Cardiovascular and Peripheral Vascular Disease

Cardiovascular disease refers to abnormal conditions affecting the heart and surrounding arteries. It can include coronary artery disease (CAD), myocardial infarction (MI or heart attack), congestive heart failure (CHF), cardiomyopathy and arrhythmias.

Cerebrovascular disease refers to abnormal conditions affecting the arteries and veins that supply the brain. This includes disease of the carotid arteries or cerebral arterial system and can involve cerebral infarct or stroke, transient ischemic attack (TIA), and vascular dementia..

Peripheral vascular disease refers to abnormal conditions affecting the arteries and veins of the extremities, mainly the legs or lower extremities. Conditions that involve the peripheral vascular system include peripheral arterial disease (PAD), claudication, rest pain, vascular neuropathy, and threatened limb loss especially when diabetes is associated. Also, patients may suffer from venous insufficiency and venous stasis, deep venous thrombosis (DVT), superficial phlebitis, and nonhealing venous ulcers. .

The most common disease processes that lead to the conditions listed above are hypertension or high blood pressure (HTN), and abnormal production of cholesterol (hyperlipidemia) that can lead to atherosclerosis and calcified plaque. The one common denominator among all these disease is inflammation. Hypertension can lead to damage that triggers inflammation. Abnormal cholesterol production is usually in response to abnormal inflammation and it is the inflammatory process that leads to the oxidation of lipids resulting in the dangerous calcified/brittle plaques that cause the majority of cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and peripheral vascular disease..

800,000 deaths occur each year from cardiovascular disease.

1 in 3 American adults have at least one type of cardiovascular disease.

Every 25 seconds, an American will have a coronary event with one death each minute.

50% of people that have a cardiovascular disease event have normal cholesterol levels.


The answer is to cardiovascular disease is not to lower cholesterol levels by using drugs such as statins in order to lower or stop production of cholesterol. These prescription medications can lead to serious side effects and in many cases worsen problems such as congestive heart failure and diabetes.
At Oaktree Wellness Center, treatments for these conditions are approached holistically. We implement diet and lifestyle protocols, weight loss, and intravenous vitamin/nutritional treatments as well as intravenous chelation therapy when appropriate, tailoring treatments for each individual patient based upon their unique needs.