CS: Heart Attack Advice

CS,

I've been reading your previous advice about what to do after heart attacks. My mom had one about a week ago. She had 99% blockage in the right coronary artery and 90% blockage in the 1st diagonal of the left anterior descending coronary artery. They put stents in both. They did say though that they didn't believe there was any heart damage.

My mom has also suffered from high blood pressure for almost 30 years and was diagnosed with Type-2 diabetes in the past year.

She is currently on:
Atenolol
Caduet
Ecotrin
Enalapril
Plavix
Chlorothiazide
and Metformin and Glipizide as needed for blood sugar.

I've been trying to get her off a bunch of this stuff for a while. They doubled all of the blood pressure meds which she is not happy with. I'd love to get her off as much of this crap as possible. I have been giving her 3 grams of Krill Oil a day since the heart attack and have recently started 1500 mcg of Biotin. I had been giving her 200 mg of the Stabilized R-Lipoic Acid before as well but stopped because I wasn't sure if it was interacting with anything. What else can I put her on?

As for her physical condition she was short of breath more so than normal leading up to the heart attack and definitely needs to get more exercise. She also seems to have some shoulder pain but that might just be aches from getting older. I've read about rebounders for the formation of collateral vessels and am planning on purchasing one for her to use. Any recommendations?

Any other advice and recommendations you have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

I can only provide general advice since everyone is different and has a unique medical history, which is often a critical piece of the puzzle.

Some of her medications involve blood pressure. The following article will explain if these things are really even necessary. I would say almost never, especially when the reasons for the increase are addressed.

http://healthyfixx.com/7/is-that-blood-pressure-medication-necessary

http://healthyfixx.com/8/top-10-ways-to-lower-blood-presssure-naturally

Ecotrin is prescription aspirin and it's not always a good idea. It's no wonder drug.

Atenolol is beta blocker, something that offers no benefit. Recommend to work with the physician to drop it.

Caduet is a combination of two drugs which in my opinion should not ever be used (Amlodipine Besylate & Atorvastatin Calcium). The first of the two is a calcium channel blocker. These are also known as calcium cardiac killers. The other drug is a statin, which will lead to many unpleasant side-effects, often pain.

Enalapril is an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor. These have their problems, and sometimes they can exacerbate the problem (may contribute to pulmonary edema)

Chlorothiazide make diabetes worse. Probably this is used to compensate for another drug. Would use Dandelion capsules instead of this.

Plavix is typically used to deal with the stents. No way around this one, but stents themselves are best avoided in the future (because they increase complications or restenosis).

Would replace Metformin and Glipizide with Berberine instead.

http://healthyfixx.com/17/natural-supplement-beats-popular-diabetes-drug

The following articles will provide a lot of information to help you made a decision on how well she is being cared for. Heart medicine seems to be quite often the very opposite of helpful, especially when considering that the heart is the easier organ to heal, yet it is thought to be my many as a difficult problem.

http://www.immortalhair.org/apps/blog/show/2137710-heart-disease-is-a-conventional-quagmire

http://www.immortalhair.org/apps/blog/show/2144461-deeper-down-the-rabbit-hole-of-heart-disease

http://www.immortalhair.org/apps/blog/show/2158939-medical-merry-go-round-of-heart-disease

http://www.immortalhair.org/apps/blog/show/2185196-is-heart-catheterization-really-necessary-

http://www.immortalhair.org/apps/blog/show/2192360-heart-disease-inflammation

http://www.immortalhair.org/apps/blog/show/2227521-emergency-cardiac-medicine

http://www.immortalhair.org/apps/blog/show/2276330-emergency-cardiac-medicine-part-deux

http://www.immortalhair.org/apps/blog/show/2295665-emergency-cardiac-medicine-part-3

http://www.immortalhair.org/apps/blog/show/2337193-emergency-cardiac-medicine-part-4

http://www.immortalhair.org/apps/blog/show/2387062-atrial-fibrillation

http://www.immortalhair.org/apps/blog/show/2442609-reversing-years-of-arterial-damage

http://www.immortalhair.org/apps/blog/show/2496567-reversing-years-of-arterial-damage-part-deux

http://www.immortalhair.org/apps/blog/show/2501233-reversing-years-of-arterial-damage-part-3

CS,
Thanks so much for all the information. I tried to sort through it and came up with this list of supplements.

Have:
Magnesium Orotate- I have the Ortho Nutrition Decalcify which also has Vit K2 in.. should I get one with just Mag Orotate?
Vitamin D3
Stablized R-ALA
EGCG
Krill Oil

Need to get:
Ubiquinol
Some sort of Vitamin B Complex - Brewer's Yeast, Dessicated Liver, or other??
L-Arginine: Does it need to be specifically this or anything that would increase Nitric Oxide?
Dandelion capsules: any good sources?
Ecklonia Cava

Some others that were included but not sure if it would benefit:
D-Ribose: the doctors said she had no heart damage so would she need to regenerate heart tissue?
Niacinamide: it said about Niacin but can this be used instead?

If you have the time I'd love to know what the dosages should be.

As for the prescriptions she's taking, what can she just stop taking and which does she need to be weaned off of? Would any of the above supplements have interactions with the prescriptions? She has an appointment in 2 weeks and I want her to be loaded with information so that she can go in informed and not just agree with everything the doctor says.

I'm also planning on getting a rebounder and this is supposedly the best: https://www.reboundair.com/
Any thoughts?

Thanks again!

Bump for CS.

waitingforit - Here's my new article on preventing heart attack:

http://healthyfixx.com/42/clogged-arteries-do-not-cause-heart-attacks

I can't really advise on the blood pressure medication, except to work with her doctor to get her off of them, especially
if her blood pressure is below the actual treatment level. The treatment level is explained in the blood pressure article mentioned in the previous post.

It it were possible to wean her off of everything in time, except for the Plavix, would be ideal. The Plavix
deals with a medicated stent.

There's no problem taking extra Magnesium Orotate if desired.

Assuming there's no damage to her heart, the Ribose is not necessary, however if she's fatigued, it will add
energy in addition to cardioprotection.

The type of Arginine used professionally is a slow release form:

http://www.iherb.com/Thorne-Research-Perfusia-SR-L-Arginine-500-mg-per-Capsule-120-Veggie-Caps/18485?at=hil335

Any variety of Dandelion capsules will do, they are quite inexpensive.

For the B-complex, either Brewer's yeast or something easier such as a natural food, based formula.

There are no known interactions with these drugs. However, I will say that all of these drugs cause nutrient deficiencies.

The Rebound Air is a good product.

@waitingforit

Broda Barnes was pretty convinced low thyroid was to blame for heart disease. He wrote a book about it.