Heart Disease

According to the American Heart Association, approximately 60 million Americans have some form of cardiovascular disease. This includes atherosclerosis or blockages in the arteries, which underlie the most common form of heart disease and are the cause of most heart attacks.

The Conventional Approach

The first line of conventional treatment is medication, and many patients with heart disease are prescribed one drug after another. These drugs do not address the true problem in heart disease: atherosclerosis. Furthermore, most of them have unpleasant and sometimes significant side effects.

Patients with heart disease are also often pushed (unnecessarily) into angioplasty or bypass surgery. More than a million of these procedures are performed every year, yet for the vast majority of patients, they are completely unwarranted. Except in a small, easily identified subgroup of patients, bypass and angioplasty do not save lives or prevent heart attacks. Several major scientific studies have shown that patients treated with a more conservative course do just as well as those who undergo bypass surgery or angioplasty.

How We Treat Heart Disease

At the Whitaker Wellness Institute, we help our patients implement a treatment program that, unlike drugs and surgery, addresses the underlying causes of heart disease and has the potential of actually reversing this condition. We also specialize in second opinions for patients who have been recommended to have angioplasty or bypass surgery.

Eat a Heart-Healthy Diet

There is a well-recognized relationship between diet and heart disease. Saturated fat from animal foods and trans fats from processed oils raise cholesterol, impede blood flow, and contribute to the buildup of plaque in the arteries. Fruits and vegetables, beans and whole grains, raw nuts and seeds, and cold-water fish, on the other hand, contain vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids that nurture the cardiovascular system.

During your stay at the clinic, you will not only have the opportunity of eating a heart-healthy diet, but you will also receive hands-on instruction in shopping for, preparing, and sticking with this diet once you return home.

Strengthen Your Heart With Exercise

If you have heart disease, exercise is a must — but it is important that you go about it in the right way. Our exercise physiologist will determine your exercise capability and give you specific instructions in how to exercise within a safe yet beneficial range of exertion. We will also help you with one of the biggest challenges for most of our patients: staying on track with a regular exercise program after you leave the clinic.

Nutritional Supplements for the Heart...

A cornerstone of our protocol for treating heart disease is nutritional supplementation. Antioxidants such as vitamins C and E, B-complex vitamins, magnesium, fish oil capsules, coenzyme Q10: these and other nutrients play specific, well-studied roles in the treatment and prevention of heart disease. Your personal physician will prescribe an individualized nutritional supplement program that addresses your particular condition.

...May Replace the Need for Drugs

One of the best things about our approach is that specific nutritional supplements accomplish the same thing as prescription drugs — without adverse side effects. For example, the cholesterol-lowering effect of ground flaxseed is comparable to that of cholesterol-lowering drugs. Magnesium relaxes the arteries in much the same way that calcium-channel blockers do. And fish oil thins the blood, but much more safely than prescription blood thinners.

A well-designed nutritional supplement program, combined with a good diet and regular exercise, can replace the need for many of the drugs you may be taking for heart disease.

EECP: A Natural Bypass

Enhanced External Counterpulsation (EECP) is a mechanical therapy that pushes blood from the legs and lower abdomen toward the heart, delivering oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to the heart muscle and alleviating chest pain. It also stimulates the growth of collateral arteries around blockages of the coronary arteries — making it the closest thing going to coronary artery bypass without the trauma and potential complications of surgery.

The Whitaker Wellness Institute was one of the first clinics to offer EECP, and today it remains one of our most popular and effective treatments for heart disease.

Improve Circulation With Chelation

Free radical damage and poor circulation are two hallmarks of heart disease, and EDTA chelation therapy is an intravenous therapy that addresses both. When this protein is infused into the body, it attaches to minerals (including lead, other toxic metals, and calcium built up in the arteries) and carries them out of the body in the urine. This reduces the free radical load caused by heavy metals, improves the health of the arteries, and dramatically improves circulation.

In addition to reducing angina, EDTA chelation also has a proven track record of improving circulation and alleviating pain in the legs and other areas affected by atherosclerosis, which is very common in patients with heart disease.

Real-Life Success Stories

Click here to read about how other people just like you overcame Heart Disease and got back on the road to health.

Additional Information

Click here to read more on Heart Disease.

Contact Us

For more information on the Whitaker Wellness Institute's treatment of Heart Disease, contact a Patient Enrollment Specialist at (800) 488-1500 or click here.

It is important that you do not reduce, change, or discontinue any medication or treatment without first consulting your physician. Dr. Whitaker offers his recommendations only as "generally informational" and not as specifically applicable to any individual's medical problem(s), concerns, and/or needs.