Heart attacks are the number #1 killer worldwide. Your cardiologist knows that. Unfortunately, the cardiologist only has statin drugs and aspirin in the toolbox for prevention. And those drugs are not effective.
You deserve better.
The CDC reports that 60% of Americans have at least one chronic disease. Another 40% of Americans have two or more chronic conditions. The number one chronic disease today? Heart disease.
The standard medical model is no longer working. Some say it never did. America is one of the sickest nations. It’s time to ask yourself if you are getting the best medical care possible.
Conventional medicine aims to put you on just about every pharmaceutical they can make money off of and the result is an increased risk for other illnesses. They only attempt to mask symptoms. In order to get better, your cardiologist needs to address stress, nutrition, and lifestyle as these three factors are at the root of disease. A good doctor will try to help you lower your risk of illness by making adjustments to diet, sleep, physical activity and stress levels.
Food is medicine and it should be at the center of your medical care. Yet, the complete opposite is true in conventional medicine. The majority of calories people get come from the Standard American Diet (rich in processed foods and pesticides and depleted of nutrients). And doctors are not discussing this, either because they don’t care or they are not trained to discuss. It is important that you seek out a cardiologist who addresses your nutrition. Most chronic diseases, like heart disease, can be treated and/or prevented through diet.
Most cardiologists are incentivized to see more patients and spend as little time with you as they can. They are driven by patient volume. There is a financial pressure on doctors to see more and more patients each day. As a result, they usually spend 10-15 minutes with a patient. With these short appointment times, there is no way to get to the patients’ needs and actually make a change in 10 minutes. The goal for most conventional cardiologists is to see more patients each day. They simply do not have the time to counsel patients on diet and lifestyle strategies to actually get healthier (and off of medications).
Most conventional doctors will just match a pill to your symptoms without any desire to get to the root cause of your health problems. Big Pharma has perverse incentives to push doctors to push pills and procedures. Life expectancy is declining rapidly in the U.S. More Americans than ever have a chronic disease. In other words, conventional health care is not only not working, it is killing us, too. Are your blood pressure meds getting to the root of your problem and healing you? Or are they simply covering up a symptom and masking it? Conventional medicine wasn’t designed to address the root cause of your chronic disease.
Most conventional cardiovascular lab testing is outdated. There, we said it. Don’t believe us? Read more here in The Paleo Cardiologist book. There’s an entire chapter in the book dedicated to the lab testing your cardiologist should be ordering. Effective lab testing can no longer be “black and white”. It’s no longer sufficient to look at total cholesterol, LDL and HDL levels as a means to analyze cardiovascular risk. It is 2019 and it’s time for advanced personalized cardiac testing. We want to look at your particle size and particle number of cholesterol markers. We want to analyze levels of Apo A and Apo B. We want to evaluate what your inflammatory and immune cardiac markers are. If your cardiologist isn’t testing for these things, it’s time to find one who does. You should be looking at hundreds of markers (including intracellular micronutrient levels) regularly to track health and prevent disease in advance.
Conventional cardiac medicine doesn’t cure health problems. It only treats symptoms. It is not concerned with the big picture (conventional doctors don’t have time for that). Instead, they want to hear your symptoms, give the set of symptoms a label, write you a prescription and send you out the door. It’s a fact that 74% of doctor visits involve a prescription for a drug. Additionally, doctors shouldn’t just be looking at your most recent health history. Your health history goes back to before you were born. Doctors need to look at your health story (the past, the current and the future) to get to the true root cause of your health issues.
Functional medicine teaches you to take your power back and become responsible for your own health. Conversely, in conventional medicine, the power is in your doctor’s hand (i.e. which pill will they prescribe, what will your disease outlook be). True health is about taking control of your own outcomes. You need to become responsible for your own diet and lifestyle in order to make long-lasting, sustainable health changes.
The things that will change your health significantly are simple. Get adequate sunshine each day. Lower your stress. Move your body more. Get quality sleep. Drink pure water. Eat an organic, Paleo diet. All of these factors will have the most profound impact in reversing or preventing chronic illness such as heart disease. While conventional medicine asks “what pill can I use for this symptom?”, integrative medicine asks “what can I do to restore cellular function?”. Focusing on personalized health care allows for treatment of the individual based on key diet and lifestyle changes they need.
Evidence-based nutrition and lifestyle plans are the foundation for wellness. Using key interventions like supplements, diet, physical activity, and meditation have proven treatment benefits. Treating a chronic disease should be a multifactorial approach. Integrative doctors focus on prescribing these things. A natural treatment plan is essential to healing the body and getting well. Supplements have little to no side effects; medications have a laundry list of potential harmful effects. You choose. The answer is to follow nature. Support the body’s natural healing mechanisms. It’s that simple.
It’s up to you to take charge of your health and make a change for the better. The ultimate goal is for you to live a healthier, happier and longer life. We, as a society, need to change the definition of health care today. Health care should be personalized, results-driven, evidence-based and advanced root cause medicine. There needs to be a revolution in health care. Chronic disease rates continue to sky rocket and we simply can’t afford to keep doing the same thing over and over. The “one doctor treats symptoms with pills and procedures” paradigm needs to end. This isn’t getting anyone healthier it is making them sicker. Integrative medicine is the solution. It allows for adequate time to evaluate assess a patient’s diet, lifestyle and behaviors (all of which are key players in disease development and the solution to wellness). This is the future of medicine and the reinvention of true health care.
If you’re frustrated with your current cardiologist, interested in becoming a new patient or need another opinion, click here for more information. Come out to Arizona or let’s meet online (or by phone).
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