LifeCare Chiropractic

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heart attack

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

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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?

High apo B, low apo A-I, and prediction of fatal heart attack – (12-27-01)

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High apo B, low apo A-I, and prediction of fatal myocardial infarction

This article adds additional weight to the fact that just running cholesterol levels and blood pressure to assess heart disease risk are incomplete and outdated. A full assessment of CVD risk would include cholesterol, triglycerides, apo B/A-1, CRP, homocysteine, fibrinogen and probably several others I’m forgetting right now. The point is that you cannot be satisfied that your risk is low unless you check most if not all of these parameters. The disappointing fact is that, although CVD risk is incredibly modifiable with lifestyles changes it still remains one of the #1 killers.

The Journal : Back Issues http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(02)08693-2/fulltext

Physicians’ continuing education is sponsored by the drug companies – (03-29-04)

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Requiring doctors to take part in continuing medical education doesn’t improve heart attack care

The bottom line that is probably at the heart of why research takes decades to reach clinical practice is that many physicians’ continuing education is sponsored by the drug companies. Every year there is a functional medicine symposium with some 20-odd experts in functional medicine. The cost is usually around $1000. I recently got an invite to a family practice symposium in CA with some 30+ speakers. The cost of this pharmaceutical sponsored symposium? $35 if you register early.

bmj.com Tanne 328 (7441): 664 –

Read entire article here

Aspirin Ups Risk of Pancreatic Cancer – (11-30-03)

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Aspirin Use May Increase Pancreatic Cancer Risk

Well, doesn’t this just throw a wrench in the works for the “aspirin a day” crowd. I’ve always had a problem with the blatant use of aspirin to lower risk of heart attack. If someone’s really interested, I can give you 15 other things to do to lower risk of heart attack that will not increase risk of something else (actually, in most cases these changes will lower risk across the board for many other chronic diseases).

In this case, this presentation showed an increase in pancreatic cancer risk. For those of you that don’t know, pancreatic cancer is close to last on the list of cancers you would like to get. We just don’t have three year survival rates because most don’t live that long (with the exception of Dr. Gonzalez’s work).

News Main – American Association for Cancer Research.

Read entire article here

 

MILD HYPOTHERMIA AFTER CARDIAC ARREST – (12-09-04)

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COENZYME Q10 COMBINED WITH MILD HYPOTHERMIA AFTER CARDIAC ARREST

We know that the area damaged with an ischemic attack, whether it is a brain attack (stroke) or a heart attack, is actually smaller than the area that ultimately gets damaged. Anything that can be done during the repurfusion stage (when blood is reintroduced back into the oxygen starved area) will shrink the amount of damage done. Magnesium has already been shown to be protective and this study adds Coenzyme Q10 to the list.

This was a small study, but survival rates with CoQ10 was 68%, versus 29% in the placebo. Over twice the survival rates for a (comparitively) cheap and very safe approach. Sadly, studies like this rarely lead to approach changes in our ERs and hospitals. Were it me or my family, I would lock the door and give magnesium and CoQ10 myself. Coenzyme Q10 Combined With Mild Hypothermia After Cardiac Arrest: A Preliminary Study — Damian et al. 110 (19): 3011 — Circ..

Read entire article here

INSULIN RESISTANCE ISSUE PRODUCES FATAL HEART ATTACK – (10-04-04)

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Abnormal glucose tolerance – a common risk factor in patients with acute myocardial infarction

Well now, here’s a different was to look at the insulin resistance issue. Just ignore it completely until it produces a fatal heart attack. There–no need for lifestyle changes or nasty tasting vegetables or exercise.

Abnormal glucose tolerance – a common risk factor in patients with acute myocardial infarction in comparison with population.

read entire article here

Vioxx News: Risk of Having Heart Attack was Hidden for Years

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In case you hadn’t heard the Vioxx news, it was pulled off the market in Sept of 2004 when it was confirmed that it increased the risk of having a heart attack.

I’m pretty sure none of us think that the drug companies have the best of intentions when it comes to our health. But outright lies, deceit and death in the name of profit? Sounds like a perfect Hollywood plot.

But it’s not.  It’s far too real.

Given that society has a very short memory, I’ll refresh you on what happened as it relates to the selective COX-2 inhibitor story.

The problem with anti-inflammatories is that they had this nasty side effect called bleeding ulcers that kills about 16-21,000 people per year (depending on the year). Not something you want prominently displayed on the front of the pill bottle. (As a side note–I always find this little tidbit of deaths associated with NSAID use pertinent to a discussion of risks vs benefits as it relates to chiropractic care).

This tiny little problem of bleeding ulcers and death is the result of the blockage of an enzyme called cyclo-oxygenase (COX). Now, COX has several isoforms–consider them close cousins. The COX-1 cousin actually protects the lining of the stomach and gut and keeps bleeding from occuring. Block this and you get your GI bleeds.

The other cousin, COX-2, was the version that played a role in the pain cycle.

So, block COX-2, but not the protective cousin COX-1, and you’ve got a blockbuster drug. Thus was born Bextra, Celebrex and Vioxx. And boy did they take off. The drug company advertising on this class of drugs kept the media people in BMWs and Porsches for several years.

There were some low level grumblings about concerns over heart disease risk, but these were brushed aside by the company line and well-prepared pharmaceutical reps.

It wasn’t until a whistle-blower came forward that the dam broke. Only then was the true carnage of this class of drugs understood.

You see, unbeknownst to all, the enzyme COX-2 also effected the production of a compound called prostacyclin that thins the blood. Block this and you run the risk of strokes and heart attacks. So much so that we believe in excess of 100,000 heart attacks and who knows how many deaths occurred.

Not to mention to fact that these drugs really weren’t all that much more protective to the stomach lining.

In the lawsuit that followed, much information came to light about just how subversive Merck was with their product Vioxx. The two major concerns focused on:

  1. The hiding of known data that there were increased cardiac risks
  2. The promotion of faked studies (called seeding studies) produced by the marketing teams to get doctors used to prescribing the drugs

To look a little closer at item number 1, in this particular study, researchers tore through the data in studies done by Merck. Studies that Merck claimed did not show any early warning signs of the coming storms.

Turns out, they DID know. To the tune of a 357% increase in the risk of cardiac deaths taking place in those taking Vioxx. And they knew this a full 40 months prior to Vioxx being pulled from the market.

Just under 3 1/2 years. The number of deaths may never truly be known.

So, the pertinent question is…

It is very likely that this is not an isolated scenario at an isolated drug company for an isolated class of drugs.

Just how many other bombshells have been quietly suppressed, never to be revealed, or how many are yet to come to light in the future of this “blockbuster drug” society we live in?

Is the High Heart Attack Risk in Diabetes Curable?

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Mainstream medicine does not generally speak of diabetes in “curable” terms. Yet diet and exercise hold massive potential to essentially make diabetes curable.

Despite this, diabetes and the associated heart problems that ensue remain a health scourge in the US.  From my standpoint in addressing risk and lifestyle changes, there is essentially little difference between heart disease and diabetes.  I know this may sound a little crazy, but let’s face it…70% of diabetics die of cardiovascular complications, and this number does not include the large number of people who die of heart attacks or strokes before they became diabetic.

So, from a lifestyle change and risk factor standpoint diabetes = cardiovascular disease.  Simple.  Pick either the cardiology profession or the endocrinologists and we’ll tell one of them to take their toys and go home because the other group is going to handle the patients.  If you manage one you are managing the other.

Clearly diet helps.  “Helps,” of course, is an understatement.  We have seen studies where diabetics are off of insulin in less than a week under a medically supervised very low calorie diet.  That’s powerful.

The right type of exercise clearly plays a role as well.  Regular readers will know that I am a very big fan of the short burst type aerobic exercise.  The research continues to support this approach to aerobic exercise:

So this stuff is pretty easy.  Basically, just leave your exercise bike in the hallway where you have to actually walk around it.  Then, every time you walk by it, hop on it and pedal away like the Dickens for 30 seconds.  Continue on down the hallway.

Here’s the thing.

YOU NEED TO DO SOMETHING!

Diabetes is, without a doubt, the absolute worst thing that could happen to you.  Period.  It will kill you.  Just being on the path to diabetes (prediabetes) will kill you.  As in pay-up-your-life-insurance-premiums kill you.

Let’s let this particular study put a number on it.

Researchers compared the physical activity levels in diabetics and compared how this affected their risk of dying of heart disease.  The findings are telling:

  1. In moderately active persons 38% lower risk of DYING
  2. This moderately active group had a 49% lower risk of dying from heart disease
  3. Leisure-time activity and walking were both associated with lower heart death risk
  4. Overall, those with the highest physical activity had a 40% lower risk of dying when compared to the sat-on-their-butt group

The bottom line for you diabetics out there…get moving or die.  It’s that simple.  It’s a choice you make every day.  Make it the right one for those who care about you.

So, if you are diabetic, what exercise do you do every day to protect your heart?