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Bypass
surgery costs the patient approximately $30,000-$40,000. There are
also risks (3%-9% mortality rate during or after surgery).
Over
50% of bypass patients have recurrences within five years.
Balloon
angioplasty, another precarious, invasive form of treatment, costs
the patient $15,000 - $20,000 and presents high risks of recurrence
within 3 to 5 months.
Conventional
cholesterol-lowering drugs, such as Lovastatin, may cost an average
of $500 - 2,000 per year, per person. These drugs have various
short-term and/or long-range side-effects.
A
chorus of establishment voices, including the American Cancer
Society, the National Cancer Institute and the Senate Committee on
Nutrition and Human Needs, claims that animal fat is linked not only
with heart disease but also with cancers of various types. Yet when
researchers from the University of Maryland analyzed the data they
used to make such claims, they found that vegetable fat consumption
was correlated with cancer and animal fat was not.
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 Atherosclerosis
comes from the Greek words athero (meaning gruel or paste) and sclerosis
(hardness). It involves deposits of fatty substances, cholesterol , cellular
waste products, calcium and other substances in the inner lining of an
artery. This build-up is called plaque.
Atherosclerosis is commonly referred to as
"hardening of the arteries". It involves primarily the large and medium
sized arteries in the body. When looking at industrialized countries,
atherosclerosis is ultimately responsible for more deaths than any other
disease process. Risk factors include diet, lifestyle and genetic factors
that effect blood lipid levels. It is widely accepted that elevated blood
lipids and homocysteine levels of the blood
play a key role in the development of atherosclerosis.
In the early
stages of atherosclerosis, layers of fat begin to deposit on the inside of
the artery walls. These are called fatty streaks. Over time, cholesterol,
fats, calcium and other blood components stick to the fatty streak. The
artery walls become thick, hard and narrow. It becomes progressively more
difficult for blood to flow through the afflicted vessels. Eventually,
complete blockages may occur which prevent oxygen and nutrient-rich blood
from reaching tissues and organs. When this happens within the blood vessels
of the heart (coronary arteries), it is called a heart attack. If it happens
within the blood vessels serving the brain, it is called a
stroke.
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The pale yellow lipid streaks in the aorta are
the earliest
lesion of atherosclerosis. |
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Close-up of a blood clot with red blood cells
caught in the fibrous mesh.
The coronary arteries are susceptible to the build-up of fatty
deposits, a process that can start in childhood but becomes
significant in middle and old age. Age also causes the artery walls to
become thicker and less elastic -- a process known as
arteriosclerosis. The fatty deposits accumulate cells and connective
tissue and consolidate into hard plaques called atheroma, which
partially block the artery. The combination of these two conditions is
termed atherosclerosis, and is the precursor to heart attack and
angina. Once the arteries around the heart narrow, there is a danger
that they will become blocked. A piece of plaque is dislodged, further
obstructing the flow, and a blood clot forms around it. Such a
blockage is known medically as a myocardial infarction: in common
terms, a heart attack. |
 Part 2
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