Eric R. Braverman
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 STROKE
It is estimated that about fifteen million ministrokes and half a million full-blown strokes occur every year. Nearly 150,000 people die of strokes annually, and an additional 300,000 people are left crippled to some extent.
Strokes are caused either by blocked blood vessels in the brain (ischemic stroke) or by ruptures in the brain's blood vessels (hemorrhagic stroke). Most are caused by the former. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 REPPED: Following the recent revelations that Vioxx cause a high incidence of heart attacks and strokes, a competing drug from Pfizer, Bextra, has now been shown to display similar health problems. What's especially weighty about this particular revelation is that it comes from the American Heart Association, a disease-industry group that has traditionally acted in favor of pharmaceutical companies. Because of this, the AHA deserves credit for allowing this study to be published. In the preliminary results, Bextra was found to increase the incidence of heart attacks and strokes by 219%. |
Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George
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 It has long been known that strokes, sudden blockage or rupture of a blood vessel supplying a part of the brain, can lead to the death of brain tissue, which causes cognitive impairment. strokes that damage the left hemisphere of the brain can cause language impairment (aphasia), while strokes on the right can cause visual-spatial problems—for example, poor drawing skills, getting lost, or having difficulty tying shoes. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Reducing stroke and heart attacks
Now, if you know anything about the cause of strokes and heart attacks, you realize that enhancing the quality of the blood will have a significant impact on reducing heart attacks and strokes. To my knowledge, there aren't any strong studies measuring this effect yet, but I have no doubt there will be in time. Eating aloe vera is like adding an all-natural non-stick additive to your blood flow. It stops blood cells from clumping together, which is part of what causes a stroke.
Dark-field microscopy is a technique for viewing live human blood vessels. |
Lester A. Mitscher and Victoria Toews
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 High cholesterol levels are a risk factor for strokes. It is estimated by cardiovascular disease experts that 70 percent of strokes occur in people with high blood pressure.
In another extension of the Seven Countries Study mentioned earlier, researchers from the National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection in the Netherlands observed 552 Dutch men, aged fifty to sixty-nine, for fifteen years; among other things, the researchers monitored the incidence of stroke in the group. |
Dr. Abram Hoffer, MD, FRCP (C) and Dr. Harold D. Foster, PhD
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 He became interested after reading a report from Sweden many years ago about the treatment of strokes. The authors reported that stroke patients on admission to hospital were promptly given IV niacin and, as a result, experienced a marked reduction in the incidence of subsequent strokes. McCracken also referred to a Norwegian study where arteries leading to a dog's heart were tied, thus simulating a heart attack.^ Giving intravenous niacin 15 minutes after the restriction and continuing it for 30 minutes decreased the heart damage.
Among patients in Dr Hoffer's care, C.B. |
Dr. Timothy Scott
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 That 2002 study found HRT increased heart attacks, strokes and cancer.12
Subsequent research has found that long-term use of hormones results in more breast cancer,13 ovarian and endometrial cancers,14 heart attacks, strokes (including TIAs), asthma, cognitive declines and twice the chance of developing Alzheimer's disease—though there is less osteoporosis and less colon cancer.15
What Went Wrong
How could a drug which we now know causes heart attacks, strokes, endometrial cancer, breast cancer and so many other physical dangers become the most prescribed pill in the nation? |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| Reducing stroke and heart attacks
Now, if you know anything about the cause of strokes and heart attacks, you realize that enhancing the quality of the blood will have a significant impact on reducing heart attacks and strokes. To my knowledge, there aren't any strong studies measuring this effect yet, but I have no doubt there will be in time. Eating aloe vera is like adding an all-natural non-stick additive to your blood flow. It stops blood cells from clumping together, which is part of what causes a stroke.
Dark-field microscopy is a technique for viewing live human blood vessels. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
See article keywords and concepts |
| In the preliminary results, Bextra was found to increase the incidence of heart attacks and strokes by 219%. The cardiologist who presented the study, Dr. Garret Fitzgerald, called Bextra, "A time bomb waiting to go off," and noted that the apparent dangers of Bextra exceed those associated with Vioxx. Pfizer, of course, downplayed the study in an attempt to minimize any negative backlash from its release. The question remains, however: will Pfizer now follow in Merck's footsteps and voluntarily recall Bextra? |
Frederic Vagnini, M.D. and Barry Fox, Ph.D.
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 However, taking aspirin is still considered a good way to reduce the risk of transient ischemic attacks (TTAs, or "baby strokes"), as well as full-fledged strokes and heart attacks in people at risk for these ailments. It does this by reducing the tendency of platelets to clump together, "crowd around" plaque in your arteries, and release substances that can encourage a heart attack or stroke. Dipyridamole also thins the blood, which is why it may be combined with aspirin to prevent heart attacks or strokes in at-risk patients. |
Dan Buettner
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 Every year he updated his survey of centenarians in Okinawa and found that Okinawans suffer significantly fewer strokes. He believed that it was related to diet, specifically the eating of less salt and more pork.
"Okinawa people are able to grow vegetables in gardens all year long," he said, referring to the island's comparatively tropical climate. "They don't need to make pickles and preserve food as people do in Japan's northern islands."
A salt-heavy diet may contribute to high blood pressure and weaken cerebral arteries, he said, causing micro-tears that are precursors to strokes. |
Peter J. Whitehouse and Daniel George
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| Strokes that damage the left hemisphere of the brain can cause language impairment (aphasia), while strokes on the right can cause visual-spatial problems—for example, poor drawing skills, getting lost, or having difficulty tying shoes. Strategic single small infarcts, or clots, in critical regions of the brain or multiple small blood vessel blockages can cause dementia by reducing the brain's oxygen supply and disrupting nerve cell circuits involved in decision making, memory, and verbal skills. |
| MRI scans can show smaller strokes, and that is helpful in the differential diagnosis of vascular dementia; but it also shows what we call "unidentified bright objects," which are of unclear significance and could indicate anything from small strokes, to normal aging, to other phenomena that we don't understand.
PET (positron emission tomography) scanning shows the brain at work, i.e., a form of functional imaging. The most commonly used PET approach traces radioactively labeled glucose that has been introduced into the patient's body. |
Mark Sircus
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 Millions of patients with heart attacks, strokes, angina pectoris, diabetes and risk factors for vascular disease have been encouraged by their physicians to take aspirin to prevent heart attacks and strokes. Four early studies using aspirin to prevent heart attacks had shown no benefit.3,4
"Then along came a study on U.S. physicians, which used Bufferin (which is comprised of aspirin and magnesium). This study showed no reduction in fatal heart attacks and no improvement in survival rate, but there was a 40 % decrease in the number of non fatal heart attacks. |
Dr. Abram Hoffer, MD, FRCP (C) and Dr. Harold D. Foster, PhD
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| The authors reported that stroke patients on admission to hospital were promptly given IV niacin and, as a result, experienced a marked reduction in the incidence of subsequent strokes. McCracken also referred to a Norwegian study where arteries leading to a dog's heart were tied, thus simulating a heart attack.^ Giving intravenous niacin 15 minutes after the restriction and continuing it for 30 minutes decreased the heart damage.
Among patients in Dr Hoffer's care, C.B. |
Dr. Edward F. Group III, DC, ND, DACBN
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| Experiment with different patterns such as elongated ovals, zigzags, and small "rubbing" strokes. You can also vary which parts of your hands apply the pressure. Determine which movements benefit you most.
Time
Self-massage sessions should last between 15 and 30 minutes, with 5 minute "warm-up" phases to develop your rhythm and pressure and ¦ 5 minute "cool-down" phases to gradually ease the pressure applied. |
Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., M.D.
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 Not surprisingly, the group with the greatest amount of plaque growth shed the greatest number of emboli, and had the most strokes (see Figure 17 in insert).
The buildup of fatty plaques in blood vessels can cause damage in many different ways. For example, when an aorta that contains plaque is clamped during coronary bypass surgery, plaque debris is loosened and enters the bloodstream as an embolus. Using ultrasound to monitor the middle cerebral artery in the brain, technicians can distinctly hear the embolizing plaque as it enters the brain. |
| If you eat to save your heart, you eat to save yourself from other diseases of nutritional extravagance: from strokes, hypertension, obesity, osteoporosis, adult-onset diabetes, and possibly senile mental impairment, as well. You gain protection from a host of other ailments that have been linked to dietary factors, including impotence and cancers of the breast, prostate, colon, rectum, uterus, and ovaries. |
| Neither has had any further strokes. The same plant-based nutrition that saved their hearts also saved their brains.
I have mentioned previously that several of my patients have also noted a distinct improvement in their sex lives. And recent research confirms a strong connection between impotence and cardiovascular disease. In December 2005, researchers reported on a study that followed 3,816 men with erectile dysfunction and 4,247 without over seven years. |
| It benefits the immune system, helps protect against strokes and heart attacks, osteoporosis, and dementia, inhibits cancer growth, and, of course, keeps weight down.
The basic message is simple—and welcome to so many who have battled weight all their lives: when you eat a plant-based, no-oil, whole-grain diet your body will find its own ideal weight. You will never have a weight problem.
Let your appetite be your guide! i6
Breaking the Fast
Eat breakfast. Eat breakfast even if you never have before. You will have more energy and you'll avoid early afternoon hunger. |
Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S.
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 It almost always involves problems in circulation and is a great predictor of strokes and heart attacks. Whether in the inner part of the arteries (endothelium) or in the sex organs, poor circulation and impaired blood flow show up as dysfunction—and both are helped greatly by getting your heart pumping and your tissues flooded with blood and nutrients. Plus the improved mood, outlook, and physical appearance that go with regular exercise never hurt anyone in the bedroom department. It's hard to feel sexy (and to perform) if you're feeling crummy all the time. |
Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., M.D.
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| Most of America's health dollars are spent on the late stages of heart disease, strokes, hypertension, diabetes, and the common Western cancers of the breast, the prostate, and the colon. Like heart disease itself, these others are part of the bitter harvest of the toxic American diet. And like traditional treatments for heart disease, their treatment is not preventive. Having your breast cancer amputated, your malignant prostate gland radically removed, or your cancerous colon resected is painful, disfiguring, and costly— and too often does not resolve the underlying problem. |
Dr. Abram Hoffer, MD, FRCP (C) and Dr. Harold D. Foster, PhD
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| Affected children often die during adolescence of strokes, heart disease, and infections. Sickle cell anemia also causes sufferers painful, unpredictable health crises. Those children who survive are underweight and slow to mature.5 How is it that a genetic, highly damaging disease can be so widespread amongst the Afro-American population in the USA? What's in it for Darwin? Or more correctly asked, what is the evolutionary advantage that this mutation gives to Afro-Americans that makes its obvious disadvantages worthwhile? |
Donna Jackson Nakazawa
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 As many as a quarter of women with recurrent miscarriages end up being diagnosed with the autoimmune disease APS, and one in five women who've suffered blood clots in the legs or strokes in the prime of life test positive for APS, making it more prevalent in women than leukemia and ovarian cancer combined.
No, the real reason doctors missed Jan's syndrome is because APS falls into the category of one of nearly one hundred autoimmune diseases that doctors have only in the last decade begun to recognize and understand. |
Craig Pepin-Donat
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 The study backfired and showed an increased risk of serious cardiovascular events, including heart attacks and strokes, for patients taking Vioxx. Fourteen months later in April 2002, the FDA implemented labeling changes to reflect the findings from the VIGOR study, but it did not require the information to be placed in the "warnings" section. It took fourteen months to alert patients about the risk of heart attack and stroke from taking Vioxx. |
Anne Harrington
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 In spite of new efforts by townspeople to cut down on smoking and fat consumption, coronary heart disease more than doubled through the 1970s, hypertension tripled, and there was a substantial increase in strokes. By the end of the decade, the number of fatal heart attacks in the town had risen to the national average. Wolf's prediction, it seemed clear, had come tragically true. |
Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S.
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| Huperzine A has been shown to improve memory, thinking, and behavioral function in people with Alzheimer's disease, dementia caused by multiple strokes, and senile dementia. |
| Endothelial dysfunction is often a predictor of later vascular events like heart attacks and strokes.) What's the connection to sexual performance? Simple: circulation.
"I've almost never seen a case of erectile dysfunction that didn't also have a component of the other ED—endothelial dysfunction," says Mark Houston, M.D. "They frequently go together."
Let's be clear. Impotence has multiple causes. If you're not turned on by your partner, if you're depressed, or if you've got a ton of things on your mind, you may not be in the mood for love. |
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