We expect that when something new about modern medicine is discovered, we will find the best course of action and treatment, and as a society, will move towards that, but it is proven time and time again how that theory can be completely wrong.

The ?Courage? Study in 2007 was supposed to change the way that cardiologists functioned. Basically, it found that a generic group of drugs yielded the same results as a $15,000 heart stent procedure. And this was supposed to change everything. Doctors would start realizing that this was the right way to go, and not put their patients through procedure of questionable value. But that did not happen. The Courage trial found that adding stents did not affect the rate of deaths and heart attacks at all. And yet, according to the Millenium Research group, stent usage is at peak level.
So, what can we, as patients do? We can make sure that we are educated and seek out a way to find out the root cause of our problems are, and work from the bottom up to fix it. And invasive procedures may not always be the best first option.
Let’s take, for example, coronary artery disease. Besides cholesterol there are plenty of risk factors that can lead to coronary artery disease and yet cholesterol remains one of the only things that is held responsible for it. Why? Well, because pharmaceutical companies have cholesterol medications for the rest of the patient’s life, while they can’t patent natural supplements to control other risk factors for coronary artery disease. What do you think they will look for first: how they can make money or how they can help a patient? That is where you have to make a choice: to be treated by numbers or like a whole person. See more information about the Courage trial here: http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/03/26/to-stent-or-not-to-stent/tab/art…
How about you? Do you have coronary artery disease? Are you at risk of coronary artery disease? Have you ever been checked for other risk factors besides cholesterol? Schedule an appointment with Doctor Kalitenko to find out more. 718-382-9200.