Genetic and Wave Form Analysis

LifeSciences section of the San Francisco Chronicle magazine, July 9, 2006 carried an article about genetic profiling to predict South Asian heart risks at El Camino Hospital in the South San Francisco Bay Area. 370 people are on the waiting list.

What else could you do to find out your risk of heart attack even if you are not of South Asian origin?

There are a series of devises in many physicians’ offices which can check your risk in 3-5 minutes. They are a part of a new (1980) technology of wave form analysis for assessing blood vessel compliance, elasticity which in turn reflects atherosclerosis – the build up of cholesterol deposits on the lining of the artery – or arteriosclerosis – the stiffness of the artery that can lead to arterial rupture.

What does that have to do with those who have diabetes? It is the metabolic syndrome that is present in many people with diabetes 1 and 2 that is the cause of this excessive risk of heart disease. Wave form analysis defines the risk and additionally defines the extent of the problem in you personally.

Although 30% of the South Asian community has this metabolic gene for heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease, there needs to be a “trigger” of some sort to begin these destructive processes. Risk does not mean certainty of outcome and today there are many therapies that can reverse this risk at any situation at any depth of severity.

Not all doctors “believe in” this kind of approach. Coping is all that they understand, not reversal.

"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." - Max Planck

It’s your time.

Diabetes Retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy is characterized by changes in the retinal small blood vessels that can lead to macular edema, new vessel formation and vision loss. Hypertension has been identified as a major risk factor for diabetic retinopathy and clinical trials have shown that reduction of blood pressure using angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors reduces the progression of diabetic retinopathy. J Hypertens Suppl, 2006 Mar; 24(1):S73-80

The major components of the renin-angiotensin system have been identified in eye tissues. They examined the experimental and clinical evidence for the role of the renin-angiotensin system in the on diabetes-induced abnormalities in retinal vascular permeability and retinal new vessel formation.

We have had good success using the ARB class, especially Diovan, l-arginine 5 gm and with Byetta to get exceptional success at reversing all the retinal lesions that are not scars.

Post Prandial Glucose

The A1c is the standard of care as far as those with diabetes are concerned. New England Journal of Medicine (1993); 329: pp. 977-986. Lower A1c levels are associated with lower incidence of complications.

But when compared those treated with intensive program verses those who had conventional care of that era that had identical A1c values, the conventional group had 2.5 times the rate of retinopathy. These were people who had an A1c of over 9.0. All these data are from the DCCT noted in the reference in the first paragraph.

With further evaluation it seems that the likely difference is that the range of glucose fluctuation was greater in conventional care as opposed to those who practiced intensive care.

With all the newer ways to control diabetes with newer insulin available today, newer tests to gauge after meal glucose changes and just plain testing for glucose one or two hours after a meal, we have all the technology we need to decrease the complication rater even more.

The outcomes, complications and significance for type 1 and type 2 are discussed in the E-News for these groups discussed today. These are subscription newsletters.

Agreeing to disagree? ADA and AHA issue joint statement on MetS/cardiometabolic risk

A call to action released by the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association goes to the center of a debate over the term "metabolic syndrome." Although opinions diverge over whether the whole is greater than the sum of its parts — whether multiple risk factors are additive or synergistic — the two groups emphasize their united commitment to reducing heart disease, stroke, and new-onset diabetes. The joint statement encourages clinicians to treat individual risk factors regardless of whether they appear as part of a cluster or syndrome, focusing on lifestyle modification as well as pharmacologic therapy.

Read the full story for an in-depth look at the issue.

Sincerely,
The staff at theheart.org and WebMD
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