Cardiovascular Disease

This course highlights the documented risk factors for coronary disease and other forms of cardiovascular disease and provides attendees with the most current data on how to establish a client’s 10-year risk for heart attack. This medically-accepted assessment process enables the practitioner to assign each client to one of the following categories:

• Very high risk
• High risk
• Medium risk
• Low risk

Based upon the risk category, the practitioner can then set ideal goals for specific blood markers such as Total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, Triglycerides, Homocysteine, Glucose, Fructosamine, Creatinine, Albumin, INR etc., that are known to significantly reduce the client’s risk profile for a coronary event.

The practitioner of orthomolecular nutrition has many tools at their disposal to improve the patient’s overall risk profile through appropriate dietary, exercise and supplementation interventions, many of which are ignored, or taken lightly, by traditional medical practitioners. At the same time, orthomolecular practitioners must be aware of the common medications used to manage these risk factors to prevent placing the client at risk from the stand point of drug-nutrient interactions or nutrient-drug interactions (from inappropriate dietary recommendations).

This program will provides students with all relevant information addressing these issues and will explain the mechanism of action behind all dietary, exercise, supplement and medication practices pertaining to this subject matter. The assessment protocol outlined in this presentation should be applied to each new patient/client, regardless of their chief complaint, as coronary disease remains a leading cause of death in our society, with majority of risk factors modifiable via evidence-based natural interventions.

Learning Objectives:

1. The student will develop an in-depth understanding of the pathophysiological events that lead to atherosclerosis, both on a genetic level and dietary/lifestyle level.

2. The student will have the skills to conduct an evidence-based cardiovascular risk analysis on each patient under their care, with the capability of providing the patient/client and the patients’ medical physicians with a CVD risk factor analysis report.

3. The student will have the skill necessary to develop an evidence-based cardiovascular dietary and lifestyle plan to complement any medical intervention, which can help to improve multi-faceted aspects of cardiovascular risk (i.e. cholesterol, blood pressure, inflammation, etc.)