Preventing hardening of the arteries

The circulatory system plays a critical role in the body. It supplies oxygen and nutrients to all parts of the body and removes wastes from those areas as well.

Arteries are an important part of your circulatory system. They are the vessels that carry blood pumped from your heart to the rest of your body. Healthy arteries are flexible and strong, but with time the walls of your arteries can become thick, stiff and inflexible. This process is called arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries.

A specific type of arteriosclerosis involves a build-up of plaque on your artery walls and is called atherosclerosis. This plaque can rupture, causing a blood clot that blocks off blood flow in the artery. Atherosclerosis can affect arteries anywhere in your body and is responsible for most cases of heart disease and stroke.

INFLAMMATION IS THE CULPRIT

Because plaque is found to contain cholesterol, the medical profession has focused its efforts on reducing blood cholesterol levels as a treatment for athero-sclerosis. Research has, however, clearly demonstrated that the real cause of atherosclerosis is inflammation and damage to the walls of the blood vessels, not the cholesterol circulating in the blood. The formation of cholesterol containing plaque is a secondary event following the damage and inflammation. When this is understood, hardening of the arteries can be seen as a lifestyle-related disorder that is preventable and treatable.

CORRECT INFLAMMATION

Add foods with anti-inflammatory properties to the diet, avoid unhealthy fats, exercise regularly, learn to manage stress and do not smoke. Supplementing with the antioxidant ACES, omega-3 fats and magnesium also helps to control inflammation. Herbs like green tea, rosemary, garlic and ginger also have powerful anti-inflammatory effects.

A useful indicator of inflamma-tion, in general, and athero-sclerosis, in particular, is the level of an impurity called homocysteine, which can be detected with a simple blood test. Research indicates that this test is much more significant than the blood cholesterol level in determining ones risk of a heart attack or stroke.

What is more amazing is that an elevated homocysteine level can be easily corrected with vitamin B⁶, B¹² and folic acid supplements that are both safe and inexpensive. I wonder why we continue to prescribe dangerous and expensive choles-terol-lowering drugs so frequently?

USE CHELATION THERAPY

Chelation therapy is an intravenous therapy performed in a doctor's office to treat and prevent atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, peripheral vascular disease, and other age-related problems of circulation.

Properly administered chelation therapy improves metabolic function, reduces inflammation and increases blood flow, opening blocked arteries throughout the body. The chelating agent EDTA (ethylene-diamine-tetra-acetic acid), along with a mixture of vitamins and minerals, is administered by slow, intravenous drip.

One of the features of atherosclerosis is that excess calcium accumulates in the walls of the arteries, causing the 'hardening'. Too much calcium within a cell becomes toxic to the cell, and as we age, calcium drifts out of our bones and into our tissues. This accelerates the ageing process.

Chelation therapy removes the calcium from the artery walls, corrects the inflammation present there, making the blood vessels soft, open and flexible. It literally helps to make your circulation younger and healthier.

Mainstream medicine has been trying to discredit chelation therapy for a long time, but its scientific basis is sound and the results extremely impressive.

DANGEROUS HEAVY METALS

One important but unrecognised source of toxicity and inflammation for humans is the accu-mulation of dangerous heavy metals in the body. These include lead, mercury, aluminium, arsenic and cadmium, to name a few. They damage cells and disrupt delicate enzyme systems that run the body's metabolism.

Today's polluted environment leaves most people with a toxic level of heavy metals in their body. This has been shown to accelerate the ageing process and promote a long list of illnesses including heart disease, cancer immune disorders and atherosclerosis. Another powerful benefit of chelation therapy lies in its ability to bind and remove these heavy metals from the system and thus reduce the load of toxins that the body has been carrying.

Other natural chelating agents that help remove heavy metals include vitamins A, C and E, alpha lipoic acid, glutathione, selenium, zinc, cysteine, cilantro, milk thistle, green tea, garlic and dietary fibre.

You may email Dr Tony Vendryes at vendryes@mac.com or get a copy of his new book 'An Ounce of Prevention - Especially for Women'.