"Your heart disease is 'genetic'"

I'm getting close to 50 and my doctor has counseled me on improving my diet and adding more exercise to my life.  In the past year I've been able to drop 15 pounds and my blood pressure has fallen from 140/90 to 120/70.  My BMI is still 29, which means I need to drop another 20 pounds, and all of it from my mid-section.

I guess my question is this: does all this effort - including a diet high in plant sterols (Monavie) taken with meals - result in a gradual clearing of my arteries, or does the cholesterol plaque in my cardio vascular system stay there for life?  Thanks for you perspective & advice.

  Baloney! There were 3000 heart attacks/year in the year 1900.......which rose

to over 560,000 by the 1960's. It is impossible for such a rapid increase in heart

disease manifestations to be caused by "genetic" change. Genes do NOT change

in only 3 generations. What "genes" have supposedly changed in just 60 years?? Why would genes change into configurations that DECREASE life expectancy, rather than increase it.........that goes completely against the genetic theory of "survivial of the fittest" and evolutionary changes that enhance survival of the species.

  You mentioned a number of important new risk factors, but failed to mention

perhaps the most significant factor, namely the Metabolic Syndrome of elevated

insulin levels, high triglycerides, low HDL, abdominal obesity etc. This is a LIFESTYLE

syndrome that is caused by excessive carbohydrate consumption combined with

no exercise to metabolize and burn off those carbs. In my cardiac rehabilitation program, over 65% of my new referrals are there because they have the Metabolic

Syndrome, and of course none of their physicians recognized it before their heart attack, stent or bypass, and most STILL don't even afterwards.

  The other major contributors besides empty carb calories is lack of key nutrients

in our diet (magnesium, iodine, cholesterol, trace minerals) and hormone disruption

from toxins in our food/water supply like the halogen poisons fluoride, bromine, chlorine

that contribute to massive numbers of clinical and subcliincal hypothyroidism...which as shown by Broda Barnes MD over 20 years ago, is also a MAJOR cause of heart attacks, strokes and sudden death. Low levels of testosterone ( men) and progesterone (women) are epidemic now and also contribute to our heart disease epidemic.

Randy Ice P.T., C.C.S.

Director Cardiac Rehabilitation

Rancho Physical Therapy

Murrieta, Calif.

(951) 698-7720 Ext 220