I’ve mentioned before how much I love to learn and how continual education is one of the things I enjoy best about my job. On the path of education I’ve been blessed to come across many outstanding teachers who have had great influence on me and my practice. They include, in alphabetical order: Mark Anderson, Dr. Bruce Bond, Dr. Davis Brockenshire, Dr. Robert Cass, Ann Louise Gittleman, Dr. Chad Guess, Dr. Annette Schippel, Dr. Joe Teff, Dr. Randy Tent, Dr. Stuart White. And now I’m adding to that list Dr. Michael Gaeta.

I’ve attended several of his seminars and they are all excellent. The last one I attended was his cardiovascular seminar in December 2015. This was a synopsis of Mark Anderson’s Back to School for Doctors 2015 presentation along with Dr. Gaeta’s insights.

Here’s a few of the tidbits he shared that I thought were of interest to share.

One half of all deaths in the United States are caused by clots. This includes heart attacks and strokes. Thus preventing clots can go a long way in life extension. The solution to preventing clots is a natural substance called rutin. Rutin is part of Vitamin P, which is part of the Vitamin C complex. Vitamin P stands for permeability. It is the collagen formation factor. We need collagen for tissue and vascular integrity. Collagen keeps the body tissues strong. It is the “glue” that holds them together. Plaquing occurs when there is low collagen. Plaque is made from calcium and cholesterol. It is placed where there is inflammation in the body. Damage to the vasculature has caused inflammation. There is not sufficient collagen to repair, thus in comes the plaque.

For more detailed information regarding heart disease and stroke and rutin I encourage you to see my heart health series of blogs.

One third of the United States population is diabetic or pre-diabetic. 90% of those who are pre-diabetic are unaware. Two-thirds of US adults are overweight and one-third of US children are overweight.

Synthetic vitamins have been shown to increase the risk of death by 8-16%. This is why I use food based vitamins in my practice.
Since statins have been in use the studies show that cardiovascular disease risk has gone down (as the drug companies will point out), but..all death mortality has increased. There is a 43% increase in the cases of diabetes if they are taking statins. The bottom line – the statin is causing something else to kill you before heart disease!

The ideal spread for blood pressure is 40 points. That is where the traditional 120/80 comes from. The bigger the difference between the two numbers, the greater the stress is on the arteries. Interestingly enough, one-half of strokes take place in people with normal blood pressure. Since that is the case it puts into question the concept that high blood pressure causes strokes.

Our bones are one-third mineral, one-third protein (collagen), and one-third water.

Every day 50,000 gall bladders are removed! This is highly preventable through better diet.

74% of the US population is deficient in magnesium.