New data from the NIH-funded Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT), has vindicated this controversial treatment as a method for preventing cardiovascular events in people with diabetes. The data show a clear 15% reduction in index events among treated patients.
Twenty years ago, Dr. Stephen Sinatra was like most American cardiologists: firmly convinced that elevated cholesterol was the key driver of heart disease, and that thanks to statin drugs, he and his colleagues would soon be cutting the nation’s number one killer down to size.
Despite our nation’s best effort to treat all forms of cardiovascular disease aggressively, we seem to be losing the struggle.
It’s been more than two decades since nitric oxide was named “Molecule of the Year” by the journal, Science.
Pantethine, a derivative of vitamin B5, offers a safe option for improving lipid profiles and reducing cardiovascular risk beyond what can be obtained with a low-fat diet and lifestyle modification alone.
The endothelial glycocalyx, a gel-like glycoprotein layer that coats the inner surface of the endothelium throughout the vascular tree, has become a new focus for reducing risk of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular events.
Amid the clamor over metanalyses suggesting that organic veggies are no more nutritious than conventional, and that omega-3’s don’t reverse heart disease, another important metanalysis got totally overlooked: the one showing that anti-hypertensive drugs are largely ineffective in people with Stage 1 hypertension.
Drug therapies to reduce cardiovascular risk and prevent the onset of diabetes may be effective in the short term, but as people age, the efficacy of drugs like statins and metformin tends to diminish, while the risk of adverse effects increases. The benefit of nutritional and lifestyle interventions, on the other hand, remains robust even as people enter their final decades.
Elevated cholesterol and high blood glucose are the obvious features of diabetes and heart disease but they’re hardly the whole picture. Other, less obvious factors including environmental toxins like BPA and lead, gastrointestinal disorders, and frequent use of artificial sweeteners are also important drivers of disease. According to Dr. Mark Hyman, author of the popular book, The Blood Sugar Solution, these oft-overlooked factors warrant closer attention.
High blood viscosity, a robust predictor of cardiovascular disease risk, is also predictive of cognitive dysfunction in older people, and may be an early indicator of the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
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