Can my heart disease be treated without using drugs or surgery?

It’s hard for many people to believe that comprehensive lifestyle changes work even better than drugs and surgery in treating heart disease, but they often do. For example, a major study, also published in Circulation, found that regular physical exercise worked even better than angioplasty for preventing heart attacks, strokes, and premature deaths. Another study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, found that those taking the cholesterol-lowering statin Lipitor had 36 percent fewer cardiac events after eighteen months than those undergoing angioplasty.

Several randomized controlled trials have shown that coronary bypass surgery prolongs life only in those with the most severe disease, which is only a small percentage of those who receive it. Angioplasty and bypass surgery may reduce the frequency of angina (chest pain), but most people can reduce angina at least as much in only a few weeks just by changing their diet and lifestyle, if these changes go far enough in the healthy direction on the Spectrum.

Find out more about this book: The Spectrum: A Scientifically Proven Program to Feel Better, Live Longer,...

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