Alternative medicine is more than diet pills, low fat recipes or exercise equipment. Low cholesterol diet food is better than a doctor’s prescription medicine for diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and obesity; it helps prevent breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer and skin cancer. "Ask your doctor" about lifestyle, not drugs. They have made medical care the #3 cause of death) 

Summary: The treatment of choice for cardiovascular and other degenerative disease is diet and aerobic exercise. This is a key to reducing our need of drug medication that has adverse side effects. Foods affect most medical conditions--

Allergies
Anemia
Angina
Arthritis
Asthma
Atherosclerosis
Autoimmune disease 
These examples beginning with "A" suggest many other conditions are diet-related, including colds and flu, colitis, high cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, type II diabetes, diverticulosis, gallstones, gastritis, gout, hemorrhoids, hiatal hernia, obesity, osteoporosis and strokes. Natural remedies for colds, flu, fever, gastritis, ulcers, anxiety and depression are also discussed.

The #1 cause of death, cardiovascular disease is diet and the best diet for heart is also best for hypertension, stroke, diabetes. Pritikin showed these diseases were reversible in the mid-70’s but got no support from the media or medical profession until the US News & World Report cover story, 8-6-90 featured Dr. Dean Ornish of California. The article listed books that support the reversibility of atherosclerosis on a diet low in fat, salt, sugar and cholesterol while avoiding alcohol, tobacco and caffeine.

The short-term benefit  is not from arteries unclogging  from cholesterol and calcification, but from the low-fat diet that makes the blood less sticky. Pritikin cited medical research showing how red blood cells get sticky and stack up like coins and do not absorb or release their oxygen. A low-fat diet eliminates this Rouleaux formation and enables normal blood flow through capillaries.

The long-term benefit includes reduction of cholesterol and calcium deposits. Pritikin, who had been diagnosed as having clogged arteries, was found on autopsy to have clean arteries many years later.

A classic example is Salvatore Frascinella, a 65 year-old executive whose three cardiologists felt he was too risky for heart bypass surgery so they had him taking a dozen pills a day and he was getting worse with severe chest pain while walking. But on a low fat, low cholesterol diet, he got off his prescriptions and began walking, even in the presence of mild chest pain. About a month later he was walking long distances, including steep hills, and he started playing tennis again.

Pritikin
When I visited Pritikin's program before he moved to Santa Monica, he had airline pilots participating. When a pilot loses his license because of high blood pressure or needing to take insulin, his insurance company pays his salary. But the Aviation Insurance Agency sent pilots to Pritikin and in a month, were off their drugs and insulin and returned to flying [so the insurance company no longer paid his salary.]

"The return of many pilots to flying saved my company hundreds of thousands of dollars. Equally important, it establishes that in motivated people, nutritional therapy is more effective than the best conventional care in dealing with many degenerative diseases." Richard Harper, M.D. He wrote one of two forewords in "The Pritikin Program for Diet and Exercise."

The other foreword was written by Dr. Burkitt, the man who discovered the importance of fiber in the diet.  Pritikin's book was on the New York Times best seller list for a long time. It is available in most bookstores [paperback] for ~$5.95. It cites a lot of medical evidence for its rationale. Some of its recipes are too spicy but in general, it covers the positives and negatives of lifestyle very well. 
 
Low Fat Tips
The American diet has a higher fat content that almost any other country in the world. It has come down from 45% of our calories in fat, but it is still high. We wouldn't think of eating 12-14 ears of corn at a meal, but that's what it takes to make a tablespoon of corn oil that goes into one serving of salad dressing! A lettuce and tomato salad may be only 20 calories, but add the mayonnaise and it's 120. Learning to eat low fat can be challenging, but try some cottage cheese on the salad, or beans, or brewers yeast [great on popcorn] or lemon juice--or plain! These same ideas can apply to potatoes or other foods.

In the mid-70s Pritikin spoke to cardiologists at their national meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Anaheim. Reporting on 200  hypertension patients after one month at his center on low salt, low fat, 85% were off their medication and had normal blood pressure! In a smaller study with 40 type-II diabetics, 12 of 17 were off their insulin, 2 cut their dose in half, and 23 patients on oral hypoglycemics [pills for diabetes] no longer needed them. Medical World News, 9/81

65 patients with triple vessel heart disease were scheduled for bypass but went to the Longevity Center instead. Three years later, 90% did not have surgery but only one had died from heart disease. Medical Tribune, 10-22-80. These dates seem ancient, but it shows how long good information has been around but mainstream media focus on the dramatic surgeries and pharmaceutical disasters like Vioxx when we should be learning a better way.

Eat Right, add supplements if needed
From a perspective of alternative medicine, there are additional measures that are often recommended and may help the cardiovascular system. But the role of micronutrients [vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, enzymes, etc.] is complex. The bottom line is a need to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables [known by nutritionists as the protective foods] and whole grains, with less of meat, high-fat dairy, sugar and refined, packaged foods, including the free use of oils.

As a teenager, I enjoyed frying my own hamburgers and eggs, but I have learned there is still life after cholesterol! I've lived for 50 years without the high cholesterol foods except occasional egg or dairy products. Having done so without any effort at vitamin supplementation, my last cholesterol was 145 and my HDL was 81, and I can climb a 17 story apartment building in 100 seconds..

Alternative cardiovascular medicine 
The following is unnecessary, but for those who want information on herbs or supplements, Alternative Medicine suggests Vitamin B-6 for its role in changing harmful homocysteine from meat or dairy sources. Vitamin B-12, Folic Acid  lower homocysteine. [Folic Acid is named for its source, foliage.]  Vitamin E, beta carotene and coenzyme Q10 prevent the oxidation of cholesterol and blood clot formation. Vit E [alpha tocopherol] helps lower blood and inhibit platelet aggregation [blood clotting] that occurs when red meat is eaten.

Hawthorn berrry is an herb that improves the circulation to the heart by dilating the blood vessels and relieving the spasm of arterial walls. Garlic has a good reputation for lowering blood pressure. CoQ10 may help congestive heart failure and some types of arrythmia. Exercise tones the vagus nerve which exerts a slowing, beneficial effect on the heart. For rapid heart beat with palpitation, an ice bag over the heart may be helpful.
 
Chelation therapy has mounting evidence to support it as an alternative to bypass surgery. EDTA is a chelating agent that binds with calcium in atherosclerosis to make the arteries less calcified and more expansive. It is given as a series of intravenous infusions two or three times per week for two or three months. In one study every patient with cardiovascular disease showed "measurable improvement midway through the course of treatment." The diet and exercise program promoted by Pritikin or Ornish [US News, 8-6-90] will work for most and can be considered as a slow form of chelation, but without the expense or risk.

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Other Natural Remedies
People take drugs for symptoms that need to be understood.

Pain. Why do we have it? If due to an injury, pain is saying "tissue damage, don’t stress me. Tape my cut, sprain or protect my bruise"—use ice to get swelling down, elevate the injured part, stay off, use crutches. Taking pain pills for acute injury so one can get up and around "adds insult to injury" and will prolong the time needed to be ok.

Arthritis. Most of it is osteoarthritis which means it comes from wear and tear. Weight loss would help the knees, hips, etc. If one can detect the onset and reverse the process early, it is easier than if arthritis has been going on for years.

Conditions that have come on us gradually will go away slowly if we correct the underlying problem. Moist compresses, heating pads,ice bags, alternate hot and cold soaks are helpful and may be tried. Tylenol is most recommended because it doesn’t bother the stomach like aspirin or Advil [ibuprofen], so they should be taken after meals.

Antacids: Tums, Rolaids, Maalox, Mylanta, Pepcid, Tagamet, Zantac should not be needed if one avoids caffeine, aspirin, arthritis medicine, greasy, fried or spicy foods. It takes 5-6 hours for a stomach to digest a normal meal, empty and for the enzyme granules in the cytoplasm to be restored to optimal readiness for the next meal. High fat foods prolong digestion. A heavy evening meal makes work for the stomach at bedtime when it needs rest. Chewing food well reduces particle size and enhances digestion.

Antibiotics: Abused by patients who expect them for the common cold or flu and by physicians who comply with patient expectations. There is no evidence that antibiotics kill viruses. This is where natural remedies can help the body’s own healing mechanisms:

Cold or Flu:
Fever helps the immune system to work more efficiently. Many viruses are killed at 102-103, especially if one fasts. In any case, eat lightly and avoid sugar. [Sugar lowers the ability of the white blood cells to engulf the germs.] Brain damage occurs at a fever of 107-108. Giving fluids and tepid baths are all that’s needed for most children unless there has been a seizure problem. This sometime occurs in infants, especially if they get dehydrated or toxic. Let the child play in a tepid bath and drink water or diluted juice.

Sore throat. If crimson red, pus or fever over 102, it could be strep which penicillin cures. Otherwise 90% of sore throats are viral and no antibiotic has proven effective. Charcoal tablets adsorb virus particles on the surface and can soothe a sore throat, also helping reduce toxicity in the system. This overlooked remedy is the most helpful item to have in your medicine cabinet. It is excellent also for insect/food poisoning, diarrhea, or gas. People don't know about it because, as a natural product, it can't be patented and so ther is no commercial incentive to promote it. Plain or activated charcoal [available in some drug or health food stores] has no bad side effects. Try them before calling the doctor.

Sinus infection comes with upper respiratory infection and the mistaken idea of blowing the nose--a guaranteed way to infect sinuses! Sniff to clear the sinuses--they may seem stuffy but sniffing won’t infect them [blowing will]. Cut out dairy products. Milk makes mucus.

Asthma is an allergic disease and dairy products are one of the most common factors when an infant is not nursed. Cow's milk, intended by nature for calves, has animal proteins (antigens) that stimulate antibodies resulting in allergies to dairy products--cheese, ice cream, soups, gravies, chocolate--read the labels. Eggs can also cause mucus to plugs airways. Many asthmatics have no idea that such common foods can cause their wheezing. They should also consider favorite foods they eat often. Peanuts, pork, mold, shellfish are often a problem, but drug companies don't promote this information because then you wouldn't need their product.

Mood Drugs are complex and usually leave much to be desired. Discontinuing them can create trouble if one quits abruptly. Tapering is safe, from four to three pills/day for 1-2 weeks, then two/day, discussing it with your doctor if you need to. Tapering medication is not recommended for mental illness like paranoid schizophrenia [60 Minutes, 6-13-99].

Hormones: Insulin for Type 1 diabetes is usually necessary, but not for adult-onset Type II. Hypothryoidism is overdiagnosed. Female hormones are not usually necessary.  If hormones are not used and salty foods are avoided, the need for medication to get rid of fluid could be avoided by most people.

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