This post is courtesy of a mentor, forever instructor (Functional Medicine University), and an example of what healthcare should be, Dr. Ronald Grisanti D.C., D.A.B.C.O., D.A.C.B.N. M.S. 

As a reader you have learned that elevated fibrinogen, hsCRP, a CT heart scan and homocysteine are among the many known risk factors for progressive heart disease.

It now turns out that there is a blood test that is an even a better indicator than any of these, especially if they are all normal. The test is simple and inexpensive and readily available and reliably shows the level of cardiovascular risk you are at.

For one, this test can show if you need bypass surgery or an implantable defibrillator, and whether even without any symptoms, if you are headed for heart failure.

What is so sad is even the most prestigious medical facilities like Cleveland, Mayo, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, etc. as well as from practitioners who claim to practice alternative, state-of-the-art or advanced medicine rarely if ever check this life-saving test.

The test? BNP.

It stands for brain natriuretic peptide, mainly because it was first discovered in the brain over 10 years ago. It is actually a hormone made in the ventricles of the heart which is the main pumping muscle of the heart.

It is a well-established marker for the diagnosis of heart failure and a predictor of death in people who have stable coronary disease with no symptoms and are told that they are “doing just fine”

What is most important is there are no drugs that can fix it, only nutrients.

Research shows that people with a level of over 400 are eight times more likely to die in the next 1-5 years than folks with levels under 100 ng/liter.

As noted above, the test is commonly used to diagnose heart failure,  however, it turns out BNP can show if the heart is suffering from ischemia (not enough oxygen delivered to the heart muscle) even though the patient may not be experiencing angina or chest pain or arrhythmia or have any signs of it on EKG, echocardiogram, etc.

No other test comes this close to being as useful a crystal ball since it predicts long and short-term death, independent of other conventional test.

Additional studies show that having a level just over 80 pg/mL of BNP can raise the incidence of death in the next year 5-fold.

And others have confirmed that levels over 500 of BNP can predict risk of heart attack 5-8-fold within the next four years. And rememer this is independent of any other studies, x-rays or blood tests. Remember, these are in people who think they are “stable” and have been told by their cardiologist that they are “doing just fine”.

Even though this crystal ball test has been known for quite a while, cardiologists in general do not use it because (1) first there is no drug to correct it. And the (2) second reason they don’t use it is because they are not trained in what is causing the problem in the first place, just interventions to mask the symptoms. 

Need help?  You know how to find me.

References:

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Rogers Sherry, Total Wellness, Prestige Publishing, April 2013

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Weidemann A, et al, Hypoxia, via stabilization of the hypoxia-inducible factor HI F-1 alpha, is a direct and sufficient stimulus for brain-type natriuretic peptide induction, Biochem J, 409:233-42, 2008