The plaque that I am talking about is the plaque that builds in the inside or your arteries specially the coronary arteries because of fat intake, lack of exercises, too much sugar ,stress ,ect is this plaque reversible if you eat good food ,if you exercise, if you reduce stress ,or is there any other way known to man to reduce this plaque without taking medications. I believe medications all have a side effect.
Atherosclerosis will probably prove to be reversible, but at this point, the medical community has not found a way to reliably do so.
Most of the treatments that are currently utilized including dietary modification, exercise, and medications are not directed at reversing plaque but at halting its progression and prevention of future events such as heart attacks.
The fact is that several of the medications that are used for patients with coronary atherosclerosis are proven to decrease the long-term risk of death, heart attacks, heart failure and strokes even though they do not reverse the plaque that is already there.
Only one medication has had a study that suggests the POSSIBILITY that aggressive cholesterol-lowering may reverse plaque to a VERY SMALL DEGREE.
That is a recent study (ASTEROID study) using Crestor, although the same affect could probably be achieved with other drugs in the same class.
Coronary stenting can reduce the amount of stenosis in a particular segment of a coronary artery if it is so tight that it is causing problems.
However, what is actually being done is that the plaque is being squished and the vessel is being stretched to allow normal flow, so the atherosclerosis is not being reversed per se. Some people have pushed chelation therapy with EDTA as a miraculous cure for atherosclerosis.
I would be ecstatic to find a treatment that can successfully eliminate plaque without any invasive procedures, but unfortunately, chelation with EDTA is not the answer. There has been a lot of unsubstantiated hype about the success of chelation, but absolutely no well-designed clinical trials that have demonstrated any such effect. Currently, the data that has been used to support such a treatment has lacked a control group for comparison and has been unstandardized.
Believe me, if there were any shred of evidence that this treatment were actually effective, the insurance companies (which carry a HUGE clout) would never agree to pay for bypass surgery and stents when (supposedly) such a cheap and effective alternative exists! Their primary goal is to make as much money and spend as little of it as possible!
It is true that medications frequently carry some degree of side effects, but it is important to weigh the risks and benefits.
Would I be willing to take a drug with minimal side effects if you told me it would reduce my risk of having a heart attack by 30% or more? Absolutely!
Nobody should ever take a medication without good reason because of potential toxicities, but that is not a reason to shun them altogether.
I recommend that you talk to your physician about your questions in more detail.