STROKE

MD Cause:  A blood clot that dislodged from wherever it was and travelled to the brain where it got stuck and caused the brain cells adjacent downstream of it to die from lack of oxygen.

MD Rx:  Drugs to thin the blood. 

ND Cause: Omega-3 EFA deficiencies.

Discussion: The MDs got this one half right. Once the symptoms of stroke begin there is a very small window of time in which heroic medical intervention can dramatically prevent really bad things from happening. When a stroke is happening, brain cells are dying. The medical doctors in the emergency room have drugs which can dissolve the clot in the brain which is causing the stroke very quickly thereby lessening the amount of brain damage. Not bad. If you think you, or someone that you know is having a stroke, then dial 911 immediately, or have someone transport the stroke victim to the emergency room. If you choose this option, call the ER from the car and let them know what is happening, so that they will be ready for you when you arrive. Time is of the essence here. The 3 cardinal signs of a stroke are: Face drooping; Arm Weakness; Speech difficulty; Time to call 911. The last one (Time) was put in there to create the acronym: “FAST” to help you remember the other 3.

 As I taught you in the introduction the only thing the king could cure a disease with in the United States is a drug. In order to relate the use of the drug to a medical condition about $60million of research is necessary. The FDA and the pharmaceutical industry were in cahoots in this endeavor, the result of which has been to effectively price-out of the market everybody but the drug companies. This piece of legislation is one of the main reasons why the MDs have enjoyed the lion’s share of control over the development and delivery of medicine for the last 100 years (more or less). 

I cannot state this emphatically enough:

The food and drug administration in the United States does not exist to support the American public. It exists to support the interests of Big Pharma.

There is, however a small chink in their armor. The Food and Drug Administration allows something called a “Qualified Health Claim.”  Let’s say you are a medical professional, and you were of the belief that omega-3 essential fatty acids virtually eliminated the risk of cardiovascular disease. If you collected enough published, peer-reviewed research and brought it to the FDA (if the stars aligned), the FDA would grant you a Qualified Health Claim. As of July 2017, there are 51 Qualified Health Claims that the FDA allows. The relationship between omega-3 essential fatty acids and cardiovascular disease is one of them. Here is the exact language of the Qualified Health Claim: 

Supportive but not conclusive research shows that consumption of EPA and DHA omega-3 fatty acids may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. One serving of [Name of the food] provides [ ] gram of EPA and DHA omega-3 fatty acids. [See nutrition information for total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol content.]

Note: Dietary supplements may declare the amount of EPA and DHA per serving in "Supplement Facts," instead of making the declaration in the claim.

So - if you are a manufacturer of an Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acid supplement, you can make the claim that your supplement may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. You can print that right on the label and you can use it in all of your marketing. It is a small victory – but a victory nonetheless. Please see Appendix III for a complete list of all 51 Qualified Health Claims.

The logic in relating Essential Fatty Acid supplementation to Stroke prevention goes like this. Cardiovascular disease is fancy-schmancy doctor talk for clogged blood vessels in and around the heart. The main cause of a Stroke is plaque material which has broken off of the wall of the clogged artery, traveled through the blood and made it to the brain, where it causes all kinds of trouble. If you can effectively reduce the amount of plaque which is building up in the artery, then you will effectively reduce how much of it has a chance of breaking off and causing a stroke. Again – my lawyers want me to remind you that I am not stating this as definitive science. It is my strong clinical belief – and it may not be correct. [1]

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[1] It may also be 100% spot-on, in your face, correcto-mundo…