88% heart attack reduction without drugs….

Today's post:  Tuesday, 3-31-2015

Got an email from a health researcher, Ben Ong, who had astoundingly useful news!

There’s  fast shortcut to an 88% reduction in your heart attack risk if you are a man over 40 or a woman past menopause – one of the people most likely to be at risk of a heart attack.

As many of you who have read my posts already know, because of my strong family history of heart attacks, some time ago I began to add many things to reduce my risk of heart attacks by 88% or maybe even over 95%.

Despite not knowing to do many of these things as a young man and having second hand smoke exposure at home where both my parents still smoked when I left for college and again at a job for a couple of years about 20 years ago, my blood tests show I have indeed managed to cut my risk that much.

In fact the readings are so good most recently even I was astounded. If the average American has a 45% risk of dying of a heart attack, at 15 to one less risk, my risk is closer to 3%.

But despite that the most effective few things I’ve done are not that many and have other health benefits, I’ve put in a lot of work.

Now it seems that there is ONE thing you can do for a few months to cut your heart attack risk by 88%.

That’s a huge shortcut to heart attack prevention!

That could protect you while you are putting the other protections in place also!

In his recent email, Ben Ong sent me this:

“….today, I'm going to tell you what causes most heart attacks
and a tip on how you can reduce your risk by up to 88%”

.....without doing exercise, changing your diet, or taking any
supplements.”

First let me explain the main cause of heart attacks. It is
certainly not what you might expect it to be. Nor will it be
anything you are likely ever to have heard before.

Women are protected and get far fewer heart attacks than men
while they are menopausal, but as soon as they become
postmenopausal, their incidence of heart attacks rises to match
those of men.

Have you ever wondered why that is the case?

You might guess that it is something to do with female hormones,
but you'd be wrong.

The answer is actually far simpler and far more surprising. It is because they

lose blood every month, as a result of which they produce new blood cells.

Why should that be the cause?

People have long thought that heart attacks were caused by
biological processes, and certainly things like pollution, bad
diet, a sedentary lifestyle and stress are all causal for all
disease, including heart attacks, but actually, the cause is a
physical one.

Blood circulates around the body and where it reaches an artery
that is a junction, that is to say where the blood is split up to
go into two different directions, that causes resistance and if
you were watching the blood flow, you would see eddies in the
same way that you would see the flow of any liquid coming up
against an obstacle. 

The physical problem is that those eddies cause constant abrasion
that damage the epithelial cells in the artery walls, resulting
in cholesterol coming along to try and patch and heal the damage.
So the first step towards a heart attack is set up.

So what is the solution? A number of studies have concluded that
if you donate or draw a substantial amount of blood once or twice
a year, thus creating the circumstances where the body produces
new blood cells, you reduce the viscosity of the blood. And that
causes less abrasion. 

The astonishing statistics in these studies reveal that doing
this can reduce your risk of a heart attack by up to 88%. That is
a very small effort for a very big reward. So, if you are a man
or a postmenopausal woman, donate blood.

There is one more factor and that is that all arterial disease
begins in the capillaries. The capillaries are tiny tubes that
are so small that blood cells cannot pass through them unless
they double over in order to pass through. That is a lot easier
for new blood cells to do. So this strategy to refresh your
capillaries will help with your capillaries.”

I had read that giving blood was protective for men over 40 and

women past menopause suggesting it was protective because it

prevented the buildup of too much pro oxidant or oxidizing iron

in the blood.  And, we do know that oxidized LDL and maybe even

HDL that is oxidized harm the endothelium or inner surface of the

blood vessels and trigger excess patching causing heart disease.

But apparently Ben has seen research showing the lower viscosity caused by new blood cells to replace the blood donated is far more important.

Another reason is that lower blood viscosity is likely to both lower high blood pressure AND make it less harmful to your arteries.

That too is a protective effect.

Either way, whether the protection is less than 88 % or even far less starting with the high protection I have now, I’ll begin donating blood every three months.

Whether it drops my 88 to 97% risk reduction to 90% to 99% or not, it will cut it some.

(AND I’m quite curious to see if it cuts my slightly too high blood pressure back a bit.

Right now it tends to run between 148 over 90 and 156 over 88 for an average of about 153 over 89. 

The best case scenario of a drop from lower viscosity of about 14 over 9 – a bit less than 10% -- would give me a range of about 134 over 81 to 142 over 79 and an average of about 139 over 80. That would drop me to high normal blood pressure

Since I have a second method known to cut blood pressure by about 20 over 4 I plan to access soon, the two together could get me to 114 over 77 to 122 over 75  with an average of 119 over 76. 

Doing both together would take me from low to slightly above low high blood pressure to an ideal blood pressure.)

The other thing of interest, is that I saw online that each time you donate blood, it saves the life of as many as 3 people.  If that’s the case and I give blood 4 times a year for 25 years, I might save 300 people.