Do You Need To Have Surgery To Stop Your Snoring?
In some cases, common remedies for snoring are just not going to solve the problem. There are cases where the only way to stop snoring is to undergo surgery.
There are a number of types of surgery to stop snoring and the right one will depend on your body and the underlying reason for your snoring.
The type of surgeon you would consult to find out what your best option is would be a otolaryngologist. They specialize in the ears, nose and throat. Unfortunately, many insurance companies consider snoring surgery a cosmetic procedure and don’t cover the costs.
LAUP
One of the most common types of surgery for snoring is uvulopalatoplasty, otherwise known as LAUP. In an LAUP procedure, a laser is used to cut away the uvula (the dangling tissue at the back of your mouth) to reduce its contact with the throat.
If your snoring is caused by the uvula partially blocking your airway, this surgery will often help.
Somnoplasty
Another type of surgery commonly used to help with snoring problems is radio frequency tissue ablation, or RFTA. This is done under the trade name “Somnoplasty” and was only recently approved by the FDA.
RFTA is another way of reducing the size of the uvula, minimizing its contact with the throat. With RFTA, multiple sessions may be necessary before you see results. Because it is so new, there is not a lot of data published on it yet.
Another recent procedure is known as Coblation-Channeling. This methods uses radio frequencies to reduce the size of tissue in the airway, which may be obstructing your breathing. This is even newer that RFTA, however, so there is not much data published on it yet either.
Repose
Yet another recent procedure is called tongue suspension, going under the trade name Repose. This type of surgery keeps your tongue from falling back and blocking the airway during sleep.
A small screw is inserted into the lower jaw bone and stitches are placed below the tongue. This helps to keep the tongue in place at night.
The last procedure we’ll look at is nasal deviation surgery. Blockages in the nose or a deviated septum can cause restricted breathing and lead to snoring. This surgery helps to remove those blockages.
An interesting side effect of this surgery is that it also helps to improve your breathing during the day. For that reason, it is often covered by medical insurance policies.
As with any serious procedure, you need to get professional advice before considering anything. Talk to a health care professional about your snoring to get an informed opinion of the best choice of treatment for you.
John Lenaghan writes about snoringsolutions.org/snoring-surgery.php snoring surgery and other snoring related topics on the Snoring Solutions website. For more information visit snoringsolutions.org snoringsolutions.org.
The Health Benefits of Colon Cleansing
Colon cleansing is an excellent way to improve your health and lose weight naturally. It has also started becoming quite popular in recent years because it can have such a positive effect on your overall health, and there are excellent home remedies and diets which can help you lose weight quickly using colon cleansing techniques.
Colon cleansing isn’t for everyone, and if you’re new to the concept it may seem a bit gross and strange. In general though, there are two common ways to do a colon cleanse: The first is to use enemas to flush toxins and waste out of your colon; and the second is to use herbs, recipes and remedies which cause your body to flush itself out naturally via standard elimination methods.
The best form of colon cleansing is a personal choice, but the fastest results often come from using enemas because they can clean your entire system out with just one or two applications.
Using herbal laxatives, teas, and supplements to cleanse your colon takes a bit longer to do, but tends to be much less messy and embarassing. There are however, herbs and teas which can have similar effects as enemas, so things can still happen quickly using these methods.
The colon is the human body’s waste disposal system. The waste that it moves out of your body contains harmful toxins, disease causing bacteria, and sometimes even parasites.
Human waste does not always move very quickly through the body though. In fact, due to today’s eating and activity lifestyle choices, most waste takes quite a long time to move fully through and out of your body. And the longer it takes to move through, the more time it has to “leak” those toxins and bacteria into your system.
By cleansing your colon, you’re helping your body to get rid of that waste and all the health hazards it contains more quickly. Thus there’s not enough time for it to start causing general health problems with the rest of your body.
Now there are some very simple formulas, recipes and products which can help you with colon cleansing. Home made lemonade is one of them. In fact, there’s even a lemonade diet which works quite well at both colon cleansing and causing quick, sometimes drastic, weight loss.
The lemon diet is more of a juice fast than anything though, and many people aren’t able to go without food for major lengths of time. You don’t have to use the lemonade diet to cleanse your colon though, you can do that simply by drinking 6-8 glasses of real lemonade each day. This helps your body eliminate more waste when you use the bathroom, and that of course is the goal of colon cleansing.
Epson salt is another natural option to use for cleaning your colon, and the recipe is quite simple. Mix a tablespoon of Epson salt with a quart of warm water, and drink it all at once. Stay close to the bathroom for about two hours though, because you will need it desparately.
Another easy colon cleanse option is to simply buy herbs and supplements. One specific herb that works quite well by is chlorophyll. Depending on how strong of a dose you take, the colon cleanse can happen just as quickly and dramatically as it does when using epson salt.
A less dramatic yet all natural way to cleanse your colon is to simply get more fiber in your diet. You can do this by eating more roughage such as salads and green leafy vegetables, or you can take a fiber supplement as well.
There is much more than can be written about the benefits of cleansing your colon, and all natural ways to go about doing it yourself from the privacy of your home. The above tips and information should be plenty to help you get you started though, and on your way to a much healthier, happier you.
If you’d like to simply give your colon a great cleanse a few times each year, one easy way to do this is to use a 1healthybody.com/almighty-cleanse-capsules.htm seasonal colon cleansing system. For more information on getting an excellent, all natural seasonal colon cleaning system which works in just 7 days, please visit 1healthybody.com/almighty-cleanse-capsules.htm Almighty Cleanse now!
Can Mesothelioma Be Treated?
Mesothelioma cancer is a very dangerous disease that can attack some vital organs in the human body, it can attack the lungs, “not the lungs itself but the layer that surround the lungs”. It can also attack the abdomen especially the layers surround the organs of the abdominal cavity. It can attack the sac of heart “the pericardium” and cause malignant tumors in those areas.
The diagnosis process would be very difficult for two facts, the first fact is the very long time of tumors to appear, the tumors take from 25 to 50 years to appear and be recognized. After diagnosis has been achieved, doctor can begin the treatment plan instantly. The second fact is the high similarities between the symptoms of mesothelioma and other diseases.
The treatment plan of mesothelioma cancer can be divided to three options, the first and the most effective option is the surgery in which doctors will remove the tumors from the affected area. With pleural mesothelioma “lung membrane cancer”, doctors may remove one of the two lung as a result from the high prevalence of tumors.
The chemotherapy treatment can be a very effective option, it can be a very strong treatment after the surgery to finish all remain cancer cells. So, doctors will use this option in a combination with the surgery to make a good treatment plan.
The radiation therapy is also can destroy the cancer cells, it can also be a secondary treatment after the surgery. Doctors can use the available options to make a good mix and help the patient get an effective treatment for his/her meothelioma case.
Learn how to treat mesothelioma: [http://environmentalproblems.us/2009/01/mesothelioma-treatment-options]
Asbestos Exposure Topics: [http://environmentalproblems.us/topic/asbestos-exposure]
The Leading Causes of Mesothelioma
What is mesothelioma and how does one get it? When you learn and understand mesothelioma causes, you will know how to avoid this condition and if you already have been diagnosed with it, it will help you determine what may have caused it. For many years, people were unaware of what caused this type of cancer. We now know that 9 out of 10 cases are caused by exposure to asbestos.
Asbestos is a natural mineral that is mined from the rocks in many countries. People who worked in mines were often exposed as well as people who worked in construction because asbestos was used in insulation for homes and buildings. Asbestos fibers are very tiny but strong as steel and can be woven similar to cotton and are resistant to chemicals and to heat.
Prior to around the 1980s, asbestos was commonly used in homes for many different uses. It was also used in construction and ship building. Then it was discovered that when the asbestos is damaged, it releases these tiny fibers that get into the lungs and make it difficult to breathe. These fibers build up in the lungs and cause inflammation and fibrosis. In some cases, this can also lead to cancer in the lungs.
It was in the 1960s that we first began to make the links between asbestos and mesothelioma. In addition to causing lung problems and possible cancer, the fibers from asbestos can be swallowed and this causes problems in the digestive system as well.
Some people and professions that may have been exposed to asbestos. Examples of professions include construction workers, boilermakers, electricians, plumbers, demolition workers, shipbuilders and people who lives or worked with people in these profession or people who lived and worked in places where asbestos was made. People who lived or worked in buildings that had asbestos in them are also at risk. If any of these conditions match you and you were diagnosed with mesothelioma, it was probably caused by this asbestos.
Family members of people who were exposed to asbestos are sometimes affected if the person came home with asbestos on their clothing and bodies. There are rare cases where people have developed this type of cancer and have not been exposed to asbestos. The exact cause of this is unknown but it has been linked to some cases of radiation exposure.
This cancer can appear from 10-60 years after your first exposure to asbestos and this is what made it so long to discover what was causing most cases. There are still people who were exposed years ago that may have yet to have been diagnosed with cancer but it doesn’t mean they don’t have it or won’t get it in the future. Mesothelioma takes time to develop and the more your exposure to asbestos, likely the more severe your symptoms may be.
Mesothelioma is not contagious and it is not spread through coughing, eating or drinking after another person or in any other common way. If someone you know has this type of cancer, you can’t catch it from them. There is also no research to show that smoking cigarettes increases your risk of developing mesothelioma. However, if you have already been diagnosed with it, you will likely be advised to stop smoking as it can make your condition worse.
Regardless of what causes your disease, the diagnosis and treatment processes will likely all be the same. However, it is good for many people to try to determine the cause of how they obtained their mesothelioma and in some cases, you may even be able to start a lawsuit against the place that you were exposed in if the exposure occurred after the public had been made aware of the danger. You will need a mesothelioma lawyer to help you with this and you will need to be able to prove your what caused your cancer.
The Mesothelioma Bible provides valuable information about mesothelioma causes [http://www.mesotheliomabible.com] and other health topics. Please visit The Mesothelioma Bible at [http://www.mesotheliomabible.com]
Ayass Lung Clinic PLLC San Angelo, TX
Ayass Lung Clinic PLLC www.localedge.com watery eyes, lung disease, pulmonary diseases,Asthma, sleep center, 3g allergy, sneezing
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Histopathology Lung –Chronic pulmonary congestion
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President Obama’s Health Care Summit
President Obama held an unprecedented live discussion on health care with Democrats and Republicans. POLITICO Senior Editor David Mark tells us what came out of the Summit.
Heart Problems
In the last newsletter, we worked through the anatomy of the heart — primarily to lay the groundwork for this issue. By using what we learned in the last issue, we can now explore:
Things that can go wrong with the heart.
Medical treatments.
Limitations that may be inherent in some of those treatments.
What you can do to change the equation.
Incidentally, if you haven’t read the previous newsletter, Anatomy of the Heart, you might want to do that now. It’s not absolutely necessary, but it will make for a more rewarding experience as you read this newsletter.
Problems of the epicardium
As you may remember, the epicardium is the lining that surrounds the heart muscle — inside and out. On the inside, it’s called the endocardium, and on the outside it’s called the pericardium. Let’s start our discussion of heart problems by looking at the epicardium — not because it’s the most important part of the heart, but because it’s a simple place to start and lets us dip our toes into the subject before plunging into deeper waters.
Problems that can occur with the heart lining pretty much fall into two categories
Physical damage.
Inflammation caused by infection.
Physical damage is easy to understand, and usually easy to repair. You’re driving in your car, you get into an accident. You’re slammed against the steering wheel or an airbag. Your body stops suddenly but your heart, powered by inertia (an object in motion tends to stay in motion) keeps moving forward and tears the pericardium that holds it in place before bouncing back and coming to rest. This causes bleeding in the pericardial sac, which serves as the buffer between the heart and the chest wall and lungs. The extra fluid (blood) pumps into the sac under pressure which expands the sac, thereby squeezing and constricting the heart. If the pressure isn’t relieved, it can build to the point where it constricts the heart so much that it prevents it from beating. Herbs and neutraceuticals are not much use here. Fortunately, medical intervention tends to be easy and effective in these situations. A catheter inserted into the sac to drain the excess blood and relieve the pressure will usually do the trick — along with stopping the bleeding.
Inflammation (known as “itis” in medical terminology) is a little more complex. The primary cause of inflammation of the heart lining is infection, both viral and bacterial. Depending on which part of the lining is affected, it will be called pericarditis, endocarditis, or epicarditis. The inflammation can cause chest pain, difficulty pumping, or fever. These symptoms can be mild, acute, or even chronic. Standard treatment includes the use of antibiotics and antivirals. These are “usually” effective unless the underlying infection is resistant to the arsenal of drugs at your doctor’s disposal, which is a growing problem. Fortunately, there are natural alternatives including garlic, olive leaf extract, oil of oregano, grapefruit seed extract, etc. that can work even in the case of drug resistant infections.
Problems with heart valves
Also, as we discussed last issue, your heart valves are constructed like parachutes with tendons or cords anchoring them to the heart muscle to keep them from opening too far. Their role is to allow blood to flow down from the atria into the ventricles, and then to seal shut when the ventricles pump so that blood doesn’t back up into the atria, but is instead forced out into the main pulmonary artery from the right ventricle or into the aorta from the left ventricle. Problems with the valves are easy to understand and fall generally into two categories.
Backflow, or regurgitation, is caused by misshapen or damaged valves or ruptures to the tendons that hold the valves in place. These things cause the valves to imperfectly seal with each heartbeat, thus allowing backflow into the atria.
Stenosis, or hardening of the valves, caused by disease or aging prevents the valves from fully opening. This limits the flow of blood into the ventricles so that they cannot fill completely in the fraction of a second the valves are open. Since the ventricle chamber is now partially empty when it pumps, it generates less pressure with each beat, which ultimately reduces the amount of blood that flows through the body.
There can be multiple causes for both problems.
- Either you were born with a problem. This can be genetic or it can be the result of nutritional problems in your parents’ diet (either before you were conceived or while you were gestating).
- Over time, as a result of aging and poor nutrition, the valves shrink and change shape.
- Infection has caused the valves to inflame so that they no longer seal perfectly.
- Diseases such as rheumatic fever and syphilis have scarred and hardened the valves.
- Valvular tissue can be damaged in the same way as heart muscle tissue as the result of a heart attack.
- Valve tendons may rupture, which means the valve no longer stays in place when backpressure is created by the squeezing of the ventricles.
The bottom line is that the pumping process becomes less efficient, and your heart has to pump harder and faster to compensate. Treatments can range from doing nothing, to using drugs to reduce infection and inflammation, to surgically replacing the damaged valves with artificial valves.
Doing nothing you might ask? Absolutely! In most cases, that’s what doctors do. Why? The heart has tremendous reserve capacity. Last issue we mentioned that you can have 70% blockage of your coronary arteries and never experience any outward symptoms. It doesn’t stop there. Your heart also has a tremendous reserve pumping capacity and when called upon can increase output 5-8 times if needed. For example, in mitral valve prolapse (a condition in which the mitral valve “falls down”, or prolapses too far into the left ventricle allowing for backflow into the right atrium), there are usually few symptoms or any problems. In most cases doctors will just make note of it and watch for any changes.
On the other hand, sometimes, there are symptoms. These can include:
- That old standby, chest pain.
- Fatigue and/or dizziness.
- Shortness of breath.
- Low or high blood pressure, depending on which valve is affected.
- Palpitations caused by irregular heartbeats.
- Even migraine headaches.
In those cases the valves are often replaced with mechanical valves. At one time, you could actually hear the mechanical valves make a slight clicking sound as they opened and closed 70-80 times a minute. This drove some people crazy when they tried to sleep at night. Newer models have overcome that problem and are silent.
Now you might think since problems with valves are mechanical in nature that nutrition and supplements would not play much of a role in resolving them. If so, you would be wrong. Most medical doctors are not aware of this fact, but there are numerous studies showing nutrients matter — and supplementation can actually change the mechanical aspects of valve function. For example, it has been shown that magnesium plays a role in mitral valve prolapse.
Therapeutic effect of a magnesium salt in patients suffering from mitral valvular prolapse and latent tetany.
Magnesium Deficiency in the Pathogenesis of Mitral Valve Prolapse.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, nutrition and supplementation can play a primary role in maintaining optimum heart health — and even reversing many chronic heart problems. We will talk more about this later; but for now let’s explore problems that happen within the coronary arteries.
Circulatory problems
The first blood vessels off the aorta are the two coronary arteries, which subsequently split off into numerous branches that feed the heart. Blockage of these arteries through the build up of arterial plaque is one of the most common causes of death. The net result is ischemia, which means a “reduced blood supply.” As I mentioned last issue, because there is so much redundancy in the branching of the coronary arteries, you can have up to 70% blockage and yet have no obvious symptoms. At some point, though, you will have a heart attack, also known as myocardial infarction. The myocardium is the name of the heart muscle, and infarction means the “death of tissue.” In other words, a heart attack is the result of loss of blood flow to the heart muscle, which causes death of heart muscle tissue. The severity of the attack is determined by:
Which part of the muscle is damaged. (Some parts are more critical than others.)
How extensive the damage is.
In some cases, people do indeed die from their first heart attack. In most cases, though, the attacks are progressive — with each attack killing more and more tissue until the remaining heart muscle can no longer carry the load. Depending on the extent of the damage, standard medical treatments include:
Drugs, such as:
- Beta-blockers to slow heart rates and decrease blood pressure — thus lowering the heart’s demand for oxygen.
- Nitroglycerin to open coronary arteries and reduce the heart’s demand for oxygen.
- Calcium channel blockers to open coronary arteries to increase blood flow to the heart muscle.
- Angiotensin-converting enzyme to allow blood to flow from the heart more easily, decreasing the workload on the heart.
- Angioplasty uses a balloon inflated inside the blocked artery to press the plaque against the arterial wall, thus clearing the blockage — at least temporarily.
- Stents are like angioplasty on steroids. Instead of just pressing the plaque against the wall of the artery, the balloon is also used to also press a wire mesh against the arterial wall to hold the artery open.
- Bypass surgery involves using a vein (usually taken from the leg) to literally create a bypass around the clogged area of the coronary artery.
Heart transplants.
None of these options is perfect. Angioplasty and bypass surgery (even though they have been in use for years) are actually unproven (for those of you who think everything in medicine is backed by peer reviewed studies). In fact, recent studies indicate that they may actually give only slight temporary relief with no extension of life — not to mention an increased risk of stroke. Both stents and angioplasties (and bypasses too, for that matter) quickly re-plug, a problem called restenosis, and need to be periodically redone or replaced. New forms of stents are coated with drugs to slow down restenosis but come with their own set of problems. Bypass surgery produces a dramatically increased risk of stroke, infection and profound depression. And heart transplants force you to stay on immunosuppressant drugs for the rest of your life.
Far and away the biggest problem with all of these treatments, though, is that they only treat one manifestation of the problem, not the underlying cause — the fact that the arteries are blocking in the first place. It is here that alternative therapies excel — both short term, and long term. For example:
Dietary changes can have a profound impact in reversing coronary heart disease as can a number of supplements.
Shifting the balance of Omega-6 to Omega-3 fatty acids can eliminate a major source of heart attacks.
Hawthorne berries are tonic for the heart, working to support the relaxation and dilation of coronary arteries and increasing the flow of blood and oxygen to and from the heart. In effect, Hawthorne berries work much like prescription drugs, but without the side effects.
Blood Clots
Another aspect of coronary heart disease is the blood clot or thrombus. (If it becomes dislodged and floats free, it’s called an embolus.) In larger arteries, a clot will only impede the flow of blood. In smaller arteries, it can completely block it. Thrombi form most often in the veins of the leg, where they then float off (now called emboli) and end up lodging in and blocking the smaller arteries of the heart, lungs, and brain. There can be many triggers for the formation of clots and emboli, but one of the more interesting is deep vein thrombosis — the formation of blood clots as the result of prolonged sitting in airplanes and cars.
Preventing blood clots reduces the risk of stroke, heart attack and pulmonary embolism. The standard treatment for those at risk of embolisms involves the use of drugs such as Heparin or warfarin (a form of rat poison), which are anticoagulants used to inhibit the formation and growth of existing blood clots.
But these drugs are dangerous and require constant watching and regulating since they can cause internal bleeding. Far safer (and better since they also dissolve arterial plaque and help promote the repair of arterial tissue) are proteolytic enzyme formulations that incorporate specialized enzymes such as nattokinase.
Problems with the heart muscle — the myocardium
In the end, when you’re talking about the heart, it mostly comes down to the myocardium — the heart muscle. The danger of coronary heart disease, for example, is that it starves the myocardium of oxygen and kills it. The danger of a valve problem is that it forces the myocardium to work too hard. The danger of a bio-electrical/conductivity problem is that it throws the heart muscle out of rhythm and causes it to lose its beat, or to fibrillate. (Fibrillation occurs when a heart chamber “quivers” due to an abnormally fast rhythm and can no longer pump blood well. Fibrillation of the atrium is called atrial fibrillation; in the ventricle it’s called ventricular fibrillation. Ventricular fibrillation usually leads to death.) To paraphrase the Clinton campaign in the ’90’s, “It’s all about the myocardium.”
Problems in the atria
For the most part, problems in the atria are not life threatening. Even if both atria totally lose their ability to pump or weaken and balloon out, you lose maybe 30% of your total heart function. Without pumping, gravity and suction will still bring most of the blood down into the ventricles. There are, of course, times your doctor will want to address problems, but for the most part, you can live for years with barely functioning atria.
Problems with the ventricles
Ah, but the ventricles are a different story. When the left ventricle goes into fibrillation, we’re talking cardiac arrest. It’s time to pull out the electric paddles. So what kinds of problems are we talking about?
Myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart, is a form of cardiomyopathy (which literally translates as “heart muscle disease”). The problem here is that blood flows more slowly through an enlarged heart, which increases the likelihood of blood clots. In addition, people with cardiomyopathy are often at risk of arrhythmia and/or sudden cardiac death. When cardiomyopathy results in a significantly enlarged heart, the mitral and tricuspid valves may not be able to close properly, resulting in murmurs. There may be multiple causes of myocarditis, including viral infection. Common culprits include: influenza, herpes, Epstein-Barr, hepatitis, and salmonella.
Ischemic cardiomyopathy is a weakness in the muscle of the heart due to inadequate oxygen delivery to the myocardium, with coronary artery disease being the most common cause. (Ischemia simply means “reduced blood flow.”) Anemia, sleep apnea, and hyperthyroidism can also contribute to ischemic myocardium.
Myocardial infarction literally means the “death of heart muscle tissue.” Since heart muscle does not grow back, this has a snowball effect. If you have a heart attack that starves part of the heart muscle of oxygen so that it dies, that scar tissue does not recover. You now have a weakened heart that is more likely to suffer a subsequent attack — leading to more heart muscle damage and increased chances for a third attack. And so on. It’s not too hard to see where this leads — to long-term loss of heart muscle activity and chronic heart failure.
Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a condition in which your weakened heart can no longer pump out all the blood that flows into it. CHF is the most common cause of hospitalization for people over age 65. It kills more than 50,000 people a year in the US and costs the health care system more than $50 billion per year. The heart is just like other muscles. When it is weakened, it becomes enlarged and inefficient. This leads to congestion and flaccid muscle tone. In fact, it can even lead to prolapse of the heart in which the heart literally “drops” from its original position in the chest. It is not unusual to require a stethoscope placement three to five inches below the normal area when listening to a weakened heart.
Unfortunately, modern medicine comes up short when it comes to problems of the myocardium. Mostly it just deals with the aftermath.
If the heart stops beating, use the electric paddles to get it going again.
If no paddles are near, pop a nitroglycerine tablet.
Perform a coronary bypass to try and prevent any further damage.
Use nitroglycerine tablets to open up the arteries in an emergency and prevent a heart attack.
When it comes to the muscle itself, nothing! But as luck would have it, here’s where alternative therapies shine.
- All of the B vitamins, but especially vitamin B4 are essential for heart health.
- Congestive heart failure has been strongly tied to significantly low blood and tissue levels of CoQ10.
- Supplementation with CoQ10 can literally change the size and shape of the heart.
- Studies have shown that high concentrations of heavy metals such as mercury directly correlate to higher incidences of acute coronary events. Regular heavy metal detoxing directly reduces and eventually eliminates that risk.
- Studies have also shown a direct connection between periodontal disease and acute coronary events. Regular use of avocado soy unsaponifiables, proteolytic enzymes, immune boosters, and pathogen destroyers can reduce the risk.
- Incidentally, electric paddles are not the only thing that can get a heart muscle going again. In an emergency cayenne pepper can do the trick too. A teaspoon of cayenne pepper in a glass of warm water taken every fifteen minutes can raise the dead.
- And in the end, the heart is a muscle, and like all muscles responds to exercise. Cardiovascular exercise, particularly interval training, can improve the efficiency and strength of your heart.
Heart rhythm disorders
The heart is an unusual organ. It has millions and millions of cells, and each cell has the potential for electrical activity. In the normal heart these electrical impulses occur in regular intervals. When something goes wrong with the heart’s electrical system, the heart does not beat regularly. Unlike most organs in the body, all the cells in the heart are wired together so that if a single cell fires prematurely or late, the neighboring cells will be activated and a mistimed wave will travel over the heart. The irregular beating results in a rhythm disorder, or arrhythmia.
To quickly review from last issue.
Every heart beat begins in the sinoatrial node (SA node) located in the right atrium. The SA node is “smart” and adapts to the body’s overall need for blood and increases the heart rate when necessary, such as during exercise.
Electrical impulses leave the SA node and travel through special conducting pathways in the heart to the atrioventricular node (AV, node). The purpose of the AV node is to provide a pathway for impulses from the atria to the ventricles. It also creates a delay in conduction from the atria to the ventricle. This delay allows the atria to contract first, allowing the ventricles to fill with blood before they contract themselves.
The delay ensures proper timing so that the lower chambers have time to fill completely before they contract.
From the AV node, the signal travels down through a group of fibers in the center of the heart called the bundle branch– and then to the ventricles.
So what can go wrong?
Due to natural aging or disease, the SA node starts losing function and no longer produces the right number of signals at the proper rate.
The AV node normally has one group of cells through which the electrical impulse can travel. However, due to aging or heart disease, it is possible for the AV node to develop two or more groups of conductive cells. Because of the extra conduction pathways, your heart can at times beat more quickly than normal.
The bundle branch (see above) becomes “blocked” as a result of a heart attack which damages the inner heart muscle and nerves. This stops the signal from traveling from the AV node to the ventricles. Left to their own devices, the ventricles establish their own rhythm of about 20-40 beats per minute. This is much too slow for health and results in weakness, fainting, and shortness of breath.
Valve stenosis (stiffness) causes increased pressure in the atria (since blood never fully clears) which causes ballooning of the walls of one or both of the atria (aka atrial dilation). Because the atrium is now bigger, it increases the distance signal has to travel. The increased distance means it takes longer for the signal to reach its final destination which throws off the pacing of the heartbeat.
Medical Treatments
Typical medical treatment involves drugs such as adenosine, calcium channel blockers (e.g., diltiazem, verapamil), short-acting beta-blockers (e.g., esmolol), and digitalis.
The other option, of course, is the pacemaker. The pacemaker uses electrodes attached to the heart that take over from the SA node to control the beating of the heart. The pacemaker is run by a small computer installed in the body. Modern pacemakers are externally programmable and allow for the selection of optimum pacing modes for individual patients. Some can even self-regulate and adapt to changing requirements such as stress or exertion. And some combine a pacemaker and defibrillator in a single device.
Drugs and pacemakers work reasonably well at keeping the heart going, but still address the problem after the fact. Keep in mind that in most cases the rhythm of the heart was lost through degradation based on nutrition or disease. Installing a pacemaker does not address that problem; it merely bypasses it. On the other hand, it is possible to reverse many of those conditions nutritionally and thus reverse many of the associated problems.
Alternatives
Mineral deficiencies particularly in calcium, sodium, magnesium, potassium, and many of the trace minerals can have a profound effect on the electrical efficiency of the heart since they are responsible for running it. Supplementing with minerals and liquid trace minerals can make a profound difference.
Supplementing with CoQ10 can significantly improve the energy level of each cell in the heart, thus improving its ability to respond to an electrical stimulus and pass the signal on to its neighbor in a timely manner.
Shifting the balance of Omega-6 to Omega-3 fatty acids can eliminate a major source of potassium imbalance which can trigger heart attacks.
Conclusion
Let’s take a break here, and next issue we’ll conclude our discussion of the heart by exploring what happens in your doctor’s office:
- What tests does your doctor run?
- What do they mean?
- What can you tell from them?
- What questions should you ask your doctor when viewing the results?
For now, though, it’s worth reviewing a key concept:
Although many problems with the heart may seem to be biomechanical in nature and beyond the purview of nutrition and supplements, that’s not necessarily true. As we’ve seen:
- Magnesium supplementation can change the shape and condition of heart valves.
- The B vitamins can help rebuild the heart.
- CoQ10 can reenergize every single cell in the heart and can literally remold the size and shape of the heart after the onset of congestive heart failure.
- The use of Omega-3 fatty acids can reverse damage caused by NEFAs.
- Proteolytic enzymes can provide nutritional support for your body as it works to clean out the coronary arteries and repair damage to epicardial tissue surrounding the heart.
- The use of heavy metal chelators such as cilantro and chlorella can reduce the risk of an acute coronary event.
- Regular supplementation of a tonic made with cayenne and Hawthorne berry can rebuild the strength of the heart.
- Proper dental care and the use of avocado soy unsaponifiables and proteolytic enzymes can reduce the incidence of periodontal disease, which reduces the chances of an acute coronary event.
- Regular use of immune enhancers and pathogen destroyers decreases the risk of most inflammatory heart disease and the incidence of viral and bacterial infections that can adversely affect the heart.
- And regular exercise can strengthen the heart and improve its efficiency even in your eighth and ninth decade of life.
As usual, it’s not just about pharmaceutical drugs and surgical procedures. Following the principles of the Baseline of Health Program can change your heart…and your prospects for long-term survival.
Jon Barron’s Baseline of Health Newsletter and the Barron Report are read by thousands of doctors, health experts, and nutrition consumers in over 100 countries.
Read This Before You Buy Another Pack Of Smokes
Read this fact sheet before you smoke your next cigarette. The health benefits to be gained from quitting, both instantaneously and in the long-term, are too great to be ignored, and so are the dangers of continuing to smoke.
The financial impact smoking has on individuals and on society as a whole continues to become more and more shocking as the actual price of cigarettes steadily rises along with the cost of health care. It’s estimated that nearly $80 billion is spent each year in the U.S. alone on health care costs that are incurred from treating smoking related conditions and diseases.
What You Need To Know Before You Light Up Your Next Cigarette
- Smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths each year.
- It isn’t too late to quit-just minutes after putting out your last cigarette, your circulation, blood pressure and heart rate will have already improved. Just 24 hours later, your risk of a heart attack has dropped. Once you’ve gone just a few days smoke-free, any tissue in your lungs not permanently damaged will begin the process of healing itself.
- 15 completely smoke-free years and your risks of suffering a stroke are no longer significantly higher than those of someone who has never had one cigarette.
- Smoking spikes carbon monoxide levels in the blood, causing chronic fatigue and lethargy.
- Smoking not only causes lung cancer but also cancer of the mouth, larynx, pharynx, pancreas, and bladder.
- Cigarette smoke causes diseases and illnesses such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), depression, diabetes, osteoporosis, and Alzheimer’s disease.
- Sinus congestion or infections, chronic coughing, and shortness of breath will all eventually drastically improve or even completely disappear after becoming a non-smoker.
- Smoking during pregnancy is highly correlated with stillbirth, sudden infant death syndrome, and lower than average birth weight.
Lesser Known facts About Cigarettes
- One in every four men smokes even in the face of these alarming risks.
- Secondhand smoke, or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is linked to 3,000 deaths each year in the United States.
- Smoking decreases levels of fertility in both men and women and also increases a man’s chances of becoming impotent.
- One cigarette contains over 4,000 chemicals including formaldehyde, insecticide, acetone(which you may recognize as nail polish remover) and hydrazine(rocket fuel.)
- 8 out of 10 smokers tried their first cigarette before turning 18.
- People who have beaten addictions to both cigarettes and the powerful narcotic heroin report finding it more difficult to quit cigarettes than heroin.
- Some of the most popular methods people use to try to become healthy and smoke-free include nicotine replacement therapy, such as gums, patches or lozenges, as well as medications including varenicline or bupropion, both of which require a prescription from a physician.
- Every day, nearly 5,000 adolescents under 18 try smoking for the first time.
Brent Crouch is the owner of an internet marketing blog, BrentCrouch.com and StopSmokingEtc.com He has dedicated this site to providing quit smoking support and other stop smoking related topics.