According to the Washington Post, “A major study more than a decade ago found stents didn’t work better than drugs, but it triggered criticism, and proper use of stents has become one of the most heated debates in medicine — in part because so much is at stake. Coronary heart disease affects 17.6 million Americans; companies that make stents are multibillion-dollar enterprises; the procedures are a major income stream to interventional cardiologists and hospitals; and many people who have stents credit their good health to the procedure.”
Read a summary of the study at;
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(17)32714-9/fulltext?elsca1=tlxpr
Stents are small mesh tubes inserted into the arteries to keep them open after a procedure called angioplasty or called a percutaneous coronary intervention, PCI.
The primary goal for treating coronary artery disease is to decrease the risk of myocardial infarction, MI which is when one or more of the heart’s arteries becomes blocked suddenly or has extremely slow blood flow. The usual cause of sudden blockage is the formation of a blood clot, a thrombus. If this becomes serious because enough blockage occurs then the result would be pain and often shortness of breath. This may be an event that requires medical intervention.
A more long-standing, chronic situation would be narrowing or blockage of the vessels from the buildup of cholesterol and fatty type deposits. This plaque can build up on the inner walls of arteries over time and can lead to the formation of a thrombolytic clot that would end up blocking an artery. This build up is referred to as atherosclerosis sometimes called “hardening” or “clogging” of the arteries.
The Washington Post’s comment, “Some of the most common invasive heart procedures in America are no better at preventing heart attacks and death in patients with stable heart disease than pills and lifestyle improvements alone, according to a massive federally funded study designed to resolve a long-standing controversy in cardiology” https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/11/16/embargoed-drugs-are-effective-invasive-procedures-patients-with-stable-heart-disease-major-trial-finds/
The goal is to manage this through prevention by adopting a change of lifestyle approach noted above. Some effective tips are:
- Minimize hydrogenated vegetable oils from processed foods and
- Decrease consumption of badly processed foods which allows for
- More raw vegetables and fruits (evidence of the value of this continues)
- Have your methylation pathways tested/supported
- Manage hypertension
- Use natural blood clot – dissolving protein supplements
- Stop smoking
- Optimize vitamins crucial to your artery health
- Pump your blood! If you are new to exercise consult your doctor first