[Unoppressed MAMA Q]

HELP! (please

)

a dear friend is having severe cardiovascular problems. he's only 36, and had a heart attack last week, and is now in a hospital again due to more feelings of pain and blockage. he had several stents inserted last week,and is in surgery again right now, i'm not sure what's happening.

he doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, doesn't eat meat. he and his father both have inordinately high cholesterol levels, although they are both very lean people. his wife is an MDC member and they have two amazing little girls. i am so heartbroken, we all are. but i am really hopeful as well; i know that there is always so much more to situations like this than allopathy alone can explain.

does anyone have book or other ideas for us? i would really appreciate it.

 

[Gitti]

The # 1 thing to do is to cut out all trans fat.

There is nothing as damaging to the heart or the blood system in general.

Meat does not contain trans-fats.

I am not even sure that trans fats can be found in anything natural at all.

Trans fat, the way I understand it, is oil with an extra hydrogen molecule added to it to make it solid at room temperature and it is in anything ready made, anything baked, any eat out restaurant foods... it is everywhere except in ingredients. So home cooking without trans fats is of utmost importance.

They came out now saying that there is no amount of trans fats small enough to consider it safe.

 

[mamak05]

Hope things improve for your friend!

Transfats are very bad. Anything that is processed in a factory isn't really good for you either. So I second the advice to home cook and recommend the two following books and website.

A couple books:
Know Your Fats - Mary G. Enig
Nourishing Traditions - Sally Fallon (cookbook and VERY informative on traditional diets)

A website with lots of resources
westonaprice.org

And best wishes to your friend and his family.

 

[SusannahM]

Look up stuff by Linus Pauling. The man was brilliant (he won 2 Nobel prizes). His protocol for preventing and curing heart disease really seems to work, and it's basically just supplementing with vitamin C and L-Lysine. Searching for the Pauling protocol will probably yield the best results from the search engines.

 

[Crisstiana]

Hi:

I'm sorry to hear about your friend. I have a good friend who is in a similar situation. His father and father's brother both had heart attacks before 40; his uncle died and his father's health was severely affected. It appears that their father - my friend's paternal grandfather - may have also died of a heart attack at an early age. My friend started having cardiovascular problems in his early 20s. He spent a lot of time in his early 30s looking into ways to improve his health (he is an MD and almost switched to preventative cardiology after digging so deep into the subject).

Here's what I can remember of the changes he made: First, he had the genetic cause of his family's problems examined. It turns out that they have a specific genetic condition that predisposes them to cardiovascular problems, including heart attacks. This gave him something to focus on. He now takes fish oil every day. With the exception of these small amounts, he eats nearly no fat of any kind. He engages daily in at least an hour of aerobic exercise and a half an hour of strength training. He also took up yoga and meditation, and he was about as far from being meditative as anyone I've ever met when he started.

He went from being fairly overweight to a bit underweight by BMI. He eats a lot of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, especially oats. He cut some of the stress in his life (which was a major reason he didn't switch his specialty) and now wakes up later in the day. He also keeps a close eye on his cholesterol and blood pressure. He takes a baby aspirin every day.

I know he does more on a daily basis (including taking some meds that I have forgotten). He also figures that he will not be able to escape his genetics completely and made sure his wife knows CPR. The last I talked to him, he was considering a portable defibrillator for his house. He said that it took him a long time to feel somewhat at peace with what might possibly happen to him even while he does all he can think of to prevent or ameliorate it. We both figure that the changes he's made to his lifestyle helped him with that as well and that it would be wonderful if more people could live like he does in terms of diet and exercise.

 

[Gitti]

He should NOT cut out fat. We humans need fats to function properly to help regulate our heart rate, blood vessel constriction, blood clotting and much more.

Don't cut out fats. But do completely cut out all trans fats.

It is actually very simple:

For cooking use only fat that is solid at room temperature.
Such as coconut, butter, lard.

Fats that are liquid at room temperatures should be cold pressed and only be used for eating. Not to cook with.
They are olive oil, pumpkin oil. There are others but canola oil should be avoided since it is genetically engineered to make it even digestible.

There is a lot of information out there now. Finally! Even in mainstream. But we oldies who have had health food stores waaaaaayyy back when, have known that for years.

 

[Crisstiana]

Gitti:

Just to be clear: My friend is basically abiding by the Ornish diet that limits fats to no more than (and ideally less than) 10% of total calories. While some may argue about Ornish's methodology and certainly the ability of most people to abide by his diet, there appears to be no negative consequences of strictly limiting fat intake. Ornish claims that such a diet has even reversed the signs of cardiovascular illness such as intraluminal plaques. It's very difficult to ingest no fat at all, and it appears that we need only a very small amount in our diet to get along fine.

 

[Gitti]

Thinking of you. How is your friend doing? Can you update us?

 

[Unoppressed MAMA Q]

that's why i dropped in! right now i'm going to send a link to this thread to them, hoping they can read it soon.
i know that they are hip to the trans fats issue, i don't know if his diet TOTALLY excludes them?
he's home, has had a really rough week for sure.

 

[fishface]

He needs light exercise to strengthen his cardiovascular system. His doctor should have told him about all this. Will he be in a rehab program?

 

[sbgrace]

I'm so sorry your friends are going through this. Another thing to look into might be mitochondrial disease. I don't know....but my son may have this and we've been asked a lot about early heart attacks and heart problems in our family history. Mitochondrial disease would involve treatments outside of what is probably recommended but two would be very high dose co-enzyme Q10 and a special supplement called Carnitor. Just a thought..if it looks like a possibility I would consider just treating as if instead of going through all the testing in this instance. I hope your friend does really, really well. I'd agree with the recommendations here about types of fat. I'd also look into fish oil. http://www.mercola.com/article/heart_disease/index.htm You might look at this too. I don't agree with all he says (I think mineral supplements can be helpful for example) but a lot of it I do and it sometimes goes against traditional medicine and thought (accurately). I pray your friend recovers well. (oh, I'd look into a home defibrilator as well; if he were my husband I would feel better having that with us) I remembered one more thing; I saw information about untreated apnea (often snoring is involved) being a factor in young heart attacks.

 

[CarrieMF]

What to do really depends on the cause. My middle dd has a heart defect(bicuspid aortic valve) that usually affects men. Alot of people don't realize they have it until they suddenly die of a heart attack in their 30's-40's and an autopsy is done and they can see it there. Hers was found when she was 13months due to a very loud murmur(that our regular dr figured was something else). She is supposed to be on a heart healthy diet but no matter what we do she will eventually need surgery to replace the valve. It shouldn't be until she's much older so the longer we can extend the time the better.

 

[newcastlemama]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crisstiana Gitti: Just to be clear: My friend is basically abiding by the Ornish diet that limits fats to no more than (and ideally less than) 10% of total calories. While some may argue about Ornish's methodology and certainly the ability of most people to abide by his diet, there appears to be no negative consequences of strictly limiting fat intake. Ornish claims that such a diet has even reversed the signs of cardiovascular illness such as intraluminal plaques. It's very difficult to ingest no fat at all, and it appears that we need only a very small amount in our diet to get along fine.

Diets like this can cause mental issues--depression fatigue, anxiety. I can can tell you this from my personal experience. It may not happen right away, but eventually the super low fat has it's consequences. People have been robustly healthy eating generous amounts of fats like coconut, butter ect in the past. You need a good amount of fat to absorb nutrients also.

I agree that trans fats are the issue. I also suspect sugar and processed foods but I don't have a link for you. The westonprice.org website is great. I am a new person on this way of eating!

I hope your friends gets better fast,
Jen

 

[B2*]

Two books that I really recommend are

Healing with Whole Foods by Paul Pitchford. It is a large book but has an index in the back that will allow you to find what you need. It is around 30 dollars at Barnes & Noble

Also -
Fresh Vegetable & Fruit Juices - whats missing in your body
By Norman Walker (or N. W. Walker) I bought this for 8 dollars at my local HFS but you may have to find it online & purchase it there.

They both talk about how all the organs in the body are interconnected and when one is deficient or taxed it will affect the others. For instance, if the Liver is stagnant, it will affect the heart & lead to heart problems since the liver stores & cleanses the blood & then moves it on to the heart.

I recommend these books to anyone and especially those looking to improve their health.

 

[Kimmiepie]

Why should you not cook with olive oil. I love making green beans with garlic and oo. And what about butter? I know trans fats are terrible, but doesn't butter also have a bad effect if you use it often, too much fat?

 

[Meiri]

Saturated fats, the ones solid at room temperature, can be a problem almost as much as trans fats. It wasn't until DH was avoiding BOTH that his cholesterol dropped.

If diet, low-fat/high vegetable/etc, doesn't help... at least it will minimize the need for pharmaceuticals.

The key IMO is to know the cause of the problem so as to not be spinning one's wheels on methods that won't be effective and will cause unnecessary stress.

The eating low low fat can be adapted to, it just takes time. In our experience, flavor without the fat is important. Seasonings (in our case, non-salt) become important. Learning to enjoy, by first getting used to, the true flavors of the foods is part of the process. Lots of healthy fish in the diet is important.

Anytime my best friend says "fat = flavor" I respond "fat = fat, flavor = flavor". We don't even like most regular hamburgers anymore, having gotten used to me grinding low fat beef and removing visible fat, for ours. Even the 95% lean seems too much to DH now.

 

[Crisstiana]

Quote:

Originally Posted by newcastlemama Diets like this can cause mental issues--depression fatigue, anxiety. I can can tell you this from my personal experience. It may not happen right away, but eventually the super low fat has it's consequences. People have been robustly healthy eating generous amounts of fats like coconut, butter ect in the past. You need a good amount of fat to absorb nutrients also.

As I mentioned in my eariler post, complaince is a problem for most people, although I haven't read about any problems with significant emotional issues. But I doubt I could stay on the Ornish diet either. I do eat low fat - as Meiri said, it just takes time - but not as low as Ornish advices.

But folks who are concerned about heart disease and want to address this in a natural, drug-free way, Ornish's ideas might be helpful. He claims that his "reversal" diet will actually reverse some of the negative changes associated with heart disease and other illnesses. This is better than claims made by the major heart disease drugs atm.

Here's a summary of his reversal diet: ...The "reversal" diet is a whole foods vegetarian diet high in complex carbohydrates, low in simple carbohydrates (e.g. sugar, concentrated sweeteners, alcohol, white flour), and very low in fat (approximately 10% of calories). Those few plant-based foods that are high in fat are excluded, including all oils (other than 3 grams per day of flaxseed oil or fish oil to provide additional omega-3 fatty acids), nuts, and avocados. The diet consists primarily of fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans (including soy-based foods) supplemented by moderate amounts of nonfat dairy and egg whites. Patients with high triglycerides and/or diabetes are especially encouraged to limit their intake of simple sugars and alcohol....

His prevention diet is more tailored to individual health concerns. Both are described here, as is a link to a transcript of Ornish addressing women's health and heart disease.

 

[Mirzam]

Quote:

...The "reversal" diet is a whole foods vegetarian diet high in complex carbohydrates, low in simple carbohydrates (e.g. sugar, concentrated sweeteners, alcohol, white flour), and very low in fat (approximately 10% of calories). Those few plant-based foods that are high in fat are excluded, including all oils (other than 3 grams per day of flaxseed oil or fish oil to provide additional omega-3 fatty acids), nuts, and avocados. The diet consists primarily of fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans (including soy-based foods) supplemented by moderate amounts of nonfat dairy and egg whites. Patients with high triglycerides and/or diabetes are especially encouraged to limit their intake of simple sugars and alcohol....

IMHO, this kind of diet will eventually be the death of someone with heart disease.

http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/oiling.html

 

[3 little birds]

Dr. Hulda Clark believes that much heart disease is parasite related. A google search should turn up some info.

 

[Gitti]

Quote:

Originally Posted by B2* They both talk about how all the organs in the body are interconnected ....

There is some truth to that!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kimmiepie Why should you not cook with olive oil.?

You can if you want to. But why buy a 'cold pressed oil' and heat it? It seems to be defeating the purpose.

Quote:

Originally Posted by uccomama IMHO, this kind of diet will eventually be the death of someone with heart disease.

For sure!

I knew you would agree. Funny isn't it? (That Ornish thing.) In ten years from now the whole medical community will chage their mind - again.
We've come a long way baby... LOL

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3 little birds Dr. Hulda Clark believes that much heart disease is parasite related. A google search should turn up some info.

I actually don't put much stalk in what Hulda says.