Letter from the Publisher

Saving a Million Hearts
by L. Terry Chappell
US government agencies have announced an initiative to lower heart and cardiovascular disease: Million Hearts. The goal is to achieve a dramatic reduction in heart attacks, strokes, and mortality from cardiovascular disease – almost entirely through the use of pharmaceuticals. Dr. Chappell thinks that this effort is likely to fail, and encourages integrative practitioners to embrace the same goal, using their full range of skills to prevent even more heart attacks and strokes.

Fluid through a Pipe: Natural Management of Hypertension
by Amy Terlisner, NMD
Hypertension is not a disease, but a symptom, with many possible causes. To determine cause, Dr. Terlisner looks to the three factors that increase the resistance of a fluid through a pipe, reviewed in this article. With time, investigation, and proactivity, she finds that most hypertensive patients do not need medication.

Naturopathic Management of Infections of the Heart and their Sequelae
by Jeremy Mikolai, ND, and Martin Milner, ND
Acute cardiovascular infections often present first to conventional medical settings; conversely, the downstream manifestations and chronic sequelae of past cardiovascular infections often present to the integrative/alternative care setting. This article discusses some of the more common infectious heart diseases and how they lead to chronic heart failure, then focuses on the treatment of all types of chronic heart failure and cardiomyopathies using natural medicine, illustrating successful treatments in real patient cases.

Dr. Mark Houston: A New Perspective on Cardiovascular Disease
by Nancy Faass, MSW, MPH
Cardiovascular medicine 's primary approach to treatment focuses on five top risk factors, but about 50% of patients with "normal" levels will still develop CHD or myocardial infarction. Dr. Houston calls to for practitioners to look to beyond these factors to identify the risk mediators, underlying causes, and metabolic and functional disorders that are actually inducing cardiovascular disease, and offers his revolutionary approach to diagnosis, prevention, and treatment.

Dr. Mimi Guarneri: Mind-Body Medicine in Cardiology
by Nancy Faass, MSW, MPH
Healing the heart is about not only the physical body, but also the emotional, mental, and spiritual body. How can we integrate an approach to help patients rebuild their emotional lives, and reduce the risk of heart attack and strokes? Dr. Guarneri, a cardiologist practicing holistic integrative medicine, shares her insights.

David Jones, MD, and Mark Hyman, MD: Functional and Systems Medicine
by Laurie Hofmann, Sheila Quinn, and Nancy Faass, MSW, MPH
Today we face an epidemic of cardiometabolic diseases, diabetes, and obesity to tsunami proportions. Doctors are not trained to diagnose or treat these disorders early enough, and they do not have the tools to deal with emerging health issues of this prevalence. A new view on diagnosis is needed to help providers understand the root causes of this epidemic: We must incorporate functional medicine's right-brain, systems approach that supports a partnership between clinician and patient, and is grounded in both the science and the art of medicine.

Reducing Cardiovascular Risk with Niacin
by Timothy J. Polacek, BS
Although niacin has consistently demonstrated reductions in cardiovascular disease clinical events, it has been left as an alternative or second-line agent along with other lipid therapies for when a statin alone is insufficient to reach LDL-C goals. Unfortunately, niacin's use in combination with a statin has been questioned due to unexpected results of the AIM-HIGH trial. This article examines that study's design, potential limitations, and significance.
 
Tocotrienols: Vitamin E For Cardiovascular Benefits After All
by Barrie Tan, PhD, and Anne M. Trias, MS
Large clinical studies have been on one form of vitamin E, alpha-tocopherol, and have shown its benefits to treat cardiovascular or other diseases to be equivocal or without effect – even harmful. On the other hand, tocotrienols, another form, are showing greater efficacy and positive results, discussed by this article in detail.

Bioregulatory Ophthalmology: A Paradigm Shift in Eye Health Care
by Tatyana Bosh, MD
Dr. Bosh's system, which unites Eastern, Western, ancient, and contemporary medical methodologies, integrates conventional ophthalmology with various CAM therapies to improve ocular function and enhance vision – without the use of corrective lenses, drugs, or invasive surgical procedures.

Alternative Therapies in the Treatment of Cardiac Injury:
A Case Report with Recovery Regimens for Nonablatable Atrial Fibrillation and Greatly Enlarged Left Atrium
by Hans J. Kugler, PhD; with Ulrich Friedrichson, MD, PhD; Fouad Ghaly, MD; and Paul Ward, PED
Two side-impact accidents left a 68-year-old patient with a damaged heart for which orthodox medicine had no treatment. This article details how the multifactorial approach (MFA) – combining key essential requirements for optimum health, with an emphasis on rebuilding the muscles of the heart and the revascularization of regenerated heart muscles – enabled him to achieve full recovery.

Townsend Calendar

. . . the regular features, commentary and opinions we can count on each month from our distinguished columnists.