Five healthy practices dramatically reduce stroke risk in large study population

Few conditions are more devastating than stroke, yet an article published ahead of print on August 12, 2008 in the American Heart Association journal Circulation reports that just five healthy lifestyle factors may confer significant protection against the event. Read more

Reduced omega-3 and elevated trans-fatty acid levels predict nonfatal heart attack better than established risk factors

An article published online on June 9, 2009 in the British Journal of Nutrition reported the conclusion of a study conducted by South Korean researchers that red blood cell fatty acid profiles may prove to be a better predictor of who is at risk of heart disease than Framingham risk factors.

Framingham risk scores are calculated from values for the following traditional risk factors: age, gender, smoking status, total cholesterol levels, HDL-cholesterol levels, diabetes history and hypertension history. While an individual’s Framingham score is 70 to 80 percent accurate in predicting coronary heart disease risk, it fails to take into account more recently recognized risk factors that could improve its predictive value.

The researchers, from the Hanyang University in Seoul, matched 50 men and women with acute nonfatal myocardial infarction (heart attack) with 50 age and gender-matched controls who did not have a history of heart attack. Red blood cells were analyzed for levels of trans-fatty acids (undesirable fatty acids found in partially hydrogenated vegetable oil), and the beneficial omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) (found in fish and the algae they feed on). Continue Reading

Western diet accountable for nearly a third of the world’s heart attack risk

An article published online on October 21, 2008 in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association estimates that the diet typically consumed in Western countries, consisting of high amounts of meat, fried foods, and salty snacks, is responsible for approximately 30 percent of heart attack risk worldwide.

Salim Yusuf, DPhil and colleagues analyzed data from the INTERHEART study of heart attack risk factors among 16,000 participants in 52 countries. Five thousand seven hundred sixty-one participants diagnosed with heart attack were compared to 10,646 participants without known heart disease. The subjects were interviewed concerning dietary intake, including healthy as well as unhealthy food consumption. The researchers identified three dietary patterns, which they labeled as Oriental, prudent or Western.

Oriental diets were characterized by a higher intake of tofu, soy, and other sauces, the prudent pattern contained a greater intake of fruit and vegetables, and the Western diet included an increased amount of meat, eggs, salty snacks and fried foods. While followers of a “prudent” diet had a 30 percent lower average heart attack risk compared with people who consumed few fruits and vegetables, those who reported a Western dietary pattern experienced a 35 percent greater risk of heart attack than those who consumed few or no fried foods or meat. Continue Reading

QUESTIONS FOR YOUR CARDIOLOGIST

Surely your cardiologist holds a theory about the cause of heart disease.

Ask your doctor whether his theory can answer the following questions:

1. Why do gorillas and other primates suffer heart disease similar to humans, but other species don't?


2. Why does atheriosclerotic plaque form only in arteries, (blood flowing from the heart), and not in veins, (blood flowing to the heart)?


3. Why does the atherosclerotic plaque form in arteries close to or on the surface of the heart, but not INSIDE the heart?


4. Why aren't infarctions common in the blood stream where the blood pools or moves slowly, such as in arteries of the ears, fingers or nose?


5. Why do more than 50% of the heart attack and strokes occur in people without any accepted cardiovascular risk factors?


6. Why do people with low cholesterol still suffer heart attacks and stroke?


7. Why do about half of the surgical heart procedures fail? (In other words, why do the plaques grow back with a vengeance?)


8. What did the cardiovascular mortality rate decline by almost half in the 1970s, after Linus Pauling's Vitamin C book become a best seller?


9. Why is cholesterol elevated in heart patients?


10. Why have major cholesterol-drug studies not released the raw data to scientists?


11. Why do drug companies routinely cut studies short just after mortality in the study groups begins to rise?


12. Why hasn't medical science investigated the Pauling/Rath theory?

The answers to these questions and more can be found in Practicing Medicine Without A License? The Story of the Linus Pauling Therapy for Heart Disease., a new book which explains the Pauling/Rath unified theory. Read more about this book here .