HEART DISEASE RISK FACTORS: MOSTLY BALONEY

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 protein 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, CReactive 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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dangerous, usually life-long prescription drug treatments. This is not particularly effective in 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, synthetic 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 its back to basics. Taking all the tests, getting all the counseling, following the low-fat diet, and taking the drugs like Caduet (a cholesterollowering and blood pressure drug combined into one) doesnt 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 ineffective 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 administered by an oncologist. 6) Annual mammograms and follow-up treatment prolong life. 7) Cancer treatments are better than everwith cure rates of over 60%.

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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