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In spite of all the medical advancements and increasing knowledge of the human body, heart disease remains the No. 1 killer around the world. The latest data indicates 8.9 million people died from ischemic heart disease in 2019 on the global level, responsible for 16% of total world death, making it the No. 1 cause of death, far ahead of No. 2: stroke. In China, these two causes are reversed: stroke being No. 1 killer and ischemic heart disease No. 2. But it still killed more than 2 million Chinese in 2019, a 39.3% in crease from ten years ago.
According to TCM, heart is the “King of All Organs”, and it does not get sick. When is the last time you heard people have heart cancer? It does not exist. Unless it’ a congenital structural problem, a heart never really gets sick. The so-called heart disease happens when it does not get proper nutrition it needs and sometimes gets too much toxins in the bloodstream, so it could suddenly, or slowly, lose its ability to serve you.
Both ischemic heart disease and stroke are cardiovascular disease. They have similar causes. When your arteries become narrowed and don’t have enough blood flowing to the brain due to a blockage, you have stroke; when your arteries become narrowed and don’t have enough blood flowing to the heart due to a blockage, you have a ischemic heart disease, which could eventually lead to heart attacks.
Around the globe, more and more people find their arteries clogged up.
The biggest problem with heart disease is you don’t even know you have it until it’s very serious. Once you realize your heart is not working properly, either because of chest pain, or high cholesterol number, you quickly jump to actions, usually one of these three: putting in stents, taking statins, or the worse case scenario: a bypass surgery.
Stents are just bandages without addressing any underlying problems. Surgery is an emergency measure to save your life. Statins? I don’t even know where to start. It would require too much time and I would run the risk of being put in the category of “conspiracy theory peddlers”. Statins are meant to lower cholesterol. It would help if cholesterol were the real cause of heart disease, except it is not. It is an indicator and a warning sign, at best. And it is not even a reliable one. 80% of people who had heart attacks had the same level of cholesterol as those who did not. We have written about this (see previous blog “cholesterol is not your enemy”). Blaming cholesterol for heart disease is like blaming ambulance for road accidents. By using statin to lower cholesterol, you are trying to silence the warning siren. How is that going to help? It doesn’t, and it could even make it worse.
I am here to tell you, your heart disease is most probably reversible, without any drugs.
Let me share with you three true stories.
Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn is a medical doctor that is mostly well known for his advocacy of plant-based diet. He was trained as a surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic and at St. George’s Hospital in London. He chaired the Clinic’s Breast Cancer Task Force and headed its Section of Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgery. He presently directs the cardiovascular prevention and reversal program at The Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute. According to his words, cardiovascular disease is “nothing more than a toothless paper tiger that needs never exist. And if it does exist, it needs never ever progress.”
In 1996, a fellow surgeon of his at Cleveland Clinic named Joe started to develop chest pain at the age of 44. He did not have any of the usual suspects that could be related to heart disease: hypertension, diabetes, family history, or a weight problem. He went through the usual heart check-ups, and could not find anything wrong. Three weeks later, he had a heart attack that nearly took his life. Catheterization and cardiac arrest saved him, but he was given some very bad news: the blockage in his artery is too long to put in stents, and too far down below for bypass surgery.
References:
Mimi Guarneri; Ocean Robbins. 4 Heart Myths & 10 Groundbreaking Truths
Steve Gundry; Jonny Bowden. The # 1 Killer, and They Are Treating It All Wrong
World Health Organization. The Top 10 Causes of Death
Institute For Health Metrics and Information. China
Jiangmei Liu; Jinlei Qi1; Peng Yin1; Yunning Liu1; Jinling You1; Lin Lin1; Maigeng Zhou1; Lijun Wang1,#. Cardiovascular Disease Mortality — China, 2019
zachbushmd.com. The Heart: Understanding the Vascular System, Resilience & Repair
D Ornish , L W Scherwitz, J H Billings, S E Brown, K L Gould, T A Merritt, S Sparler, W T Armstrong, T A Ports, R L Kirkeeide, C Hogeboom, R J Brand. Intensive lifestyle changes for reversal of coronary heart disease