America’s Healthy Heart Doc Reveals the Secrets to Reversing Heart Disease Naturally

Introduction and Detroit Connection 0:00

Well, Doctor Khan, thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate it. Thank you. It's going to be a fun and very important topic. It is. And and I can think of no one else better suited than you to discuss on this. Yet. Before we get into the nitty gritty, it's just fun. Just a stroll down memory lane with you. My alma mater, Wayne State University, where I first cut my teeth in higher education. You're an active professor there. And you, ran. I think at one point you closed. Right. But a wonderful, wonderful plant based restaurant in Ferndale, Michigan.

My old stomping grounds. So we have a lot of hidden. We have a lot of history in Detroit. Yeah, absolutely. And, It's. They say the best two days in the restaurant business. The day you open in the day it close. And I've had the pleasure of enjoying both. I love it, you know? You know, it was great, though, by the way. It was you being there. It was really. It was a nice added touch, you know, it was like. It was like grandpa over there and making sure every. The family was good, you know, I felt like I was in New York City at, like, an Italian restaurant with the owner, you know, like the guy from the guy from from the old country.

But you had a really nice, just homely, family feel. And just. I just say that to say that that's an element that oftentimes we, we, we don't experience because you're brilliant. You have all this experience. You've been able to help so many people. You got to blow everyone's minds today. But ultimately you're a dad, you're a granddad, you're an entrepreneur, you help people. So I just want to thank you for being who you are and being the real deal. My friend. Like, you know, you didn't open up a McDonald's franchise.

You know what I mean? Yeah, no. We did. We do believe in eating whole foods as close to nature as possible. And provided them in beautiful situations as long as we could, but, the best cooking is probably to be found at home. So that's what we do now? Yes. There. So. Well, hey, let's dive right into it. We're going to go right into the fundamentals, and we're going to talk about inflammation and heart disease. And I'm really hoping you could demystify what it is, what it is, and for people why it's so important.

It has been the buzzword, the consistent theme in the interviews of this heart attack and stroke prevention and recovery summit.

Inflammation, Atherosclerosis, and Fibrosis 2:23

So what's your take on this? And and let's, let's start there. Yeah. And you know, my background is 35 years of practicing cardiology, both in the cath lab and stent world and predominantly now in the preventive world. But, you know, the the enemy is atherosclerosis, the creature that causes more pain, suffering death than any other illness in the United States and most of the Western world is hardening of the arteries, stiffening of the arteries, damage to the arteries could be through the brain and lead to dementia and stroke could be through the heart, lead to heart attack.

Symptoms, congestive heart failure and sudden death. Just dropping dead like so many people do. About 350,000 people a year in the United States. Just drop dead, don't get to say goodbye to their loved ones. It's horrible. And it can involve the kidney, arteries and the kidneys and the leg arteries. And it's such a quality of life limiting disease. And there's been efforts for over 100 years to understand why do some species, like a dog, rarely ever develop as the rose grows? Us and humans, we're just sitting ducks for it.

We are so prone to atherosclerosis, and we know there's always a controversy how big a portion is cholesterol disorders, genetic cholesterol or dietary related cholesterol disorders, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, for sure. And an interesting pathway called, advanced glycation end products that are high blood sugar. Great. But amongst the conversation is always inflammation. And that middle word flame, igniting the immune system, which initially may be responding to heal and to help us situate and by activating the immune system and bringing in, the white blood cell warriors, but getting in a situation where it goes wrong and it's now becoming not a acute inflammation to heal, but chronic inflammation, chronic overproduction of, enzymes and factors that can really attack our tissues and chronic inflammation.

And you always have to ask, why is your inflammation the root cause of it? As you practice your, patient care? And Doctor Wolfson does and I do. But chronic inflammation can be measured in the blood and needs to be reversed, for optimal health. So we're going to talk a little bit about novel pathways of, inflammation. You know, people have heard the word I use sensitivity, C-reactive protein as one, blood test and one screening test for inflammation. But we're going to go a different pathway that has profound science and really, well educate, you know, your audience, hopefully, for ways to optimize your health.

So so with that, then what's what's the role of fibrosis and heart disease? Even scarier than inflammation because acute inflammation, you know, you get a a bug bite and it's all swollen, red and painful. And then it goes away in 24 hours. Is reversible, chronic inflammation, as can be measured by a variety of blood tests, can be reversible. You might have to start going to the dentist. You might have to drop weight, change your diet. Get rid of this sugar added in your diet and other factors. Do some exercise and treat your sleep apnea.

And and but fibrosis is scarring. Fibrosis is is permanent destruction of otherwise healthy tissue. And it can be limited or can be widespread. So we know with age one of the biggest enemies is actually the word fibrosis, the scarring of arteries and livers and heart muscle tissue and brain tissue. And of course, if you have a stroke, one of the responses is that the tissue becomes scarred and fibrotic, and you might be able to see that on CT or MRI. And if you have a heart attack, we know that one of the responses is fibrosis and scarring.

That can be seen on MRI the best. But echocardiography, you do not want your tissues to become fibrous. So science has been looking at, you know, why are there specific diseases like idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis where the lungs become horribly scarred, unrelated to smoking or asbestos? But why is there other organs, and particularly the heart, prone to fibrosis? And one of the pathways a little bit different than standard inflammatory pathways is a pathway through, a very interesting molecule called gallic den three galectin three, which isn't just a theoretical conversation, because the minute we get off this conversation, anybody can go to their local quest lab or LabCorp lab and get a blood test for galectin three.

So it's not something that's high falutin science. It has no practicality. People might want to know where they are with this fibrosis inducing, molecule called galectin three. So you know, we'll spend a little time talking about that, I imagine. So just just to kind of fit the pieces together. Inflammation, the root mechanism. Right of of heart disease. What we're talking about here, increasing risk, heart attack and stroke, contributing to fibrosis. Right. Is that the primary key? Right. Considering, you know, damaged arteries ultimately leads to permanent damage and not just in arteries, but actually in the organs, the heart organ, the kidney organ, the live organ.

And that is, you know, scar tissue. None of us would be happy to have an obvious scar on our face, but we should be equally concerned about detectable, chronic, progressive scarring of our organs. And we can measure that. And we have the ability now to work to reverse it and prevent it. And so when that scarring builds up in the arterial vessels, that can affect endothelial function, that can cause plaque buildup. So we're kind of demystifying this concept that it's,

Galectin-3 Testing and Heart Failure Risk 8:51

you know, too much cholesterol in the diet. That's that's the misnomer, because I think if there's anything that you could, you know, wrap that up and then we're going to go to galectin and how to really monitor this and how to evaluate and give people more of an empowerment behind it. I use the word inflammation as the mechanism because it's not the cause. Like what's causing the inflammation to begin with. And everyone on this event has their own take on it and it's all complimentary. I focus on artificial fragrances and phthalates and other things that we know that are easily avoidable in your body care and cleaning products.

So, is there anything you'd like to speak on top and on behalf of that, specifically about things that people need to really think about, maybe outside the box? Regarding inflammation, what they really need is like, what's the what's the biggest bang for someone's buck? Well, number one, I think a message that, hopefully other speakers have talked about too is I use a hashtag on social media test, not guess that unfortunately, most people see their primary care doc. Wonderful people hug your primary care doc.

They're not giving a lot of thanks. They're kind of, not as glamorous as neurosurgeons and, plastic surgeons in Beverly Hills, but they do the same bloodwork. Typically that was done 30 to 40 years ago, and that not with, fitting into the hashtag test. Not guess. So ask or order your own. Now, there's many companies where you can order your own, you know, advance panels of inflammation. And that's really the bottom line if you're high sensitivity C-reactive protein. And my low peroxidase and LP blah two and Adama and these are just alphabet words, but they're all available.

These are all available tests of inflammation and they're spot on. Then you're probably when you look at, you know, diet, weight, sleep, dental, health, fitness, stress management, they seem to be working pretty well for you. And, if you, have, one or a number of those markers, you really gotta dig in deep. I do this all the time. I tell people, yeah, I've been to the dentist in a year, and you got to go ask for, real careful analysis, maybe even, you know, some, referral to a bear down specialist.

But the one that people haven't heard of, in addition to the alphabet soup, is ask your doctor for a blood test called galectin three. I'll spell it again. Galectin three. People might hear in that word the the word lectin. And many people know lectin lectin. Because of the book and the work of Doctor Stephen Gundry and the paradox. And there are lectins that are very therapeutic and very healing and very helpful. Mistletoe is one of them. And, mistletoe is used as a, natural cancer therapy in some clinics.

But there are lectins, and galectin three is one of them that can, ultimately lead to damage, fibrosis and serious disorders of the liver. And in this instance, let's talk about heart tissue and specifically, you know, a serious condition called congestive heart failure. So get yourself tested. My recommendation quest lab, LabCorp, for galectin three, a lectin that is, released in a variety of inflammatory conditions. Cancer, sepsis. Hopefully nobody's dealing with that. That's listening to this conversation.

Certain, arthritis conditions, rheumatoid arthritis, certain skin conditions, psoriasis. But in very serious heart conditions, congestive heart failure. Galectin three is stimulated as part of the inflammatory process. And, probably has some therapeutic and healing advantage early in the game, but chronically, as it elevated, biomarker contributes directly to fibrosis and scarring. And if you had to pick an organ, you don't want to have fibrosis and scarring. You might as well pick your heart, because we know how critical it is for longevity and quality of life, to have a heart that remains as youthful as possible.

And then galectin three beyond causing inflammation and artery damage and scarring of the heart tissue, does do some other things that people should be aware of, like promoting fatty liver disease. Galectin three leading to insulin resistance. Galectin three damaging the kidneys through pathways of inflammation, fibrosis, and actually a very interesting series of studies saying that people that are struggling with their weight very often have elevated galectin three. And, it's worth checking it.

But even more exciting than the ability to check this highly research based, you know, we call it a biomarker lab test, galectin three, and seeing if you're following in the normal range, intermediate range or the, directly abnormal range is we have a very natural inhibitor of galectin three. Now, of course, there's the way we do the exercise. Clean up your diet, get to the dentist, treat your sleep apnea, deal with your skin issues. We're talking always about a holistic approach to health. But what if we could actually block a major mediator of scarring, fibrosis, inflammation, and some of these other, pathologies?

And that's what galectin three is so exciting about, because one of the most interesting natural, products that's available is a great galectin three inhibitor. And walk us through a little bit about, are there any particular things that contribute to galectin three, specifically that people can think from a preventative standpoint? Is there are there certain supplements someone can take? Is there a certain lifestyle shifts? Just wondering. Broad strokes. Yeah. Lifestyle has been studied less. And, you know, and I've stressed a couple of answers here.

That whole range of thought process that a clinician goes through when they're faced with somebody that has blood test, evidence of inflammation, including galectin three, elevation or, you know, otherwise, people sometimes just tell you, I feel inflamed and I've got brain fog and the rest, but, you know, certainly you can just find out by a blood test, at your local lab, if you have, intermediate range or elevated range of galectin three, this important, molecule that we all have, but hopefully we have at a very low level.

But the interesting research, it goes back a couple decades, is that there is a supplement, that is commercially available, that has researched in many studies and is natural. That's what's so interesting about supplements. So it turns out if you take an orange, for example, and everybody loves to eat the, juicy segments that are inside. But what about that white part? You know, that's in the inside of the peel. And we often call that the pectin. And the pectin happens to be loaded with a lot of fiber, and a lot of interesting molecules.

But if we were to ingest, if you were to take a spoon and scoop out that white part of the peel of an orange or a lime or a lemon, it's actually so large that it's not absorbable into the body, maybe that's a good thing. You're going to get fiber, from pectin. And some people actually buy certain pectin supplements for the fiber for constipation and GI issues. But it turns out with a small modification. So now we have to call it modified citrus pectin. The actual molecules of the pectin from a citrus and orange or lemon lime, actually become small and small enough that they can be absorbed inside the body.

So many people have never heard by abbreviation MCP or by forward modified citrus pectin that this is a supplement. It's available. It's been made for, years and years. It's, I think, relatively inexpensive, on the range of many other supplements. It's taken as a capsule, but it gets absorbed because of its small size, the modification process throughout the body. And it is a galectin three blocker. It is a galectin three inhibitor, very low toxicity agent, of course, given the nature of where it comes from, citrus fruits.

And there are many studies in animal models, on serious conditions like sepsis, serious conditions like memory and brain health and brain inflammation in animal models. Again, it's always a bit easier. Very recently, in a rat model of brain inflammation, modified citrus pectin, was tested and found to be very useful to block the fibrosis pathway of galectin three and improving the ways that they measure brain health in this rat model that just was published.

Modified Citrus Pectin as a Natural Galectin-3 Inhibitor 18:18

But that's far from the first study. And where the human data is most exciting is congestive heart failure. There are many studies that acute congestive heart failure. Maybe somebody presents the emergency room short of breath, their ankles are swollen and their chest x ray looks, full of fluid and they respond to diuretics. And if you measure galectin three in that patient, they may be sky high and they're at risk for their heart developing scarring and long term permanent damage. And if you look at the other part, which is called chronic congestive heart failure, just a situation, not in an emergency room, but where shorter breaths up the stairs, difficulty lying flat at night, propped yourself up, you know, weight varying a lot.

Great. Need to watch your salt intake and probably be on some serious prescription drugs if you check galectin three. In chronic congestive heart failure in humans, and you'll find very high levels. And the studies say those patients with acute congestive heart failure and high galectin three, or chronic congestive heart failure and high galectin three are really at risk. I mean, we know those are serious conditions, but some people are in better shape than others. And the biomarker galectin three really identifies the high risk population.

And that's where adding in modified citrus pectin known as paektu sol, which can be bought as a powder that you but scoops in water and drink or can be bought as capsules that you take that way. Rather easy way to get it in. Can block galectin three, can be inhibitor of galectin three and add to the, you know, approach a natural approach to the scarring and the permanent damage of both, acute and chronic congestive heart failure in humans. And, you know, how many humans with congestive heart failure are being treated with practice of modified citrus pectin?

So not a lot. And if, cardiologists and other practitioners were actually going read these studies, I think they'd be impressed. And, it would become more of the approach to it. So that's why we're talking about it, because it is not just a theoretical conversation. It's something we can do. Now, the the other thing I'd say is there's always been data for decades that heavy metals, the the lead, the cadmium, the arsenic, really can accumulate in the heart. There's a famous study where they were doing heart biopsies on humans, and they measured these heavy metal toxins, and they were sky high in the heart tissue in people with weak hearts.

But what do you do about it? And it turns out, modified citrus pectin binds heavy metals. They get trapped in the fiber of this citrus based pectin. And, you know, again, they are absorbed through the GI tract. So they're in the bloodstream and they can bind they're heavy metals in the bloodstream. And that certainly is another approach in my clinic when I determine that somebody has high heavy metal burden, which is so many people nowadays, modified citrus pectin packed us all is part of the approach, to that problem.

And one very well tolerated. I, I want to encourage people here that this is being embraced by the conventional medical community. And as you're talking, I'm just kind of I'm not fact checking, but I'm just exploring, you know, that that's my background as a public health researcher. Folks, this is from the National Cancer Institute. And I quote modified Citrus peppermint Pectin supplement, a dietary supplement containing modified citrus packaging derived from the soluble fiber, such as fruit peels and a galectin three inhibitor with potential antioxidant hypo cluster and low stimulatory metal chelating anti metastatic activities.

I mean, like literally everything you just said was summarized by the National Cancer Institute. And this is no hippie off the wall. Let's let's jump over a stick and haul at the moon. But surely stuff, right? I mean, we get criticized all the time in our world. Supplements, essential oils. These products, if well manufactured, pure and clean, have dramatic effects on the body. And I just wanted to point out just this is very encouraging to me, and I'm so grateful to see cardiologists like yourself embracing this, because this is a much more, holistic approach to our health and integrative.

And I was hoping what you could do is guide us if you have it. I don't want to put you on the spot with, specific protocols per se, but I would love any guidance that you could provide on dosing, as a preventative measure. And also one thing I want to not forget is recovery post heart attack, post incident, post stroke. How would you use modified citrus pectin through both preventative treatment and recovery? If you have experience, I would love to hear that. Yeah, an argument could be made now.

It's not a study that you had been done, you know, would we actually document benefit if everybody took some modified citrus pectin as a longevity agent, as a, approach to dealing with the fact that we're all exposed to heavy metals and other toxins. And, that would be a fascinating study. Those are obviously hard studies to do and probably needs need to be done first in animal models. But in a human, that dose is typically around six capsules of modified citrus pectin daily. And they can be taken all at once.

And again, from personal experience, there's no GI upset or other problems. Why don't we get into disease states? Congestive heart failure, actual chronic inflammatory states, rheumatoid arthritis, concern about brain inflammation and neuroinflammation. Certainly cancer. Sepsis situations in which are not the areas that I treat. But, I've read the literature and discuss it with some of the scientists and galectin three, we may be talking more like 12 to 18 capsules a day. And that's where the powder becomes a little more useful.

You know, once you get past six capsules and many people are taking other supplements at the same time. Yeah. The idea of taking 12 capsules and 18 capsules may, chase some people away. We don't want to do that. So, powder, you know, in a drink is an easy way. Presumably you could even put the powder in a smoothie. The dosing is on. The bottles of packed us all modified citrus pectin. But for most, you know, six capsules a day would be the goal as an add on, as a protector and an inhibitor of this important pathway.

And, Yeah. Well, again, we we've got animal basis to talk about obesity, sepsis, cancer, high blood pressure. I know the audience is sophisticated. They know the word endothelial dysfunction. And there is data about modified citrus pectin improving endothelial function, which, in a population of, people with erectile dysfunction or high blood pressure, coronary disease is important. Now, the holy grail would be and it's always a hard human study is there is some mouse data about modified citrus pectin actually shrinking plaque in arteries.

Wow. That's exciting. So, it waits for somebody with an ambitious and, well funded study to either look at carotid plaque, our heart plaque in humans, and see if we can ever reproduce that. You know, and there are reasons why that might happen. Lowering inflammation, lowering heavy metal burden. But albeit theoretical pathways. But, at this point, that's still theoretical in humans. So, would you, would you recommend that someone, anyone really make this part of their daily protocol? Or do you have to specifically be concerned about something?

For example, I'm thinking multi vitamin people taking their vitamin C just because. Right. How many people are taking calcium just because we could argue those don't have the benefit as they should. But would this be one one of those? Like if you were king of America, would you mandate that this would be in all the kids school lunches? Well, I think from a safety standpoint, you could make a reasonable argument about that, given its origins that I talked about. We're not dealing with a synthetic product.

Allergies with something that's, you know, from a citrus origin would be very low. And, and the rest and the fact that it's been used in humans for years and years and years and years. So given, you know, the the statistic that, you know, 93% of Americans are metabolically unhealthy and probably a lot of listeners, some that are in that 7%

Dosing, Prevention, and Closing Remarks 27:28

that are metabolically healthy, but given that 93% or not, I think an argument could be made if we could control the immune response. Lower excessive inflammation responses help with detoxification, at least of heavy metals and possibly, you know, promote more optimal aging. This would be a real good one. And, you know, you hear, you hear, talk about rapamycin and metformin and the total plasma exchange and some other approaches for wellness and biohacking. Well, I would put this way above the others in terms of ready, a good science basis, and certainly for most of those, much less toxic and, much less expensive.

Well, I appreciate it. And you mentioned this product that I want to share here. And we thank eco eugenics for being a sponsor, helping make this heart attack and stroke prevention recovery Summit possible. You mentioned this all, and I kind of put you on the spot, but that's what they say. They're claiming it's a daily, essential daily supplement support optimal long term health and aging. And I love this. This isn't a sales pitch, y'all, but you mentioned something. There is something really. It's real pill fatigue.

Capsule fatigue is real. And so that's why I'm grateful companies are coming out with chewable stick packs, powders. I myself again, it's hard. I have six and a half, seven babies. It's so easy to put a scoop of this in their smoothie, like, even with kids. So bottom line, it appears that we're looking at dosing you triple the daily recommended dose. If you're dealing with a preventative, or specific treatment issue, for a specific issue. But if you just want to be healthy, like me and you have no, risk factors and consider just following the instructions on the label, this has been great, doc.

I really like the fact that, we can't get this in food. And this is the key. I'm glad you clarified the pectin in the citrus, because my initial instinct was, well, why can't I just put a full orange, for example, in my smoothie and blend it up? But that does it work like that? So these are one of those we could call essential supplements. Because if you cannot get this in the food that you consume, you have to supplement it one way or another. And this appears to be the best way of doing it. So wow, this has been great.

We're we're at time here. I would love to give you an opportunity if you have. And keep on going if you want to go, but I appreciate your I know you're super busy and I know you have patients lined up today. Anything else you'd like to share with everybody? No, I think you hit some high points there. And conclusion one scoop per day is a great maintenance dose, and, it's far less expensive than a cup of coffee at a coffee shop on a daily basis. So it's within reach of everybody to do something for their aging starting today.

That's awesome. Well, folks, get get connected with, our sponsor, Eco Energetics. And also Doctor Con, go to Doctor Joel Klein. Com wealth of information. A lot of great information. You're going to love what he has. He has an upcoming, heart disease summit as well. That you're going to want to get plugged into. And as always, this is Doctor Erickson. Lenski. And I hope and prayers that you and your family truly experience an abundant life. And we'll talk to you soon. God bless. Bye bye.