What’s Your Risk for a Heart Attack?

10374905_1631633320429152_8414430899304688222_nHeart disease is still the number one cause of death for Americans. It’s the number one cause of death for men. About 1 in 3 women die from heart disease1. It affects all of us, young and old.

Doctors commonly tell patients their risk factors for heart disease are tobacco use, overweight, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

Maybe you think your risks of dying from heart disease are low because you are a thin, non-smoker, and have normal cholesterol levels. Or because you are taking cholesterol lowering drugs.
You might think you’re safe but you’re not.

What really causes heart disease? The early stage of heart disease is damage in the lining of your blood vessels. That damage comes from inflammation leading to atherosclerosis (hardening and narrowing of your arteries). Cholesterol deposits and blood clots build up to the point of blocking blood flow.

That’s the start of heart attacks and strokes.

Doesn’t cholesterol cause heart disease? I strongly disagree with the high cholesterol theory causing heart disease. There’s a cbn.com news video about cardiologists making this point. Many people have normal blood pressure and normal cholesterol levels who become heart attack victims.

Cholesterol is needed in every cell in your body. All hormones are made from cholesterol. You need it for memory and sex drive.

Cholesterol is at the scene of the crime but it doesn’t mean it’s the perpetrator of the crime.

A partial cause of the crime is mechanical damage from the force of flowing blood. This requires repairing from nutrients in our food and nutritional supplement choices we make.

The biggest culprit of damaging blood vessels is inflammation.
How can you reduce the risk of heart disease since cholesterol isn’t the problem?

I’m Dr. Tim Kuhlman, Naturopathic Physician at Chehalis Naturopathic. I help patients with testing and treatment options. I have never prescribed cholesterol lowering drugs because they do harm and have no health benefit.

First get screening tests that look at how much inflammation is going on in your body.There are many natural treatments to lower your risk of heart attacks and strokes.

I realize many people don’t make the time to exercise. I tell my patients about a kind of High Intensity Interval Training exercise that only takes 15 minutes at a time, every other day. At least, if you have sitting jobs or lifestyles then stand up and take 1 minute breaks.

Simple changes to our food choices will reduce your risk of heart attacks and strokes. For example, it’s easy to change the type of cooking oil you use.

There are many foods and high quality nutritional supplements that dramatically decrease the inflammation in your body. It’s the choices we make about what we put in our body that makes the difference in how we feel.

For testing and treatment call (360) 996 4761 for an appointment with Dr. Tim Kuhlman, ND at Chehalis Naturopathic.

1
Center for Disease Control, http://www.cdc.gov/…/data_stat…/fact_sheets/fs_men_heart.htm
2
What Really Causes Heart Disease?,http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/healthscience/2012/oct
ober/cholesterol-myth-what-really-causes-heart-disease/