniques like bypass surgery and angioplasty are overused, over-rated, and dangerous. I will tell you why I believe these things in the coming weeks in future issues of this newsletter. It can truly be said that you are only as young (or as old) as your arteries.
Take good care of them!
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