American Heart Association calls exercise an 'alternative' therapy

Tuesday, May 07, 2013 by: Lance Johnson
Tags: American Heart Association, alternative therapies, exercise

(NaturalNews) "There aren't many large well-designed studies lasting longer than a few weeks looking at alternative therapies, yet patients have a lot of questions about their value," said Robert D. Brook, M.D., Chair of the panel and an associate professor of medicine at the University of Michigan. "A common request from patients is, 'I don't like to take medications, what can I do to lower my blood pressure?' We wanted to provide some direction."

In a new scientific statement published in its journal, Hypertension, The American Heart Association reiterates the need for "standard" pharmaceutical treatment while calling real-life preventative measures like exercise, "alternative therapies". Statements like these downplay exercise and its role for heart health. Statements like these only encourage people to cling to pharmaceutical drugs as the answer. According to the AHA, "alternative therapies" such as aerobic exercise, might help reduce blood pressure. By calling exercise an "alternative method," and downplaying its preventative ability, the AHA fools people into believing that drug prescriptions are the answer. Prescriptions are rarely the answer, especially when dealing with heart health, where countless people find relief from deep breathing, exercise, and nutrition.

The AHA also implied that herbal and nutritional methods aren't worth looking into. (They didn't study these methods at all.) And they concluded by stating, "Due to their modest effects," alternative therapies can be used with - not as a replacement for - standard treatment.

What is standard treatment to the AHA? According to them, any "alternative method" should not replace "proven methods," which include prescribed medication.

Their panel also described that there isn't enough clinical evidence to confirm that yoga, acupuncture, or other personal relaxations techniques help blood pressure. They did say, however, that device-guided slow breathing did prove effective in lowering blood pressure when performed for 15-minute sessions three to four times a week.

This makes it obvious that the AHA is all about creating a profitable industry to treat heart problems. By finding a way to hook up the population on device-guided breathing machines and by subliminally discouraging people from seeking their own deep breathing and relaxation methods, the AHA is fueling an industry that doesn't deal with the root of the problem.

The AHA makes it obvious that the industry that exists is all about greed and control. Deemed "proven methods" the pharmaceutical industry is made out to look safe and effective. By downplaying "alternative" therapies that actually work for countless people, the AHA helps defend the pharmaceutical industry, suppressing real testimonies of people who have cured their own heart disease by natural means. This is propaganda at its best. The American Heart Association cannot be trusted and should not be looked to for advice.

Real advice for heart treatment: celery, beets, garlic, and hawthorn

There are many ways to reduce blood pressure and help the heart out. Celery juice, which contains pthalides, has shown to lower blood pressure by relaxing the muscles around the arteries and allowing vessels to dilate. The calcium, magnesium, and potassium in celery also helps regulate blood pressure.

• Also effective for the heart are beets. Beet root is rich source of the phyto-compound, glycine betaine, which lowers homocysteine levels within the blood. Lowering Homocysteine, is important, for this toxin promotes platelet clotting as well as plaque formation. High levels of homocysteine in the blood result in the development of coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke and peripheral vascular diseases.

• Garlic is an ancient heart remedy. Dr Bodia, cardiologist at Tagore Medical College in India, carried out a study on garlic and heart disease on 432 patients, over a period of three years. The garlic eaters had fewer attacks of angina, their blood pressure dropped by 10 percent, and he witnessed a 66 percent decrease in fatal heart attacks among the garlic eaters. Dr. Bodia suggested that the steady infusions of garlic both wash away some of the arterial plaque and prevented future damage through its antioxidant activity.

• Hawthorn berries are a great heart food. Countless studies show that the extract can increase blood flow to the heart muscle itself, improve the contraction of the heart muscle, lower the peripheral vascular resistance, steady the heartbeat, and increase the heart's tolerance to oxygen deficiency.

Sources for this article include:

http://newsroom.heart.org

http://www.healingnews.com/Healing_heart_disease_article101.html

http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/beets.html

http://www.healthy.net/scr/article.aspx?Id=898