Dear Healthy Friend,

Angioplasty is a procedure used to open narrowed or blocked blood vessels that supply blood to the heart. It’s costly, it’s painful and, like all surgeries, it comes with its own set of risks. But what if you could boost your body with supplements and vitamins instead of expensive, high-risk surgery?

Jenny Thompson shares the cocktail of substances she'd like to see researched to prevent angioplasty...

In the name of good health,

Taryn Strugnell
Managing Editor of Nutrition & Healing

P.S. It's important to ensure you're taking a complete multivitamin, especially since most of our food today is seriously lacking in nutrients. Dr Wright tells us how to make sure we're picking the right one!

Alternative action to angioplasty
Jenny Thompson
Director of  Health Sciences Institute

If your doctor says you need balloon angioplasty to open narrowed blood vessels, you've got to ask: "Are you sure, Doc?"

Really. Dig in and make him sell it to you. Because the argument against angioplasty has taken a dramatic turn in recent months.

In June 2009, the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) published a study that followed nearly 2,400 heart disease patients with type II diabetes. Half the subjects received drug therapy (statins, aspirin, beta- blockers, etc.), while half-received drug therapy and angioplasty.

Results: After five years, researchers found no significant difference in rates of death, heart attack or other major events. And this research confirmed similar results of a 2007 Department of Veterans Affairs study.

Then just last month, the journal Circulation followed up with some cold, hard financial logic to the angioplasty issue.

Again, researchers looked at data compiled in the June NEJM study. Lead researcher Dr. Mark Hlatky, had the following compelling comment to make: "'For patients with relatively mild symptoms of heart disease, angioplasty is clearly more expensive and it's clearly not more beneficial."

Over four years, an average of R83 000 per patient was saved by passing on angioplasty. (Some angioplasty procedures cost upwards of R100 000.)

And if you happened to be bored and browsing the September 2009 issue of Journal of Vascular Surgery you might have seen another revealing angioplasty trial. In this one, researchers found that narrowing of blood vessels in and around the kidneys is generally over-treated with angioplasty and stenting.

Now you might be thinking you'd be willing to get the angioplasty if it meant you wouldn't have to take the drugs.

Good thinking. But your doctor will still recommend the drugs unless you have a naturopathic doctor.

Which brings us to this request I'd like to make to Dr. Hlatky: Give us one more study. But this time replace the drugs with supplements. And no messing around with weak doses and inferior forms!

We can start with vitamin D. And please, make it vitamin D3 in doses of at least a couple of grams per day.

Then add to the mix a top quality niacin supplement to replace the statin drug. And let's include a good B complex, because niacin is a B vitamin and the Bs work best when taken together.

Next add some fish oil with high potency omega-3 fatty acids. And we'll also want a mixed-tocopherol vitamin E.

What else? Some Coenzyme Q10 in a form that enhances absorption. And for good measure, let's check with an experienced herbalist who can supply a hawthorn extract with guaranteed potency.

That'll do for starters.

Give us a fair trial of those supplements and I'll bet we can tell most heart patients to avoid angioplasty and to forget about that drug mix that virtually guarantees adverse effects - possibly save some lives too!

For more on fighting heart disease - click here

Finding the right multivitamin

Q: Looking at the rows and rows of multivitamins at pharmacies and shops, I just end up with a headache. I don't even know where to start looking! How can I find the best one?

Dr Wright: The idea of one supplement that will do everything for us and give us all the nutrients we require is certainly an appealing one. But it's important to keep in mind that we're all individuals with our own particular needs. So a proper supplementation programme needs to be tailored to you individually and the best way to do that is to consult with a doctor who is skilled in natural medicine.

Your doctor can guide you through the myriad of choices, ensuring that you don't waste your money or efforts on supplements that may be harmful to you or that your body doesn't need.

Once you have this advice, be sure to check the labels of any supplement you are buying carefully for information about the amounts of vitamins and minerals in a particular product. Don't be in a rush when purchasing. It may take a few moments of careful reading to get a handle on all the different offerings out there. But armed with your doctor's suggestions and some patience, your selection should be a perfect fit.