Joel Fuhrman - Eat To Live

Eat to Live 155

Revascularization procedures may be necessary in rare circum-

stances, such as triple vessel disease with reduced cardiac output or

an injured (stunned) heart muscle. However, I am convinced that

aggressive nutritional therapy with the addition of nutritional sup-

plements (and if needed, medication) will provide a more favorable

outcome for the majority of patients than angioplasty, stent place-

ment, and bypass.

One might argue, where are the adequate studies that prove this?

But where are the studies to prove revascularization will give a better

outcome with a stable patient, without a reduction in cardiac output?

The benefits of revascularization procedures for patients with good

cardiac function have not been convincingly demonstrated, and there

is considerable evidence to suggest that the adverse outcomes outweigh

the potential benefits. Furthermore, these dubious results are mea-

sured against patients who refuse revascularization and then follow the

normal (worthless) dietary recommendations. When we factor in the

results I see with very aggressive nutritional management, it seems

likely that many patients would be at lower risk if they avoided in-

vasive cardiac procedures and surgery. Fortunately, 1 am not the only

physician in America with this opinion, but it sure seems like it.^27

Rarely will you find a cardiologist who advises aggressive nutri-

tional therapy before angioplasty or bypass. And physicians who of-

fer medical interventions are usually satisfied if blood pressures are

merely below 140/90 and cholesterol levels are under 200. Those

levels are not sufficiently normal to offer true protection.

For true protection, do not be satisfied until your total choles-

terol is below 150 or your LDL cholesterol below 100. Studies clearly

demonstrate that the higher one's cholesterol level, the higher the

risk of heart disease; conversely, the lower the cholesterol level, the

lower the risk. There is nothing particularly magical about the num-

ber 200 — heart disease risk continues to decrease as one's choles-

terol level decreases below this level. The average cholesterol level in

China is 127. The Framingham Heart Study showed that those with

cholesterol levels below 150 did not have heart attacks.^28 In fact,

most heart attacks occur in patients whose cholesterol runs between

175 and 225, because that is the average range of Americans, and the

average American has heart disease. Do you want to be average, or

do you want to be healthy?

A more accurate measure of heart disease risk takes into account

the proportion of blood cholesterol carried in low density lipoprotein

(LDL) and in high density lipoprotein (HDL) particles — the higher