What to do after heart attack

Hi All,

As a new member here, I wanted to post my recent situation and attempts at prevention.
So 2 weeks ago I suffered a heart attack which I just found out was brought on by angina, which I have genetic trait for.
I had 1 artery mostly blocked and 3 more at 80% blocked, the one mostly blocked was stented but they didn't touch the others due to my heart stopping during the stent surgery. Basically per the surgeon "the blocking + the dies used + the messing around *issed your heart off" ... so came out of hospital with lots of Rx drugs. Plavix(now switched to Effient), blood pressure and ACE inhibitors and they wanted me on a statin ... refused the statin but still taking the others but want to get off them if I can without more stents.

So 2 natural remedy's I have come across which seem to have some background and successes are:
1. The Pauling remedy - this is the Vit C and Lysene thing, supposedly it's to help bind the lpa in LDL cholesterol which causes arterial plaque buildup, so to rpevent further buildup and help extract from existing plaques the Lpa to breakdown existing blockages and repair them with collagen created from vitamin C.

2. Serrapeptase - This is an enzyme which was found in the intestines of silk worms. Which again I say supposedly as there is not strong evidence and published tests, this enzyme eats away at dead fibers and is meant to help breakdown plaque.

As both of these do not interact specifically I am currently taking the serrapeptase and am going to give the Pauling approach a shot as well.

Any info from anyone who has tried either or both of these methods would be appreciated.

Thanks

engineama, you seem to be looking for the easy way out of your situation.

You don't want to take the statin for some reason, but then rather than making huge changes in your diet and lifestyle, you are looking for a form of "natural pill" or easy fix.

BTW, your heart attack was not brought on by angina. Angina is the pain, not the cause of the pain.
That is huge difference.

Now, those two quick fixes you mention are highly improbable as a substitution for the statin.

At the very least, as SouthernAllStars mentioned, you would need a complete alteration in your diet.
Similar to that adopted by Bill Clinton who was still failing after bypass surgery. Note, he may also take statins, I don't know.

Anyway, if you insist on not following your doctors advice on the statin, then you should get very committed to the diet change. Actually you should do both.

Look up the following doctors who all have similar dietary advice.

Dean Ornish (who has published studies to back him up regarding heart disease)
Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn
Dr. Neal Barnard
Dr. Joel Fuhrman

There are others but those will give you the idea.
Clinton follows Ornish and Esselstyn

If you refuse to take statin, you need some powerful changes, not those two simple fixes you mention above. Those are pure internet solutions. The internet is full of crazy, long since discredited, ideas.

Don't you even do a simple Wiki search of those things.

eg,  "After searching PubMed and the Cochrane Library "to see if there are any randomised, controlled trials", the article stated that the "evidence on serratiopeptidase (serrapeptase) being effective for anything is not based on a firm foundation of clinical trials."^[4]"

Post Edited (Franklen) : 8/25/2013 9:30:26 PM (GMT-6)

Thanks all for your feedback.

Looks like I missed out a bunch of stuff that I am doing and some additional history.

So lifestyle as in foods have drastically changed. Lots of veggies and fruits - primarily salads but getting to hate them, heavily reduced on starches, no fried foods, no hydrogenated oils/fats, sugar replaced 100% with Stevia. Still have meat occasionally but it's generally chicken, don't eat pork anyway and beef I didn't eat much of that before anyway. So I have made those changes and am not just dependant on a quick fix.

On the statin thing, my own family physician agreed with me on not taking statins as I have had liver issues with statins in the past, that was the reason for the no statins. But I am taking Welchol which works very differently just to get my cholesterol even lower than the below numbers.
My overal cholesterol is actually not bad, except my hdl needs increasing it was only at 30 so am taking a very high dose of fish oil to increase that.
My overall chol is 170 (recommendation is below 199)
My LDL is 96 (recommendation is below 99)
Triglycerides are 221 (recommendation is below 149)
5 month's ago my Triglycerides were at over 700

Based on the guidelines I have seen it's my triglyercides that need reducing and LDL needs increasing.

And totally agree there is no evidence of serrapeptase or Pauling therapy actually working in any trials, which was why I was asking if any real people had actually had any success with them.

Also appreciate the Angina feedback. Agreed it's the plaque in my artery's that's the problem ... whatever we want to call it that's the cause of the blockages and that's the thing that needs to be addressed.

Thanks

enginama,

Thank you for the update re your situation.  Many hospitals offer cardiac rehabilitation programs that may start while you're in the hospital and, depending on the severity of your attack, continue for weeks to months after you return home. Cardiac rehabilitation programs generally focus on four main areas — medications, lifestyle changes, emotional issues and a gradual return to your normal activities. I have a brother-in-law who went through a 16 week program and found the whole experience helpful.

I am not up to date on  the  studies that have been mentioned. I am knowledgeable re rehab programs but not an expert.  Our small town hospital has a great rehab and group support program for people recovering from a cardiac event.

Surviving a heart attack doesn't mean that life as you knew it is over. On the contrary, many people  lead full, active lives after a heart attack. Making  positive changes in your daily habits, being patient as you recover and adopting a can-do attitude will take you far.

I wish you peace and remember we are here to support you so keep on talking with us anytime.

Kindly,

Kitt

 

Enginama, I wish you the best of luck with your dietary changes, but keep in mind that they don't work for all. I kept myself on a carefully measured and regulated diet for two years, eating no more than 20-25 grams of fat a day. The dietician I worked with was always telling me this was too low, but I was determined to avoid medication. I never managed to get even my total cholesterol or triglycerides into the desired range. I then went on the statin. My total went down into the normal range, but trigs and low density were still too low. My cardiologist started me on massive doses of fish oil a couple of years ago, and everything is now normal. Turns out I have the genome that doesn't convert low to high density as it should.

Glad you are following up with your doctor, and good luck to you.