- Your cardiologist may be turning your heart into “a fat, lazy, incompetent water balloon” with dangerous prescription drugs. Find out more…
- Why take a drug when this overlooked mineral can have the same effect? Discover how…
- Revealed: The one easy seasoning swap that may keep you out of the doctor’s office.
Dear Living Well Daily Reader,
A few years back, during a show, comedian Norm Macdonald said: “What are the odds that you will be attacked and killed by your own heart? It’s about 100 percent, I think.”
While Norm may have been half-joking at the time, there’s certainly some truth in his statement. He went on to say, “That’s what got my dad. His heart attacked and killed him. He didn’t expect it.”
Of course, his estimate of 100 percent is a little bit of an exaggeration…
But perhaps not by as much as you’d think.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States.
In fact, it kills approximately 610,000 Americans every year.1
That’s one in every four deaths. People of all backgrounds are at risk. It’s a threat that doesn’t discriminate.
Which makes what Norm said about his father hit close to home — there’s a real chance of losing your life or that of someone you love to heart disease.
Fortunately, there is a lot you can do to lower your risk of heart disease.
And the best part – it doesn’t involve dangerous prescription drugs or costly doctor’s visits.
That’s why we have invited Dr. Al Sears to share with you a couple of natural tips you on how to lower your risk of heart disease in today’s email alert. And some of these you may have never heard of!
Take it away, Dr. Sears…
Cardiologists Bungle Blood Pressure
And How You Can Lower It Naturally
My old office manager J.F. was on beta blockers for high blood pressure.
I put her on a treadmill once to give her a test, and nothing happened.
She got extremely short of breath, but her heart couldn’t keep up. It was still at 80 bpm. She couldn’t challenge her heart and make it stronger because of the drug from her cardiologist.
How did this happen? Well, no one has messed up modern medicine more than cardiologists.
They’re all about the methodology of using heart drugs and technology but are opposed to the general concept of analyzing your health and how to improve it.
It’s a true but sad state of affairs that a cardiologist can’t tell you any more about how to improve the health of your heart than the average person you meet on the street. They know virtually nothing about it.
They know how to use drugs. But the drugs are not health-enhancing. In fact, there is no category of cardiac drugs that I don’t disagree with. One by one, I ruled all the drugs out.
For example, if you are getting treatment for high blood pressure, you might be on beta blockers. But think of what cardiologists are doing there.
They’re now giving you a drug that blocks the regulation of your heart, down regulates your capacity to get your heart rate up, and suppresses your heart’s natural ionotropic capacity to beat more firmly.
Initially, beta blockers sort of work to artificially bring down your blood pressure, and your heart will calm down, but then you can never get the benefit of exercise.
So over time, beta blockers will turn your heart into a fat, lazy, incompetent water balloon. You already had high blood pressure to deal with. Now you have a gross deconditioning of your heart.
But there are other steps you can take to lower your blood pressure naturally. And when you do, your chances of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke go back to normal. It’s as if you never had high blood pressure in the first place.
Step 1 — Use Nature’s Own Blood Pressure “Prescription.” I’m talking about magnesium, your body’s natural blood vessel relaxer. I’ve used it in my practice with great results.
It helps balance potassium, sodium, and calcium, which all affect blood pressure. There are many studies that show the more magnesium you get, the lower your blood pressure will be.
Why take a drug when this overlooked mineral can have the same effect?
New research even finds that if you get enough magnesium, you have a lower risk of dying from any cause. The study followed 4,203 people over 10 years and found that the rate of death from all causes was 10 times higher for people getting the least magnesium.1 And the rate of death from heart problems was more than 50 percent higher for those with low magnesium.
You can get more magnesium by eating nuts, seeds, dairy products, and dark-green leafy vegetables. But modern farming practices have depleted much of the mineral content in our soil, so there’s not much magnesium in vegetables anymore.
Magnesium used to be in your drinking water, but water with high mineral content — hard water — fell out of favor because most people don’t like the taste.
If you can’t get enough magnesium through food, you can take a supplement. I recommend 600–1,000 mg a day. Take it with vitamin B6. It will increase the amount of magnesium that accumulates in your cells.
Step 2 — Toss the Processed Salt. Salt itself isn’t bad. We naturally crave salty foods. In fact, when your blood is at its healthiest, it’s slightly salty.
Unfortunately, the salt you find in most foods today isn’t even close to what Mother Nature intended. It’s bleached and refined. When they’re done making it into the white stuff that goes into packaged foods and your salt shaker, it’s like Franken-salt, with residual chemicals from the processing.
Try to avoid the foods that have the most processed salt: bottled salad dressing, cured meats (beef jerky, salami), processed cheese, salt-covered snack foods, and pickled foods (like olives and dill pickles).
Instead, look for sea salt. It’s unrefined and has all the minerals and cofactors nature meant salt to have, like potassium and magnesium.
[Ed. note: Earlier this year, after learning the right kind of salt is actually good for you, we discovered a source of 100 percent all-natural, unrefined, handmade, organically harvested sea salt. And it’s delicious! In fact, it’s all we use.
Unfortunately, it’s been out of stock for two months… however, our affiliate partner just got some back in stock, but in very limited quantities. Click here to get all the details.]
To your good health,
Al Sears, MD
Live well,
Natalie Moore
Managing editor, Living Well Daily
P.S. Thanks for sending in your supplement questions, but I still need a few more. So, keep em’ coming, please! Direct any questions to nmoore@lfb.org
Sources
[2] Reffelmann T, Ittermann T, Dörr M, Völzke H, Reinthaler M, Petersmann A, Felix SB. “Low serum magnesium concentrations predict cardiovascular and all-cause mortality.” Atherosclerosis. 2011 Jun 12. Epub ahead of print.
This information is provided by Al Sears, MD, Power For Healthy Living. For more information or to sign up for a free subscription to the Doctor’s House Call e-letter, please visit www.alsearsmd.com.
