Day 19  My Heart Attacks

No, I didn’t have diagnosed  heart attacks, but I had something attacking my heart. This is MY story, and remember the TV warning----DON"T TRY THIS AT HOME!!!!   But several years ago I was having  pains around my heart, and I didn’t know why. They would last only seconds at the beginning, and I really paid very little attention, even though I was having them quite often. This actually went on for a couple of years and as time passed the pains began to last longer and the pressure in my chest was getting stronger. We had read about what to do if you thought you might be experiencing a heart attack so Larry and I would go through this routine. I would cough as if I was trying to cough up something out of my chest. I would do this a few seconds, then I would lie down and relax and Larry would check my pulse.  Finally one night around 9 PM as I was lying in bed (as Fred Sanford would say----if you are old enough to remember him on Sanford and Son), I had the big one. It felt like I had a concrete cinderblock laying on my chest. I told Larry that I might need to get CLOSE to a hospital. So we drove from Randleman to High Point Regional (about 30 minutes away), and sat in the car in the parking lot, close to the emergency room entrance. I was doing the cough thing on the way, lay back in the seat and when we arrived, Larry checked my pulse. After about 45 minutes from the time we left home, the pain went away, so we drove home. On the way home I told Larry it was probably time to find a heart doctor.


The next morning I checked  to see if there was a holistic cardiologist anywhere around and I found one in High Point. He was in with a group of doctors who did not follow the holistic approach, so patients had an option This sounded great to me, so I made an appointment. I had a good feeling about this doctor because when I made the appointment the receptionist told me to allow at least an hour for the first visit, because he needed to get to know me before he made a decision.  I was excited because I would have time to tell him about my health journey. Larry and I always do our research as much as I can, and then we interview the doctor with our questions. Our thought is that we do not work for him or her---they work for us. We are paying them for a service. We are in control of our health.


I'm sure you won't be surprised at how I began the conversation with a doctor, but I am not haughty at all and I don't do it with an attitude.  I begin by  sheepishly saying----with a big smile---"I'm sorry, but I don't trust doctors, and I'm scared to be here, but I trust that your will listen carefully to me and we can work out a plan that will suit both of us". They will  smile back (well, one time I had one who reacted differently---more later),  and it kind of breaks the ice. In this case the doctor smiled and said "I don't trust them either, so tell me what's going on and lets see if we can fix it".  I told him the story much like I told you---even the parking lot incident, which he thought was hilarious, (but added that I should at least have come into the building). Then I ended by saying and I don't want to walk out of here with a prescription for Lipitor. He smiled and said that he didn't blame me, that he didn't like to prescribe it either. After about 45 minutes of asking me and Larry questions about our lives--occupations, children, health, etc, he suggested that I get blood work done and he would schedule an ultrasound to take a look at my heart. The ultrasound was amazing to me. They didn't do ultrasounds during my "baby days", so it blew me away to get to see my own heart pumping from many different angles. With the ultrasound done and the bloodwork done, I was ready for the analysis.


 So at visit #2, I found out that my bloodwork showed that I had a vitamin D deficiency and my cholesterol was above the normal range. He said the ultrasound showed no damage at all-- in fact  I had a very strong heart. As far as the bloodwork was concerned, he said  forget about the cholesterol, that those numbers were highly overrated because everyone's cholesterol is different and very individualized , and he recommended a good vitamin D supplement and added a few other vitamins and minerals that he thought would be good for me to take. That is when I started taking CoQ-10 (which is good for the heart among other things). Then he said, "Let's get down to talking about what is causing your pain". He said that he thought it was caused by stress and if I did not control the stress it would eventually affect the condition of my heart. So he asked about any stresses that I had experienced during this period---marital, children, work, life changes, etc. I assured him that I had no major stresses in any of those areas. The only life changes that we had was that Papa (Larry's dad) had come to live with us, but we were handling it pretty good. He smiled and very nicely said, " That's the issue you have to deal with." We thanked him and left the office. The pains continued, we had no solution to the "issue", so we just began to pray. Now what God worked out to remove him from our home is a whole story in itself that I will not blog about, but the short of it is that the pains left (except a few times at school). I was testing coordinator for my department and twice a year I was under great stress to get it done. When the pains happened I would go through my routine--cough, rest, take pulse etc. But since I retired, I have only had it happen twice. So I know what stress can do. Our doctor later got to meet Papa because we wanted him checked out too, because of his past heart surgery. This was strange, but he told Papa that he had a very strong heart and told him there was no sign that he had ever even needed surgery???? Hummmm???


Since cholesterol is the buzzword, and mine was a little high on the charts, I did a little research on that as well. Now keep in mind I am not a medical researcher, but I am smart enough to read and come to my own conclusions for MYSELF. And besides Larry had tried to tell me that it was a questionable subject. I guess I am a little concerned that you will make my journey your journey instead of having peace about what is best for you. You may read the same material that I read and come to different conclusions for yourself. I have no problem with that. My message is take control of your own health.  So, I began to read about cholesterol. What is it? How is it manufactured in the body? How do they come up with charts of highs and lows? What testimonials have I heard from people who had low and high cholesterol?  With all this information I decided that for ME, I would never worry about it again. I based that decision on the following information.
Around 80% of the cholesterol is manufactured by our own body, in the liver.  Only around 20% comes from our food. So it is vital to our health and well being. Although we measure cholesterol in our blood, it is found in every cell of the body. It is a waxy whitish yellow fat and a crucial building block in cell membranes. It is used to make vitamin D, hormones such as testosterone and estrogen, and fat dissolving bile acids. All of this is why the liver is working hard to keep it produced. And like everything else, we are individuals and some people need more than others and I don't know why. But I have heard stories about the highs and lows. When Papa had a heart attach--about 25 years ago his cholesterol was below 150. I know another lady in her late 70's---very healthy whose cholesterol was over 400. In both cases the doctor said not to worry about it. Just watch the fried foods, refined carbohydrates (sugar), and get on with life. This kind of told me that the statin drugs were not the answer.
Since inflammation and oxidation is the major cause of all major diseases, then if I could control that, I could control my cholesterol. I also found out that cholesterol or even excessive cholesterol in itself does not clog arteries, but it is the oxidized cholesterol that clogs the arteries and restricts the blood flow to other organs and this oxidized cholesterol can break away to cause heart attacks and strokes. So what controls whether or not it oxidizes or rusts? Of course, you guessed it---your diet. In order to keep this from happening, you need to eat foods rich in antioxidants--not found very much in the SAD diet. Thirteen of these super rich foods are: 1) Dark green vegetables 2) sweet potatoes 3) red berries 4) blueberries 5) grapes 6) walnuts 7) pomegranates 8) dark chocolate 9)pecans, 10) cranberries 11) kidney beans 12) prunes 13) artichokes. I'm sure there are others, but I named the ones that are more likely to be familiar to you.  And isn't this ironic that these are the non inflammatory foods that would heal "leaky gut" where toxins are transported to the weak organs in our bodies? 

So to add to the natural antioxidants from the food, I chose to add curcumin that I talked about on day 18, as insurance against the rust that forms on my cholesterol and the inflammation when I do not always have the perfect diet. Now with the questions that are coming from Day 18, I want to clarify something about the curcumin.  First of all the curcumin pills are a lot stronger than just turmeric powder that your would eat in foods.  Tumeric is a great antioxidant and don't stop eating it, but the highly concentrated curcumin from the root of the plant is powerful--enough to relieve pain and cure illnesses. You would have to eat a lot of turmeric to get the effect of these pills.  I gave you two choices---you don't need both. Since there is so much information out there about black pepper helping to accelerate the effectiveness of the curcumin, I gave you that choice. But they have both worked well for us, and that is why we swap them out each time, just for the variety and make them more effective should our body get used to the same thing. (We have no evidence that this happens--it is our own thoughts) I am sending a picture that I hope will help you.  No it is not cheap, and we have found the best prices on-line. You can usually find them in health food stores, but they cost more---a good bit more depending on where you get them.

So in Proverbs 4:23, it says to "guard your heart" for everything you do flows from it.  Now I know there is a deeper spiritual meaning in this Scripture, and I  think that each Scripture has only one interpretation, but I know it has many applications. So I try not only to guard my heart against the sinful things in this world, but also from the physical things like bad foods. MY STORY needs this extra motivation because I believe the enemy of this world wants us sick. 

Now a sad PS to my story. The last time we saw the cardiologist (with Papa), he told us that he may not be at that practice for much longer. We were very disappointed and tried to find out why. In a very round about way---instead of just outright criticizing the practice-- he said that he was not bringing in enough  potential revenue because he was taking too long with patients and prescribing natural supplements instead of prescriptions from the drug store. He said the trend was for the doctor to spend 3 minutes in the examining room and the other consultation and medical treatment to be done by nurses, and physician assistants. That way the doctors could see more patients. We asked him when this was going to happen, but he did not know. Sure enough, the next time I tried to make an appointment---to follow up on my vitamin D deficiency and my cholesterol levels, he was not there. When I asked where he was, they would not tell me, because he had signed some agreement that he would not leave and take patients with him. I knew he had friends who worked there who were his personal patients, so I went to the office to try to talk to them personally. I got the same runaround, but the receptionist walked out the door with me and told me she had heard that he was in Asheville, NC. doing some medical consulting work with holistic doctors.  I tried every way I could for several months and never located him.  Maybe God had him there during that time just for me. I believe I am that important in His eyes.