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Unclog Your Arteries Without Surgery
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Reverse Atherosclerosis: Complement Angioplasty, Reduce Restenosis
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Angioplasty often is the first choice of treatment for people with clogged arteries of the heart or legs, because it is relatively less invasive.
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Angioplasty, a procedure where doctors thread a needle through the blood vessels and implant a tiny flexible mesh tube to prop open narrowed or clogged arteries, is performed on about 2 million people worldwide every year (over one million in the United States alone).
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In standard angioplasty, the physician makes a quarter-inch incision in the groin artery and advances a tiny tube, or catheter, through the artery to the site of the blockage, whether in the heart or legs.
A small balloon at the end of the catheter is then filled with saline, and, as the balloon expands, the walls of the clogged artery are compressed, opening up the vessel for better blood flow. Increasingly, tiny metal mesh cylinders called stents are placed in the blood vessels to keep them propped open.
Typically, the patient undergoes conscious sedation before the procedure.
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The Achilles’ Heel: Restenosis
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Angioplasty is far less invasive than bypass surgery in treating clogged arteries - but half of the time, the blood vessels... reclog. Reclogging, or reblockage, is the Achilles’ heel of the standard therapies to open up blocked heart and leg arteries.
In effect, standard angioplasty traumatizes the vessel wall; in response, the damaged cells try to heal and regenerate, forming scar tissue that reclogs the artery, a process known as restenosis (Re"sten-O'sis), or re-narrowing.
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Six (6) to nine (9) months after treatment, restenosis rates approach
- 50 to 60 percent in the leg arteries and
- 20 to 30 percent in the heart arteries.
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When that happens, angioplasty is often repeated or bypass surgery is performed. Restenosis rates have been reduced somewhat by the use of stents. Other possible solutions to restenosis include drug-coated stents or radiation (intravascular brachytherapy). However, there are potential risks associated with radiation treatment. Also repeat procedures typically carry a higher risk of complications.
Therefore, a new form of angioplasty, called cryoplasty, has been investigated. It freezes the insides of blocked heart and leg arteries using nitrous oxide, known as "laughing gas."
Cryoplasty seems to be much gentler on the arteries and doesn't appear to cause the scarring and reclogging (restenosis) that standard angioplasty can. In some patients treated with cryoplasty, there was no evidence of reblockage after six (6) to nine (9) months.
However, both angioplasty and cryoplasty do nothing to stop the progression of arterial disease, so in time, new fatty narrowings or blockages occur in the arteries!
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A Partial Fix
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Without doubt, balloon angioplasty does not alter the natural history of atherosclerosis which, in many instances, is progressive.
For this reason, doctors tend to treat angioplasty patients with higher doses of cholesterol-lowering drugs, such as lovastatin and cholestyramine, in order to reduce restenosis (reclogging). They advise these patients to lower their LDL-cholesterol levels to... 100mg/dL or even below! (The New England Journal of Medicine, January 16, 1997).
Unfortunately, the view that 'the lower the cholesterol, the better' is not always true! At level under 150, you can be at a risk of... too low cholesterol. This condition may cause suboptimal function of such steroid hormones as
- pregnenolone,
- DHEA,
- testosterone,
- progesterone and estrogen -
and result in ... depression and other health problems.
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Standard medical methods of treating atherosclerosis attempt to remove plaque from plugged arteries. None of them, however, treat the cause of the problem. They focus on reducing the effects of the plaque after it has built up -- not on eliminating the factors which created the buildup in the the first place.
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The Nutritional Approach to Restenosis
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If, however, you've had a successful angioplasty, then nutritional arterial plaque reduction, accompanied by regular screens for homocysteine and ferritin (iron storage), could be the finest route to prevent restenosis - and the safest way to avoid going back into the hospital and coming out only partially fixed again...
In our clinical experience, in those who have undergone the balloon angioplasty treatment, the nutritional measures accompanied by necessary dietary and lifestyle changes can significantly
- prevent, reduce and/or delay restenosis - reclogging of the arteries way beyond nine (9) months, and, therefore,
- by-pass the need for another "revascularization" - angioplasty or bypass surgery.
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Arterial Cleansing Formula
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The nutritional approach to atherosclerosis goes far beyond the standard "cut or medicate" treatments. Its goal is to improve and/or restore the impaired body's metabolism.
Only optimum nutrition can boost the body chemistry, helping the cells to
- receive more vital nutrients - nourishment needed for their optimal function (and survival), and
- undergo the ongoing process of detoxification - an essential factor in preventing and fighting all health problems.
This is especially important for those, who have a family history of diabetes, heart disease or stroke due to atherosclerosis.
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Eating Plan For Arterial Health
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As atherosclerosis, to a great extent, is intimately related to what you eat, your diet has a strong impact on your cardiovascular health. Therefore, your food choices should be given serious consideration.
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Gentle Exercise For Arterial Health
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There is strong evidence that exercise and stress reduction - if done regularly - are both protective of the cardiovascular system and supportive of the immune processes. For adults, atherosclerosis is almost always a sign of not enough exercise.
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© 1998-2008 Reverse Atherosclerosis.com: ATHEROSCLEROSIS Controlled Nutritionally with Arterial Cleansing Formula without Drugs or Surgery. All rights reserved worldwide. This document may not be copied in part or full without express written permission from the publisher. The information on reversing atherosclerosis nutritionally provided herein is a general overview on this topic and may not apply to everyone, therefore, it should not be used for diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. While reasonable effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information on reversing atherosclerosis, Full of Health Inc. assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from use of the atherosclerosis information herein.
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