Prevent Heart Attack

1. Your body requires sodium (a component of salt) to regulate fluid balance and distribution, as well as nerve and muscle cell function. Although you need some sodium, the standard American diet includes way too much. That’s why I urge my patients to try what I often refer to as "the healthiest diet of all." You'll be amazed at how effective it can be.
2. The current recommendation for salt consumption is less than 2,400 mg of sodium a day, which amounts to about one teaspoon of salt. Recent research suggests that people ingesting less than 1,500 mg of sodium a day are better able to keep their blood pressure low. If you have high blood pressure, you should definitely aim for that kind of level. Don’t use salt from the shaker, and read labels to add up the amount you’re taking in.
3. Many items at fast food restaurants are high in salt, so you can easily exceed the recommended level with one serving.
4. You can easily make up for the reduced salt in your diet by cooking with fresh herbs and spices such as basil, garlic, oregano, rosemary, chives, parsley, and onion. What’s more, all of these flavorings contain natural substances that are good for your health. Garlic, in particular, has been shown to have a positive effect on blood pressure when consumed on a daily basis.

• Choose to seek natural ways to lower blood pressure if that’s a problem for you.
• Choose to adhere to good cardiovascular nutrition, which may include increasing the amount of fresh vegetables you consume and lowering the amount of breads and other starches you eat each day.
• Choose to do what you need to do to maintain good cholesterol levels, improve blood circulation, and healthy triglycerides.
• Choose to exercise so that you can more easily prevent blood clots and maintain a healthy weight.

• reducing stress,
• losing weight  (you can get great tips for doing this here),
• controlling your sugar intake, and
• exercising more.

• one organic New Zealand rack of lamb
• 1-2 tablespoons of grapeseed (preferred) or extra virgin olive oil
• leaves from a 3-4 inch sprig of fresh rosemary, finely chopped ( or1/2 tsp dried rosemary)

• Address any lifestyle-related or heart risk factors you have with your doctor.
• Follow a good cardiovascular nutrition eating program, such as the PAMM diet.
• Take 1–3 grams of fish oil daily.
• For women over 65, take 100 mg of aspirin (equivalent to 1.25 baby aspirin) a day. (Beware of stomach bleeding, though, which is always a possibility with long-term aspirin use.)
• Drink 1 to 3 cups of green tea and 2 ounces of pomegranate juice daily.
• Take a 500–1,000 mg garlic supplement or eat one crushed clove daily. (Avoid this tip if you’re taking Coumadin.)
• Be aware of your high inflammation marker scores: CRP, homocysteine, fibrinogen, and Lp(a).
• Maintain good cholesterol levels, including an HDL less than 40.

• Total Cholesterol:  173
• HDL:   74
• LDL:   87
• LDL cholesterol-C:  90
• Lp(a) : 12

Time is of the essence when you’re dealing with a heart attack. The best chance for survival and optimum recovery occurs if you are treated within two hours of the onset of symptoms.

At the hospital, things will move quickly. Up to 50 percent of the time, sudden death is the first symptom of heart disease, so any patient who survives the first two hours after a heart attack has passed a significant milestone. However, even with the best of medical care, 10–12 percent of those who survive the initial attack never leave the hospital (they die in the days following).

When it’s time for a patient to be discharged from the hospital, close caregivers should be present for any medical instructions because patients frequently don’t remember details. In fact, patients sometimes fail to recognize hospital staff members when they return for follow-up visits—that kind of psychological side effect is common during times of shock and trauma. At home, one of the biggest challenges that patients and loved ones face is a sense of day-to-day suspense. Many patients say they feel like they are just waiting for the other shoe to drop. These feelings are normal.

While I hope you’ll never need this information, I want you to be aware of it. I also want you to recognize common heart risk factors so that you can avoid ever being victim to heart attack or other cardiovascular problems. The key is prevention, which includes good cardiovascular nutrition, the ability to control high blood pressure, and maintaining healthy cholesterol and healthy triglycerides levels.

For more information on heart attack and stroke, heart risk factors, or other cardiovascular problems, visit www.drsinatra.com. While there, sign up for FREE e-letters or subscribe to Dr. Sinatra’s monthly newsletter, Heart, Health & Nutrition. 
 

1. Niacin:  Take up to a total daily dose of 1 gram (1 gram=1,000 mg) taken in one or two doses. Start at a dose of 125mg, then double it as tolerated, up to the full amount.
2. Fish or squid oil: Take 2 grams daily of a good quality fish or squid oil (but not krill oil).
3. Nattokinase: 50 mg daily.
4. Bolouke: Boluoke contains the enzyme lumbrokinase, which has been shown to assist with the breakdown of fibrin, a protein involved in blood clotting. It is a Canadian product and can be purchased online. This is the only measure I know of that may actually lower your Lp(a). Take as directed.
5. Delta tocotrienol: Take 100–200 mg of this natural form of vitamin E once a day.
6. Get grounded! Remember, heart disease—like diabetes, cancer, and a host of autoimmune problems—is a disease caused by inflammation. In the case of heart disease, it’s the arterial walls that get inflamed. Once they puff up from inflammation and all kinds of debris that accumulate in the arterial walls, they then get clogged, especially if you have a tendency to clot. Grounding can help to reduce inflammation, and help avoid cardiovascular problems and prevent blood clots.

• Because of its small dense properties, Lp(a) has been shown to contribute to atherosclerosis;
• Your Lp(a) level is often hereditary, with DNA determinants;
• Lp(a) is thought to have something to do with coagulation and clot formation;
• It can help with wound healing because of its ability to turn on inflammatory reactions; and
• At high levels, it can promote excessive inflammation.

• small—it can easily sneak in and permeate the cell wall and wreak havoc;
• dense— like a stone that sinks to the bottom, it can pile up on the walls of your blood vessels; and
• highly inflammatory—it is a provocative little monster.

C-reactive protein is a heart risk factor that the medical world has started to take note of. It’s a blood protein that, when found in elevated levels, may indicate a risk for heart attack and stroke.  

CRP can be detected when there is inflammation resulting from trauma or infection. Let’s look at some study results:  A 1985 Finnish study found that half of patients with coronary heart disease had high levels of an antibody known as C-reactive protein, compared with only 17 percent of healthy controls.

The Physicians Health Study indicated that C-reactive protein could predict future cardiovascular problems, such as heart attack in healthy and high-risk individu­als, and that high levels of this protein increase risk for heart attack and stroke.

In healthy postmenopausal women with levels of C-reactive protein and 11 other substances, the one-fourth with the highest C-reactive protein lev­els were 4.4 times more likely to have had a heart attack or other cardiovascular problem than the one-fourth with the lowest levels.

If you have cardiovascular problems or you’ve recently experienced a virus or urinary infection that could cause inflammation, have your doctor check your C-reactive protein levels. CRP can be detected when there is inflam­mation resulting from trauma or infection (including pneumonia, herpes, chlamydia, and possibly even a viral infection that simulates a cold). A simple blood test is as accurate as cholesterol and homocysteine screening in pre­dicting a person’s risk of heart attack and stroke.

For more information on heart risk factors and how to prevent them, visit www.drsinatra.com.

In many cases, the decision to undergo heart surgery is easy—particularly if you are symptomatic with a lot of heart risk factors, you have left main coronary artery disease, and your quality of life is poor. But, if you are asymptomatic, the decision to have surgery may be a difficult one.

Consider Fred, a 56-year-old engineer who came to me several years ago for a second opinion. Fred’s doctor recommended that he undergo bypass surgery immediately. His angiogram indicated two coronary vessels were about 70 percent blocked, and his stress test revealed a small area of what cardiologists call ischemia. No doubt about it: His heart was vulnerable to an attack.

But Fred was satisfied with the quality of his life. He was not symptomatic and he wasn’t suffering from any known or unknown heart risk factors. He could walk three to four miles a day without experiencing symptoms of angina, such as shortness of breath, profuse sweating, or other symptoms of cardiovascular problems.

So I recommended that he delay surgery, take beta blockers and nitrates, switch to a diet that adheres to healthy heart nutrition guidelines, enrich the diet to include vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and coenzyme Q10—a key ingredient in my core nutritional program for healing cardiovascular problems. I also kept him on a walking program. I told Fred, “You have time. We don’t have to rush into surgery. Let’s see if these treatments eliminate the potential need for surgery.”

If, like Fred, you have documented cardiovascular problems but no symptoms and a good quality of life, I think you should consider the alternatives I’ve discussed before rushing into surgery.

Using Your Innate Healing Power

I strongly recommend delaying surgery until you have an opportunity to heal yourself. By that I mean trying alternative approaches to improving your heart health—whether it’s adhering to the healthy heart nutrition tips I’ve shared in this blog, incorporating exercise into your life, or taking nutritional supplements. The key is in being open to helping to heal yourself of the cardiovascular problems that plague you. 

In addition, I urge you to take periodic stress tests and be aware of any unusual symptoms you may be experiencing. If the nuclear stress test shows improvement in your blood flow, then you should continue to put off the decision to have surgery. I can’t tell you how many of my patients have healed themselves of their cardiovascular problems, and have never had to have bypass surgery or angioplasty.

Whatever option you choose, I urge you to continue on the path to a healthy lifestyle—not only to help prevent cardiovascular problems but also to limit its progression. Unfortunately, I have had to recommend second surgeries to patients who considered angioplasty or bypass surgery an instant “cure” for their heart disease, only to return to an unhealthy lifestyle.

We physicians and holistic health practitioners do our best to offer options, prescribe medications, and perform surgery, but YOU, and only you, have the power to truly heal yourself and make the most of the “second chance” surgery gives you.

For more information on the path to a healthy heart, visit www.drsinatra.com.