Safer protection from TIA & AFIB....

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 5-17-2016

What are these?

A TIA is a partial stroke that soon gets better on its own. 

(The letters stand for:

Transient Ischemic Attack and it’s just what it sounds like, a temporary obstructive stroke.)

AFIB, Atrial fibrillation, is an abnormal heart rhythm characterized by rapid and irregular beating.

Like TIA's they are often temporary.  But they can be scary, cause lightheadness or even fainting.

Most people with AFIB are at increased risk of stroke. Clearly people who have had a TIA are at increased risk of stroke.

It’s been found that giving people who have these aspirin or the blood thinner, Warfarin, cuts the risk of ischemic or obstructive stroke.

This is a dangerous and an incomplete treatment according to the data I’ve seen.

Both taking aspirin and Warfarin have a death rate from their use.  Aspirin is safer but less protective from ischemic strokes.

But both can cause bleeding or hemorrhagic strokes and internal bleeding in the gut. 

That’s how they do kill some people.

And, it has recently been found that continuous use of Warfarin causes Alzheimer’s disease. 

(In an email recently, Jenny Thompson sent this:  “In a new study out of the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City, researchers looked at health records from more than 10,000 patients who used warfarin for six to eight years. 

And the folks with Afib were up to three times more likely to develop dementia or Alzheimer's.

People whose dosages were frequently adjusted -- which is common with the drug -- were at the most risk. 

Of course, the researchers claim that you're only in danger if you're using warfarin over a long period of time. 

Yeah, well, that's not exactly comforting -- especially when the mainstream has made habit out of keeping Afib patients on warfarin for life. “

(One mode of action for this is the small hemorrhagic strokes it causes gradually putting holes in the brain’s network of neurons.

It’s comparable to blowing holes in the freeway.  If you keep doing it, your chances of blocking the freeway go up.  And it might happen right away.)

Given those drawbacks, isn’t there a safer way to protect people from these two things?!

YES!

Does it net out saving more people than the blood thinner approach?  That experiment has not been done.

It looks to me as if the odds are better than 10 to 1 that it would test as dramatically more protective however.  And it also looks like fewer people would get strokes!

A.  Let’s start with the best stroke preventive I’ve ever heard of that’s easy to do AND lowers the death rate from all causes in people who do it!

A study in the UK found that people who eat 6 or more servings of vegetables a day are less likely to get any kind of blood vessel or heart disease and lower their risk of death from any cause.

For that many servings a day, I think it imperative to eat organic vegetables only. 

And, eating even 3 to 5 vegetables other than potatoes each day is challenging.

BUT, there is better news!

The same study found that eating one or more servings of whole fruit a day prevented BOTH kinds of stroke and also lowered the risk of death from any cause.   Best of all doing this was even more effective at preventing bleeding or hemorrhagic strokes.

Again, given doing this daily, I think it imperative to eat organic fruit only. 

Blueberries have separately been found to prevent strokes and test as making people who eat them younger in their memory and thinking skills.  So eating blueberries two or three days a week and a variety of other fruit the other days of the week looks like a sound strategy.

B.  There are other ways to reduce blood clots that are effective and can be effective in a few days.  Guess what?  Not only are they safer (presuming you don’t take blood thinners), they have other health benefits!

The big one is adding omega 3 oils.  Dr Dean Ornish said this: 

"The omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil tend to inhibit thrombus formation, which is the underlying cause of 90% of strokes."

In fact, adding the omega 3 oil, DHA, daily as a supplement; adding a purified fish oil omega 3 supplement daily, and eating wild caught fish high in omega 3 oils such as herring or Alaskan salmon two or three times a week PLUS stopping all wheat and high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners and excessive sugar—AT THE SAME time can drive your risk of heart attacks and ischemic strokes quite low within days.

(See:  http://iehealth.blogspot.com/2016/03/advanced-heart-attack-prevention.html

& http://iehealth.blogspot.com/2016/03/fast-and-easy-way-to-prevent-heart.html

for more information.)

So instead of artificial blood thinners, you can get the same or considerably better stroke prevention by doing both things:

1.  Eating more organic vegetables as you are able; eating one or more pieces of organic fruit a day –

2.  AND adding more omega 3 oils plus stopping the foods and drinks that boost triglycerides.

Can you do even more?

Yes!

For both things, TIAs and AFIB, you can take ginkgo biloba. 

Ginkgo is an effective enough blood thinner when you go in for surgery, doctors ask you to stop taking gingko a few days before and to not resume until the cuts have mostly healed.

But if you don’t have surgery or add drug blood thinners while taking it, ginkgo not only is a blood thinner, it’s much safer than aspirin or blood thinners!

It’s even better than that! 

Ginkgo is best at increasing blood flow in the brain AND a study found that people who had been taking ginkgo for some time who DID have a stroke had less damage than people having similar strokes did!

A well done study found that the artificial vitamin E, alpha tocopherol acetate,was slightly carcinogenic.

At the same time, studies of vitamin E from food sources found it prevented cancers instead!

AND, naturally sourced alpha tocopherol as a supplement plus eating foods high in tocopherols such as extra virgin olive oil and raw tree nuts for those not allergic and avocados are also blood thinners with other health benefits.

Then, if you do these things, you can get added protection by adding exercise.

Lastly,

If you follow these methods which have you stop ingesting the foods and drinks that make people fat and eating lots of organic fruits and vegetables, you can lose fat you keep off.

In many cases this is the very best treatment for AFIB!  People who use these methods to lose fat often stop getting AFIB at all!

(Some just get it much less often and have it be milder.  But that too is quite protective from having AFIB cause strokes!)

Similarly, losing fat you keep off often lowers high blood pressure enough to reduce the risk of strokes even more.