You’re The Cure, September 18, 2017

Dr. Cowan wrote a book that we featured a few months ago entitled, "Human Heart, Cosmic Heart".  In this fascinating interview, Dr. Cowan questions some very core, fundamental ideas we've held about the heart.  We discuss how the heart is more like a hydraulic pump that "pulls fluid" instead of a conventional pressure pump that "pushes fluid".  It turns out this is a key distinction to be made when looking at the root cause of heart attacks.  Other interesting things we discuss on this episode of "You're The Cure" are:
-Most heart attacks don't come from "blocked arteries" as we've always thought.
-The body grows its own "bypass" vessels around these blockages.
-The hardening of the arteries and plaque formation is just a response to a weak artery wall.
-Bypass surgery does not decrease the chance of a future heart attack or death, it just relieves chest pain.
-The root cause of heart attacks appears to be a mitochondrial issue: the inability to make energy in the heart muscle cell.
-The sympathetic nervous system being turned on (aka Fight or Flight) is the underlying issue that causes the mitochondria to not be able to make energy.