Cardiovascular-Kidney-Metabolic (CKM) Syndrome

A growing appreciation of the pathophysiological interrelatedness of metabolic risk factors such as obesity and diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and cardiovascular disease has led to the conceptualization of cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome. It is modern medicine’s attempt at a grand unification concept to address the chronic disease emergency affecting at least a third of Americans and populations worldwide.

A new American Heart Association presidential advisory published in the Association’s flagship journal, Circulation, on Oct. 9, 2023, defines the overlap in these conditions as Cardiovascular-Kidney-Metabolic (CKM) syndrome. CKM syndrome stages range from 0 or no risk factors and an entirely preventive focus to Stage 4, the highest-risk stage with established cardiovascular disease. Stage 4 may also include kidney failure.

CKM affects nearly every major organ in the body, including the heart, brain, kidney, and liver. However, the most significant impact is on the cardiovascular system, affecting blood vessels and heart muscle function, the rate of fatty buildup in arteries, electrical impulses in the heart, and more.

The importance of considering cardiovascular, metabolic syndrome, and kidney disease in a singular framework stems from the frequent co-occurrence of these entities and the bidirectional organ cross-talk that perpetuates organ damage.

1. Components:

• Cardiovascular Disease: Conditions affecting the heart and blood vessels, such as hypertension, coronary artery disease, and heart failure.
• Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD): A progressive loss of kidney function over time, leading to an accumulation of waste products in the body and contributing to cardiovascular risk.
• Metabolic Disorders: These include diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and hypertension.

1 in 3 U.S. adults have three or more risk factors leading to CKM syndrome. However, the obesity rates in the United States remain at approximately 40.3% of adults who are classified as obese as of 2023.

Insulin resistance plays a significant role in linking
metabolic disorders with cardiovascular and kidney diseases.

Poor cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) health is a significant determinant of premature morbidity and mortality. CKM syndrome leads to multiorgan dysfunction and a high rate of adverse cardiovascular outcomes. Inflammatory processes reduce sensitivity to insulin action, resulting in impaired glucose tolerance.

CKM syndrome appears to accelerate the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis by augmenting inflammation, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and insulin resistance, which are each central contributors to the development of atherogenesis.

Modern Medicine Is Hopeless In Its Treatment Approach

A holistic, person-centered approach to cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) syndrome is essential. Chiadi E. Ndumele, M.D., associate professor of medicine and director of obesity and cardiometabolic research in the division of cardiology at Johns Hopkins University, noted fragmented care is a concern in treating patients with CKM syndrome.

Mainstream Management Strategies:

• Pharmacological Interventions: Medications may be needed to manage hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, and other related conditions. For instance:

• Antihypertensives can help control blood pressure.
• Statins may be prescribed for dyslipidemia.
• Metformin is often used for managing insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes.

Though blood pressure medications are often necessary, they do nothing to address the causes of vascular problems or CKM. See the chapter on The Main Cause and Treatment Cure for High Blood Pressure.

Dr. Dwight Lundell, former Chief of Staff and Chief of Surgery at Banner Heart Hospital in Arizona, told the world not to take statin drugs. See the chapter: Who should take Statin drugs? No One. The chapter Finally, Safe and Effective Answers to Arterial Plaque and Cholesterol introduces Cavadex as the better approach. The answer covers more ground to treat CKM than any other single-treatment approach. Unfortunately, the FDA is blocking Americans from receiving what can considered a cure for CKM. Plaquex is a time-proven treatment alternative for Cavadex. However, it employs many intravenous administrations instead of the easy-to-apply do-at-home application of liquid suppositories of Cavadex.

Metformin is an FDA-approved antidiabetic agent that does not hold a torch to magnesium to manage diabetes. Though they say that Metformin can prevent complications such as kidney damage, they say one should not use it if you have severe kidney disease, metabolic acidosis, or diabetic ketoacidosis. One can develop lactic acidosis, a dangerous lactic acid buildup in your blood with Metformin. One can treat this acid buildup quickly with sodium bicarbonate. Magnesium bicarbonate drinking water and sodium bicarbonate are the best for treating and preventing kidney disease. (See separate chapter on Metformin and its dangers.)

Bicarbonates in ICU and Emergency Departments

Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), one of the most essential medicines for kidney disease, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes, is used in intensive care units (ICU) for various medical conditions. Its use in the ICU can include:

1. Acid-base imbalances: Bicarbonate may be administered in cases of metabolic acidosis, where the body has an excess of acid. It helps raise the blood’s pH and restore the acid-base balance.
2. Cardiac arrest: In cases of cardiac arrest or severe metabolic acidosis associated with cardiac dysfunction, bicarbonate may be used in advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) protocols to improve resuscitation outcomes. However, the routine use of bicarbonate in cardiac arrest is a topic of debate, and its benefits in this context are still being studied.
3. Specific toxicities: Bicarbonate may be used in the ICU to treat specific drug toxicities or poisonings, such as tricyclic antidepressant overdose or salicylate poisoning. Bicarbonate can help eliminate these substances and improve the patient’s condition.
4. Renal failure: In some cases of acute kidney injury or renal failure, bicarbonate may be administered to correct severe metabolic acidosis that cannot be managed by other means. Emergency rooms and intensive care medicine would be severely handicapped if there were no sodium bicarbonate, and already the most dangerous forms of chemotherapy would be even more deadly without bicarbonate used as a buffer when the chemical chemo poisons are pumped in.

Sodium bicarbonate helps to save countless lives every day:

Dr. Boris Veysman, a specialist in emergency medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Jersey, describes one emergency room experience: “The emergency department is always noisy, but today the triage nurse is yelling “not breathing,” as she runs toward us pushing a wheelchair. A pale, thin woman is slumped over and looking gray. There’s no hesitation without concrete proof of a “Do Not Resuscitate” order. Click, Klang, and the patient has a tube down her throat within seconds. I do the chest compressions. On the monitor, she is flat-lining — no heartbeat. I synchronize my words with the compressions and call for an external pacemaker. This resuscitation isn’t by the book. “Get two amps of bicarbonate,” I say to the intern. The jugular line takes seconds, and I flush it with sodium bicarbonate. This probably will correct the blood’s extreme acidity, which I suspect is driving up the potassium. The external pacemaker finally arrives. Potent electric shocks at 80 beats per minute begin to stimulate her heart. The vitals stabilize.

Higher NaHCO3 doses are not associated with increased B.P. or more significant edema. NaHCO3 supplementation produces a dose-dependent increase in serum bicarbonate and improves lower extremity muscle strength after a short-term intervention in CKD patients with mild acidosis.

Sodium bicarbonate is a wonder drug. It is already in wide use and has been for decades. One of the greatest tragedies in medicine and the health field is that bicarbonate is overlooked as the most effective essential medicine it is. Of course, we could say the same about magnesium. However, magnesium has gotten more coverage in alternative medical circles. But, magnesium is still ignored by most cardiologists at the cost of millions of lives lost from cardiac arrest due to severe magnesium deficiencies.

Conclusion

Cardiovascular-Kidney-Metabolic (CKM) Syndrome is a massive problem because modern medicine’s approach is wrong and dangerous. Natural medicines shine here. Magnesium, iodine, bicarbonates, CO2, and hydrogen/oxygen therapies are just the beginning of a superior protocol to treat CKM syndrome.

Everyone agrees that lifestyle modifications are necessary. Dietary changes (e.g., adopting a heart-healthy diet), regular physical activity, weight management, and smoking cessation can significantly impact all components of CKM syndrome.

Research shows strong links between ultra-processed food consumption and increased risks of cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, anxiety, depression, and other severe health conditions.

If the pharmaceutical industry were honest, it would admit in shameful self-indictment that modern medicine has failed to come up with literally any pharmacological mechanism to prevent, treat, or cure diabetes, and that is the principal reason for all the amputations, creeping kidney disease and many other complications including atherosclerosis.