Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States today — causing as many as one in four of all deaths. And this applies equally to every group, whether on the basis of ethnicity, gender or walk of life.

Ironically, or perhaps fortunately, many of the underlying causes of heart disease can be avoided with intervention and treatment. In other words, we know how to solve this problem.

Prevalence of heart disease

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), heart disease is responsible for about 610,000 deaths in the United States every year. That’s one in every four deaths.

According to the American Heart Association, nearly half of the population of the United States has some kind of cardio-vascular disease. The most common type is coronary heart disease, which is caused by the buildup of plaque on the walls of the arteries that supply blood to the heart. This narrows the arteries, reducing the flow of blood and ultimately can lead to a heart attack.

Every year, 735,000 Americans have a heart attack. About a third of these are second or subsequent heart attacks — they happen to people who have already had a heart attack.

Risk factors for heart disease

The key risk factors linked to heart disease are high blood pressure or hypertension, high LDL cholesterol, and smoking. However, the latest data shows that 60 percent of people who have a heart attack have normal levels of cholesterol in their blood. This means that standard cholesterol tests are not useful for predicting who is at risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

Other factors that increase the risk of developing heart disease include:

• overweight and obesity
• diabetes
• poor diet
• lack of exercise or physical activity
• excessive alcohol use.

Heart attack and stroke prevention

At Proactive Wellness Centers, we have developed programs targeting cardiovascular disease.

Advanced Cardiac Evaluation (ACE) begins with advanced testing using True Health Lab’s (TH) advanced testing. This has been proven to provide better information in identifying the presence of cardiovascular disease.

Advanced carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) imaging combined with emerging, scientifically validated biomarkers, uses simple blood tests to identify cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease formations that can lead to heart attacks and strokes.

CIMT is a non-invasive diagnostic tool that uses ultrasound imaging to measure the intima-media, the innermost two layers of the wall of an artery. We use it to measure the thickness of the carotid artery, the big artery in the neck that carries blood to the head. This test allows us to quickly find the presence of atherosclerosis, the narrowing of the artery due to plaque build-up. It’s a major predictor of heart disease and heart attack.

Next, the HeartSmartIMTplus test evaluates the characteristics of plaque build-up. Softer plaque is more likely to break off, which can lead to a blockage and heart attack or stroke.

Once we have identified the presence of risk factors for cardiovascular disease, we can move on to the Advanced Cardiac Treatment (ACT) program to prevent, mitigate and reverse the progress of the disease.

Prevention strategies

There are steps we can all take to help prevent the onset of heart disease.

• Know your risk factors: get the tests to measure inflammation, plaque and other risk factors, as well as your family history of heart disease.
• CIMT: the non-invasive tests that detects the presence of plaque build-up in your arteries, and determine its characteristics as described above.
• Eat a healthy diet high in fresh vegetables and fruits, reduced in sodium and moderate in total caloric content.
• Exercise regularly: at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity every week. This does not have to be extreme. Just 25 minutes of walking each day can be enough.
• Get enough sleep: Recent research has found a link between insufficient sleep and higher risk of heart disease. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society recommend at least seven and a half hours of sleep per night for adults, and more for children and adolescents.
• Maintain a healthy weight. Overweight and obesity are major risk factors for developing heart disease. The previous two steps, a healthy diet and regular exercise, are the two most important components of life-long weight control. Research also finds a link between insufficient sleep and excess weight.
• Get the right vitamin supplements, particularly COQ10. This is an enzyme crucial to energy creation at the cellular level, especially in cardiac or heart tissues. We recommend at least 200 mg daily, and up to 400 mg for patients at higher risk of heart disease.
• Work with your preventative medicine specialist for controlling other risk factors, such as high blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol, genetic factors and other risks.

Find your cholesterol profile

Don’t put your health off any longer. You can get your full cardiac risk profile with an Advanced Cardiac Evaluation — just call us at 703-822-5003, or use our online contact form to set up your appointment.

Or, if you know your status and just want your CIMT score, you can schedule just a CIMT scan and a 30-minute follow-up visit.

Be proactive — take charge of your health today.

You may have heard of antioxidants, and how eating things like berries can absorb free radicals, boosting your health. It sounds good, and who would turn down berries?

What are antioxidants? What are free radicals? What do they do to your body? And how do they affect your health?

Free radicals

At every moment of our lives, our body’s cells are busy converting sugar into energy. This allows us to move, to digest food, to breathe; it allows our hearts to pump blood, our brains to process the input of our senses into a conception of our natural environment — in short, life.

As this happens, the chemical reactions at the cellular level produce, among other things, free radicals. These are chemicals, atoms or molecules that each have a single unpaired valence electron. Chemically, this makes them highly reactive.

While many free radicals are generated by processing food and converting sugar to energy, others can be absorbed from the air we breathe, and some are created by the interaction of sunlight on our skin.

As they move through the bloodstream and other body systems, free radicals interact with other molecules and cells in a process called oxidation. Chemically, oxidation is the same as combustion, burning or rusting.

Free radicals are essential to a number of essential life processes, such as fighting off infection. However, when the body has an imbalance in the amount of free radicals, it can experience a state called oxidative stress.

Research has associated oxidative stress with a range of diseases, including cancer, atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, among many others.

Other symptoms of oxidative stress can range from arthritis pain to eczema and migraines. One sign can be a build-up of lipid peroxides.

Antioxidants to the rescue

Fortunately, we’re not helpless against free radicals. Our bodies also produce chemicals called antioxidants. As their name implies, they tend to produce chemical reactions that work against oxidation.

We can also get antioxidants from food, especially unprocessed fruits and vegetables and other plants. Vitamins C and E are antioxidants. Berries are also high in other antioxidants.

The way forward

Experiencing a range of symptoms with unclear causes can be a sign of oxidative stress and excess lipid peroxides. A simple urine test can measure these markers.

From there, we can perform a blood analysis to identify food sensitivities and allergies that could be associated with health symptoms. An IgG Food Antibody Profile, for instance, tests for sensitivity to 30 common food antigens.

With this information in hand, we can develop a program tailored to your specific metabolic needs. It would include food, nutrition and supplements designed to bring your body into balance.

Contact us about working up your comprehensive metabolic profile and take charge of your health.

One of the most prevalent and least appreciated health concerns today is caused by exposure to mold. A quarter of the U.S. population is sensitive to molds and don’t know it. And a major part of the problem is that mold illness is often mistaken for allergies, Lyme disease, depression, PTSD or even multiple sclerosis, among other illnesses.

Mold illness is not an allergic reaction, however. It’s an acute, chronic and systemic inflammatory response to toxins released by molds. Also known as mold sickness, mold toxicity or biotoxin illness, it can lead to severe complications — even death, in extreme cases. That’s why we take it very seriously at Proactive Wellness Centers, and develop individual plans to treat it.

Let’s take a closer look.

What is mold?

Mold is a type of fungus. Mold can be found everywhere, but it’s usually invisible to the naked eye until it has grown into large colonies of interconnected networks of individual organisms. It often appears as a fuzzy layer on food, or a slimy coating on a surface, in a wide range of colors.

There are thousands of different species in the world. Unlike plants, mold cannot photosynthesize its own food, so it needs some kind of food source as well as moisture to grow. This is why you’ll find mold growing on fruits and vegetables as well as in damp areas. It can also develop in poorly maintained air conditioning and ventilation systems.

Molds reproduce by producing large amounts of spores that spread by wind or in water. Some cling to clothing or fur, as well. When it finds a suitable environment, grows, and reproduces again. However, the spores can survive a long time before finding a favorable habitat, even in extremes of temperature and pressure.

Most molds don’t start to grow or reproduce at temperatures below 39 degrees F, which is why we refrigerate food down to that temperature. However, any mold spores on refrigerated foods will survive in a dormant stage until the temperature goes up again — which is why you may find fuzz on your peaches after you take them out of the refrigerator overnight.

Mold exposure

A few mold species produce chemicals called mycotoxins that can cause health problems or even death in other organisms, including humans.

Symptoms of mold exposure are similar to a wide range of other causes:

• watery, itchy eyes
• chronic cough
• sneezing
• headache
• rash
• difficulty breathing
• fatigue
• Sinus and nasal blockage

This is why mold illness is easily misidentified as an allergic reaction, a cold or other illness.

Black mold is often found in water-damaged buildings — in insulation or wallpaper, for instance — following a flood. It can cause severe lung problems.

Why mold illness happens

The human body cannot process mold. About a quarter of the population has a genetic profile that makes them susceptible to mold illness. This happens because of a series of biochemical changes known as the biotoxin pathway.

Diagnosis

At Proactive Wellness Centers, we use a multi-phase process to confirm mold response and then identify the source of the biotoxin. We use a number of different tests, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to distinguish CIRS (Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome) from Lyme disease, and a range of different genetic and genomics-based tests to personalize the diagnosis and treatment to the individual patient’s body chemistry and needs.

Our Environment Relative Moldiness Index, or ERMI, uses DNA to determine which mold species are present in the patient’s home or workplace. This way, we can find out which biotoxins are affecting the patient, and the extent of the mold problem.

Treatment

Once we have positively identified the presence of mold illness, the type of mold and its source, we can develop a treatment protocol that’s based on the specific health profile and needs of the individual patient.

1. Get you away from biotoxins—The first step is to end the exposure to mold by getting the patient out of the harmful environment.
2. Remove biotoxins from the body—Two binding agents, Welchol and cholestyramine, bind to biotoxins in organs and helps to carry them out of the body.
3. Eradicate infections—About 80% of people with mold illness and other chronic inflammatory conditions have Multiple Antibiotic Resistant Coagulase Negative Staphylococci infection, or MARCoNS. This is an antibiotic-resistant staph infection deep in the nose. Removing it allows the patient to return to health.
4. Clean up the terrain—The road back to health is different for everyone. It can involve evaluating the presence of antigliadin antibodies for non-celiac gluten sensitivity and rebalancing hormones. At every step, we re-test to confirm the body’s balance has been corrected.
5. Clean up the environment—It makes no sense to return to a moldy, infectious environment. With the specific mold identified, we can help advise the patient on where to look for it in the home or workplace, and how to remove it. Black mold, for example, can be very harmful and may be in an out-of-the-way spot, such as a basement or attic, or between walls.
6. Develop a proactive diet—To prevent a return of a mold reaction, we work with each patient to find a diet that avoids foods likely to carry molds and mycotoxin, including corn, rye, wheat, rice, peanuts, cottonseed, oil seeds, some cheeses, black pepper, dried fruits, bread and alcoholic beverages.

Don’t wait

Too many people suffer needlessly without realizing their fatigue, nausea, headaches, rashes or other symptoms are caused by mold illness. Many more will waste time and resources seeing allergists and other doctors who are unable to identify the cause of their symptoms, or worse, treat the wrong thing.

If you have any of the symptoms listed above and have not found the cause, call us at Proactive Wellness Centers to set up an appointment and get back on the road to health.