Article: Precious Heart
Based on true story: My very good friend, I will call him Jim, recently had his life changed by an emergency heart operation. He went to see his doctor because of unusual symptoms. A few hours later he was lying on an operation table. He was extremely lucky!
Jim thought that he was healthy. He is slightly over weight, but has yearly check-ups and all cholesterol levels had been fine after starting cholesterol medication several years ago. Unfortunately Jim’s story is very typical and happens all the time. We like to trust that once we are on a medication and a laboratory report says “Normal”, we are safe. Unfortunately that is not true.
Cholesterol “numbers” are not so simple. All “bad” LDL-cholesterol is not bad. And all “good” HDL-cholesterol is not good.
Cholesterol medication brings your cholesterol levels down, but it will not sort the biggest problem, inflammation. Therefore even if your cholesterol levels are “normal” your risk for a heart attack continues.
Risk for heart attack is linked with chronic inflammation and cholesterol medication does not eliminate this risk.
This is not just a man’s problem. It is actually the number one killer of both men and women. In men the risk for heart attack increases after the age of 45. Half of the men who die suddenly of heart disease have no previous symptoms. Jim had no previous symptoms either. In women heart attacks most commonly occur after menopause around the age of 50. After the age of 60 heart attack and strokes become the main cause of death in women.
How to prevent
Eat healthy, anti-inflammatory food. Cut off sugar, trans-fatty acids and carbohydrates. Do regular exercise. Keep your weight down. Relax, sleep well and take your anti-oxidants.
Get your hormone levels checked and balanced, because healthy hormone-levels do protect the heart for both men and women.
Get your inflammatory markers and quality of your cholesterol particles checked. Knowing these results will help you to target your treatment specifically on the problem area.
Back to Jim. You wonder why I didn’t advise and help Jim earlier….. I could not, because Jim is also a doctor. Doctors don’t always believe in “Complementary medicine”. Did he know his inflammation markers – No. Did he know his LDL-particle number and size – No. Was he on testosterone – No. Did he take anti-oxidants and supplements – No. Did he know his detailed sugar levels – No. But he took his cholesterol medication and “felt healthy”.
I have to send this letter to all of you before it happens again. All of you who are eating healthy (less inflammation, less sugar), doing exercise (controls sugar levels and blood pressure), taking anti-oxidants (less oxidative stress), taking your Natural Bioidentical hormones (do support heart health!) – you are more safe. But we have to continue working! It’s hard work to stay healthy!
List of suggested tests: HS-CRP, Homocysteine, HbA1c, fasting blood glucose and fasting insulin, apolipoprotein-B, LDL-particle number and size. Most of these markers will be checked in CV Health-test. Get it by your doctor, order from Genova, and I will now add it also on my website (price at Genova and on my website is the same £239). Please notice; this is not an advertise of the test. At the moment, “CV Health” is just the only test (as far as I know) in the UK which measures critical lipoprotein particles.
So that we can stay in Good Health,
Dr Paivi
