Health Alert 236
Dear Subscriber:
For weeks the media called former President Bill Clinton’s emergency heart surgery a “wake up call for baby boomers.” They did an excellent job of bringing heart disease to the forefront of public attention.1
But once again reports focused on cholesterol as the culprit. So much so that viewers could have been misled to believe low LDL is all that’s needed to prevent heart disease.
Today we’ll discuss other risk factors Bill Clinton’s doctors missed and what you can do to make sure your doctor doesn’t miss any you may have.
By the time Bill Clinton saw his doctor about chest pains, tests showed the major arteries in his heart were 90% blocked. Doctors did emergency surgery to prevent a massive heart attack.
Unfortunately when the news media interviewed the doctors they blamed high cholesterol for his heart problems.2
High cholesterol is not a disease in and of itself. Cholesterol does not CAUSE heart disease; it is merely a marker-one marker out of many. Having “normal” or even low cholesterol levels does not remove your risk of heart attack or stroke. Unfortunately, many people who rely on mainstream medicine for health information haven’t gotten the message.3
Even while Clinton was having surgery, and his doctors were blaming high cholesterol for his problems, a new study titled INTERHEART reported that neither high cholesterol nor elevated levels of LDL showed up among the top causes of heart attacks.4
The factors that INTERHEART found most important were the ratio of LDL proteins to HDL proteins. Also cigarette smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, excessive abdominal fat, stress, inadequate intake of fruits and vegetables, and lack of exercise.5
Clinton exercised regularly, but was famous for his fast food penchant. In addition to high cholesterol, he had other risk factors that should have tipped off his doctors long ago. He’s male, over 50, with a family history of heart disease. He also smoked cigars, had high blood pressure, and was overweight.6
Clinton’s doctors zeroed in on cholesterol and missed the other factors that marked him for heart disease. So he wound up coming within a hair’s breadth of having a massive heart attack. This is a keen reminder of how hidden heart disease can be. And a reminder that medical doctors need to widen their focus to treat it effectively.
High cholesterol is the least reliable heart disease marker of all. You should never depend on it alone. In chapter five of my book, The Heart Cure, I explain in detail what kind of tests you need to make sure your doctor gets the whole picture concerning your heart health. They’re not common tests for most doctors, so you’ll have to ask for them.
Don’t wind up like Bill Clinton. Get regular check-ups using the tests I outline in my book. They’ll give you a much truer picture of your real heart health. And if you discover a problem, you’ll have the information you need to reverse it naturally. Without resorting to surgery or drugs.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears MD
Sources:
1. Waking Up is Hard to Do; Health Sciences Institute
2. William Falloon; What the News Media Did Not Reveal About Bill Clinton’s Hear Problem; Life Extension, November 2004
3. Does Merck’s New Research Prove Cholesterol is Not the Problem?; Health Sciences Institute; 11/28/2001
4-5. Waking Up is Hard to Do; Health Sciences Institute
6. No Surprise About Heart Disease; The Associated Press; 9/9/2004