Belated Update

It's been several months since I last posted here. I guess that's a sign that all is going well. It was, at least with my coronary artery disease and angina.

However, about two weeks ago I began having some strange sensations in my chest during the evening while I am simply relaxing or reading a book. These feelings are not pain, they aren't even discomfort. It's like the feeling a teenage boy gets when he falls in love for the first time and I haven't even dated lately.

I noticed my BP, which usually is around 90/50 during this hour was in the 140's over 80's and my pulse thast is usually in the high 50's or low 60's was in the 70's to low 80s. For some, my BP medications have stopped working as well as they had before.

So, I am going to see a cardiologist later this morning. I will let you know how it turns out.

Beware of Medical Terrorists

More Harm Than Good: What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Common Treatments and Procedures by Alan, M.d. Zelicoff

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Four years ago, I began writing a blog (http://wordworks2001.blogspot.... to warn people about the dangers of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. When I read this book, I didn't have to go any further than page two for validation of my blog's premise. Here is an excerpt:



"...Before the 1960s, there was little a doctor could do about coronary artery disease. Patients with angina -- chest pain from coronary blockages -- were simply put to bedrest for several weeks and given aspirin.



"It must have seemed like medicine had taken a quantum leap ahead when the cardiac bypass technique was perfected in the later part of the decade...



"...The initial successes were splashed across newspaper headlines...



"...The truth was that bypass surgery wasn't the cure-all that the medical establishment made it out to be. Simply put the procedure didn't always work well, and it sometimes resulted in a more rapid demise than if nothing had been done at all!



"...Billions of dollars were spent for a procedure that benefited only a fraction of patients who received it, while arguably harming a great number of others.



"...It would take years for the data to show that people ended up with unchanged or shorter life spans from bypass surgery."



The subtitle of this valuable book is What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Common Treatments and Procedures. That is why I began advoctating that patients take control of their health care and insist that they coordinate and compose their medical treatment plan with their physician. In other words - Take Charge of Your Own Body!



Over the years I have begged and pleaded with people to always ALWAYS get a second opinion from a noninvasive cardiologist before being coerced into allowing a cardio-thoracic surgeon crack your chest open and perform a CABG.



The cardiologist who saved me from the surgeon's knife in 2004 started me on a medication regimen that continues to be effective and serves me well today. His name was Howard Wayne and he called cardiologists who were quick to cut "medical terrorists."



Personally, I call doctors who coerce patients and their family members into a traumatic and unneeded surgical procedure CRIMINALS, and I believe they are guilty of assault with a deadly weapon.


View all my reviews.

Still Kicking

Well, it's been nearly two months since my last entry. I thought I'd better create a posting so you all would know I am still alive and kicking. I am doing very well. I can't remember the last incident of angina pain so I guess the EECP keeps working well after the therapy is over.

I am in the process of preparing to relocate to Sedona, Arizona and hope to have made the move by the end of June at the latest. I will keep you posted on the reason I have moved more than halfway across the country once I get settled in. Those who know me will be in for quite a surprise, I am sure.

Also, look for a change in the subject matter of this blog come the summertime. I started it in 2004 as an effort to alert unsuspecting patients to the unscrupulous practice of putting greed before the patient's welfare. I still believe way too many CABGs are performed in the United States but my life has taken a huge turn that has prompted me to choose one cause over the other. I will still rant about cardiologists who coerce their patient's families into getting unnecessary and expensive surgery. The medical terrorists, as Dr. Howard Wayne referred to them, will get know peace from this quarter.

Take care for now and remember always get a second opinion before allowing them to cut.

Update #4

This entry in my blog contains some references to sexual activity. If you find this embarrassing, please read no further. Also, patients on nitrates are advised to consult their cardiologist before attempting what you read here.

Valentine's Day came and went and my vital signs stayed pretty much the same as they had the day before. The Isordil has not lowered the blood pressure to anywhere the 90/50 level that I maintained it at from 2004 to 2006. I am somewhat disappointed at the progress but will maintain my dosages at 5/10/15mg at 7 am, 1 pm and 7 pm.

On February 15, I did try something different. Anticipating the opportunity for intimate activities with my significant-other, I decided to forgo the 7 pm dose of Isordil and to take 20mg of Levitra at 8:00 pm instead. Now I realize all the furor that occurred when Viagra was blamed for the heart attacks of some men who took it shortly after approval by the FDA. The warning that this drug could cause low blood pressure and heart attacks was added to Viagra, Cialis and Levitra.

The correlation between these drugs and heart attacks is a very tenuous one as far as I am concerned. In my humble layman's opinion, the fact that they also lower the blood pressure can be taken into consideration by the person on nitrates and these drugs can be adjusted accordingly. As I said above, I did not take my 15mg dose of Isordil at 7 pm and popped a 20mg tablet of Levitra at 8 pm.

I felt no untoward side effects. My blood pressure did drop significantly by 10 pm however. It went from 116/62 with a 68 pulse at 6 pm to 88/46 with a pulse of 72 at 10 pm. It should be noted, the 88/46 is about what I want my BP to register at rest all of the time.

My significant-other and I engaged in intimate sexual activities for approximately an hour and then rested. By 1 am, my blood pressure was 112/56 and the pulse was 68. We then went to sleep, waking at approximately 6 am for another session of intimate activities which lasted about a half hour. There were no negative side effects and I felt absolutely no angina during these two sessions.

Given the drop in blood pressure that followed ingestion of the 20mg of Levitra, perhaps this drug should be used to control blood pressure as well as treat erectile dysfunction. I would be interested in hearing from cardiologists what they think about this Levitra experiment I conducted last night. Also, if you are a patient on nitrates, I would be curious if you have had any experience taking one of these drugs.

I am not suggesting that anyone on nitrates attempt to do what I did last night without first seeking the advice of competent medical authority. I did and received two totally different answers. One physician told me to definitely not do it. The other said, "Go ahead and try it, you never follow my advice anyway."

Again, let me reiterate that I believe the correlation between nitrates and drugs that treat erectile dysfunction has not been properly studied. In my opinion, it is like saying since 50% of the men who had a heart attack ate red meat within 24 hours of their cardiac event that the meat was the cause of their heart attack. I will admit the drop in blood pressure could be troublesome, particularly if the person has never maintained their blood pressure at rest that low.

EDTA vs EECP

On another forum that I spend a lot of time on, Cannuck had a comment about EDTA:

Originally Posted by Cannuck Chelation has been used for many decades for a variety of reasons. My wife's Aunt was treated with EDTA for the aftereffects of the concentration camps, as were German citizens from the Ruhr Valley for heavy metal poisoning. I personally know seniors who have done so here for various cardiovascular conditions (most with significant success), and can tell you that the results are VERY short in coming.

I wanted to clarify a comment I previously made regarding EDTA and explain my reason for using EECP as my next step in treating my angina. Here was my reply:

When I said EDTA (Chelation therapy) either oral or IV is controversial, that doesn't mean I disapprove of it. Quite the contrary, I feel it is a choice of treatments that has been effective in treating CAD and some other coronary diseases and despite the fact it hasn't been approved by the FDA for use in such diseases, should be available to patients making informed choices. The reason I am opting for EECP is because I have studied its effects, side effects and contraindications and have talked with patients who have received it. Unlike bypass surgery "victims" and angioplasty (balloon & stent) recipients, none of them had negative reports of their experiences.

Further, angiogenesis and the development of a collateral vessel system to naturally bypass the clogged coronary arteries is a process the body already has started on its own, without the introduction of any drug. Like it or not EDTA is a drug and therefore could have side effects or be harmful. There are reports of unexpected deaths during or following chelation therapy. I have found none associated with EECP. That is not to say EECP recipients haven't died as a result of therapy, there simply are no reports where the therapy caused the deaths, that I have found.

I realize EDTA is a natural enzyme and as such can be sold as a nutritional supplement and I am not opposed to nutritional supplements as long as they are used wisely and in some form of a therapeutic regimen. I personally take the following supplements daily in the strengths and doses indicated:

Organic Flaxseed Oil 1200 mg, three times a day
Borago Seed Oil 1200 mg, three times a day
Omega 3 Fish Oil 1200 mg, three times a day
d-Alpha Tocopheryl (Vitamin E) 400 IU, one time a day
Glucosamine 750 mg Chondroitin 600 mg, twice a day
Folic Acid 800 mcg, one time a day
B-100 Ultra B-Complex, one time a day (Puritan's Pride Brand)
l-Arginine 500mg, one time a day
Super C Complex 1000 mg, three times a day (Puritan's Pride Brand)
Acetyl L-Carnitine 400 mg with Alpha Lipoic Acid 200 mg, one time a day
Natural Selenium 50 mcg, four times a day
Co-Enzyme Q10 100 mg, one time a day
Magnesium Oxide 400 mg, one time daily
Multiple Vitamin, one time daily

I always try to take my supplements with food and I am on a schedule that has me taking something, prescribed medications and supplements every six hours.

Just for the information to folks with CAD and angina, my medical treatment regimen is aimed at not only controlling my blood pressure, but keeping it as low as possible without adverse side effects. I try to keep mine around 90/50 when I am at rest. It usually ranges between 80/40 to 100/50. When my BP is a normal 120/70 or more, during stress or increased physical activity, I often experience symptoms of angina. Here are the prescribed drugs I am on daily

Aspirin 325 mg in the morning
Fosinopril
Metopropolol Tartrate
Isosorbide Mn
Nitroglycerine (as needed)

No dosages are provided because you need to consult a physician before starting this protocol. Suffice it to say, some of the dosages are higher than usually recommended. The Isosorbide and Nitroglycerine were recently added to my regimen and Modiuretic was discontinued due to an abnormal increase in blood tests that indicated my liver was being adversely affected. I also take prescription medication for Parkinson's disease.

I cannot emphasize enough the need to be under the care of a medical doctor who you trust and have a good working relationship with. I encourage anyone who has CAD or angina or has a loved one who does to read my blog from beginning to end and to get a second opinion from a non-invasive cardiologist before being coerced into bypass surgery they do not need.

Seeking a Noninvasive Cardiologist

I am actively seeking a noninvasive cardiologist to treat my stable angina and coronary artery disease using noninvasive diagnostic procedures and treatments. I do not want any tests that require the insertion of any tubes or catheters inside my body. I will not consider any invasive treatments such as coronary angioplasty, the insertion of stents, or coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, until and unless noninvasive medical treatments and procedures have been used and proven unsuccessful.

If you have not read my blog from the beginning, you may not understand why I am so adamant about this. Let me briefly bring you up to date and encourage you to read my entire blog.

In April 2004, I was diagnosed with coronary artery disease (CAD) which I was told was the cause of the angina I had been experiencing for about six months. The interventionalist cardiologist my family doctor sent me to, tried to coerce me into an immediate quintuple CABG, despite the fact, that as he put it, my heart was "in great shape." He wouldn't tell me how my heart could bee in great shape when the arteries that were providing it oxygen were 85 to 100 percent blocked.

He did try to schedule me for the quintuple CABG on Thursday, two days later. When I told him I wanted a second opinion, he told me I was a "walking time bomb," and that I could "have a heart attack, stroke, or even die within three months." I replied that I had been experiencing angina for six months and would take the risk.

I'm glad I did. I sought out the opinion of Dr. Howard Wayne of the Noninvasive Heart Clinic in San Diego. To make long story short, he evaluated me and started me on medical treatment I remain on until this day, three years and four months later.

Unfortunately, in November 2006, the angina returned while I was running to make a connection at Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris. I contacted Dr. Wayne's clinic and sadly learned he had passed away three weeks earlier. (Lest anyone assume he was the victim of heart disease, Dr. Wayne died while climbing mountains near Lake Tahoe. He was 83.)

I saw a doctor in Chicago who agreed to follow the protocol set up by Dr. Wayne, although he did feel I should have the CABG. He also thought I might benefit from Enhanced External Counterpulsation. EECP is a noninvasive therapy.

My doctor in Chicago is leaving his practice and I can not find a cardiologist in Indianapolis that will prescribe EECP unless I undergo an angiogram. Readers of this blog will understand why that is out of the question.

There may come a time when I will be convinced the medical and noninvasive treatments for my angina and CAD are no longer working and I will undergo a CABG. However, I will not be coerced into what I consider to be unnecessary surgery by people I consider to be medical terrorists who are more interested in making money than properly treating my medical conditions.

Therefore, I am seeking a noninvasive cardiologist to prescribe EECP and follow me during and after the seven weeks of therapy. If you know one, please have him or her contact me at jeff.brailey@gmail.com.