LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

A Heart Attack

Heart Attack Statistics: Dental Invader Found in Heart Plaques

by

Heart attack statistics stem from multiple factors; the famous one cause : one cure model that dominates medicine just doesn’t fit here.

It would be wonderful, though, if this were true.  That means that treating everyone with a statin to lower his or her cholesterol would actually work.  Or lowering everyone’s high blood pressure with a beta blocker, ACE-inhibitor or calcium channel blocker would yield amazing outcomes.  Or the identification of a single genetic factor that caused heart disease would yield the biggest blockbuster drug ever.

Alas, heart disease is multifactorial and requires a comprehensive lifestyle approach to avoid or manage it (you can read my recommendations by downloading my free ebook here).

But this does not mean that there are not certain factors that play major roles in the development of sickened blood vessels that ultimately lead to a heart disease or fatal myocardial infarction.

And it’s not cholesterol.

Chronic inflammation is arguably one of the key factors that contribute to heart disease.  Chronic inflammation comes from many sources, including poor dietary choices, stress and sedentary lifestyles.  Chronic infections are on the list.

Key among these is the oral cavity and the gut.  Which brings us to this particular study.

Researchers looked for the presence of bacteria within the plaques (thrombi) from patients who suffered a heart attack and compared the levels of certain bacteria to those found floating around in the bloodstream.  Here’s what they found:

  1. The total amount of bacterial DNA in the thrombi was 16 times higher than in the blood.
  2. Viridans streptococci (a bacteria typically associated with dental infections), was found in 78.2% of thrombi.
  3. Bacteria associated with periodontal disease were found in 34.7% of the plaques.
  4. Bacteria-like structures were detected by in a subgroup of 30 patients with a heart attack that were examined by a specialized CAT scan, those with a periapical abscesses were 13.2 TIMES more likely to have viridans streptococci DNA found in his or her plaque (Tweet this).

The bottom line is that, although our country’s disturbing heart attack statistics are the result of many different things going wrong in the body, it is very clear that good oral health needs to play a role in a heart-healthy lifestyle.

We all know that this includes brushing, flossing and regular dental visits, but how many of you out there use a tongue scraper as well?

Are You Going to Have a Heart Attack in 35 Years?

by

Seems like an awful long time to worry about.  35 years.  Heck–I don’t even know what I’m doing this weekend, let alone in 3 1/2 decades.  So why should anyone worry if they might have a heart attack in 35 years?

Because you will care in 35 years from now.  Try to sound as tough as you’d like now, but once that crushing pain hits your chest and you get rushed to the ER to have your sternum cracked open with a spreader and have one of your more precious organs replumbed, you would be willing to go back and change it all.

On the other hand, maybe this is why you’ve made the right choices.  You’re exercising with short burst methods, avoiding refined carbs and eating omega 3’s instead of omega 6’s.  In general, you’re following the recommendations that can be found by by clicking here.

But it’s not you I’m addressing this post to.  It’s your young child.

We are seeing growing evidence that heart disease begins in childhood.  Or rather, we should NOT see heart disease beginning in childhood, but we are.  Rest assured it is because of the preprogramming that begins in the womb and continues through childhood and adolescent.  The poor lifestyle choices aquired early are very likely to perpetuate for the rest of his or her life.

This particular study took the research we have seen on risk factors for heart disease and put a practical spin on it.  Basically, how likely are these risk factors going to turn into a heart attack 35 years later?

If you’re doing the math, we are talking about an adult in his or her 40’s or 50’s having a heart attack, the beginnings of which stretched back to childhood.

Researchers looked at the ESR levels of 433,577 young adult men in Sweden.  ESR is a general marker of inflammation (erythrocyte sedimentation rate).  And inflammation is a strong player in heart disease.  So what did they find in those kids with higher levels of ESR?

Those kids who had an ESR of ≥15 mm/h had 70% increased risk of having had a heart attack 35 years later (Tweet this).  And this was after accounting for traditional risk factors associated with heart disease.

70% increased risk.  From behaviors your child is adopting NOW.  It is becoming far too common to hear about parents in their 60’s or 70’s losing a child to heart disease.  Unless we wake up and change our kids’ behaviors (which always starts with changing YOUR behaviors…), the number of parents burying their adult children will only go up.

What are YOU going to change today?