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Touch for Health
Education Newsletter
New Studies Cast Doubt on Artery-Opening Operations
May 23, 2004
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New Studies
Cast Doubt on Artery-Opening Operations
-- Give up Smoking, eat less, exercise more, handle stress better
-- Sludge build up Not the Problem
-- Stents and Surgery may give immediate relief, but
-- A whole person approach is needed
-- Some Drs. Just can't give up the old model
-- You sell yourself because of demand, not science
-- It is the medical model culture
Greetings!
"The new
and emerging understanding of how heart attacks occur indicates that
increasingly popular aggressive treatments may be doing little or nothing
to prevent them." Was the opening sentence in the March 21, 2004
New York Times article 'New Studies Cast Doubt on Artery-Opening Operations'
by GINA KOLATA. This reminded me of the studies the Ken Pellitier, Phd
of Stanford Medical School did years ago indicating changes in life
style were better in preventing future heart attacks than any interventions
involving drugs or surgery. The costs were much less over the year following
the diagnosis and the people were much happier. These patients made
changes that they could control and their lives worked better overall.
Doing things like changing
their food styles, exercise styles, emotional conflict styles, all of
which required changing the whole person. Kolata goes on to say "But
the new model of heart disease shows that the vast majority of heart
attacks do not originate with obstructions that narrow arteries.
Give up Smoking, eat
less, exercise more, handle stress better
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"Instead, recent and continuing studies show that a more powerful
way to prevent heart attacks in patients at high risk is to adhere rigorously
to what can seem like boring old advice - giving up smoking, for example"
and as Pellitier and many others have pointed out that heart disease
is not an organ specific problem but a problem of the whole person.
She goes on "Heart experts
say they understand why the disconnect occurred: they, too, at first
found it hard to believe what research was telling them. For years,
they were wedded to the wrong model of heart disease."Here is that
word "model" that I am so fond of saying that indicates that
we are only partially looking a the Soul, the whole person, when we
suggest any intervention. This is true simply because there are too
many factors to consider, that is why it is so important to be sure
to use the least dangerous model that could give satisfactory results.
Sludge build up Not
the Problem
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kolata goes on with a quote from Dr. David Waters, a cardiologist at
the University of California at San Francisco "There has been a
culture in cardiology that the narrowings were the problem and that
if you fix them the patient does better," She then explains "The
old idea was this: Coronary disease is akin to sludge building up in
a pipe. Plaque accumulates slowly, over decades, and once it is there
it is pretty much there for good. Every year, the narrowing grows more
severe until one day no blood can get through and the patient has a
heart attack. Bypass surgery or angioplasty - opening arteries by pushing
plaque back with a tiny balloon and then, often, holding it there with
a stent - can open up a narrowed artery before it closes completely.
And so, it was assumed, heart attacks could be averted. This model just
isn't true
"But, researchers say, most heart attacks do not occur because
an artery is narrowed by plaque. Instead, they say, heart attacks occur
when an area of plaque bursts, a clot forms over the area and blood
flow is abruptly blocked. In 75 to 80 percent of cases, the plaque that
erupts was not obstructing an artery and would not be stented or bypassed.
The dangerous plaque is soft and fragile, produces no symptoms and would
not be seen as an obstruction to blood flow
Stents and Surgery may give immediate
relief, but...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The artery-opening methods, like bypass surgery and stents, the
widely used wire cages that hold plaque against an artery wall, can
alleviate crushing chest pain. Stents can also rescue someone in the
midst of a heart attack by destroying an obstruction and holding the
closed artery open." The problem today is not with the emergency
treatment to save lives, but in the definition of life saving emergency.
Could indigestion, over fatigue, muscle strain, or emotional upset be
the cause of the chest pain and not be a call for emergency surgical
treatment? Could changing the life style and handling the symptoms by
looking at the whole person be equally or more effective that the surgical
procedure?
"That is why, heart experts
say, so many heart attacks are unexpected - a person will be out jogging
one day, feeling fine, and struck with a heart attack the next. If a
narrowed artery were the culprit, exercise would have caused severe
chest pain.
A whole person approach
is needed
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"Heart patients may have hundreds of vulnerable plaques, so preventing
heart attacks means going after all their arteries, not one narrowed
section, by attacking the disease itself."So if we need is to look
at the whole person, which would be in the TFHK model, The best way
is to work at getting people to become aware of the person's subtle
energies by balancing them after making an assessment of the meridian
imbalances. This might be a very good prevention of heart attacks. Why
would this be so hard for doctors to accept? Kotala says "Yet,
researchers say, old notions persist.
"There is just this embedded
belief that fixing an artery is a good thing," said Dr. Eric Topol,
an interventional cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. In particular,
Dr. Topol said, "more and more people with no symptoms are now
getting stents. According to an analysis by Merrill Lynch, based on
sales figures, there will be more than a million stent operations this
year, nearly double the number performed five years ago." Isn't
this dangerous to our world economy and our desires that we want to
have more fully productive lives? Here are experts that are saying these
methods don't work, are dangerous and yet more and more are being prescribed
at great expense materially and emotionally. These surgeries, as a life
saving measures persist even in people that have no medical need for
them but are done based on an outmoded model.
Some Drs. Just can't
give up the old model
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Kotala continues "Some doctors still adhere to the old model. Others
say that they know it no longer holds but that they sometimes end up
opening blocked arteries anyway, even when patients have no symptoms."
Now she explains by quoting "One reason for the enthusiastic opening
of blocked arteries is that it feels like the right thing to do.",
another specialist said. "I think it is ingrained in the American
psyche that the worth of medical care is directly related to how aggressive
it is," he said. "Americans want a full-court press."
A doctor who recognized this
problem said that they "tried to explain the evidence to patients,
to little avail. "You end up reaching a level of frustration,"
he said. "I think they have talked to someone along the line who
convinced them that this procedure will save their life. They are told
if you don't have it done you are, quote, a walking time bomb."
The problem is that there is no evidence to show that they are a walking
time bomb. What is persisting is the old model that we are machines
that have parts that wear out at different rates throughout the whole
person and you can fix one part that has prematurely gone bad. We need
to help people understand that they are energy bodies and that when
they are out of balance different symptoms occur which indicate a need
to look at ourselves as whole Souls and make changes in our entire life
styles.
You sell yourself because
of demand, not science
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. David Hillis, an interventional cardiologist at the University of
Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, explained: "If you're
an invasive cardiologist and Joe Smith, the local internist, is sending
you patients, and if you tell them they don't need the procedure, pretty
soon Joe Smith doesn't send patients anymore. Sometimes you can talk
yourself into doing it even though in your heart of hearts you don't
think it's right." One reason for the enthusiastic opening of blocked
arteries is that it feels like the right thing to do, Dr. Hillis said.
It is the medical model culture
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"There has been a culture in cardiology that the narrowings were
the problem and that if you fix them the patient does better,"
said Dr. David Waters, a cardiologist at the University of California
at San Francisco. The problem facing all of us is how do we get people
to realize that almost everything has multifactorial causes. One suggestion
is for more people to become aware of the meridian energy system and
how muscles related to these areas of function can help change the person
when they have an awareness of the various ways they can easily change
and feel better in the process. I hope all of you reading this will
get your TFHK balances and offer these safe, efficient, and effective
protocols to others.
Contact Information
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email: thie@touch4health.com
voice: 310 589 5269
web: http://www.touch4health.com
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