| 7 Steps for Vigorous Health and Reversing Heart Disease by H. R. Casdorph, M.D., Ph.D. |
|
(EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is a description by Dr. Casdorph of his seven-step program for stimulating vigorous health and reversing heart disease, abstracted from the original. Dr. Casdorph may be contacted at the Casdorph Clinic, 1703 Termino Ave., Ste. 201, Long Beach, CA 90804, [tel.] 562-597-8716.)
Keep in mind that a third of heart attacks are pain-free. Even if you have never had chest pain you could still have significant coronary disease. You may have felt that you had the flu, a cough, a vague indigestion at a time when you were having a myocardial infarction. The imitron is the name of the machine. It is entirely non-invasive. It's the ultimate technology. Once you are on the table and hooked up it takes about 2 minutes and you are done and it provides a great deal of information. The EBCT scanner obtains 108 mages in 11 seconds - holding a single breath. Calcification is a predictor of plaque in coronary arteries. Coronary artery calcification or calcium only occurs in artherosclerotic plaque as shown by Dr. Blankenhorn in 1960. Coronary artery calcification predicts the increased risk of mortality which was shown by Margolis in 1980, and predicts the increased risk of morbidity such as chest pain or heart attack as shownby Gerchi in 1996. The American Heart Association has publications on the subject and it states that only EBCT can quantify the amount or volume of calcium. There are no "sticks," no catheters in your heart - it's short and sweet and you know if you have plaque in your coronary arteries, you know where it is, you know how much is there and it is given to you as a score. Conventional risk factors are poor predictors of disease and events, according to the NIH and Harvard. This means that if any given day you go to your doctor and your blood pressure or your cholesterol is up - based on that one finding he can't tell you if you have heart disease at all. But if you have the scan it can tell you all of these things - if you have it and how much. Stress testing in asymptomatic patients is a poor predictor of disease and events, according to the Mayo clinic and the Air Force - in asymptomatic individuals. Coronary artery calcification by EBCT alone has more predictive value then the three major risk factors combined, according to the Mayo clinic, and coronary artery calcification predicts cardiac events and death, according to Harbor UCLA, Duke and the University of Illinois. It is an X-ray procedure and is triggered by the electrocardiogram so it hits the heart at the right phase each time, 100-millisecond exposure per image - single breath hold. The assessment that this enables us to determine is the exclusion of those who do not need treatment. In other words if you have a zero score you do not need to have a catheter stuck in your heart. If you have the scan and you have quite a bit of calcification then you know you need aggressive therapy and you need to follow my 7 steps. If you have a score of 1000 - then we want to aggressively treat that and bring the score down. If your score is negative you don't need a coronary angiogram or if it is a small score of 100 you probably won't need an angiogram. There is more aggressive therapy for those at the highest risk. Coronary calcium correlates with the severity of coronary disease at autopsy. It can accurately quantify the calcium in coronary arteries corresponding to the quantity of atherosclerosis. Early preclinical artherosclerosis can be detected by EBCT before you have any symptoms. The tests should help prevent symptomatic coronary and vascular disease, potentially decreasing morbidity. The first step in primary prevention is to estimate a patient's risk and this is a good non-invasive way. Currently used strategies based on traditional risk factors are useful but they miss a third of the patients at risk of coronary events. Coronary artery calcification identified by electron beam CT has a close correlation with the atherosclerotic plaque burden. And plaque burden has been shown to be the most powerful predictor of future events. It takes 10 minutes - $400-500 if your insurance pays nothing, and many insurances will pay part or all of it. Coronary artery calcium is present in 94-98% of all cases and the absence of calcium indicates the absence of significant coronary artery disease. Zero calcification suggests a very low probability of obstructive disease. The reason this is so important is that coronary disease is the leading cause of death in this country for men and women. We have 1.1 million heart attacks per year new or recurrent and about a third of patients will die. Twenty percent of men and forty-four percent of women will die within a year after suffering a heart attack - so you see it is extremely important to know if you have heart disease and how much. STEP 2 I am sure most of you know about Human Growth Hormone, that it is administered for its anti-aging effects. We now have pure human growth hormone exactly the same as that released from your pituitary. Your hormone level is revealed by a test called Somatomedin C. A few years ago at the University of Michigan Dr. Rudman conducted an important test published in 1990 in the New England Journal of Medicine. It involved 21 men over age 60, 12 of whom received 3 HGH injections per week. In each case their lean body mass, bone density and skin thickness improved, while their fat mass decreased. This started the interest in HGH as an anti-aging treatment which is quite popular now and quite effective; It must be done properly in people who need it. When it first became available about 4 years ago it was only given by injection and the cost to the patient was $1000 or more per month; therefore, it was limited to wealthy individuals. As the years passed the prices came down but the exciting thing in the past year is that we now have a sublingual form that is relatively inexpensive, there is no injection and you just spray it under your tongue morning and evening. So the anti-aging effect of human growth hormone is very important, the sublingual form is comparable to the injectable form. The sublingual form costs less than $100 for a supply that lasts about 4 weeks. If a person has a cancer we wouldn't give it because it might make the cancer grow yet we all have growth hormone in our bodies and if done properly I don't believe there is concern. If you are a person who has cancer of the prostate or cancer of the colon you wouldn't give it because it is a growth stimulator. Originally, the growth hormone came from the cadaver pituitary and that was the only source before companies like Genetech and Lilly synthesized it - it is exactly the same as growth hormone but it is synthesized so there is no chance of a virus being present. We monitor men and do PSAs but like everything there is a pro and con. If there is any chance of a tumor we do not give human growth hormone. There is a homeopathic product available but the product we use is the strongest that you can get. It's the real thing and it's potent enough and it will raise your hormone level. We are in the age of hormone replacement therapy. Low on Testosterone? - For men there are signs that may indicate that one is low on Testosterone. Example: 1) If you have lost your interest in sex. 2) You have been having erection problems. 3) You are depressed and lethargic for no good reason. 4) You seem to have lost muscle mass in your upper body even though you lift weights. 5) You are over 55 years old. 6) You are losing body hair. 7) Your breasts are growing. If you have any of these ask your doctor to check a Testosterone blood level. STEP 3 In the early 1950s it was the widely accepted form of therapy for lead poisoning or toxicity. In Detroit it was being used to treat men with lead poisoning who worked in the battery industry. Some of these men also had chest pains or angina pectoris form coronary heart disease. While they were being chelated for their lead poisoning they reported that their chest pains disappeared and thus began the wonderful experience of an intravenous therapy for coronary heart disease. Until recently it was not possible to prove that the chelation treatments were actually reversing the amount of plaque in coronary arteries. However, now with the Ultrafast CT Scan we have objective proof that plaque is being removed and that atherosclerosis is actually being reversed. Diabetic Foot - A few years ago a gentleman called me from Florida. He stated that he was 65 years of age, diabetic and that the local doctors had advised an amputation of his foot. He wondered if chelation would hold any promise. I told him to come to my clinic in Long Beach first so we could evaluate his condition. When examined he had a deep ulcer between his first and second toes extending into the interior of the forefoot and involving the bones of the first and second toes and the bones of his foot. X-rays showed that the bones were actually infected. So you can see why the surgeons wanted to cut it off. The infection spread and involved the entire foot. It was red and swollen. He immediately started on EDTA chelation therapy as well as intravenous antibiotics and the foot gradually improved. After his 28th chelation he was also started on hyperbaric oxygen for the infection deep in his foot. H BO is particularly good for that type of problem. With time the infection cleared and the ulcer healed and he went back to Florida to be with his wife, still with both feet. STEP 4 A good screening test is a hair analysis, which will indicate the toxic metals in your body and the normal trace minerals. For some people, mercury in particular has a lot to do with chronic fatigue, joint pains and a variety of complaints. Mercury is a cellular poison. Please don't let any dentist put amalgam fillings in your teeth. We have wonderful composites that they use now. They are so beautiful you can hardly tell there is a filling there. There are no toxic metals in it at all. STEP 5 The systolic blood pressure should be kept below 140 at all times and diastolic blood pressure should be kept below 90 at all times. If it is not, see your doctor. It can be controlled. We have dozens of drugs now which are effective. STEP 6 I practiced before these were available and saw people dying of their heart disease who had the hereditary form of high cholesterol, which we just could not control. I personally thanked God when we got these drugs. They had them in Europe and Japan for 10 years before we got them. I have an occasional patient who does not want to take any prescription drugs and in that case we use niacin (vitamin B3). If you can take niacin it is very effective in lowering the blood lipids. Remember your LDL cholesterol should be below 100. STEP 7 Prayer is the greatest power on earth. Remember the parable of the fig tree in Matthew 21:21. Matthew teLLs us that Jesus came to a fig tree that had no fruit on it and said, "May no fruit come from you again." Matthew says the fig tree withered at once. And he said, "Master, how did this happen how did the fig tree wither so quickly?" and Jesus said, "If you have faith and do not doubt not only can you do what was done to the fig tree but if you say to this mountain be cast into the sea it wiLL happen." So think positively and have faith in yourself and God. Diet is discussed with all of our patients. Generally we recommend a low-fat low cholesterol diet. We recommend the Mediterranean diet, which includes fruits and vegetables, fish and fish oils. Raw foods should be part of your diet.
|