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According to a recent article in the New York Times, each year more than half a million Americans get a metal mesh tube called a stent inserted into a clogged artery to push back arterial plaque, allowing for better blood flow. A stent can save your life during a heart attack, but it will not prevent a future attack. Yet nine out of ten patients who choose to have stents inserted believe that they do. And, despite the evidence, many cardiologists share this mistaken belief and recommend stents for patients with stable heart disease.

In an editorial written for the American Heart Association journal, Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, Michael B. Rothberg, MD, MPH, of the Cleveland Clinic, explains that the belief that stents prevent heart attacks is based on an outmoded picture of coronary artery disease as the slow build-up of arterial plaque until it comes to completely block an artery. “Although the image of coronary arteries as kitchen pipes clogged with fat is simple, familiar and evocative” he says, “it is also wrong.”

More recent evidence has shown first that small blood vessels grow around blocked arteries to supply alternative routes for blood flow, and second that clots that initiate heart attacks don’t usually occur where there is a large accumulation of plaque. So Rothberg warns that neither stents nor bypass surgeries are very effective at preventing heart attacks.

According to Rothberg, heart disease is essentially caused by inflammation. If you want to reverse it and prevent heart attacks, he advises the kinds of lifestyle changes we suggest : an anti-inflammatory diet, eating the right kinds of fats, reducing toxins, appropriate exercise and stress reduction. Although he recommends taking anti-inflammatory medications, we believe there is almost always an effective natural alternative to toxic drugs. When it comes to heart disease, antioxidants including vitamin E and CoQ10 are particularly important; also the omega 3 fats (flaxseed and fish oils), magnesium, and the flavonoids curcumin and quercetin. 

It’s truly unfortunate that many heart patients are lulled into a false sense of security by a stent, believing that their “plumbing has been cleaned out,” while all the while inflammation, the true cause of heart disease, rages on!