A New Way Forward
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in developed countries.
Atherosclerotic coronary artery disease is the commonest form of cardiovascular disease accounting for around one third of mortality from all causes in people over the age of 35. As many of the developing nations adopt more affluent lifestyles, we are seeing increasing rates of cardiovascular disease in those areas. There are numerous studies now confirming that atherosclerosis begins very early in life.
What is Atherosclerosis?
Atherosclerosis is defined as the deposition of fatty substances, inflammatory cells and mediators in the sub-endothelial layer of blood vessels, eventually leading to thickening and hardening of medium to large sized arteries. Atherosclerosis has a very long pre-symptomatic phase, often lasting decades. Common clinical manifestation of Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease (AVD), such as acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina, stroke or sudden cardiac death, usually occur following the rupture of a large plaque in the blood vessel wall. It is very unusual for these events to occur as part of a slow, progressive obstruction in an artery (a common misconception).
Management of Cardiovascular Disease
The conventional management of cardiovascular disease is the combination of lifestyle modification, along with orthodox pharmaceutical therapy, typically statins, blood thinning and other drugs. There is also no real argument that the best management of cardiovascular disease is prevention. Most conventional doctors, however, would dispute the benefits of supplementation. I would like to present an alternative view on what I believe to be the best, evidence-based natural substance available for adjunctive cardiovascular therapy.
BergaMet
BergaMet, the commercially available natural supplement sourced from the juice of Bergamot oranges grown on the Southern Ionic strip of Calabria, (Italy), has now been in clinical use for the past four years. I personally have had experience with well over 4,000 patients and have been involved in a number of publications with my colleague Professor Mollace, who has headed the seminal research on what I believe to be the most powerful natural product I have had the opportunity to use in my thirty years of practising cardiology.
The Cholesterol Debate
The recent vigorous debate, about the place of cholesterol, saturated fat and statins in the causation and management of cardiovascular disease, has raised some interesting questions as to the most effective forms of therapy. Firstly, my position regarding statin therapy is that this group of drugs does have an established place in the management of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease with a very strong evidence base. Statins, however, should not be used in people at low risk for vascular disease purely because they have elevated total cholesterol. In my practice, I utilise a risk management strategy to determine whether pharmaceutical therapy is necessary, over and above lifestyle management and the appropriate use of supplements such as BergaMet. In my experience, a significant number of patients experience significant side effects from statin therapy especially when used in the long term and anywhere between 5-10% of patients in the real world (not in the very carefully selected randomised control of clinical trials) are completely statin intolerant. It is my opinion that BergaMet represents a viable adjunct to enhancing statin effect and, at times, is an alternative for statin intolerant patients. Professor Mollace and I have a published paper clearly showing an enhanced benefit on the lipid profile when adding BergaMet to a lower dose of statin compared with double the dose of statin alone. (1)
Good and Bad Cholesterol
Another major misconception amongst the general public, and many members of the medical profession, is that LDL cholesterol is the bad cholesterol and HDL cholesterol is the good cholesterol. It is, in fact, specific sub fractions of both LDL and HDL that have detrimental effects
- Small dense LDL cholesterol is in fact the pro-atherogenic component
- Small HDL is the pro-inflammatory component
BergaMet (and not statins) shift cholesterol (in almost all cases) from small dense LDL to large buoyant LDL and from pro-inflammatory HDL to anti-inflammatory HDL (small to large HDL). Again, the Mollace group has published data, supporting this benefit of BergaMet. These important clinical benefits have not been shown consistently with statin use. (2)
Metabolic Syndrome
Related to this important LDL and HDL sub fraction effect, is the overall benefit on the very common Metabolic Syndrome, which has now been shown to effect over 70 million US citizens, 6 million Australians and 15 million citizens living in the UK. Metabolic Syndrome is characterised by a tendency to:
- Type II diabetes,
- Hypertension,
- Dyslipidaemia, which is characterised by elevated total cholesterol and triglyceride and low HDL
- along with the increasingly common issue of Abdominal Obesity.
These four factors all lead to premature cardiovascular disease. There are associations of Metabolic Syndrome, which include fatty liver and gout. The recent Mollace study has also shown benefits for fatty liver and previously shown positive benefits in reducing all aspects of metabolic syndrome. My own clinical experience of over 4,000 patients has mirrored all of the above benefits. BergaMet has also been shown to have a beneficial effect on maintaining “healthy endothelial function”. (3)
“BergaMet, the commercially available natural supplement sourced from the juice of Bergamot oranges grown on the Southern Ionic strip of Calabria, (Italy), has now been in clinical use for the past four years. I personally have had experience with well over 4,000 patients and have been involved in a number of publications with my colleague Professor Mollace, who has headed the seminal research on what I believe to be the most powerful natural product I have had the opportunity to use in my thirty years of practising cardiology.”
Dr Ross Walker
Dr Ross Walker’s conclusion
It is therefore my medical opinion that BergaMet should be used in:
- All patients over the age of fifty to maintain normal arterial function and flexibility.
- In all patients with Metabolic Syndrome.
- All patients on statin therapy, to be able to achieve the same lipid values but run the statins at a lower dose.
- All patients who are statin intolerant, as an alternative to maintaining healthy LDL and HDL sub fractions.
- All patients at low risk for vascular disease who have lipid abnormalities.
It is important to note that the only clinically researched, scientifically proven form of bergamot polyphenols is BergaMet, which is 38% Polyphenol extract. All other bergamot derived products on the market are 25% Polyphenol extract & have no scientific validation. In conclusion, it is my opinion that BergaMet is the most important natural substance for the prevention and management of cardiovascular disease that has been available over the past thirty to fifty years.
