Expert: Glen Aukerman, M.D. - 6/26/2010

Question
Hey Doc, My dad and I will review your answer to this email together, thanks a lot.


My dad's South Asian (high risk i know), 50 years old, diabetic, and has has heart problems (I'm his 19 year old son). 10 years ago he had a heart attack and from it developed ischemia. He lowered his cholesterol now to about 5 (it was off the charts when he had a heart attack).

Recently, he started to get very short of breath and angina. Now, he had to undergo triple bypass and is on his third day of recovery. When he recovers my dad, along with me, wants himself to get into the best shape of his life because the bypass is not a 'cure' it just prolongs another 'build up' in his arteries.

The problem is I want to know how to make put him at the LOWEST RISK POSSIBLE since he is Genetically prone to heart disease (AGE, RACE, GENDER) and cholesterol which is supposed to account for 80% of his cholesterol. Can this predisposition to heart disease be fought?

QUESTIONS

What does he need to do after his recovery to get into Incredible shape? Push himself doing lots of cardio? Can he bodybuild/weight-train, does that help or hinder? (He is already very active and always working outside, but still has clogged arteries, but he does not extra cardio daily.) Will a big lifestyle change help much? What would this change consist of in detail?

Since eating only accounts for 20% of cholesterol, does he need a durastic diet change avoiding fatty foods? He does take omega 3-6-9 pills.

Also, in his bypass recovery he is in terrible pain and cannot breathe when he lies down. This is partly because his blood pressure won't go over 99/54 at max. Is this normal? What can I/he do to make him feel better?

He is also very concerned about his scar, what are the best things to do to minimze scarring and can it be laser treated later on??

Thanks a lot. Please answer as much as you can. I'm very concerned and when he is ready he plans to become a incredibly fit if it is safe to do so...but we need some direction.

Thanks, Roshan.

Answer
Not so simple since your trying to block the ill effects of his diet and life style.

Fixing that is not so easy, so we improve those every day at our NutriGenomic center but it is not so simple as you are requesting a description of, see www.medicalcenter.osu.edu/go/integrative
Since it looks nutrigenomic, ask for antigliadin and TPO antibody test for gluten, calcium, magnesium, vit D, intact PTH to confirm mineral depletion if less than 80% and intact PTH greater than 14% ,plus avoid latex-like proteins in foods, plus too much plant oil in diet produces and increases monocytes over 5% so see www.medicalcenter.osu.edu/go/integrative
new book soon, Looking for Answers

It involves losing the seeds, nuts, flax, soy, and their products, plus avoiding the latex in bananas, avocados, figs, kiwi, celery and 8 other foods, plus avoiding poultry, farm fed fish and so much more, soon to be published in the book form called Looking for Answers, by Wooster Publishing company