Personal Note + Dangers of Cardiac Stents

Personal Note: This is a chapter from my book in progress, Natural Cardiology. It highlights a pivotal point, a choice, a fork in the road between the most common heart surgery, with its ‘normal’ inherent dangers and medications, and a new, more natural approach. It is conceded in the field of cardiology that placing stents does not cure atherosclerosis, though they can restore a quality of life.

The new approach, conveniently applied at home, is the ultimate cholesterol chelator. It strips cholesterol right out of the plaque. Cholesterol and calcium are what hold vascular plaque together. Read Finally, Safe and Effective Answers to Arterial Plaque and Cholesterol.

Five months ago, I was an emergency heart patient determined through a catheterization diagnosis. Two cardiac arteries were almost completely blocked. The doctor said I needed urgent care, but was put on a waiting list. After my sister, who is a nurse, saw my tests, she was surprised they had even let me out of the hospital. However, the doctor went on vacation, and then the hospital went on strike. So, by the time they called me 3 months later, my Natural Allopathic protocol was helping enough for me to ask to be put on the end of the waiting line again.

Then Cavadex came six weeks ago, and after just three weeks into treatment, they called again to put the first stent in. Not only did I decline, but I asked to be taken off the list. I decided this with no doubt or fear. The Cavadex works for me, opening up my circulation and allowing me to exercise increasingly more.

Though approximately 100 million Americans need access to Cavadex, the FDA is blocking its entry. If Kennedy and Trump were serious about making America healthy again, they could start by making Cavadex widely available and get 91 million Americans off of Statin drugs. They could do the same with chlorine dioxide and DMSO. And national campaigns to get the public on magnesium, selenium, and iodine. If these substances were widely used, America’s health would undoubtedly improve.

Will they do this? Probably not, because it would break the back of the pharmaceutical/industrial complex, which depends on people being sick. It will not be easy to facilitate fundamental changes in the world of health and medicine. The experts will disagree with everything that makes sense. Look at all the trouble they are giving Kennedy over water fluoridation.

“The FDA uses its power to prevent people from having access to treatments that may help them, but that would not be very profitable, or which might otherwise go against the interests of the agency’s industry benefactors. We witnessed this in the extreme during the past few years, when the FDA and the rest of the regulatory establishment waged war on COVID-19 treatments such as hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, and even Vitamins C and D,” writes the Brownstein Institute.

Dangers of Cardiac Stents

In the US and Europe, 500,000 patients have stents placed for chest pain, but there are a lot of questions about whether the devices alleviate pain. More than 2.2 million stents are performed worldwide on an annual basis. One in 50 stent patients will experience serious complications — such as a heart attack, stroke, bleeding, or even death. Stents don’t come without risks. On a world scale, that means 44,800 patients will suffer from these severe side effects.

A stent is a tiny tube that a doctor places in an artery or duct to help keep it open and restore the flow of bodily fluids in the area. Stents help relieve blockages and treat narrow or weakened arteries. Putting a stent into an artery is a procedure known as a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or angioplasty with a stent. During PCI, doctors will insert a catheter into the artery. The catheter has a small balloon with a stent around it on one end. When the catheter reaches the point of the blockage, the doctor will inflate the balloon. When the balloon inflates, the stent expands and locks into place. The doctor will then remove the catheter, leaving the stent in place to hold the artery open.

Unfortunately, a stent can cause blood clotting, which may increase the risk of heart attack or stroke. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute states that about 1 to 2 percent of people with stented arteries develop a blood clot at the stent site. HealthLine adds that the same institute estimates that people with stents may still experience a 10 to 20 percent chance of blocked arteries. Depending on the diagnostic criteria, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) causes periprocedural myocardial infarction (MI) in 5% to 30% of cases due to distal plaque embolization, side branch occlusion, and other mechanisms. Stents are not entirely foolproof.

One doctor sees the principal danger of stents
as patients become too satisfied with the symptom
relief and thus not making vital lifestyle changes.

PCI is one of the main procedures for cardiac patients, which, in most cases, helps improve their quality of life, reduces symptoms of myocardial ischemia, and improves ventricular function, thus helping increase the survival rate of sufferers. It can also, however, lead to physical consequences, including kidney failure, acute myocardial infarction, and stroke.[i] It also has psychological consequences, such as stress, anxiety, fear, and depression.[ii]

Dr. James C. Roberts says, “It is not unusual for individuals to experience chest tightness post-stent placement in the absence of angiographic narrowing. Stent placement leads to endothelial dysfunction and a nitric oxide deficiency that can compromise coronary perfusion. There is also the issue of microvascular ischemia. Other mechanisms may also be playing a role here. HC has post-open stent angina that resolved with four weeks of CD.

PCI carries a risk of complications, which include:

• bleeding from the catheter insertion site
• an infection
• an allergic reaction
• damage to the artery from inserting the catheter
• damage to the kidneys
• irregular heartbeat

In some cases, restenosis may occur. Restenosis is when too much tissue grows around the stent. This could narrow or block the artery again. A decade ago, researchers published a study in the New England Journal of Medicine showing that stents did not improve patients’ mortality risk or cardiovascular disease outcomes.

Dr. David Brown, a Washington University School of Medicine cardiologist studying the effects of stents for a decade, said, “[Stenting stable patients] is based on a simplistic 20th-century conceptualization of the disease,” he said. “It’s like the artery is a clogged pipe, and if you relieve those blockages, the water will flow freely.” But this study suggests most patients’ pain symptoms may actually be coming from disease in their smaller blood vessels, not from blockages in the large coronary vessels that are always the targets for stents, he added.

While a stent may relieve symptoms, such as chest pain, it is not a cure for other underlying issues, such as atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. Even with a stent, a person with these conditions needs to take steps to prevent further complications. While a stent may provide relief, it is only one part of a treatment program. Even with a stent, severe complications can occur.

“The failure of stent implantation to reduce the risk of death or myocardial infarction (MI) compared with medical therapy reinforces current concepts of the underlying pathophysiologic characteristics of atherosclerosis as a diffuse arterial inflammatory disease that gives rise to vulnerable plaques, the disruption of which leads to coronary thrombosis, MI, and death. Lesions most prone to rupture tend to have the least hemodynamic consequence. In contrast, the obstructive lesions that are stented to treat angina or ischemia are paradoxically less prone to rupture. The current findings fail to support theories suggesting that PCI reduces mortality by improving myocardial blood flow or stabilizing vulnerable plaque in patients with angina or by improving left ventricular remodeling or electrophysiologic stability in patients with an occluded artery following MI. The loss of the earlier mortality benefit associated with an initial PCI strategy is likely due to the widespread incorporation of potent anti-platelet and anti-atherosclerotic therapies into medical regimens, leading to a substantial reduction in cardiovascular mortality over the past 20 years.”

Today’s stents feature different drugs that minimize the risk of both complications, although anti-clotting pills are still necessary. Restenosis is most likely to occur during the first three to 12 months of receiving a stent. The artery can be reopened with a procedure similar to the original stent placement, although doctors sometimes need to use a tiny drill or laser to cut through the obstruction. Bypass surgery is another possible option; it involves creating a new route around the blocked artery with a blood vessel taken from the chest, arm, or leg.

The typical communication from doctors is that the risks of heart stents may sound severe, and they are, but they do not approach the risks of open-heart surgery. For people who can safely avoid undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery, angioplasty stents offer an effective treatment for advanced coronary artery disease and heart attack. With a faster recovery time and lower risk of complications than open-heart surgery, you can emerge from a cardiac stent procedure quickly and move forward to enjoy your life again.

Summary of Key Problems with Stents

Stent Thrombosis: Stent thrombosis is a serious and potentially life-threatening complication that can occur at any time after stent placement. It is classified into three types:

Acute: Occurs during the procedure or within hours.

Subacute: Occurs within 30 days post-implantation.

Late: Occurs one year or more after placement, often associated with drug-eluting stents. This condition can lead to myocardial infarction or death and is frequently linked to premature cessation of dual anti-platelet therapy.

Restenosis: Restenosis refers to the gradual re-narrowing of the artery inside the stent. This can occur due to excessive cell growth over the stent surface, leading to blockage and potential chest pain or heart attack.

Coronary Perforation: This immediate complication occurs when a balloon or stent causes a tear in the arterial wall, significantly increasing the risk of mortality within 30 days of the procedure.

Device Embolization: A rare complication where parts of the stent or other devices become dislodged during the procedure, potentially leading to further vascular issues.

Longitudinal Stent Deformity (LSD): This issue arises from newer stent designs that may lack sufficient longitudinal strength, leading to protrusion into the lumen and increased risk of thrombosis due to malposition.

Infection: Although rare, infections related to coronary artery stents can lead to severe complications such as coronary perforations and mycotic aneurysms.

Other Procedural Complications: Additional complications may include coronary artery dissections, myocardial ischemia, acute kidney injuries, strokes, and arrhythmias.

Allergic Reactions: Some patients may experience allergic reactions to materials used in stents or medications administered during and after the procedure.

[i] Baptista V.C., Palhares L.C., de Oliveira P.P.M., Silveira Filho L.M., Vilarinho K.A., Severino E.S.B., Lavagnoli C.F.R., Petrucci O. Six-minute walk test as a tool for assessing the quality of life in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting surgery. Rev. Bras. Cir. Cardiovasc. 2012;27:231–239. doi: 10.5935/1678-9741.20120039. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

[ii] Fatima K., Yousuf-Ul-Islam M., Ansari M., Bawany F.I., Khan M.S., Khetpal A., Khetpal N., Lashari M.N., Arshad M.H., Bin Amir R., et al. Comparison of the Postprocedural Quality of Life between Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery and Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: A Systematic Review. Cardiol. Res. Pract. 2016;2016 doi: 10.1155/2016/7842514. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]