In 1999 I had an
angioplasty for plaque in my descending aorta (in England). It worked great. My blood pressure fell from 220/150 to 120/80 afterward even though I still had calcified plaque in my left femoral artery. The surgeon wanted to do femoral bypass for that and I refused. In 2005 I had a vascular surgeon do an
angiogram and heart catheterization on me. No coronary plaque was found but new plaque was in my right femoral artery. He didn't even try to do an
angioplasty. The surgeon wanted to do an aortobifemoal bypass on me. BIG MISTAKE on my part on not asking him to try an
angioplasty on the right femoral artery when he did the
angiogram. Obviously he wanted to do this horredous very invasive
surgery which was his specialty. I refused his suggestion and went back to good nutrition, upper body
exercise, aggressive statin usage, omega-3 fish oils, pomegranate juice and coenzyme Q10 with other vitamins. I was forced into retirement from medical
research because of atherosclerosis so I'm keeping up to date. All the
research evidence over the last few years shows that plaque progression can be stopped by lowering LDL-cholesterol below 70 mg/dL and the risk of heart attack and stroke is minimal by lowering C-reactive protein below 0.1 mg/dL. Both these can be achieved with high dose statins and omega-3 fish oils. The recently finished multi-center ASTEROID clinical studies showed that when LDL-cholesterol was lowered below 60 mg/dL two thirds of patients with coronary plaque experienced regression of plaque. In a recent webcast Dr. Steven Nissen, the leading expert who is at the Cleveland Clinic, said that in patients with the lowest levels of LDL-cholesterol achieved regression was the fastest and that some patients who achieved levels in the teens and below did not have serious side effects. It's a known fact that rare genetically fortunate individuals with LDL-cholesterol levels in the twenties never get atherosclerosis. Dr. Nissen is intending investigating even lower level LDL-cholesterol objectives. I write about these things in my domain on web page
http://www.erinpharm.org/erinpharm... I for one intend to stay well away from the surgeons knife and follow the
research results. I'm not going to wait for another decade of clinical trials to validate beyond doubt to the satisfaction of the FDA and AMA. I'm convinced bypass and stenting
surgery should be only for emergency situations and that aggressive treament with statins and omega-3 fish oils with lifestyle changes should be the first option. So yeh, go for the
angioplasty. It works. But
stay away from the surgeons knife until going the medical/lifestyle change first. I'm still
walking and gardening seven years later, no sign of angina, no heart attack, not even a TIA. I still have a long way to go I know but I'm slowly improving and I'm heading lower to the twenties for my LDL-cholesterol. I smoked several packs of cigarettes a day until March when
Chantix helped me give it up. (Foolish I know and it really hindered my progress but I was terribly addicted). Onward and forward. I've avoided the surgeon's knife for seven years - for after all that is irreversible and the beginning of a downward trend leading to more
surgery in later years. I didn't want that. I want to live a long time, maybe even recover, maybe even return to work. DeBakey has just recovered from an aortic aneurysm and is back at work and he is in his nineties. May we all follow his example.
