Husband has 80% blockage, facing stent

[JohnDonna]

I ordered ascorbic acid powder from our local pharmacy. I rec'd a 100 gm bottle made by Medisca. I have size "0" empty capsules I was going to load with this and also load some with sodium ascorbate which I have ordered. Can anyone tell me how much C a capsule will hold? Thanks.

[Johnwen]

[JohnDonna]

[nineboy]

Just had to say that this could have been me a few years ago. Personally I was never given a choice in regards to stents. If I had seen this site in 2006 I may have had some kind of arguments to bring forward. I now believe in Linus Pauling therapy and I have numerous stents plus back and few years ago was supposed to have another80% blockage which they could do nothing about. Right now I have never felt better. I feel my Vitamin C keeps my bare metal stents clear plus has helped my 80% blockage as well. So hang in there listen to Owen and Johnwen and others. I know and have felt what you are going through but I came through it and so will you. Take care. nineboy.

[JohnDonna]

Thanks for the encouragement, nineboy! Glad to hear you're doing well after all you've been through!

I did some more research last evening and found that ubiquinol can cause gastric distress and diarrhea. John's been taking 2 a day so we'll stop that for a few days and see how it goes. He thinks the loose bowels are the reason for his tiredness. If that works, maybe he can manage one capsule every couple of days without side effects.

[nineboy]

I see you are on line. Reading about John reducing Metoprolol 75mg easing to 25mg not sure how you did that. I'm sure Johnwen would tell you to be careful on doing this slowly. I know from taking it myself 5omg x2 at first and then 25mg x3 a day now. Somehow the body gets used to an amount your taking and caused me havoc as it can lose its effect nearer the time to take another tablet. I find by taking it 3 times a day my body feels better for it. So be very careful and I was asked to go on a extended release one. I felt my body is accepting what I do so I left it as it was. Take care. nineboy.

[Jack]

Hi Donna, I'd like to follow up how is your husband doing?
I am in a similar situation, I am so reluctant outing stent in my body. I am taking Cardio-C now, possibly go for K2, CoQ10, and serrapeptase too.
Is your husband getting better? Any advice you could share with me?

[JohnDonna]

Hi Jack, I'm just heading out for work. I'll get back to you later today when I get home.

[Joanna45]

I had almost a 50% narrowing of my mesenteric celiac artery and the same with the superior mesenteric artery ..I was having extreme pain after eating ..and really bad fatigue ..that is what made me go and see my doctor and she ordered first and endoscopy all okay there.and then an ultrasound of my gallbladder and that was all fine ..then I had a mesenteric doplex ultrasound of my mesinteric artery..and it was causing the problem ..did lots of research on Linus Pauling and vitamin c and lysine ..bought at first from health food store pure vitamin c powder and lysine it worked so well that I decided to go with tower laboratories. And after 6 weeks no gut pain at all lots of energy back to walking 3 miles a day...also hiking again and swimming. I'm so thankful for this site I feel that they were able to give me solid information.
My doctor gave me no advice said no stents unless it was 70% blocked and wanted me to go on statins and my cholesterol is perfect..they just don't know what causes it.

[Joanna45]

I'm also having an stress echocardiogram this Thursday the 18th and will let you know how that went..
Take care everyone

[Jack]

Hi Joanna45,
I did quite a lot of research, inflammation inside of artery wall is the main cause of plaque development. One of the roles of cholesterol is to fix any damages inside our body, cell remembrance, tissue, etc . This is a natural healing mechanism, however, overtime, oxidized plaque will become bigger and harder becoming blockage. If this is true, level of cholesterol would not make any different in related to arteries blockage. But how much/bad of inflammation you have in your arteries. Any comment?

Please keep us update on your result.

[Joanna45]

They did not say any thing about blockages but narrowing. here is the report that I received.

Patent celiac artery with elevated velocities noted throughout the vessel
(highest PSV 346 cm/s and EDV 92 cm/s) consistent with a >50% stenosis.

Patent superior mesenteric artery with EDV velocities (46 cm/s) just at the
threshold for >50% stenosis, PSV within normal limits. Overall, suspect an SMA
stenosis that is approaching 50% in severity.

Patent inferior mesenteric with no evidence of a hemodynamically significant
stenosis.
They did not take a blood test to check for inflamation
Let me know what you think of this

[Jack]

My case is different, I got blockage/narrower in coronary arteries. I believe plaques buildup the same way.
Guess the common goal is that we want to reverse this.

Good luck to your test tmr. Do keep us update on the result.

[Jack]

And Joanna45, wonder why you picked formula from tower laboratories not Cardio-C...

[JohnDonna]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, Jack. Just after I posted last, a back hoe going up our street on a flatbed truck took out our phone/internet line so we've been off the grid until this morning!

My husband John is feeling better but feels very tired and still has bowel issues and that is causing some mild depression. The bowel issues lessened somewhat after taking Immodium for a couple of days but it's still a problem. We initially thought it might be the Ubiquinol but stopping that didn't change anything it so he's taking it again.

Then he tried cutting back on the Cardio-C from 3 to 2 times a day in case he had low bowel tolerance but that didn't make a difference either, so he is now taking it 3 times a day again and alternating that with 2 or 3 Liposomal C throughout the day.

John is taking Metoprolol Tartrate 25mg twice a day. To answer nineboy's question about how he reduced the Metoprolol Tartrate from 75mg twice a day we think it didn't affect him much at all because he had only been on it for a few weeks. On researching Metoprolol we found that diarrhea is a side effect of and so is tiredness and depression. It really makes us wonder what the point is of taking the Metoprolol at all if it is leaving him tired and having to rush to the bathroom several times a day.

He also takes (and has been for years) Candesartan cilexetil 16 mg and Hydrochlorothiazide 12.5 mg (in one tablet) once a day. We researched the possible side effects of taking it with Metoprolol and it lists tiredness and weakness.

He stopped the Clopidogrel Bisulfate totally. He is taking low dose aspirin instead of the Clopidogrel.

On rare occasions he has some tingling or pulsing in his left arm when he walks too fast uphill or gets stressed. Just to put things in perspective, we live in a little town that is very hilly and John walks everywhere. We gave up keeping a car about 15 years ago because we both work within walking distance and just rent a car when we need to go somewhere else. Because our house is on a fairly steep hill, there is no way to go anywhere without having to climb a hill to get home and other places he may have to go are uphill too. John is 74, weighs about 165-170 and people are always quite surprised when they find out his age. He still works full time as an office manager for a small newspaper which has just changed hands and because of the transition he has been working sometimes 6 days a week. That is kind of stressful and contributes to his being tired.

He hasn't had any more tests since declining the stent so we don't know if the blockage is diminishing or if his cholesterol is down. We have been vegetarians for years but are now focusing even more on a plant based diet and trying to cut out sugar (hard for people who have always put 2 spoonfuls in our coffee! Gradually switching to Stevia) As I understand it Linus Pauling said it was mainly sugar that is causing heart "disease".

I wish I had more definite info for you, Paul. We are looking more closely at Metoprolol and wondering about stopping it. Unfortunately John's GP and the cardiologist are not open to alternative therapy.

Any of the issues he's having seem mild compared to what we read some people who have had stents have to deal with!

Thanks again everyone for your contributions to this conversation. Much appreciated.