Cardiac Patients Recover Better With Heart Surgery Nutrition

Wednesday, August 20, 2008 by: Jo Hartley
Tags: cardiac patients, health news, Natural News

(NewsTarget) It is called heart surgery nutrition and this is an easy way that cardiac patients can do something effective to improve their medical outcomes. Recent medical research is now showing that heart surgery nutrition is a very important way to protect a patient from damage that can be caused by the oxidative stress that goes along with angioplasty, coronary bypass, thrombolysis (using medication to dissolve blood clots), and the injury that results when oxygen is once again supplied to tissues that were oxygen deprived.

In fact, medical researchers are taking the important step of recommending that people take proactive, protective measures to combat the heavy oxidative stress that goes along with heart attacks, strokes, and heart surgery.

There are two important elements that researchers have found:

1. An extremely high level of free radical damage

2. An absence of glutathione (the body's own antioxidant) in people who are experiencing cardiac problems.

Both of these elements accompany heart disease and both occur when -

1. Blood flow to the heart is obstructed by a blockage of a coronary artery

2. Or there is a sudden, severe blockage that brings on a heart attack (myocardial infarction)

The good news is that heart surgery nutrition can easily be implemented and added to a patient's medical treatment to improve outcomes and even protect against further damage.

How To Prevent Further Cardiac Damage

A team of Canadian and Japanese heart researchers suggest now that the use of antioxidant therapy before a cardiac procedure such as angioplasty, coronary bypass, and thrombolysis may help prevent complications.

Without making sure that there are adequate protective mechanisms in place to combat free radicals our vascular systems can be overcome by atherosclerosis.

A Research team at Birmingham University examined over two thousand patients who had confirmed coronary artery disease in a randomized clinical trial. The results were:

* Patients who took antioxidant supplements reduced their risk of cardiovascular disease by 47%.

* Cardiologists in Italy conclude that significant glutathione depletion occurs after cardiac ischemia.

* A study in the Japan Heart Journal measured the red blood cell glutathione of 21 patients with heart attacks. They found evidence of glutathione depletion and this indicates that this condition presents a major demand for glutathione.

How Your Body's Own Antioxidant Protects You

The principal antioxidant in our cells is glutathione (GSH). It protects all cells. It has been shown that there is a connection between cholesterol levels, glutathione levels, and plaque formation in the aorta. It has also been confirmed that GSH levels decrease as we age and this contributes to the formation of atherosclerosis.

Antioxidants like vitamins C and E are important and beneficial but the naturally occurring antioxidant in the cell is GSH. GSH changes these other antioxidants into their functionally active form.

Unfortunately, taking glutathione in pill form is not effective, because it is merely digested and does not get to the cells. To benefit from glutathione you need to add it as a nutraceutical both as pre- and postoperative nutrition.

About the author

Jo Hartley
Wife, Mother of 8, and Grandmother of 2
Jo is a 41 year old home educator who has always gravitated toward a natural approach to life. She enjoys learning as much as possible about just about anything!
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