Patients Taking Control!
Summary of a Reversal Program
The closest thing to an "UNDO" Function Key for cardiovascular heart disease is an intensive and consistent program focused on reversing the symptoms of the disease. If you have already developed such symptoms it is predictable that should you not substantially change behaviors you will die earlier than statistically appropriate for your cohort group. Doing nothing is not a good option. Doing anything recommended at any time in your life is helpful. If you were willing to do only one thing it would be to discontinue the use of tobacco products.
Even though doing pieces of the recommended program is beneficial, doing all things in a focused program has synergistically beneficial effects for symptom relief and speeds along the healing process. The sooner you modify behaviors and follow an intensive program the smoother the change processes can be; the later you begin the more you must make up for lost time therefore changes may seem more significant. Having the support of a life mate, set of wellness buddies or other stakeholders is very beneficial. Do not expect major support from the population at large as they are not invested in saving your life by understanding or supporting change, especially any change which might impact them personally.
Research indicates that an intensive program can have very beneficial results within 18-24 months. This assumes full compliance, no self doubting, compromises or half-measures. Denial behavior, if done, hurts only you as measured by your disease process. You can jump start your participation in such a program by studying the program I have found and learn from the mistakes that I made in the process. This has been a 10-year journey for me but the route was circuitous as a result of new research, developing medication and medical procedures. Even though it has been an arduous routing the destination has made the effort with it.
Perhaps it is important to define what is meant by disease reversal. It is not practical at this time to think that our efforts will result in brand new shiny vessels merrily circulating our precious blood flow through our brain, heart and vital organs. It is practical however to immediately halt the disease process. We know in the main what causes cardiovascular heart disease. The process of discontinuing these things essentially halts the disease progression.
Once we can stabilize our system, we know we can do things that reduce the inflammation of our smooth muscles which make up our blood vessels, we can do things to drain off the lipid rich cores of vulnerable plagues, we can help our blood vessels regain some of its elasticity so it can dilate and constrict appropriately and with improved blood circulating with sustained exercise we can promote new growth in our vessels. All of this is being done while our blood pressures have been lowered to ensure we don't blow something in the circulating system.
The end objective is to produce a healthier circulatory system which can carry proper amounts of blood flow equal to a younger new brand of system. It might be ugly but if it achieves this result, that is all that matters in the end. The program which has worked for me continues to evolve and includes these key points to be pursued:
If you smoke or use tobacco in any form and you have the time and energy to do only one critical thing to improve your health, this is it-QUIT. There are tools available now to help these transitions that have never been available previously. It is immensely hard to take this first step which is why I identify it first. In terms of "return on investment", it is my opinion that smoking cessation has the greatest return possible of all things you might do to improve your health. That smoking kills the smoker and those around the smoker is no longer a debatable issue.
This boils down to deciding who should be on your treatment team and just what are your treatment goals. Once you get established on the right treatment track, it turns out that relating to a customer service knowledgeable cardiac nurse specialist probably can fill this role nicely working with your primary care physician. Many insurance companies have this service available in the area of disease management; I highly recommend that you research this option.
The take away message about this is not that you must become a medical expert. Rather, the take away message is that you must become a better critical thinker and decision maker about your life care. If you have already begun having health problems associated with this disease then you likely have experience in such skills as a mother, father, boss, pastor, business person, consultant, and others. You needed some training to be highly skilled at those type jobs. All I am advocating is that you act now to find some credible sources of information about causes, cures, treatments, options and critically assess how it impacts you and your life.
The take away message about understanding labs test and their results is you need to know them and what exactly your score might be at any point in time. The second part of the message is there is no such thing as "my cholesterol is a little high".
Understand your medicines and what they should be doing for you. Some medicines require a doctor's prescription, others at the vitamin store. You can view my medications and notice I am taking what sounds to be a lot but they all allow me to maintain a super good set of lab scores while my body is reversing the effects of my system clogging over the years. It's actually just like a complicated plumbing problem where we try to keep things flowing to the right places at the right time.
As a result of misuse and neglect we have scarred and hardened the blood vessels carrying our blood supplies through-out our bodies. We can't reverse the scarring however clinical evidence indicates that we can make our blood vessels younger acting by allowing the smooth muscles to heal, we can effectively enlarge the vessels by emptying the lipid rich cores with HDL blood flow and we can effectively expand our vessels by promoting growth via improved blood flow. Correct exercise is done daily by taking, at least, a 30 minute brisk walk. The keys are daily and brisk. This level of moderate exercise is enough to change the body messages from a sedate body to an active body which is good.
People at risk for coronary heart disease and stroke (most of us, actually) can make use of the endothelial cell/nitric oxide/smooth muscle relaxation system to improve the long-term clinical outlook. We can rev up nitric oxide production in the coronary arteries simply by exercising. Aerobic exercise is required. When air is moving rapidly in and out of the lungs, the heart is also pumping blood rapidly around the body, and the heart itself is receiving increased rates of blood through the coronary arteries. If blood flows rapidly through the coronary arteries, the result is increased nitric oxide production by the coronary endothelial cells. The coronary arteries actually enlarge a little bit as they relax.
The take away message about body fuel is that getting this variable correct will in large part dramatically impact how well you might reverse your current disease state and how long you may live. Please note that I am referring to this as body fuel versus food. There are fuels that you must stop using in your body machine because it's gumming up the circulation system and there is fuel you must start using to help you get better fuel mileage and engine life. Certain additives need to be used now to help your self-repairing engine to heal some problem areas over the next 18-24 months.
My wife describes herself as a "Reluctant Cook". She has organized her information in a format and way which is understandable on her website: www.TheReluctantCook.Net and I highly recommend you and your support network read her information.
Different "Life Stress"The take away message about this issue of stress is that you too have arrived at an important juncture emotionally, intellectually and clinically or you wouldn't still be reading. Your best plan and the choices you have made giving you the life you lead will predictably result in an earlier than desired death without change. The earlier you come to grips with whatever your stressors might be the smoother your new course can take.
Ron Yates resides in Charlotte, NC. He has a MPH degree and 10 years of clinical experience as a Navy Corpsman and LPN. He stopped clinical service and operated healthcare organizations for over 30 years. He developed an internet patient assistance and education program. He now operates web based sharing through various websites with a bias towards patient advocacy, knowledge and practical understanding about disease processes and issues.