HEART DISEASE RISK FACTORS: dangerous, usually life-long prescription drug
MOSTLY BALONEY treatments. This is “not particularly effective in
Except for those with heart disease or those at
the highest risk for heart disease, all the standard
medical risk factors add up to mostly nothing when
it comes to predicting heart disease, heart attack,
or stroke. For healthy adults, even the “alternative”
risk factors like homocysteine and C-Reactive pro-
tein findings are next to useless.
This is a big one since so many multiple risk
factor intervention programs are in full swing, with
more planned throughout the US and Europe. The
typical risk factors include cholesterol, smoking,
blood pressure, and diabetes. Programs include
prescription drugs as their centerpiece, with coun­
seling and education as adjunct treatments. These
are led by the American Heart Association, the
AMA, local and state governments, and even the
federal government.
Yet just as was found 10 years ago by the
Cochrane Heart Group and Cochrane Collaboration
(www.cochrane.org), treating risk factors was
“ineffective in achieving reductions in total or
cardiovascular disease mortality (death).” Indeed the
findings of these interventional programs showed
that some people actually got worse. Overall deaths
actually increased among the drug-treated group
with high blood pressure. And some did benefit.
Those were the folks at the very highest risk of
heart disease.
But in the end, it showed once again that high
cholesterol, high blood pressure, etc., were poor
predictors of heart disease, stroke, or death in
healthy people. And the same can be said for the
biomarker risk factors like homocysteine, C-
Reactive protein, B-type natriuretic peptide. The
conclusions were that the costs of using these risk
factors and treating for the same are very high, and
these resources would be better spent in other areas,
or simply on those at the highest risk levels.
If you are healthy, and when your health
screening finds your cholesterol at 250 (which is
normal), or your blood pressure to be 140/90 (which
is normal), do not be fooled into taking powerful,
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terms of reducing the risk of clinical events (stroke,
heart attack, angina, etc.)”
But What About CRP and Homocysteine?
Around about 2005 I began wondering about
the relevance of homocysteine levels. After all, syn-
thetic B vitamins would often lower homocysteine
to safe levels, yet do nothing to help heal the heart.
Was this finding not as important as I previously
thought? That may indeed be the case. I now feel
that lowering of homocysteine levels has little direct
correlation to heart disease.
And while I still monitor the C-Reactive protein
(CRP) levels in heart patients, I now feel that a high
CRP level is just an ancillary finding. In some cases,
it can help diagnose inflammation or infection in the
coronary arteries. But it is probably not the major
risk factor that many of us were convinced of.
So it’s back to basics. Taking all the tests,
getting all the counseling, following the low-fat
diet, and taking the drugs like Caduet (a cholesterol-
lowering and blood pressure drug combined into
one) doesn’t amount to much and can even hurt you.
Instead, eat whole foods, exercise, drink pure water,
keep a positive attitude, and use phytonutrients
when needed. This is the formula for heart success.
This will be a hard pill for most in the medical
profession to swallow. After all, screenings,
interventions, and drugs are critical to their on­
going control over people and patients. There are
thousands of well-meaning physicians right now
that truly believe that a statin (cholesterol-lowering)
drug should be prescribed for every American over
age 50!
More Medical Myths
The risk factors for heart disease are taking their
place among medical myths. While the list of myths
is growing, some of the classics are:
1) Taking an aspirin a day forever will make
you live longer.
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 2) Low-carbohydrate diets are unsafe and inef-
fective for losing weight.
3) Nearly everyone would benefit by using
statin (cholesterol-lowering) drugs.
4) Nearly everyone over age 50 should take
blood pressure drugs.
5) All radiation is dangerous unless adminis-
tered by an oncologist.
6) Annual mammograms and follow-up treat-
ment prolong life.
7) Cancer treatments are better than ever—with
cure rates of over 60%.
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8) Water fluoridation prevents tooth decay and
is perfectly safe.
These are classic medical myths. They become
malignant myths when they are prolonged for more
than 15 years. Almost all of these fit that definition.
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