Whether we’re talking about the kidneys, brain, or heart, all organs are fed by blood vessels. These vascular highways require maximum support and are important for overall health and wellness. In this episode, Dr. Doreen Saltiel, Medical Director at Peak Health and Wellness PLLC, dives deep into our blood vessels and how we can keep them healthy. She breaks down the importance of the endothelium, glycocalyx, and the fundamental things we can do to help nourish them, particularly the use of Arterosil. She also addresses what occurs when these structures are neglected and how this neglect can lead to cardiovascular disease. With extensive experience and expertise in cardiovascular medicine, Dr. Saltiel provides great information and biohacking strategies to support our blood vessels. Don’t miss out! Tune in and enjoy this great conversation between two powerhouse heart doctors.

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Arterosil: Maximum Support For Your Blood Vessels With Dr. Doreen Saltiel

I am here with another episode of the shoe where we bring you the best information from the best and the brightest guests. You’re in for a real treat because we’ve got Dr. Doreen Saltiel, a medical doctor who is in Asheville, North Carolina like me. She runs a holistic cardiology practice. Dr. Saltiel received her medical degree from New York Medical College before completing her internal medicine residency at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio and then a cardiology fellowship at Walter Reed in Washington, DC. She also received her jurist doctorate from the University of Missouri in Columbia.

She practiced cardiovascular medicine for fourteen years in the Army. She was also the Chief of Cardiology. Following her years as an interventional cardiologist, she practices functional cardiology, preventive cardiology, and total functional medicine. She focuses a lot on hormones and whatnot in her practice in North Carolina.

She was the Chief Medical Officer for Genova Diagnostics. Genova Diagnostics is one of the best diagnostic laboratories in the world, providing in-depth information as we all try and look for the cause of why people are sick. I remember Genova when they were still Great Smokies Lab. That’s when my wife introduced me to them years ago.

Dr. Saltiel also teaches at A4M, the American Academy of Anti-Aging. Anti-aging isn’t the title, and that’s very important, but it also is about the root cause medicine and finding out why people are sick. She trained in metabolic cardiology as I did as well. You’ve written so much. You’ve authored papers and so much information. You’ve taught so many students and so many other doctors. It is a pleasure to have you on, Dr. Saltiel.

Thanks. Call me Doreen.

You got it. As they say, “Call me whatever you want. Don’t call me late for any meal,” because I love to eat food. I understand food is medicine. What is your dietary approach, and where did you formulate that approach? I assume you did not learn it in your extensive medical training and your years at Walter Reed as a cardiology fellow. They weren’t teaching you about nutrition, were they?

I learned most of it through my own and reading about the Mediterranean diet, the paleo diet, and then all the different diets and figuring out what would work best for my patient population as well as myself. I am more of a paleo with some healthy carbs because the gut microbiome requires resistance to feed the intersite. I lean more in that direction with healthy fruits and vegetables.

We’re going to dive into that area of the blood vessel, the endothelium, and the glycocalyx. We’ll talk about that a little bit. One of the fundamental things that help to nourish the endothelium or the lining of the blood vessels is sulfur and sulfur-rich foods. Correct me if I’m wrong. Animal foods are loaded with sulfur. We, as humans, need sulfur and the animals need sulfur as well. If we eat healthy animals, we’re going to get those benefits.

I agree as long as they’re healthy animals.

We agree to agree on that one, so point for us. I never ever consume anything that is not free-range, grass-fed, or grass-finished. What we’ve been eating mostly is free-range American bison that are prairie raised. They’re field-slaughtered, so they’re not marched off to some kind of kill facility. They’re killed in the field very quickly by gunshots. If there is an ethical way to kill an animal, it is that. Because of that, it’s the best meat.

We never eat anything that’s conventional, which is full of moldy grains, full of GMOs, and full of pesticides. It’s not right spiritually in that area as well. In your teachings that you teach and you talk a lot about this particular area of the blood vessel, talk to the audience about the endothelium and the glycocalyx and what it is and why it’s so important.

What I try to explain to young physicians or physicians who are not well-versed in the cardiovascular arena or patients is that we think of two things. If we think of a football team and a football, the glycocalyx is the front line of football team and the endothelium is the quarterback. Nitric oxide, which is an important signaling molecule as well as necessary for vascular tone and an anti-inflammatory molecule, is the football.

If you don’t have a strong frontline or a healthy frontline in that football team, your quarterback or your endothelial cells are not going to be able to do their job. We, for years, talked about endothelial dysfunction as being the first step in cardiovascular disease or atherosclerosis when in reality, it’s a violation of the glycocalyx. If you violate the glycocalyx, that’s where you are prone to getting endothelial dysfunction. That’s when you lose that healthy signaling. That’s when your quarterback can’t throw that football.

What I explain to people is that you have to have a healthy frontline, a healthy quarterback, and a good quality football in order to keep the cardiovascular system or the blood vessel healthy. It’s systemic-wide. Whether we’re talking about kidneys, the brain, or the heart, all organs are fed by blood vessels. These structures are important for overall health and wellness.

I love that analogy of a football field, the quarterback, and what all that means. Also, football as far as how important nitric oxide is a fantastic analogy. As you’re talking about what leads to coronary artery disease, vascular disease, and hypertension, I didn’t hear you mention in this whole thing that people suffer from statin drug deficiency. I didn’t hear you mention the good cholesterol or the bad cholesterol. How do cholesterol and LDLs and HDLs fit in this conversation involving the glycocalyx, the endothelium, and ultimately cardiovascular disease?

We know that cardiovascular disease is a chronic inflammatory disease. You and I knew this in the ‘90s when Peter Libby wrote about this. I, as an interventional cardiologist, said, “I fix arteries. I don’t have to read about this.” Fast forward, and here we are. It’s what drives glycocalyx degradation and all of the cardiovascular risk factors, whether we’re talking about insulin resistance in diabetes, high blood pressure, or oxidized LDL.

It’s not just any LDL. It’s the bad LDL. It’s the oxidized LDL and the glycated LDL, which most commonly comes from glucose and elevated glucose. I’ll take you back to that that drives glycocalyx degradation. That’s been proven in the literature. When we add stress to it and toxins, all of those things are going to damage that glycocalyx. Despite the fact it’s easy to damage, it’s also easy to repair. It’s prone to be damaged, but it’s to be repaired.

You and I met. We’ve run in similar circles and stuff like that. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say I’ve trained with some phenomenal interventional cardiologists. I never got the sense from those interventional cardiologists that they were ever interested in why there is so much coronary artery disease, why there are unstable plaques, or why coronary artery disease forms. I’m envisioning you. You’re in the cath lab and fully draped with lead. You’re doing the procedures and putting in stents. Where did this epiphany moment start for you to think, “Why are people developing coronary artery disease and going after the causation?” What was the start of it for you?

I was still an interventional cardiologist and putting stents in. Despite everything I did, they had restenosis. I used to say to people, “See me now and see the bypass surgeon later or see the bypass surgeon now and see me later.” It was at that point that I said to myself, “I am missing an entire box here. My toolbox is only half full.”

When I read the studies and some of the studies on dietary intervention, stress, and obesity, I said, “I need to take a different approach.” That was when I started doing A4M. It was when I said I need to do something different. That’s when I met Mark Houston. At that point, I said, “I’m going into cardiology rehab to learn about the root cause and understand the whys behind it.”

You can never make a declarative statement when you’re in law school. If you do, you always have to ask why. I started asking, “Why do you have hypertension? Not to have hypertension, here, let me give you an ACE inhibitor. Why are you tachycardic? We both know that a high heart rate is an ominous finding in patients. Why is your heart rate elevated? What’s driving all of this?”

When I shifted the paradigm, patients got better without stents. Patients got better without 97 medicines. I still tell people, “You cannot out-supplement a bad lifestyle. I can give you all the supplements in the world, but if you don’t sleep, don’t moderate your stress, and don’t do a healthy diet, it is not going to make a difference.” That was the epiphany for me.

You cannot out-supplement a bad lifestyle.

The reality is in the early 1900s, medical training has been controlled by the pharmaceutical industry. That’s all well-documented in many different books from Marcia Angell, the former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine. On and on, people are talking about this. It’s unfortunate because generations of cardiologists like us didn’t receive that training. It’s not because they’re not brilliant. You’re a brilliant physician and I’ve trained with so many others who are in that category as well, but it’s all that they know.

It’s like if someone said to me, “Can you come to help me with the plumbing in my house?” I would be like, “I don’t know anything about plumbing,” and they would look at me like I was a total idiot. It’s not because I’m an idiot. It’s because never been trained in plumbing. We were never trained in nutrition and causation.

Also, too, is that when people are critical of us. I’m very out there on social media. When people would say, “You’re a pusher for snake oil and supplements,” it’s like, “I do push supplements and snake oil.” There is some data about the benefits of snake venom, snake oils, and stuff like that. That being aside, you would agree there is a time and a place for modern medicine. Let’s push it toward the end of the game as opposed to the beginning. Let’s eat well, live well, and think well. Like your time at Genova, let’s do the most advanced testing in the world, then use evidence-based supplements which I don’t have to tell you.

When Dr. Mark Houston talks, a medical doctor out of Vanderbilt University, he’s not putting up fluff. He’s not saying, “Go eat the bark of a cactus,” or, “Go off on some crazy tangent.” It all comes from the medical literature that the medical doctors, unfortunately, are not reading because they’re not trained to read that. We test and don’t guess evidence-based supplements.

Doreen and I throw in other biohacking strategies, and that can be red light therapy, cold therapy, saunas, or IV. Let’s talk about supporting the glycocalyx. Let’s dive into the product that you and I both utilize. Let’s talk about Arterosil and how that can be utilized to help supercharge that glycocalyx and the endothelium.

There are newer products. There are a lot of products coming on the market about the glycocalyx. The reason I lean towards this product is that it’s evidence-based. When you look at the literature, the vegetables from the Mediterranean diet are what Arterosil is. When you look at the literature on this green algae, there is some good literature out there on how it supports the glycocalyx, how it mitigates some of the cardiovascular risk factors, and how, in and of itself, even if the glycocalyx is damaged will be the offensive line. It will protect that endothelium.

They’re not large, randomized controlled trials because nobody can afford those. Let’s be realistic. What matters with observational studies of real human beings in a non-controlled setting is how we practice day-to-day so you got to take the totality of the literature. This product is unique in its components because there is good literature behind this little green algae. We know the data behind the Mediterranean diet and the Predmet studies. Together, in addition to all the things that we do, it will heal the glycocalyx. It will support the glycocalyx. It will mitigate those chronic inflammatory risk factors that drive glycocalyx degradation.

When I first heard about the product, I’m like, “It must contain plenty of sulfur to help heal that glycocalyx.” The glycocalyx is these hair-like projections. What is interesting is the sense of when we think about the glycocalyx, we think about this seaweed-like barrier that’s swishing around on the bottom of the ocean floor. It’s protecting the bottom of the ocean floor and all the things that it would potentially do. That’s exactly what this product is. It’s a seaweed product that helps to support that glycocalyx or those hair-like projections that are swishing around protecting the inside of the blood vessel. When you do that, you’re as good as gold. What clinical conditions do you like to use Arterosil?

I use it both in patients with documented vascular disease, those who are at high risk for vascular disease, and those who have other inflammatory diseases that a lot of people wouldn’t think place them at risk for cardiovascular disease. Those are patients with rheumatoid arthritis, coeliac disease, and autoimmune disease. Remember, blood vessels feed every organ. What you and I both know and whether our audience knows is that patients with rheumatoid arthritis have one-and-a-half times increased event rate for the same population of patients, they’re the perfect group of patients.

I use it in a lot of reproductive-aged men and women who are going through IVF. It’s because what they have shown is that this Hyperstimulation syndrome that occurs when you give IVF damages the glycocalyx. It’s a very diverse product that if you remember, every organ has a blood vessel that can be used to support health and well-being. If you ask me who I don’t use it in, I can’t even think of anybody with who I don’t use it in.

There’s no contraindication outside of the obvious, like allergy to the components of the actual product and read the label and decide if you’re allergic to any of those individual components, which I haven’t seen personally. It seems to be good for anybody and everybody including people who are on anticoagulants. I’m not aware of any data that says people who are on Eliquis, Xarelto, Pradaxa, and Warfarin need to avoid it. If anything, personally, without making any claims here, it helps to lower the risk of cardioembolic events in people with hypercoagulability or certainly people even with atrial fibrillation.

People who I see that I don’t think qualify for anticoagulants are people who don’t want to take anticoagulants. It’s one of the strategies that I use on top of eat well, live well, think well, and test, don’t guess. The supplements will be helpful because the glycocalyx and the endothelium that resides in the atria, the ventricles, and the left atrial appendage are right there. If you make that area super slick, if you make that area Teflon or the outside of a fish, to go back to that seafood analogy, then nothing’s going to stick to the outside of a fish.

I agree with you. I use it with everybody. The studies show it is immune-modulatory and have similar or as good anticoagulant properties as heparin does.

I’ve never seen any bleeding complications. Have you seen anyone have any bleeding issues with Arterosil?

No. I see plenty of patients on whether it be Plavix, Eliquis, or any one of those things. I don’t stop it at all even in my diabetics who I may use an increased dose because of their microvascular issues and their total body inflammatory burden.

In general, the dosing is one cap two times per day. You talk about increased dosage. When do you reach for two caps two times a day?

In patients who initially have vascular disease. I may back it down when I see patients that have claudication and they’re not candidates for peripheral vascular surgery for whatever reason. It could be they have small vessel disease in their coronaries but they still have angina. Those are the people I bump that dose for a couple of months and then back it down.

There’s no downside to doubling the dose except for financial. You say, “The product is not cheap.” I like to say this, too. If the product does what we believe it to do including some of their data about arterial plaque reversal and we can stabilize the plaque and reverse the plaque, what would that be worth to the pharmaceutical industry if we could prove it in massively large trials?

You pointed out the funding required to do that. If you look at some of the original statin data and some of the big statin trials, those were hundreds of millions of dollars spent on that, which is not going to happen here. To your point, many people certainly with vascular disease and diabetes could benefit from the increased dosing.

I know you do a lot of hormones. You see a lot of people, men and women, with erectile issues and erectile dysfunction issues including women with erectile dysfunction issues as it relates to the female genitalia. The literature on nitric oxide support shows maybe some benefit in there and also with Viagra and drugs like that in women. Let’s stick to the majority. We can talk about men in general. What are you seeing as far as men with erectile dysfunction? I know you get this question often, “I’m spending this money on Arterosil or any of these supplements. How do we know it is working?” Talk to me about ED. Talk to me about how we know if the product’s working.

Let’s start with ED. It does benefit those with mild ED. In patients who have severe ED, it benefits them, but it takes longer to see a benefit because they have such significant microvascular disease. As Graham Jackson said, “Erectile dysfunction is a cardiovascular disease until proven otherwise.” That is one way it helps. The other way, I see blood sugars coming down. I don’t see people getting hypoglycemic, but I see blood sugars coming down. I see blood pressure coming down. I see diastolic blood pressure and systolic blood pressure.

You and I both know the small trial that was done out of Mark’s lab. I don’t think it was long enough to see the effects on systolic blood pressure, but there was a trend in it decreasing. I’ve seen it come down where patients can get off their anti-hypertensive drugs. Their lipids get better. Their LDL particle number gets better. Those are the things I point to in patients.

I measure oxidized LDL. I show them that their oxidized LDL number goes down and it’s mainly because they have less glycated oxidized LDL. When I show patients this, they’re more than willing to spend the money. You can always do an EndoPAT and show them that their EndoPAT gets better. If you and I are talking to the average doc who may not have fancy EndoPATs or any of those fancy equipment, they can use good old skills, and then I’ll see C-reactive protein come down. I look at inflammatory markers and all the things that I know Arterosil works on. Some take a little longer depending on how well the patient participates in the activity.

For the conventional cardiologist, and I’m sure you’ll agree, life is a lot easier as a conventional cardiologist. Somebody comes in and they see you again. They’re in the midst of a heart attack. You do an angiogram and angioplasty stent and they go home on five pharmaceuticals. It is very stressful and heroic, the work that you did in the cath lab, no doubt, but your decision tree was super simple. You now get into our space. We’re talking about, “These are the foods. This is the lifestyle. These are the thought processes. This is the most advanced testing in the world. These are all the supplements and biohacking strategies.”

The question of, “How do we know something’s working?” is the whole program of what we do is working. These are not things that we’re doing in a silo compared to, “Here you are now. Now, you take a statin drug. Here are your numbers later, and then you can decide whether or not it’s working.” What we do is we’re doing all of these different things. The endovascular arterial, endothelial health, and glycocalyx are part of the whole process. Ultimately, it is, “Do your numbers look better? Do you feel better?” We then know the whole program is working with Arterosil part of that whole program.

The most important thing I say to them is, “How are you feeling?” Most people say, “I feel that,” when they participate in all of the things you talked about. You and I both have patients who want a pill. A pill’s not going to fix anything.

A pill is not going to fix anything.

You after many years in your career in conventional and myself after many years in conventional, we don’t have time for the people that are like, “I want to take the Arterosil.” Think about this. We don’t want people to show up in the emergency room and like, “Who’s your cardiologist?”’ They’re like, “Dr. Doreen Saltiel.” They’re like, “She is a phenomenal cardiologist from Walter Reed and trained years in the cath lab. She is a tremendous interventional cardiologist. She then heard about causation and went off the deep end. That’s why you’re here because she wasn’t doing XYZ on you.” We don’t want that. You have to follow the whole system.

What I would say is eat well, live well, think well, test, don’t guess, and evidence-based supplements. The data that we have on Arterosil as far as the supplement space is pretty impressive when you look at these clinical trials that we do have that show efficacy. It’s a very exciting time for natural cardiology in general and having products in our wheelhouse to use like Arterosil.

I agree.

It was a pleasure speaking with you about this topic of endothelial health and glycocalyx. For anyone who wants more information about you, where can they find you?

My email is DSaltiel@YourTotalVeinCare.com.

I appreciate you being on. Everyone else, this is another episode of the show. We’ll see you next time.

Important Links

• Dr. Doreen Saltiel
• DSaltiel@YourTotalVeinCare.com
• https://Shop.NaturalHeartDoctor.com/products/arterosil?_pos=1&_sid=e3edcd39b&_ss=r

About Doreen Saltiel

Doreen Saltiel, MD JD FACC: Dr. Saltiel received her medical degree from New York Medical College before completing her internal medicine residency at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas and subsequently a cardiology fellowship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. She received her juris doctorate from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

She practiced cardiovascular medicine for 14 years in the Army, and her Army service culminated at Fort Gordon, Georgia where she served as the Chief of Cardiology and the Southeast Regional Consultant in Cardiovascular Disease. Following 20 years as an Interventional Cardiologist, she practices Preventive/Functional Cardiology and functional medicine.

Dr. Saltiel served as the Vice-President, Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer for Genova Diagnostics and is currently the Medical Director of Peak Health and Wellness in Asheville, NC. Dr. Saltiel has received multiple teaching awards and continues to teach and mentor physicians. Dr. Saltiel has also been chosen as a 2022 and 2023 Top Doctor and has been awarded lifetime membership into the Continental Who’s Who Registry as a Pinnacle Professional Member.

Dr. Saltiel has had extensive training in, and has written multiple white papers on, hormone health in both men and women. During 2020-2022, Dr. Saltiel served as a member of the CardioServe Research Panel of the American College of Cardiology and currently serves as a consultant for Biote Medical, LLC; Calroy Health Sciences; and the Metabolic Code.

Dr. Saltiel has coauthored multiple peer-reviewed hormone-related papers and has been a coauthor on abstracts presented at the 2021 and 2022 North American Menopause Society’s annual conference (NAMS).