Secret #3
Beyond cholesterol and blood pressure—two more heart risk factors you need to know about
The next cardiovascular risk factor on the list has been “generally accepted” as such for over a decade but is just now starting to make some noise in the
health world. It’s called C-reactive protein and some sources are saying it’s even more important than homocysteine and other risk factors. For instance, one recently published study of 27,939 women found women with elevated C-reactive protein levels were more likely to have a heart attack, stroke, and death from cardiovascular disease than those with elevated levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol.
Regardless of whether it’s a more important risk factor than homocysteine or cholesterol, the point is that C-reactive protein is a risk factor and you should have your levels tested.
If your levels are elevated, the best way to tackle the problem is by reducing the inflammation the C-reactive protein is, well, reacting to. And in my experience, the best way to reduce inflammation is to concentrate on your omega-3/omega-6 fatty acid ratio. Omega-3 fatty acids are considered anti-tory; omega-6s are pro-inflammatory. So, to put it simply, you want more omega-3s than omega-6s.
Minimize (or even better, eliminate—at least temporarily) sources of omega-6 fatty acids, especially hydrogenated vegetable oils, which are present in many processed and packaged foods, like crackers, cookies, potato and corn chips. Read the labels of the
foods you pick up off the supermarket shelves. If it lists hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oil as an ingredient, don’t buy it.
Next, if you aren’t already using it, switch to olive oil for cooking and flavoring your food. Nearly all other vegetable oils contain 100 percent omega-6 fatty acids. Also, even though nuts and seeds are generally very good foods, the essential fatty acids in almonds,
peanuts, and nearly every other nut or seed are mostly omega-6. So if your C-reactive protein levels are high, stick to walnuts and flaxseed (and its oil), which contain more omega-3 than omega-6 fatty acids. But the absolute best sources of omega-3 fatty acids are fish and fish oils. I recommend taking at least one tablespoonful of cod liver oil and 1,500 milligrams of DHA each daily. (Remember to take at least 400 IU vitamin E as mixed tocopherols whenever you take any extra essential fatty acids.)
Blood clots: Not just a stroke risk Fibrinogen is a protein involved in blood clotting. If it sounds familiar, you may have heard of it in terms
of its more well-known role as a stroke risk factor. But elevated fibrinogen levels are also a well-established, though very little known, independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. (Where’s that “National Fibrinogen Education Program” when you need it?) Like many other less than desirable changes, fibrinogen levels tend to increase with age—though researchers aren’t sure why.
However, one group of researchers has found that the spice turmeric (best known as an ingredient in the traditional Indian flavoring curry) and one of its components, curcumin, can lower elevated fibrinogen levels to normal. If testing shows your fibrinogen levelsare elevated, take either 500 milligrams of turmeric twice daily or 200-500 milligrams of curcumin daily.
Researchers have also found that eating fish two to three times a week or taking fish oil lowers fibrinogen levels by as much as 20 percent. Take 1 1/2 tablespoons of cod liver oil daily, along with 400 IU of vitamin E. Or if you simply can’t stand the oil, take a DHA/EPA supplement providing 2 to 3 grams of DHA daily.
Secret #4
How women can be saved from congestive heart failure
By the time she came in to see me at the Tahoma Clinic, Helen’s heart was so weak that she had to sleep propped up because of the fluid that was in her lungs. She had been taking three prescriptions to help her but still didn’t feel right. She was taking the usual group of medications for heart failure: digoxin, furosemide, and potassium.
I recommended a series of magnesium injections, taken intravenously, along with vitamin B6 . It sounds expensive and troublesome, but it really is the best method: For congestive heart failure, magnesium frequently works better when given by relatively rapid IV injection. In heart failure, the heart muscle cells are sometimes too weak to extract all the magnesium they should from the blood stream.
A fairly rapid IV injection forces magnesium in to the heart muscle cells, helping them to work better and be stronger. The shots are a bit of a bother, but magnesium––even intravenously––is cheap. And once magnesium is forced into the cells, they continue to take up more magnesium on their own. So, you don’t have to have this done on a regular basis.
The other recommendations I made for Helen wereones that she (and you) could take at home:
• Coenzyme Q10 , 60 milligrams three times daily.
• L-carnitine, 250 milligrams three times daily.
This takes care of congestive heart failure all by itself sometimes. It enables the heart muscle cells to use more sources of energy and to burn them
all more efficiently.
• Taurine, another naturally occurring amino acid like L-carnitine. It’s the most abundant amino acid found in the heart and is known to keep the electrical activity of the heart flowing smoothly. Take 1,500 milligrams twice daily between meals. The other supplements can be taken at any time.
• Hawthorn (the solid extract); take 250 milligrams of the standardized 10 percent proanthocyanidin extract three times daily. Hawthorn improves energy production in heart muscle cells and improves heart muscle contraction. It dilates coronary arteries, providing more blood flow. It also acts as a mild diuretic, can lower cholesterol, and can slow and possibly even reverse atherosclerosis a bit. After three months, Helen reported “feeling much stronger, not taking water pills at all, and sleeping flat with only one pillow like when I was younger.” At this point, I told her she could stop the magnesium injections and take magnesium capsules instead, along with
the other minerals she’d been taking. When she came back for her second follow-up visit, she reported that she had all her strength back and was working hard around the house and yard.
Of course, Helen’s exact treatment plan may not work for you. It’s best to check with your doctor to determine a supplement program tailored specifically to your needs.
Secret #5
The natural artery-cleaning program that starts in your stomach
Hernando wasn’t an old man, but his diseased arteries made it so difficult for him to get around that he could barely hobble into my office. As he put it, “I’m just waiting around for things to get bad enough so I can have my legs amputated.” Is your body starving itself of essential nutrients? It turned out that one of Hernando’s problems was a condition called hypochlorhydria, in which his stomach wasn’t digesting his food and nutrients efficiently.
This is by far the most common digestive problem we see at the Tahoma Clinic. It happens when the stomach doesn’t produce enough acid for digestion to proceed normally. In fact, according to one medical text book, The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, 10 to 15 percent of the general population have this problem. And if inefficient digestion isn’t corrected, then even the best of diets and supplementation won’t help.
Having seen first hand how many problems this condition can cause, I always recommend having stomach function tested.
One way to test this is by radiotelemetry using the Heidelberg capsule. To take this test, you’ll swallow a small, plastic capsule that contains electronic monitoring equipment. As it moves through the stomach and intestines, the capsule can measure the pH of the stomach, small intestine, and large intestine and transmit a signal, which you’ll receive through antennae that you wear outside your body. This information can help your doctor determine whether or not your stomach is