Buckberg - Solving the mysteries of heart disease: life-saving answers ignored by the medical establishment

Acclaim for
Solving the Mysteries of Heart Disease

Get ready for a fascinating journey into the realm of scientific discovery in that most complex and storied human organ; The Heart. The Voyage is led by a truly remarkable tour guide; an icon of modern scientific investigation, a scientist versed in art, architecture, dance, and literature with an almost magical command of story-telling.

Herbert I. Machleder, M.D.

Emeritus Professor of Surgery, UCLA

Past Chief of Staff, The UCLA Hospital and Medical Center

Thinking outside the box barely skims the surface of his brilliant mind. Dr. Buckbergs theories have changed the way we practice cardiac surgery.

Marc R. Moon, M.D.

Chief, Cardiac Surgery

Director, Center for Diseases of the Thoracic Aorta

Washington University School of Medicine

a real page turner a fascinating cross between a high-end spy novel and a scientific treatise on the causes of heart disease. Buckberg leaves nothing on the table... and we feel his pain as he explains why some of his most transformative ideas have not yet become mainstream.

Dr. Alan Russell

Highmark Distinguished Career Professor

Director, Disruptive Health Technology Institute

Carnegie Mellon University

At some point, nearly every person or someone they love is touched by heart disease. It occurred with me when my father needed a quadruple bypass and mitral valve repair. As it happens, I married one of my fathers heart surgeons, Brad Allen, who I discovered was also a medical researcher and has collaborated with Dr. Buckberg for over 35 years. He would often tell me of these amazing discoveries coming from this research, but I never truly understood until I read this book. Written in understandable language, it shows how many beliefs we have (and even our doctors have) about different heart diseases may actually not be true, and explains how these remarkable discoveries could literally save thousands of lives.

Jaclyn Smith

American Actress and Businesswoman

Solving the Mysteries of Heart Disease is a memoir, a detective story, and a love affair with the heart. These adventures of Dr. Buckberg are entertaining, but also carry an important message about modern medicine.

Paul Micevych, Ph.D.

Chair, Dept of Neurobiology

Director, Lab of Neuroendocrinology of the Brain Research Institute

David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

a fascinating journey. Getting a wide acceptance of new concepts and innovative treatments is probably as difficult as climbing the Everest Mountain. Courage and tenacity are, among others, the key characteristics of Gerald Buckberg.

Daniel Loisance, M.D.

Professor Emeritus

Former Head of the Cardiac Surgery Department at Henri Mondor Hospital Paris XII

Member of the Acadmie Nationale de Mdecine

This remarkable work chronicles the scholarly and yet deeply personal account of the research achievements of one of our most respected cardiac surgeons. Although written for the general public, practicing physicians would gain a great deal by reading it.

Ralph B. Dilley, M.D.

Surgeon-in-Chief, Scripps Green Hospital, Retired

Clinical Professor of Surgery

UCSD School of Medicine

SOLVING THE MYSTERIES

of

HEART DISEASE

Life-Saving Answers Ignored
By The Medical Establishment

G ERALD D. B UCKBERG, M.D., D.S C.

A special thanks to Jim Novack, a wonderful wordsmith whose contributions helped make this book possible.

www.jamesnovack.com

Copyrighted Material

Solving the Mysteries of Heart Disease

Copyright 2018 by Health House Press. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission from the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

For information about this title, contact the publisher:

Health House Press

ISBNs: 978-0-9998472-0-6 (hardcover)

978-0-9998472-3-7 (softcover)

978-0-9998472-2-0 (eBook)

Printed in the United States of America

NOTE TO READERS

This memoir defines my career as a cardiovascular surgeon and researcher, and uses this background to explain my conviction that answers to major cardiac illnesses exist now, but are not currently used.

The basis of this belief is widely documented by reports of my work published in major cardiovascular journals with worldwide distribution. The stepwise progress from experimental to clinical application has been validated by national and international studies in patients. Each conclusion is carefully reported with clear-cut references. This information is attainable by all physicians, but not appreciated or used due to the rigidity of conventional thinking.

I bring this information to the non-medical public. My stimulus for this action came from the mother of a surgical colleague who watched television news to become aware of an innovative, but little-known treatment. She asked her son (who had never heard of this approach), Why dont you consider this? He was not confined by convention and pursued learning about it.

I hope that readers will ask their doctors to look at this books solutions, whose supportive evidence is furnished by included references. The book does not provide answers for the readers individual treatments, but rather encourages them to bring these concepts to their physicians, whose medical knowledge and professional judgment will guide their response.

This book is independently authored, without being affiliated with or endorsed by the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, where I am a faculty member and cardiac surgeon. Its opinions are mine, and do not necessarily reflect the views of my mentors, teachers, or colleagues that conduct research and cardiac surgery.

Patients stories are authentic, though such individuals have been given fictional names to avoid identifying any real person, living or dead.

FOREWORD

BY JAMES L. COX

Note: James Cox is a distinguished scientist who found a treatment that offsets atrial fibrillation in most patients. He is internationally heralded, since this disease affects over 3 million patients in the United States alone, and is a major cause of strokes worldwide. Dr. Cox is unique in his creativity, and his innovative work has had an astounding impact.

In 2015, Dr. Cox was the recipient of the Scientific Achievement Award from the American Association for Thoracic Surgery. Similar to a Nobel Prize for the profession, this is the associations highest award, and has honored the legends of cardiac surgery, such as Drs. Kirklin, Shumway, DeBakey, Cooley, and Carpentier. Dr. Buckberg was the sixth person to receive this award, in 2007.

Gerry Buckberg is a Level One. Let me explain. Many years ago when my cardiology colleagues at Washington University in St. Louis had successfully created the worlds first and only computerized system capable of digitally mapping the complex cardiac rhythm abnormality called Atrial Fibrillation, our initial data output consisted of a hodge-podge of numbers that made no sense to anybody. During that time, I happened to meet the Emeritus Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pure Mathematics at Cambridge University. During the course of our conversation, he asked me to describe my current research interests and I made the seemingly innocuous statement that I was studying a chaotic rhythm of the heart. With the mere mention of the word chaotic, the old mans ears perked up and his eyes suddenly began to sparkle. He said, Well, you know, my people at Cambridge are the worlds experts on the Chaos Theory! He began to quiz me relentlessly about what I meant by a chaotic rhythm because his group had proven that there is nothing in all of nature that is truly chaotic everything in nature has a pattern to it and anything that appears to be chaotic is simply the result of our own ignorance and inability to discern its underlying pattern.