If a former president of the US and one of the most powerful persons in the world could become a victim of modern medical science, just imagine what would be the fate of the common man! To understand how even the most powerful person in the world cannot escape the trap laid by the medical industry, one has to understand what a ‘heart attack’ is and how it affects a vast majority of heart patients. To illustrate this point, I am giving you some excerpts from my best-selling book, “Heart Mafia”. If some of you may have already read it, it is time to refresh your memory now.
First of all, let me try to explain how heart blockage occurs, in the first place. The inner most layer of blood vessel is called ‘endothelium’. If we were to spread out all the endothelial tissues of our body, it would easily cover as many as two lawn tennis courts. Healthy blood vessels are strong and elastic, as the endothelial layer is smooth and unobstructed to allow a free flow blood through the blood vessel. But if the level of fat in the bloodstream increases, then we will get into all kinds of medical complications. Gradually, the blood cells begin to clog the arteries, even as the white blood cells and platelets become kind of sticky. Eventually, the white blood cells penetrates the endothelium where it attempts to ingest rising number of LDL (bad) cholesterol molecules that were oxidized majorly from fatty/processed foods. The white blood cells then send out a call for help to other white blood cells. As more and more white blood cells gather on that spot and stick around to fight the bad cholesterol, eventually it ends up forming a blob of fatty pus – a plaque-like build up. As the build up gets bigger and bigger, it becomes increasingly harder for the blood to flow through the arteries. So a severely clogged blood vessel cannot supply enough blood to the heart muscles and the result is it causes chest pain or angina. Interestingly, it is not the large plaques (blockages) that puts you more at risk but it is the smaller ones that put you at risk by rupturing the outer lining and bleeding into coronary artery.
As the plaques build up slowly over time, a fibrous cap starts developing over the plaque, which will be covered by a single layer of endothelium. The plaque lies there quietly for some time. Eventually, a force of blood flowing through the blood vessel rupture the cap with the result that the harmful content of the plaques now spilling into the bloodstream. To heal the rupture, platelets get into action. What they do is they try to stop the harmful contents of the cap from spilling into the bloodstream by clotting around the rupture. As the platelets get on with the process of clotting, the entire artery gets blocked by the clotting. With virtually no blood flowing through blocked artery, the heart muscles die.
Often doctors compare plaques in the artery to the deposit accumulated inside the old pipes. We have all seen this thing in our household plumbing. When foodstuff and other matters are thrown carelessly down the sink, the pipes get blocked. As a result, the water drains very slowly. If not removed in time, it blocks the water from draining at all. The water overflows in the kitchen sink. This analogy is similar to what happens inside the coronary artery in our own body.
Now the logic of therapeutic intervention is clear here. Arteries carry the blood throughout the body. If plaque obstructs the blood flow in the arteries of a patient with chronic angina, then the plaques must be removed or blood must be bypassed. Managing the plaque or unwanted deposits in this way, would restore flow of blood, reduce the frequency and severity of angina to prevent damage to the heart muscles.
The analogy of kitchen sink and the plaque in coronary artery does not end there as there is much more to it than just the analogy. It is noteworthy that in 87.5 percent of the cases, heart attacks were not caused by the bigger deposits of plaque in human arteries but by the the smaller sized plaques that were responsible for heart attacks, as we mentioned earlier. Managing these smaller plaques through angioplasty and bypass surgery is near impossible because there are plenty in numbers.
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Since the bypass surgery and angioplasty target only the bigger plaques this means that by removing the big plaques you essentially reducing the chances of heart attack by only 12.5%. In reality, it only makes the condition of the patient even more worse.
To understand why angioplasty and bypass surgery cannot improve or increase the life expectancy of a patient but only aggravates his condition, let us first understand how angioplasty and bypass surgery are performed.
First of all, an anesthetist renders the patient unconscious. The the surgeon removes part of arteries and veins from the patient’s arm or leg and then opens the rib cage to the stitch the bypass grafts to the coronary arteries. Angioplasty involves slightly less bravado. The cardiologist inserts a 3-foot long balloon tipped catheter into the coronary artery. The balloon ruptures the plaque, stretches the artery wall, and deploys a wire mesh stent to prop it open.
Now the problem with both these procedures is that unfortunately, our body somehow look at the surgery site as a kind of garbage dump and start dumping deposits and garbage in there. As a result this, the artery is blocked again within a few months.
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According to the Archives of International Medicine (Journal) Feb 2012, in a randomized trial 7229 patients who had undergone bypass surgeries or angioplasty (between 1970 to 2011) were observed and compared with patients with similar severity of blockage but who did not go for surgery .
The report concluded that no extra benefits are seen after surgery in patients in comparison to those who avoided surgery. Similar report was published in New York Times (27 Feb 2012) also. Besides no benefit, these surgeries come with many life long side effects. One of them is poor mental ability, post surgery.
Doctors stop the heart during surgery and the blood is rerouted through the heart-lung machine. As a result it causes neurological damage. According to the New England Journal of Medicine (Feb 2011), as many as 42% of patients who undergo a bypass are expected to perform significantly poorer in tests on mental ability 5 years hence. Other side-effects are personality changes, memory problems and irritability. The other major concern is that the patients face 1% to 2 % chances of dying in the operating room or suffer heart attack during the procedure.
In the light of the above concerns, it was reported in major newspapers and journals including Business Week* (May 28, 2006) that these two procedures (bypass and angioplasty) should have been a part of archives by now but are being proliferated as they still contribute towards major revenue to the hospitals with a cardiac department.
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Now you know the truth that one cannot recover from the heart disease by bypass surgery and angioplasty. It will just lead to future illness, as is very much evident from medical history of former US president Mr. Bill Clinton.
On September 3, 2004, Bill Clinton went to Northern Westchester Hospital after experiencing mild chest pain and loss of breath. Initial testing was normal. After undergoing additional testing at Westchester Medical Center, his doctors discovered that 90% of his coronary arteries were clogged and he was at grave risk of a heart attack. They advised, he should undergo bypass surgery. So, on Sept. 6, 2004: Clinton underwent an emergency quadruple-bypass surgery at New York Presbyterian Columbia hospital in Washington Heights.
Within six months, Bill Clinton started suffering from shortness of breath during his 4-mile walk routine. So he visited his doctors again. His doctors observed that he had developed pleural effusions–fluid in the space between lungs and the inside of the chest cavity, which they said, was due to side effects of quadruple bypass surgery.
On March 10, 2005, he underwent another four hours of lung surgery at the same hospital. Doctors removed a quarter-inch-thick layer of rubbery, plaque-like scar tissue that had wrapped around Clinton’s left lung. Fluid accumulated around the base of his left lung, compressing it and reducing his breathing capacity by about 25 percent. Most people who undergo bypass surgery develop pleural effusions after bypass surgery. In Clinton’s case thickening of the pleura prevented the lung from inflating fully. Clinton kept feeling heaviness in his heart from time to time, but doctors told him everything was normal and that he need not worry.
In January 2010, Bill Clinton experienced intermittent pain and discomfort in his chest. After a few days, he could no longer ignore the discomfort and therefore in February 2010, he was hospitalized at New York-Presbyterian Hospitals, Columbia. Here he was recommended for angiography. During angiography, doctors found two blockages in his coronary artery. So he was advised to undergo angioplasty. His cardiologist put two stents in one of his coronary arteries to fix the problem. That was not all! Doctors warned Bill Clinton that he might need more heart procedures because his vein graft from bypass surgery might clog up again after 3 or 4 years.
By 2010, Bill Clinton was too sick not only from his illness but also from doctors and drugs. Bill Clinton is intelligent and of the same caliber as Steve Jobs was. It means that they both were leaders who did not depend on conventional thinking/methods/rules. These were the people who made their own rules. Bill Clinton was no longer ready to accept the idea of bypass surgery and angioplasty as a cure for his heart problems after having suffered from it for more than a decade. So he started looking for an alternate method which could heal him in real sense.
That is when he came to know about some research done by leading researchers and scientists of the world and finally in 2011, he could reverse all his ailments including his life threatening heart disease by following natural methods as prescribed by leading scientists.
By the end of 2011, he was healthy and young again. He could now travel widely around the world. When interviewed by CNN regarding his marvelous health recovery, Bill Clinton went into a great detail about his diet, which he still follows.
He explained, “I went on essentially a plant-based diet. I live on beans, legumes, vegetables, fruits. No dairy. I drink almond milk mixed in with fruit when I start the day up. And it changed my whole metabolism and I lost 24 pounds and I got back to basically what I weighed in high school.
“But I did it for a different reason. I did it because after I had this stent put in and I realized that even though it happens quite often that after you have bypasses, you lose the veins because they’re thinner and weaker than arteries. But the truth is that it gets clogged up, which means that the cholesterol was still causing buildup in my vein that was part of my bypass, and thank God I could take the stents. I didn’t want it to happen again. So I did all his research and I saw that 82 percent of the people since 1986 who have gone on a plant-based, no dairy or meat of any kind, no chicken, turkey — if you can do it, 82 percent of the people who have done that have begun to heal themselves.
“Their arterial blockage cleans up, the calcium deposit around their heart breaks up. This movement has been led by doctors named Caldwell Esselstyn at the Cleveland Clinic, Dean Ornish who all of you know out in California, the doctors Campbell (father and son) who wrote The China Study, and a handful of others. But we now have 25 years of evidence and I thought that, well, since I needed to lose a little weight for Chelsea’s wedding, I’ll become part of this experiment. I’ll see if I can be one of those that can have a self-clearing mechanism- we’ll see… Here I am sitting with you in an interview all hale and hearty, no signs of heart diseases. Hillary and I, we’re happy, we love our son in law, and we admire him, and we’d like to be around if there are grandkids, we want to be able to do our part in the world.”
When I saw this interview of Bill Clinton with CNN, I got curious and wanted to go into details. So I contacted many doctors. Among them were Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, whom Bill Clinton had named prominently in this interview. They explained that heart diseases can be reversed, if a person is kept on a special diet for some days.
In a special interview to me, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn explained this science in a very simplified manner. He told me: “When a person is kept on a special diet, Nitric Oxide (NO) is produced in the body which helps in clearing up the heart blockages including 30%-40%, to 90% -100% blockages. NO also initiates and accelerates one more amazing mechanism in the body called “arteriogenesis”. In this process the body begins to make new arteries especially when some of the arteries are clogged up. The new arteries make a new path to reroute the blood of the blocked artery and reestablish the blood supply to the affected body part or the organ. This is also known as ‘Natural Bypass’.
“The new arteries formed during arteriogenesis after an artery is completely blocked are known as ‘Collateral Arteries’. Collateral arteries or Natural Bypass is hastened when aperson is on a special Whole Food Plant Based Diet. There is complete reversal of heart diseases and all blockages clear in a few months’ time.”
I completely agree with Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and Dr. T Colin Campbell as I saw it in many of my patients who were able to initiate Natural Bypass. The collateral arteries were seen where coronary arteries had blockages.
One such case is of Mr. Alok Srivastva, a 5- year old Engineer and a resident of Sector 16, Faridabad, who was working as a General Manager in a multinational company till 2013.
He casually went for a general check up at Asian Hospital Faridabad. He got his TMT done, which came out normal. But he was told to get an angiography done. He along with his wife, went to a cardiologist, who asked, if he had a Medi-Claim policy. Mr. Alok Srivastva informed them about his medical policy of INR 5 lakhs.The doctor then persuaded him to get his angiography done and also assured him about further treatment in case something wrong showed up in his angiogram. When he got his angiography done, the doctor seemed too worried about his heart condition and told him that he is sitting on a ticking bomb. Alok Srivastva could not understand what the doctor meant. The doctor then explained that 4 of his arteries were blocked and 2 of them had 95% blockages and the other 2 with 80% and 60% blockages. He was asked to undergo angioplasty immediately. It was projected as a do or die situation. Both the husband and the wife got so scared that they immediately agreed for angioplasty. The doctors informed them, out of 3 stents, 2 stents will be the metallic ones and the 3rd one will be biodegradable. When Mr. Alok inquired why the third stent was different from the other two, the doctors replied, incase you need a bypass surgery after 2-3 yrs this will not give any obstruction as it will dissolve by that time. The doctors did the angioplasty and placed 3 stents in his arteries. Just 1 week after his angioplasty, Asian Hospital called up a press conference and announced that Mr. Alok Srivastva was the only person from Faridabad with successfully placed ABSORB stent. When one of the leading journalist inquired, where these stents were made? The doctors replied USA. Again the reporter inquired if USA was using these stents. The doctors said NO. WHY?, the reporters asked. They said it was yet not been approved by FDA to be safe!
Clearly it was experimental trial done to test the safety and efficacy of the biodegrdable stents and Mr. Alok Srivastva had been used as a guinea pig. After an year, Mr. Alok started feeling chest pains. When he visited doctors again, they asked him to undergo angiography again.
Angiography showed that the biodegradable stent had deflated and was fully clogged up and since it was inserted in the main artery LAD, he will have to undergo bypass surgery. Mr. Alok then approached me and came to my office. I assured him about the reversal of his heart disease and prescribed him a diet for three months which he started following religiously. In the mean time he had to go away to USA for a month to meet his daughter. He could follow the diet recommended by me for little over a month. But when he came back he went to Medanta Hospital, Gurgaon for angiography. He was asked to go for bypass surgery for his completely clogged LAD artery because of biodegradable stent. He was under the pressure from his family members and also the guidance (or misguidance to be honest) of the doctors. So he underwent a bypass surgery at Medanta Hospital, Gurgaon. The surgery was performed by Dr. Naresh Trehan. After the surgery the accompanying assistant surgeon Dr Vinay Agarwal, who was very surprised, told my patient that he could see some initial development of collateral arteries leading to the natural bypass which was not seen earlier/during the angioplasty and it was a matter of curiosity/surprise as to’ what might have led to such positive development which was missing a month before!
Clearly enough as in the case of my patient, Mr Alok Kumar Srivastva and also mentioned and explained in Noble Prize Winning Science 1998, by Dr. Louis Ignarro, putting your body under favourable conditions by providing an appropriate diet, can open and utilize its collateral arteries. Hence, it can save a patient from life threatening diseases including diabetes, heart disease, kidney dysfunction and many kinds of cancer. Now Mr. Alok Srivastva has filed a suit against Asian Hospital for treating him like a guinea pig and implanting biodegradable stent whose safety had not been approved by FDA and insiting on undergoing angioplasty when he could have easily been saved by a specialized diet plan.
Mr. Alok Srivastva was not as lucky as Mr. Bill Clinton to save himself from the clutches of Modern Medical Science.
(Views and opinions expressed in this article are of the author)