Stabilizing Your Heart Health
- Posted on
- By Dr. Joseph McWherter, M.D.
As we start February, let me summarize a “Matrix Way of Life” to heart health. One can stabilize the extracellular matrix (ECM) surrounding the endothelial cells, which line the coronary arteries, by reducing chronic inflammation.
- Minimize risk factors such as bad eating habits, insufficient exercise, not enough sleep, and chronic exposure to stress. (Remember that when the world pulls at your strings, the mind can be a mighty pair of scissors). Family history is one of the strongest indicators, which translates into determining the intensity level one must follow a heart healthy program.
- Monitor and correct chronic hypertension (persistent high blood pressure).
- Determine your individualize heart status – your Coronary Calcium Artery Score, fasting cholesterol levels (consider sub particle scores such as NMR testing), Echocardiogram, and a stress test, just to name a few. Traditional medicine is fixated on numbers which practitioners believe reflect our health status; therefore, monitor your lipids, triglyceride, hemoglobin A1C/fasting blood sugar, hs CRP, homocysteine, and PLAC testing.
- Balance your hormones, which include, but are not limited to: insulin, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA, thyroid, cortisol, and Vitamin D.
- Intermittent low carb diet and no refined sugar – watch simple carb ingestion and avoid hypoglycemia.
- Moderate Persistent Supplementation with anti-inflammatory herbals and ultra-refined krill oil. Always include daily Vitamin K2 (unless using Coumadin), at approximately 100 mcg. Other supplements to consider are Bergamot, Red Yeast Rice, CoQ10, Fish Oils, and PomCherry Nitro.
- Periodically detoxify (depending upon life style but approximately every 3 to 4 months) using a hypoallergenic elimination diet along with detox baths, infrared saunas, and even colonic therapy. Chelation of heavy metals has also been shown to be important in reducing plaque formation.
- In appropriate cases, such as excessive Coronary Artery Calcium Score with abnormal levels of LDL, statins can be helpful. Following the regimen above seems to reduce statin side effects, possibly because of reducing the overall amount required.
Make a change for life by following the “Matrix Way of Life” for your heart. Stabilization of the extracellular matrix also protects other body organ systems such as brain, breasts, bone, gastrointestinal system, and skin.
JMcW, MD