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Vascular Disease
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Topics from the Book of Heart and Arterial Disease
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Diseases of blood vessels are a major cause of premature disability and death. Heart attacks and strokes are the most obvious consequence of damaged arteries and increased clotting of blood. Proper, adequate diet revision should be aggressively sought as a solution to this major endemic disease problem, if not by national policy, then by personal prerogative. The more than 60 million Canadians and Americans who have coronary artery disease and the insuring agencies who pay their medical bills should seek the benefits of complete diet revision therapy! To improve the health of modern citizens and to reduce, at the same time, the increasing costs of health-care, self-responsibility for disease-prevention is required. Each person will have to alter disease-causing habits, change poor eating habits, stop smoking and drinking and become more physically active. Preventing Heart Disease and Stroke Fatty degeneration of arterial walls have complex origins in the diets and living conditions that are common in Europe and North America and occur less often among vegetable-eating populations who get more exercises and seldom eat dairy products, meat, and other high protein, high fat foods. Well-known risk factors are diabetes, high blood pressure, smoking, excess body fat, and physical inactivity. If you smoke tobacco in any form, you have to stop. The negative health effects of smoking are so potent that all other considerations are secondary. The risk of heart attacks positively correlates with higher blood levels of cholesterol; the risk of strokes does not. Recently studies have confirmed that high blood levels of the amino acid, homocysteine, increase the risk of heart attacks. Concentrations of HCY are increased in 15-40% of patients with coronary, cerebral and peripheral arterial diseases. The increased concentrations of HCY are corrected by supplementation of the diet with folic acid, pyridoxine, and vitamin B12. Increased homocysteine is more likely with typical high-protein American diets and can be lowered with the Alpha Nutrition Program. The mechanisms of accelerated arterial disease in diabetic patients appear to be multiple but increased levels of glucose and fructose seem to play havoc with blood vessel walls. A cascading series of adverse events follows the onset of high blood sugars and can only be controlled by strict elimination of free sugar from the diet and complete, comprehensive diet revision associated with increased exercise. The problems of diabetics can be generalized somewhat to all people with atherosclerosis and a prudent policy would be to reduce the intake of sugars, sucrose and fructose in the diet of all people at risk. There has been a relatively sudden paradigm shift in cardiovascular medicine from fat theories of disease toward recognition of the pervasive rope of inflammation. Inflammation is a consequence of immune activity. Chronic inflammation may arise from food, infection, and autoimmune disease. High Blood Pressure also relates to diet. For years, excessive sodium salt was associated with hypertension, and low sodium diets were recommended to all sufferers. According to the Canadian Coalition for High Blood Pressure Prevention and Control, non-drug strategies should be the priority for hypertension control in the 90's. Smoking cessation, low fat diet, weight loss, exercise, reduced alcoholic beverage consumption, and increased calcium, magnesium and potassium intake with decreased sodium are the important steps to avoid the problem of high blood pressure. The Alpha Nutrition Program can be recommended, along with Alpha DMX, exercise and relaxation as a rational strategy of preventing and managing cardiovascular disease. The Alpha Nutrition Program is designed to reduce cholesterol, total fat, saturated fats, while increasing vegetable fiber—all desirable measures in the effort to prevent blood vessel diseases, heart attacks and strokes. |
