A New Way To Nix Pain

The Rolling Stones changed lives. So do kidney stones. Both can make you keel over like a rugby player who’s been kneed in the groin (for different reasons). Traditionally, keeping stones at bay (kidney stones, not the Rolling Stones) meant treating your body like an empty swimming pool and flooding it with water to flush it out.

That’s still a good idea. But now, there’s also evidence that a little addition and subtraction can dramatically reduce your risk for the stones that create intense pain (and we mean intense) in your lower back and side when you urinate:

What to add: Vegetables, nuts, legumes, nonfat dairy products and 100 percent whole grains. Pile ‘em on.

What to subtract: Sodium, sweetened beverages, and red and processed meats.

What it gets you: People who ate this way had a gigantic 40 percent to 45 percent reduction in kidney-stone risk (men saw the higher drop in risk).

Even niftier about this whole equation (even if you don’t like math) is that the diet the stone-free people were eating was similar to the DASH diet.

That simple diet has been shown to lower blood pressure — a major health boost, since high blood pressure will be responsible for more than 60,000 deaths this year in the U.S. alone.

The diet is also rich in nutrients the rest of your body loves for other reasons, and low in the stuff that treats your body the way pigeons do a statue. So add a little, subtract a little and reap the rewards.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 8th Sept 2009

SOOTHING ANGINA IS EASY

One million Americans suffer heart attacks every year. Quickly getting their arteries propped open with stents saves lives, studies have found. But millions more develop heart symptoms gradually. Usually it comes in the form of angina, a squeezing pain in the chest or arms caused by clogged arteries that starve the heart muscle of oxygen. The pain comes with exercise or stress, and then goes away.

People often assume they need a stent to get that artery opened up right away–or else. But new results from two big trials are unambiguous: The high-tech procedures don’t save lives or prevent heart attacks for most patients with stable symptoms. “It doesn’t do anything to lower risk of subsequent death or heart attack,” says William Boden, a cardiologist at the State University of New York at Buffalo who led one of the trials. Drug treatment alone is just as effective.

The reason for this counterintuitive result is that most heart attacks don’t occur at the locations that appear most clogged on an angiogram. Instead, heart attacks happen when lesser narrowings become inflamed and suddenly rupture, spewing a clot into the bloodstream. The blockage that bursts isn’t necessarily the one that causes symptoms. People think heart disease “is just a plumbing issue, that clogged pipes mean an impending heart attack,” says James Stein of the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “A stent is just a local therapy for a systemic problem.”

Stents are installed during angioplasty, in which a balloon is used to unclog an artery. They are necessary if drugs cannot produce enough pain relief, say cardiologists. One of the two trials found that 66 out of 100 patients who received a stent were angina free after a year versus 58 out of 100 who received only drugs; that difference faded after five years.

Another study published in June comparing stents to drugs in diabetic heart patients found no difference in the risk of death or heart attacks, and only a little over 40% of those assigned drugs later got a stent. A more clogged-up group received either drugs or cardiac bypass surgery, in which veins are used to bypass blocked arteries. The bypass patients didn’t live longer but did have fewer nonfatal heart attacks. “I think physicians will be more likely to consider bypass for their diabetic patients and steer away from angioplasty,” says study author Sheryl Kelsey of the University of Pittsburgh.

One diabetic patient who did well without a stent is Earl Anderson of Old Bridge, N.J. The 62-year-old retired FBI agent first felt chest pains while rushing to catch a plane in 2002. An angiogram revealed a narrowing in one artery, and doctors gave him drugs. His angina soon went away and hasn’t come back. Now his cholesterol and blood sugar are down; he plays tennis weekly with his 14-year-old son

• A User’s Guide to Your Heart

• The Mystery of Sudden Cardiac Arrest

• Fighting Heart Failure

• Soothing Angina

• Your Heart: An Interactive Graphic

• Heart Disorder Afflicts Millions

• Thousands Of Children Suffer Cardiac Death

Cardiologists who install stents say that these relieve pain better than drugs and that most patients have more symptoms than Anderson. “Patients with a lot of symptoms don’t do well with drug therapy,” says Gregg Stone of New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

One reason so many stents are implanted is money. “Hospitals are paid handsomely if the patient has bypass surgery or has a stent. But they are not paid [so much] if a patient has drugs,” says cardiologist David Hillis of the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio. While generally safe, stent procedures can cause heart attacks, bleeding or even death.

Another misconception is that getting a procedure will obviate the need for drugs. “People have this impression that ‘If I get a stent, then I am not going to have to take medicine,’ and that is wrong,” says Mayo Clinic cardiologist Raymond Gibbons. “Everybody is going to get medicines. The real question: Is stenting or surgery going to bring enough benefit in addition?” Patients who get drug-coated stents often must take more drugs; they need to stay on the blood thinner Plavix for at least a year to prevent rare cases of clots forming in the stent.

One key test that is often skipped: stress tests to determine if your heart is getting enough oxygen during exercise. The problem, says Scripps Research Institute cardiologist Eric Topol: Without stress tests, doctors don’t know whether narrowings seen on an angiogram are causing problems.

Heart patients with stable symptoms have choices–and time to consider their decisions. For many of them drug therapy alone, drug therapy and stents, or drug therapy with angioplasty are all reasonable options. If you are not sure which you want, you can ask the doctor doing your angiogram to hold off on the stent if nothing alarming is found. This will give you time to discuss the result with your primary care doctor or referring cardiologist.

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Angina
A lack of blood flow to the heart causes chest discomfort but doesn’t kill the muscle. Most angina comes on only during exertion and stops afterward. Unstable angina that happens at rest is treated as a medical emergency.

Prevention
Eat a healthy diet and exercise to prevent the buildup of artery plaque.

Take statins and blood pressure drugs if your doctor dictates.

Treatment
For most patients, drug therapy can reduce the risk of heart attack and treat chest pain.

A stent/angioplasty procedure can reduce chest pain but has no proved impact on survival in those with stable symptoms.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 28th June 2009

New Research Uncovers Amazing Brain Saver!

Clogged arteries prevent blood supply to the brain. Oxygen-deprived brain cells become damaged or even die.

But when scientists induced strokes in laboratory rats and treated them with an amazingly simple nutrient—a remarkable discovery was made. Here’s what happened…

In one experiment, strokes were induced in laboratory rats by blocking the carotid artery for 30 minutes. Once blood flow and oxygen were restored, there was a burst in the production of free radicals. This overwhelmed the brain’s antioxidant defenses and killed 80% of the rats within 24 hours.

In a follow-up experiment, everything was the same, except this time, researchers injected a powerful antioxidant into the rats before blood and oxygen was restored. After a 24 hour period—only 25% of the rats died. The remaining 75% made a full recovery. Further study concluded the brain of the antioxidant-treated rats showed no signs of a stroke at all!

The name of this stellar brain saver?
It’s alpha lipoic acid!

This research and many more demonstrate alpha lipoic acid can deliver remarkable protection to your brain to help prevent damage—and even help restore healthy brain function in the event of a blockage of blood flow to the brain.

That’s why you get the optimum dosage of alpha lipoic acid in every serving of Advanced Artery Solution™. It’s the ultimate insurance for brain health!

Malic Acid—the critical partner of the EDTA chelation Dynamic Duo!

Studies have shown that EDTA is highly effective at removing most heavy metals from your body. But for optimal chelation therapy—getting rid of most of the toxic metals is just not good enough. That’s why Advanced Artery Solution™ also gives you optimum doses of malic acid—a powerful, complementary chelator that picks up where EDTA leaves off!

With malic acid, you can remove dangerous aluminum from your blood. Research shows aluminum can cause memory loss, brain decay and even unexplainable fatigue.

In one clinical test, fibromyalgia patients were given malic acid along with magnesium for eight weeks. All the patients reported significant reduction of muscular pain within 48 hours of starting the supplement!

For the #1 source of in-home, oral chelation—there’s nothing better than Advanced Artery Solution™! Now you can sample this heart supporting nutrient completely RISK FREE during this special introductory offer.