Hello
My name is [deleted]. I am a 47 year old male in what I thought was reasonable health. However on September 15 of this year I suffered a heart attack. This was two days prior to my birthday. I was referred to you by the Vitamin C foundation
I was diagnosed as having a 50% blockage of the LAD. To give you some background. I used to be a somewhat heavy drinker. In September of last year I undertook a complete physical including a Nuclear Stress test. I was so successful in the stress exam that the cardiologist decided to forgo the post treadmill images and my heart was said to be perfect. At that time my resting rate was 40bpm. When I received my blood tests I had slightly elevated liver levels. my sgot was 54 and my sgpt was 82. LDL was 109 and HDL was 66 VLDL was 26.2. Triglycerides were 131. I immediately cut my drinking by more than 50% and my liver level stabilized. Around December I had a seasonal flu and was unable to exercise. I began to feel weak.
In February I participated in a 55 mile charity bike ride and definitely underperformed. About two weeks later I was in the middle of a 30 mile weekend ride when I pulled my hamstring in my right leg. i was about 15 miles from home so I gutted it out and rode slowly the rest of the way.
My leg did not heal in the normal fashion. It was extremely painful for more than a week. Typically something like this would only last a few days. When I did return to exercise my leg would feel weak and almost go numb. About an hour after finishing my toes in my right foot would exhibit a burning sensation like they were on fire. A week on so later while taking a kickboxing class I think I may have also strained my
right hip. Each time after a workout I would have the same burning in my toes.
It also seemed like my right leg was longer than my left when I ran. About a month later I went to a chiropractor and had my legs adjusted. The next day I had a tremendous pain in my right thigh. It was similar to the burning in the toes but it was consistent. I went back to the chiropractor and he attributed this to my body djusting to the re alignment.
About a week later a new thing happened. Whenever I would walk for more than 50 yards my right foot would completely go to sleep as if there were no circulation. This went on until early July when it seemed to get better. Although when exercising my right leg which was formerly dominant was definitely the weaker of the two.
In mid July about an hour after leaving the gym I had what i now believe to be my first heart attack. I had a pain in my chest and back that seemed to radiate down my arm and into my jay. I immediately took aspirin and went to the emergency room. I was given nitroglycerin and an array of tests. All of which were negative. After resting for a couple of weeks I began to exercise again.
All seemed to be well although I was much weaker than normal. I thought I was just out of shape.
Then in September I had a second out of pain after workout. The pain was much less than before and I did not go to emergency. Instead I visited my regular doctor where blood tests revealed heart damage. I immediately checked into the hospital where an cardiac cath revealed the blockage.
I believe that the leg injury and subsequent episodes are related. My doctor and my cardiologist do not. I think a blood clot moved through my leg and eventually made it to my heart where it caused the problem.
In any event I would like your recommendation as to what supplements to
use to possibly help with the situation. I am currently on 20mg of Lipitor 75mg of Plavix and 50mg of Toprol along with aspirin. I seem to be tired all of the time. I think I am allergic to the Lipitor an would like to eventually cease to take it. My LDL is currently 65. I have changed my diet to avoid as much cholesterol as possible.
Thank you very much for your time
M.S.
Well, the $64,000 question. How much vitamin C are you taking, (and have you been taking?)
The $63,000 question, how long have you been on those drugs????
The main thing is to begin following the protocol in this post
http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=8026
When you know your vitamin C tolerance, we could recommend a particular product.
If you want to start the "best" right away, I would recommend 2 jars (2 servings per day) of the Tower Ascorine-9 product. http://stores.paulingtherapystore.com/-strse-Pauling-Therapy-cln-Ascorsine-dsh-9/Categories.bok
Now, given the wonderful results of the stress test which indicated NO blockage, I suspect that you are either right about the clot, or you had a "spasm"-style heart attack. (Apparently about 30% of heart attacks are caused by heart muscle spasm rather than loss of blood flow). By the way, how do you doctors explain the great stress test results and now finding the 50% LAD blockage?
If a spasm, the lipitor could be at least partially responsible, because a known "side effect" is to deplete CoQ10 - the enzyme required in every cell to utilized ATP. It makes a great deal of sense, especially at your age, to supplement at least 200 mg CoQ10 daily (and I would probably double that dosage for awhile.)
The Flu would have depleted you of vitamin C and may have precipitated the course of events. Something that may not have occurred at an earlier age, i.e., when you were younger. In any case, Linus Pauling's recommended vitamin C/lysine therapy would be wise.
I cannot advise you, but I myself, knowing what I know, after starting Pauling's therapy, would not be taking any of the drugs they prescribed for any reason. Plavix, (Clopidogrel ) for example has failed in at least 2 major trials (plavix group was dying quicker than placebo group and these two trials were canceled prematurely, so there are no published "final" results). Apparently they were able to get at least one trial to show benefit for the FDA, sigh. You might try searching for Clopidogrel (PLAVIX) clinical trials, but I can see this information is well hidden. I did find at least one trial that was terminated, e.g. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/30280.php (when used in conjunction with aspirin). There are other reports.
I did see enough during this cursory search to realize that plavix depends on something called the P450 enzyme system for it to be excreted properly - so DO NOT EAT GRAPFERUIT while on Plavix. (Did your pharmacist warn you about that??)