Cardiovascular Disease: The Silent Killer It's time to change how we think about heart disease, which continues to be the most costly and deadly disease in the United States. We have the power - today - to strip this illness of its dubious distinction as our number-one killer and get heart disease sufferers back to living the lives so many of them have given up. It's not with a pill, a diet, an exercise program, nor a visit to the hospital. By simply aligning our treatment methods with our most current knowledge of this dreaded disease, we can defeat this enemy! Some Alarming Facts One in every three adults has some form of cardiovascular disease. Every 20 seconds, someone will suffer a heart attack. Every 45 seconds, someone will die from a heart attack. More people will die from heart disease than will die from all the cancers known to mankind. Many people think heart disease is all about blockages when it's really more about blood flow or the lack of it. According to the American Heart Association, more than 1.7 million invasive heart procedures are performed each year. Of those 1.7 million total invasive procedures, over 1.2 million are angioplasties and stent placements, and those numbers continue to rise each year. Sadly, despite the million-plus procedures performed each year to fix blockages, heart attacks continue to occur. 54% of all angioplasty patients, 20% of all stenting patients, and over 8% of all bypass surgery patients will require repeat procedures within a few years. Fixing a blockage only takes care of the symptoms and does nothing to treat the underlying cause of the disease. There is no cure for heart disease; if you are among the one in three Americans who have heart disease, you will live with it the rest of your life. An Endless Cycle of Surgery If you develop an artery blockage in your heart, and if it is serious enough, your doctor will try to fix it, usually with a procedure on your heart. Later you may develop another blockage, and once again, the doctor will try to fix it, usually with some sort of procedure. And so it goes, procedure after procedure, fixing blockage after blockage, when the real untreated problem is a lack of blood flow to your heart. One day, you may over exert yourself - lift something heavier than you should or exercise more than you should - and the activity may result in pain in your chest, in your arm, or in your jaw. You do the wise thing and see your doctor. He or she may recommend that you have a heart catheterization procedure to see what is going on inside your heart. To do this, the cardiologist inserts a tube into your femoral artery in your groin and pushes the tube up through the aorta into the heart arteries. The doctor may then find that you have a serious blockage and suggest that you need an invasive (surgical) corrective procedure. Often the doctor will recommend a stent, an angioplasty, or bypass. According to the American Medical Association, over 1.7 million of these types of procedures are performed each year. Each carries risk. Let us be very clear. We are NOT suggesting that there is no need for an invasive procedure. Certainly, there are times when such a procedure or surgery is very necessary. But 1.7 million procedures in a year may be a little on the high side. Each of us must understand that other options are available. All of us should investigate our options carefully before simply accepting an invasive procedure. We must become well educated, well informed, and pay close attention to the following information about an alternative to invasive or surgical procedures. This procedure is simple and logical, but most importantly, it could save your life! External Counter Pulsation (Compression Therapy) - A Safe Alternative to Surgery With External Counter Pulsation, also called Compression Therapy, we are trying to normalize the blood flow and bypass blockages in the heart. Opening arteries one at a time isn't always the best procedure. Doing this one-at-a-time isn't always the best procedure. Wouldn't a logical goal be to fix everything all at once - a procedure that would maximize and normalize blood flow throughout the heart muscle and the entire body, be non-invasive, simple, last for years, and really, really work? ECP is just such a procedure. Harvard Medical developed this procedure over fifty years ago, discovering a very simple, natural way to "teach" the heart to find alternative blood flow routes that would go around blockages. This "learning process" normalizes blood flow in spite of the blockages. When the heart normalizes the blood flow, as it does in most cases, the blockage suddenly becomes irrelevant. It doesn't go away, but it does become irrelevant, so there is no need for surgical procedures to deal with it. Let's Look at the Facts You now have available a procedure that is over fifty years old, that is non-invasive, that was developed by the Harvard Medical School, and that is offered at over six thousand centers worldwide! Over seven hundred of these centers are here in the United States, including top hospitals, such as: the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins Medical Center, the Texas Heart Institute, and, in Central Indiana, at Adkins Medical Group's Compression Therapy Center. Tens of thousands of patients have received this powerful procedure. Adkins Medical Group has treated hundreds of patients with a success rate of over 78% in the improvement or resolution of heart pain. These figures reflect the international results from the University of Pittsburgh's international database research to which Dr. Adkins contributed. We all have to ask ourselves this question: Why haven't we been told about this "other great procedure" for fixing the heart?