Lasting Change,
Starting Now!

 
Heart Disease

The form of heart disease known as Coronary Artery Disease was almost unknown to medicine before 1900, because so few people died from it.  There was no category for CAD by insurance companies or government agencies before 1930, because it was so rare.  All forms of heart disease (congenital, rheumatic, syphilitic, hypertensive, pulmonary, and coronary) were grouped together for reporting purposes.  In Heart Disease, a medical textbook of more than 900 pages, copyright 1931, Paul Dudley White, a famous research cardiologist, wrote: 
  

“… it may be stated as probable that close to two percent of the population of the northern part of the United States have heart disease of a degree sufficient to produce symptoms or signs.” 
 
In the 1943 edition of the book, he said:  
“…when I graduated from medical school in 1911, I had never heard of coronary thrombosis, which is one of the chief threats to life in the United States and Canada today….  There can be no doubt but that coronary heart disease has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, where it is now responsible for more than 50 per cent of all deaths….”
 
CAD, the breakdown or degeneration of the coronary arteries, though it did not have that name, had been identified by 1912 during autopsy of elderly people.  It was seldom seen in those younger than 65.  Due to the striking nature of a sudden heart attack, and the prevalence of autopsy to define cause of death, it would not have been overlooked had it been happening widely.  A disease that caused 50 % of the deaths could not be overlooked.

It is astonishing that a disease could go from unknown to #1 killer in such a short period of time.  And claims that it is due to eating meat or eggs, as if our forefathers had been vegetarians until then.  Did people in 1890 not eat meat, eggs, salt pork, and lard?  If dietary cholesterol were the cause, why didn't they have heart disease?  Equally as astonishing is the fact that the medical establishment has been unable to significantly treat or prevent the disease.

Perhaps the most interesting thing to notice is that coronary artery disease and high cholesterol is not contagious, not infectious.  And noticing this is sufficient to raise the question; what causes the problem to begin with?  Why do some people have the problem and others don't?

There may be three answers.  One is that heart disease is a deficiency disease, just as beriberi (thiamine deficiency), pellagra (niacin deficiency), and senile dementia (B-12 deficiency) are.  For those, there is no successful treatment except the replacement of the missing vitamin.  Congestive heart failure is linked to a thiamine deficiency.  The deficiency in the case of coronary heart disease seems to be the anti-oxidant vitamins C and E and selenium.  The form of heart disease called Keshan disease is caused by a virus that can only thrive in an individual who has a selenium deficiency.

To expand on the nutritional issue, there are reports that a deficiency for the essential fatty acid Omega 3, found in fish oil and flaxseed oil is common in patients with heart disease, especially those with depression.  Supplementation has been shown to reverse the depression and improve the markers for heart disease.

Second is the nutritional issue of the higher sugar intake that began in the first part of the twentieth century.  There is strong evidence that high blood sugar damages the arteries, and that high levels of insulin may also.  Certainly diabetics usually have damaged arteries.  Diabetics who carefully control their intake of “white carbs” have much less problem with all of the symptoms of the disease, including heart trouble, than those who do not.  The diets of the cardiologists Dean Ornish and Robert Atkins both call for very limited intake of sugar and starch, and both have been shown to reduce heart attacks.

The cardiac surgeons who wrote the book Type A Behavior and Your Heart had the third answer to that question in 1974.  

“In the absence of Type A Behavior Pattern, coronary heart disease almost never occurs before seventy years of age, regardless of fatty foods eaten, the cigarettes smoked, or the lack of exercise.  But when this behavior pattern is present, coronary heart disease can easily erupt in one's thirties or forties.”
This information was available to doctors in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, although this book was the first presentation to the public.  There have been some quibbles about the specific behavioral traits and what they mean, but the fundamental truth of the basic message stands.  The hormones that the body produces in response to stress, and especially anger, have the ability to distort the body's balance in favor of action over repair.  Some of the hormones and their by-products seem to have an oxidative effect.  If this condition persists, damage accumulates. 

In 1963, the rate of heart disease in women was a fraction of what it was in men.  It was the number six on the list of causes of death among women.  In 1984 it had grown to be the number one cause of death for them.  The progressive increase in heart disease in women seems to be related to more women entering the work force, with those attendant stresses, and fewer women being full-time homemakers.

So it looks like there are two ways to be healthy: lessen the damage, or increase the rate of repair.  Maybe the best is to do both.  But what can one do about stress in our current circumstances?

The kind of stress that is harmful is that which occurs not because of the circumstances, but from our reaction to the circumstances.  That reaction will be characteristic for each person.  Some people respond directly, then forget about it.  Others fret about it, or carry the stress and anger, indefinitely.  Some become hostile in the face of dealing with life in the workplace and others suppress their rage.  These are the ones that challenge the repair capability of the body.

The habitual or characteristic ways that people have of dealing with life were almost always developed when they were young.  The first time a new situation presented itself, the child made a response.  The next time a similar situation presented, the prior response was replayed.  From then on, it was a habit, and not really available for conscious choice.

If an adult were presented with that first situation now, with all of the experience, maturity, and wisdom they have accumulated over their lives, a very different response might be made, one that did not have stress accumulate. Time Line Therapy® and NLP techniques are excellent choices for shifting the habitual response. 

When we are no longer responding with anger or rage, the relaxation response can be active for most of the day, instead of the fight-or-flight response.  The relaxation response activates the parasympathetic system, that part of the mind and body that heals, rejuvenates, and mends the damage that occurs as a result just going about our daily lives.  With damage being minimized, and with ample nutrients, the body repairs itself at 50 the way it did when it was only ten.  After all, a cut or blister still heals.  Why shouldn't all parts of the body?


References

Yan LL, Liu K, Matthews KA, Daviglus ML, Ferguson TF, Kiefe CI. Psychosocial factors and risk of hypertension: the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study.  JAMA. 2003 Oct 22; 290(16): 2138-48.

Cole SR, Kawachi I, Liu S, Gaziano JM, Manson JE, Buring JE, Hennekens CH.  Time urgency and risk of non-fatal myocardial infarction.   Int J Epidemiol. 2001 Apr; 30(2): 363-9
 

For More References, Click Here

 

Print this page
 

 
 Home