Rethinking heart disease: A revolutionary shift underway

 by: Edit Lang, staff writer | May 28, 2024

(NaturalHealth365)  For decades, the medical establishment has viewed cardiovascular disease as primarily a heart problem.  But a groundbreaking new advisory is shattering that outdated paradigm.

The American Heart Association (AHA) has unveiled a radical reconceptualization that places heart health at the nexus of obesity, diabetes, and kidney disease.  This holistic “cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome” perspective represents a seismic shift in how we understand and combat the #1 killer.

Heart health’s radical rethink: Obesity, diabetes and kidneys rewrite the rules

Heart disease can no longer be siloed as a distinct condition. The inextricable links between the heart, kidneys, metabolism, and weight demand a radically integrated approach to prevention and treatment.

According to the advisory, one in three U.S. adults has three or more risk factors for cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, and kidney disease.  This advisory unleashes a shockwave that will reverberate across every sphere of Western medicine and public health.

Naturally, holistic healthcare providers have been talking about this topic for years!  In fact, Jonathan Landsman (creator of NaturalHealth365Programs.com) has been at the forefront – featuring these leading doctors and researchers – in many of his online health programs available here.

Take a look at the NaturalHealth365 Programs diagram below to view a simple graphic that outlines what Western medicine is finally beginning to realize is the truth about cardiovascular disease.

Escalating stages reveal new pathways

The audacious new blueprint divides the syndrome into five escalating stages, from ideal health (Stage 0) to full-blown disease with kidney failure (Stage 4). At each stage, it prescribes screening regimens and interventions previously unimaginable in their scope and ambition. Can you imagine your doctor testing not just your cholesterol but also your kidney function, blood sugar control, waist circumference, and social determinants of health?

At Stage 1, merely having excess body fat or prediabetes would trigger nutritional counseling and weight loss goals.  Stage 2 brings more aggressive approaches for blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol regulation.

Predicting your cardiovascular destiny

That’s just the beginning. The advisory advocates newly updated risk calculators to predict an individual’s 10- and 30-year likelihood of heart attack, stroke, and heart failure, an unprecedented multi-component revelation of an individual’s overall cardiovascular destiny.  Brace yourself for a future where health data convergence produces personalized, predictive scorecards.

But the revelation runs deeper than new tests and stats.  It’s a paradigm shift that forever explodes the siloed thinking around individual conditions.  It is an astounding re-centering of obesity, diabetes, and kidney disease as accomplices, not just risk factors, in cardiovascular crime.

Restructuring the medical universe

The audacious plan calls for a wholesale restructuring of how doctors are trained, how they collaborate across disciplines, and even how health systems are paid.  Fundamental, radical, seismic – no term seems too hyperbolic for the scale of change now set in motion.

Make no mistake – this isn’t just another advisory suggesting lifestyle tweaks.  It’s a shock-and-awe campaign to mobilize the entire medical-industrial complex for a revolution in cardiovascular thinking and practice.  This is a decisive turning point after years of trench warfare against heart disease.  The battle lines have been obliterated, with heavy casualties for longstanding dogmas.

The rallying cry

Bold, audacious, and thrillingly overdue, this advisory is the stuff of paradigms crumbling.  The only question is whether the medical establishment can match the Heart Association’s courage and vision.  The revolution has been sparked – will the troops fall in line?

The herculean next steps are investing in the required research, partnering across stakeholders, and transforming medical education and payment models.  The American Heart Association has sounded the rallying cry for a fundamental rethink of heart health.  We can only hope the rest of the medical world is ready for the shock of the “new.”

Editor’s note: Find out how to naturally and effectively eliminate the threat of cardiovascular disease, kidney problems and metabolic syndrome, own the Cardiovascular Docu-Class created by NaturalHealth365 Programs.

Sources for this article include:

Heart.org