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Each year, some 300,000 arthritic
Americans have arthroscopic knee
surgery to shave, or sand down, rough
and damaged cartilage lining the knee.
Now we know that it doesn’t work.
In a well-designed study newly
published in the New England Journal
of Medicine, fake surgery on the knee
worked just as well as the real thing.
Arthroscopic surgery for arthritis, in
short, is no better than a sham
operation. (Arthroscopy remains a
good operation for reasons other than
arthritis, like knee trauma and acute
injury.)
Growing evidence suggests that
bypass and angioplasty operations
might be no better than sham
operations either, asserts Dr. Jay
Kenney, Nutrition Research Specialist
at the Pritikin Longevity Center®.
Old Hypothesis
The medical rationale for
performing the heart surgeries
stemmed from the belief that because
blood vessels clogged up and shut off
blood flow 70% and more in some
areas, surgery could either open up
these severely blocked areas or run
bypasses around them. Explains Dr.
Kenney: “The notion was that your
arteries were like the water pipes in an
old home, and they’d become so
clogged, over time, that they needed
the Roto-Rooter man (angioplasty
surgery) or a new set of pipes (bypass
surgery).”
However, substantial research now
indicates that most heart attacks don’t
even occur in severely blocked areas — sections that are 70% and more
clogged. That’s right, the very same
areas that surgeons target for
angioplasty and bypass operations are
often not the areas where heart attacks
happen. In studies of patients who
had had angiograms and later suffered
heart attacks, only 10 to 15% of the
heart attacks took place in arterial
sections that were 70% or more
narrowed by plaque.
Sudden Rupture
The majority of heart attacks,
scientists now believe, result from the
sudden rupture of a cholesterol-rich
atherosclerotic plaque, like a boil on
your skin that has suddenly burst, and
these ruptures can occur virtually
anywhere in arteries inflamed with
plaque, including areas that have only
begun to clog up with plaque. Such a
rupture can trigger the formation of a
blood clot large enough to abruptly
shut off blood supply to part of the
heart.
Explains Dr. Kenney: “The danger
from a blood clot that suddenly halts
blood flow is far greater than the
danger from a slowly narrowing
artery.”
But, argue heart surgeons, surgeries
prevent heart attacks and prolong life. But do they really? True, earlier
studies had found some benefit in
patients who had undergone bypass
surgery, but these studies failed to take
into account the lifestyle
improvements that patients often make
after surgery.
“We now know that after a bypass
operation patients are more likely to
quit smoking, exercise, and eat a
healthier diet,” points out Dr. Kenney. “They’re also more likely to take
medications which lower cholesterol
levels and reduce the risk of blood
clots. If the statistics on these earlier
studies were corrected to account for
these favorable lifestyle changes, it
seems likely that the lifestyle
improvements would eliminate most,
if not all, of the supposed benefit of
bypass surgery or angioplasty.”
What the Heart Really Needs
In the past two decades, several
studies have confirmed that the
Pritikin Program® reverses major risk
factors for coronary artery disease. We
also know that a low-fat, nearvegetarian
diet reverses the growth of
atherosclerotic plaques.
Bottom line? The major benefit of
heart surgery may be its effectiveness
in motivating people to eat better, quit
smoking, and exercise more. “But
these surgeries,” sums up Dr. Kenney, “do nothing to stop what causes most
heart attacks, namely, the sudden
rupture of atherosclerotic plaques.”
For that we recommend the Pritikin
Program.
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