Can mild angina be reversed

[KimB68]

With change of diet and lifestyle

[Hidden]

hello depends on the cause of the angina I would think?

For example diet and exercise can’t remove stenosis (which may be affecting blood flow and so brings on angina) that has already built up in arteries but a healthy diet could slow down or stop it getting worse.

But if you have non obstructive related angina, then diet and exercise will help with general well-being but may not necessarily address the underlying cause?

What is the cause of your angina, this might help the more knowledgeable members on here focus their advice for you?

Good luck.

[Hidden]

Try the BHF Heart helpline nurse who will be able to provide professionally qualified advice against your specific angina condition

bhf.org.uk/informationsuppo...

[Chappychap]

If your angina is because of atherosclerosis, ie plaque build-up in the arteries, which is the case for about 90% of us, then the NHS and BHF say no, you can't reverse it. Neither with medication, nor with life style changes.

However, that's not the whole story.

Firstly, even though heart disease/atherosclerosis is both incurable and progressive (ie we have it for life and left to it's own devices it will just keep getting worse), the NHS and the BHF would also say that medication and life style changes are capable of slowing the future progress of the disease to an absolute crawl. Not perhaps in all cases, but certainly in many cases.

Secondly, they would also both agree that even if we're stuck with our plaque we can change its composition. For example there's solid evidence that over time statins can calcify or stabilise our plaque, especially when taken in conjunction with ACE inhibitors like Ramipril. That may not actually reduce our angina, but it can significantly reduce the chance of an individual clump of plaque rupturing, which is what causes heart attacks and strokes.

And finally, there are some authoritative and experienced doctors and cardiologists who claim "autophagy", the natural process where the body pulls apart defective cells and re-uses the parts, can reduce plaque.

This is all still very much at the hypothesis stage, but at the same time many of these people aren't complete crackpots!

However, the methods used to trigger autophagy on plaque can be pretty brutal. Such as regular fasting for at least 36-48 hours. Extended periods of reduced calorie intake (ie months or years at 1500 calories per day). Extreme low carb diets (ie less than 30g of carbs per day). And these are often combined with quite gruelling exercise regimes.

In other words, even if any of this stuff eventually proves to be accurate , it looks like it's a serious case of "no gain without pain"!

[KimB68 in reply to Chappychap]

Wow thanks, great info