Cardiovascular diseases; Types, Symptoms, Causes and Treatment

Heart disease, or cardiovascular disease, is responsible for nearly half of all deaths in the United States each year, killing nearly one million people each year, and endangering over 60 million others. Although heart disease is more often thought of as a condition that primarily affects men, it actually strikes slightly more women each year than men (over 52% women compared to just under 48% men). One individual in the US dies of a heart attack every minute, while three people will experience a heart attack during the same time. Despite this grim toll, heart disease is one of the most easily preventable degenerative health conditions, even though conventional medicine has largely failed in this area.

The reason for this failure on the part of conventional medicine is twofold: 1) misplaced emphasis on certain factors, such as cholesterol levels, which are far less important to overall heart health than far more serious causes , and 2) a reluctance on the part of cardiologists and other conventional doctors and researchers to accept this.

As a result, almost $60 billion is spent in the United States each year to treat heart disease using conventional methods that are often ineffective and fraught with many serious side effects.

On the other hand, holistic doctors and practitioners of other natural healing methods have a much higher overall success rate when it comes to treating and preventing heart disease. The methods they use are not only more effective, but they are also much safer and usually much less expensive.

Today there is an abundance of scientific evidence that proves what holistic health practitioners have known for decades: Not only are heart diseases completely curable when the right treatment methods are used, but they are also very easy to treat. prevent them from happening.

Types of heart diseases
Various conditions are listed under the category of heart disease. These include angina pectoris, arrhythmia, arteriosclerosis (also known as atherosclerosis), cardiac arrest, congestive heart disease (also known as cardiomyopathy), coronary heart disease, coronary stenosis, heart attack (myocardial infarction), high blood pressure of blood (hypertension), and stroke.

– Angina pectoris; This condition is characterized by feelings of restlessness, sadness, and/or pressure in the chest and throat, as well as, in some cases, in the shoulder and along the left arm. These sensations are caused by a lack of oxygen and blood in the heart muscles, usually due to lesions in the arteries or valves of the heart itself.

– Arrhythmia: Arrhythmia is a condition characterized by irregular or abnormal heartbeats. Although in some cases this is not serious, it requires regular monitoring because in many cases it can result in more serious forms of heart disease if not treated properly.

– Arteriosclerosis (Atherosclerosis); Arteriosclerosis / atherosclerosis is characterized by a loss of elasticity, irregular hardening and thickening of the arterial walls, which cause narrowing of the arteries, making blood flow to various organs of the body, including the brain and heart, much more difficult. . It often precedes and causes heart attacks and strokes.

– Cardiac arrest; Cardiac arrest is a condition in which the heart stops beating. If not treated immediately, it can lead to death.

– Congestive heart disease (cardiomyopathy); This condition is characterized by blood blockages within the heart muscles and weakness of these muscles. It is often accompanied by shortness of breath without physical exertion. Failure to treat may result in complete heart muscle failure (congestive heart attack).

– Coronary heart disease; Coronary heart disease refers to atherosclerosis of the arteries that supply blood and oxygen to the heart muscles. This is one of the most common forms of heart disease in the US, and can often result in pectoris and heart attack.

– Coronary stenosis; Coronary atherosclerosis is a condition in which the pumping capacity of the heart is exceeded because the arteries and/or valves of the heart muscle narrow, making normal blood flow difficult, and resulting in a reduced supply of oxygen and nutrients. in the heart and throughout the body.

– Heart attack (myocardial infarction); heart attacks occur as a result of a decrease in blood and oxygen to the heart. As a result, parts of the heart literally die. In severe cases, the end result is cardiac arrest and death. Although up to 50% of all heart attack cases do occur

without warning or obvious symptoms preceding it, in most cases, the conditions that lead to a heart attack have accumulated over the previous several years.

– High blood pressure (hypertension); High blood pressure is one of the most common health conditions. People affected by this condition have higher than normal blood pressure levels. This greater-than-normal force can damage the walls of the arteries, which in turn can result in dangerous, harmful cholesterol (LDL) deposits and various toxic substances that attach to them. If this process is left unchecked, the end result can be heart attack, stroke, and other cardiovascular conditions.

– Stroke (Stroke); Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States. Every year, half a million Americans are attacked by a stroke, which leaves two-thirds of them disabled to some degree, suffering from symptoms such as weakness, and in some cases, the complete loss of vision, physical movement, and / or speaking. A stroke occurs due to reduced blood flow to the brain, blood clots, and/or internal bleeding and ruptured blood vessels, which can lead to a lack of oxygen in the brain, causing areas of the brain to swell and to die. To a lesser extent, stroke may be due to birth defects, genetic disorders, and rare forms of blood disorders.

Symptoms
Symptoms of heart disease can often remain hidden and go unnoticed until the later stages of cardiovascular degeneration. More than half of all heart attack cases have no obvious symptoms before death. Therefore, it is important that you check for symptoms early and regularly to minimize your risk.

Common signs that you may be suffering from cardiovascular problems include dizziness, weakness, and leg pain when walking but which subside when you rest; where each of these can be signs of arteriosclerosis (atherosclerosis).

Other signs are moderate to severe chest pain, tightness in the chest, numbness in the arm, and pain in the chest or throat that worsens with physical exertion and/or after eating, symptoms which are associated with angina pectoris.

Shortness of breath may be related to congestive heart attack or angina pectoris.

Heart attack symptoms include crushing chest pain; pain in the left arm, throat, jaw, neck, and/or shoulder; Sudden and excessive sweating; sudden drop in blood pressure; mixed; and vomiting.

Caution: If you experience any of the above symptoms, you should seek immediate medical attention, even if the symptoms fade and are not of long duration.

Causes
There are many causes of heart disease. These include poor diet, nutritional deficiencies, lack of exercise, smoking, genetic predisposition, chronic infection, chronic inflammation, anxiety, depression, diabetes, high blood pressure, hypothyroidism, insulin resistance, obesity/overweight, stress, gum (periodontal) disease, mercury and other environmental toxins, poverty, and oxidized cholesterol. But the most important and usually undiagnosed cause of most types of heart disease is vulnerable plaque.

– Vulnerable plaque: The role that vulnerable plaque plays in heart disease first came to light with the publication of a monograph published by the American Heart Association in 1998. According to research data cited in the monograph, plaque unprotected is the main cause of 85% of all attacks and heart attacks.

Despite this finding, most conventional cardiologists and other conventional physicians continue to ignore vulnerable plaque, choosing instead to focus on the intermediate and much less serious causes of cardiovascular disease. This is largely why conventional medicine continues to have such a poor record in treating and preventing heart disease.

Unlike the harder crystalline plaque that is associated with arteriosclerosis, vulnerable plaque is a soft mixture of blood cells, cholesterol, and protein that accumulates within the walls of arteries, and is enclosed by a thin fiber-like layer. .

What makes unprotected plaque so dangerous is the fact that it contains powerful clotting agents, or coagulants, that, if released into the bloodstream, can cause large and potentially fatal blood clots. Adding to this problem is the fact that the body responds to the unprotected plaque as if it were an infection. As a result, the immune system attacks by releasing immune blood cells and enzymes that can cause the fibrous cyst that contains the unprotected plaque.

breaks quite easily, spilling coagulants out into the bloodstream to form clots.

Ironically, vulnerable plaque, as well as all other forms of plaque that can build up inside the arteries, is actually formed by the body to repair damage caused by momentum and artery lesions that can result from factors such as pressure high blood pressure, stress, and smoking. When these lesions and bumps occur, the body releases substances that form vulnerable plaques on them for their protection.

Alternative doctors who treat heart disease claim that, for the most part, unprotected plaques make drugs and surgical procedures commonly practiced for heart disease unnecessary and ill-advised because of their failure to address the underlying cause of most incident cardiovascular disease. Furthermore, various conventional diagnostic techniques, such as angiograms, are also usually useless when it comes to detecting vulnerable plaques. Instead, alternative doctors recommend ultra-high-speed magnetic resonance (MRI), which is much better able to detect vulnerable plaques, as well as other alternative diagnostic methods, such as darkfield microscopy, LINK: a technique in which a blood sample is viewed through a special microscope as it is illuminated with special halogen light.

Although the pharmaceutical industry is exploring the possibility of developing drugs that target vulnerable plaques, for now they mainly rely on cholesterol-lowering drugs, such as: statins (lipitor, etc.) and blood-thinning drugs such as warfarin ( Coumadin), which can cause serious side effects and even death. Fortunately, there is no need to wait for further drug developments, as for more than 50 years alternative medicine practitioners have been practicing and enabling nutritional supplements that directly address the vulnerable plaque, providing the body with what it needs to restore general health of the entire cardiovascular system.

– Infections: Chronic infection is another often ignored cause of heart disease. The invasion of bacterial and viral infections in the body can cause a corresponding build-up of vulnerable plaque when the body tries to stop the spread of the infection. According to researchers, the primary infectious agents associated with heart disease are Chlamydia (especially Chlamydia pneumoniae, which 95% of all people come into contact with at some point in their lives), cytomegalovirus (CMV), the herpes family of viruses, and Helibactor pylori, which is also associated with most cases of stomach ulcers.

– Chronic inflammation: Recent research has shown that low-grade chronic inflammation is another serious cause of heart disease, increasing the risk of heart attack by 300 to 800%, and the risk of stroke by 200%. Your doctor can determine if you suffer from low-grade inflammation by using a free blood test that measures levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker for inflammation in the body. Although CRP is always present in the body, its level increases in direct proportion to high levels of inflammation. Normal CRP levels are less than 36 mg/dL. Levels higher than this are a strong indicator that chronic inflammation is present.

– Oxidation of Cholesterol: For years, conventional doctors have warned of the dangers of high cholesterol levels in relation to heart disease, especially high levels of LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, compared to HDL, or “good” cholesterol. “. However, it is not the amount of cholesterol – good or bad – that determines the risk of heart disease, but the risk is the oxidation of cholesterol. Otherwise, cholesterol plays a valuable role in your overall health, not only in maintaining the health of your cells, but also by helping to maintain proper immune function, kidney function, and the production and regulation of blood supply. your body with natural sex and steroid hormones.

Cholesterol, especially in the form of LDL, only becomes a health hazard when it combines with oxygen, a process known as oxidation. Cholesterol oxidation can occur as a result of free radical damage, and exposure to chlorine and/or fluoride (which are often included in public drinking water) and an amino acid known as homocysteine.

Other causes of cholesterol oxidation include eating commercially processed foods, excessive consumption of red meat and milk and dairy products, exposure to environmental toxins and pesticides, infection, stress, and physical trauma. When cholesterol oxidation occurs, it often

sh results in the formation of hard plaque associated with arteriosclerosis, potentially setting the stage for heart attacks and/or strokes, as well as often raising blood pressure levels.

Conventional physicians ignore the issue of cholesterol oxidation, focusing instead only on lowering overall cholesterol levels, especially LDL cholesterol. This misplaced emphasis has resulted in the explosive growth of a new class of cholesterol-lowering drugs known as “statins” on the market. Not only does the statin do nothing to protect against cholesterol oxidation, but it can cause a variety of serious side effects, including inflammation of the liver. In addition, their potential to cause harm increases dramatically when they are used in combination with other pharmaceutical drugs.

– Genetic predisposition: genetically inherited factors can predispose a person to develop heart disease, although such a predisposition does not make heart disease a necessity to occur.

The greatest risk from genetic predisposition to heart disease concerns rare but serious hereditary factors related to abnormal cholesterol metabolism. Men born with such a predisposition can suffer heart attacks as early as their twenties.

High levels of fibrinogen, another risk factor for heart disease, can also be influenced by a person’s genes.

– High blood pressure: High blood pressure can significantly increase the risk of heart attack and other types of heart disease because of how high blood pressure levels can damage artery walls. Often high blood pressure can be present without any symptoms, making regular blood pressure measurements (at least once a year) advisable.

– Pharmaceutical Drugs: A variety of pharmaceutical drugs can increase the risk of heart disease, including commonly prescribed heart medications, such as statins used to lower cholesterol, and blood thinners such as Coumadin. Other drugs that have been shown to increase the risk of heart disease include: COX-2 inhibitor agents (Bextra, Celebrex, Vioxx), Emcyt, Ethmozine, Lupron Depot injections, Novantrone injections, Rythmol, Tambocor, Tonocard, and Zoladex.

– Poor diet: A diet high in commercial processed foods, sugars, simple carbohydrates, and unhealthy fats has long been implicated as a serious risk factor for heart disease. Such diets not only lack vital nutrients needed for overall cardiovascular health, but they are also low in fiber and significantly increase the risk of other co-factors in heart disease, such as insulin imbalance, immune deficiency , chronic inflammation, and chronic infection.

– Nutritional deficiencies: Deficiencies in essential heart nutrients such as vitamins C and E, coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), magnesium, selenium, essential fatty acids, and amino acids such as lysine are well known to contribute to heart disease. .

– Lack of exercise: Neglecting to exercise regularly can lead to a host of health problems, including heart disease. Proper exercise not only strengthens the heart muscles, but it also improves the body’s ability to digest and assimilate vital nutrients from the foods you eat, and improves their distribution, as well as the delivery of oxygen to the cells, through the bloodstream.

– Diabetes: Diabetes, especially adult-onset diabetes, or Type II, can also contribute to heart disease because of how it causes artery walls to degenerate prematurely. This, in turn, can cause impaired circulation and increased levels of free radicals, which can cause cholesterol oxidation. Type II diabetes can also result in high levels of biochemical stress and increased production of dangerous corticosteroids, a class of hormones that can keep the body in a constant state of stress.

– Insulin resistance, which can cause type II diabetes, can also cause heart disease because of how the chemical imbalances associated with it can adversely affect arterial walls to create blockages. In addition, when insulin levels rise in the body due to insulin resistance and/or type II diabetes, they cause an increase in biochemicals such as fibrinogen and triglycerides, as well as, in addition to lowering HDL (“good”) cholesterol levels. can further increase the risk of heart disease.

– Gum disease: or periodontal (pertaining to the teeth), is indicated by hu

happiness that increases the risk of heart disease, especially stroke, because of how bacteria associated with poor gum health can enter the blood, causing damage to arteries and other blood vessels, and increasing the risk of blood clotting.

– Hypothyroidism: or insufficient thyroid function, can contribute to heart disease due to the various imbalances that are created in the body when thyroid function is insufficient. Low thyroid function can significantly hinder your body’s overall metabolism, as well as negatively affect your heart rate and blood pressure, which can result in more serious cardiovascular conditions if the infection is left untreated.

– Smoking: Smoking and regular exposure to secondhand smoke are two important risk factors for heart disease. More than 4,000 chemical toxins found in tobacco smoke cause heart disease by damaging the walls and linings of arteries, increasing blood motility and the likelihood of vulnerable plaques forming, thus increasing the risk of blood clots and heart attacks. the heart. Nicotine also narrows the arterial walls, increasing the risk of high blood pressure. Additionally, due to the toxins contained in cigarettes and other tobacco products, smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke can compromise immune function, making it easier for infectious agents to take hold, which it can also cause heart disease.

– Mercury and other environmental toxins: Mercury, as well as other heavy metals and environmental toxins, can significantly increase the risk of heart disease in several ways. Research has shown that the presence of heavy metals in the body makes it much easier for infectious agents to maintain themselves inside the body, further increasing the likelihood of developing heart disease.

Mercury toxicity is a widespread problem due to its presence in dental amalgam fillings, in many vaccines, and in the environment. Many other environmental toxins are also prevalent in all developed countries in the air, water, and soil.

Because environmental toxicity is so common, alternative health practitioners routinely make detoxification a part of their overall treatment approach to treating and preventing heart disease.

– Poverty: Recent research shows that people who are poor are more at risk of heart attack, even when all other risk factors for heart disease are taken into account. This is especially true for people living in neighborhoods characterized by poverty, as they are more likely to have an increased presence of environmental toxins as well as higher levels of waste. In addition, people living in such neighborhoods can increase their stress levels, which can also cause heart disease.

– Chronic stress; unresolved stress is a known risk factor for disease. During times of stress, blood pressure levels rise and, if left untreated, can cause damage to the blood vessels that supply the heart with vital nutrients and oxygen. In addition, during times of stress, damaged hormones known as corticosteroids are released into the bloodstream, causing problems that can lead to heart disease.

Diagnostic methods for the detection of Heart Diseases
Conventional doctors often rely on blood tests that measure cholesterol (HDL, LDL, and total cholesterol), triglyceride levels, and blood pressure levels to monitor a person’s risk of developing heart disease.

The following are the values for normal readings for all four of these tests:

– Total cholesterol – 165-200 mg / dL

– LDL cholesterol – below 130 mg / dl

– HDL cholesterol – less than 150 mg / dL

– Triglycerides – less than 150 mg / dl

Other conventional diagnostic tests commonly used include: Angiogram, ultrasound ECG, electrocardiogram (ECG), arterial stiffness index (ASI), carotid artery ultrasound, and abdominal aortic aneurysm test.

Although all of the above tests can be useful in helping to determine overall cardiovascular health, they are of little use in detecting some of the major causes of heart disease, such as chronic inflammation of the heart. low, chronic infections, and, more particularly, unprotected plaques.

For this reason, alternative health practitioners use a variety of other tests. These include magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), darkfield microscopy, electrodermal screening, and blood tests that measure C-reactive protein (a marker for chronic inflammation), homocyst

ine (which can increase the formation of plaques inside the arteries), lipoprotein (a) (an indicator of LDL cholesterol), fibrinogen (high levels of which can indicate a risk of stroke and coronary artery disease), apolipoprotein A-1 and apoprotein B (both are predictors of a person’s overall heart disease risk), glucose and insulin (when elevated, can indicate heart disease risk due to diabetes and/or insulin resistance) , and iron levels (excess iron in the body results in increased production of free radicals and oxidative damage, including cholesterol).

The following are the values for normal blood test readings mentioned above:

– C-reactive protein (CRP) – less than 32 mg/dL

– Homocysteine – less than 10 mol micro / L

– Lipoprotein (a) – less than 32 mg / dL

– Fibrinogen – less than 300 mg/dL

– Apolipoprotein A-1 – 125-215 mg/dL

– Apolipoprotein B – 55-125 mg / dL

– Glucose – 0 80-110 mg / dl

– Insulin – 4-15 mol micro/L (fasting)

– Iron – less than 150 mg/dL.

The dangers of conventional treatments for heart disease
In addition to failing to address the main factors that cause heart disease, such as vulnerable plaque, chronic inflammation, chronic infection, and cholesterol oxidation, conventional treatments for heart disease can cause very serious side effects, including death.

Such treatments include aspirin and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), blood thinners, cholesterol-lowering drugs, angioplasty and bypass surgery, and heart catheterization.

– Aspirin and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs): Aspirin and other NSAIDs are commonly prescribed to protect against heart attack and stroke. However, even the low doses of aspirin taken daily as recommended by conventional doctors to prevent heart attacks can have serious consequences; About 2,000 or more people die each year in the US from stomach bleeding caused by regular aspirin use. Overall, NSAIDs kill over 20,000 Americans each year due to gastrointestinal bleeding, cause 125,000 hospitalizations.

Like all other pharmaceutical drugs, they can also cause severe damage to the kidneys and / or liver. They can also increase the risk of stomach ulcers, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

– Blood-thinning medications: or anticoagulants, are prescribed to help reduce blood clot formation, fight artery and vein blockages, and prevent heart disease. One of the most commonly prescribed blood thinners is Warfarin, which is marketed under the brand name Coumadin. In addition to their expensive cost, such medications can cause a wide range of side effects. These include: severe allergic reactions, such as difficulty breathing, involuntary closing of the throat, hives, and swelling of the lips, tongue and / or face; black, bloody stools; blood in the urine or vomit; sputum with blood; bleeding from the gums; mouth sores; decreased urine production; yellowing of the eyes and / or skin; bleeding or darkening of the skin; spots on feet or fingers; extremely heavy menstruation; excessive gas and/or bloating; diarrhea; mixed; vomiting; hair loss; loss of appetite; and unhealthy weight loss.

Cholesterol-lowering drugs: This class of drugs is widely prescribed by conventional doctors to prevent and treat heart disease, especially a newer class of cholesterol-lowering drugs known as “statins,” such as the drug “Lipitor” and “Crestor”. As we discussed above, lowering cholesterol levels is not as important as preventing cholesterol oxidation, which these drugs do not do. Not only do statin and other cholesterol-lowering drugs fail to treat one of the most important risk factors for heart disease, but they can actually dramatically increase (up to 46%) the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke, as well as increasing LDL (bad) cholesterol levels. They also reduce the body’s ability to absorb and use coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), a vital heart nutrient. Other side effects of these drugs include: amnesia, severe fatigue, kidney and/or liver damage, muscle pain, neuromuscular degeneration, and symptoms associated with Lou Gehrig’s disease, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, and the disease of parkinson’s.

– Angioplasty and Bypass surgery: Two of the most common surgical procedures for the treatment of black diseases

Among them are: balloon angioplasty, which is responsible for 250,000 surgeries each year in the US, and coronary bypass surgery, which is responsible for another 300,000 surgeries annually. Despite the predominance of the two procedures, many researchers and physicians consider angioplasty to be an unjustified operation in any case, and that only between 3 – 5% of all coronary bypass operations are justifiable. Such a view has also been taken by members of the American Heart Association since the early 1980s.

Although heart disease patients have commonly been told that angioplasty and bypass surgery can prolong their lives, the facts speak otherwise, as shown in a 1997 report in the New England Journal of Medicine, which showed that the majority of Angioplasty and bypass surgery provide no significant life-prolonging rate, despite their high prices. In addition, the latest scientific evidence shows that nearly half of all patients who undergo bypass surgery show significant decline in cognitive and mental function within five years after the surgeries are performed, due to brain damage caused by the procedures. In addition, bypass surgery that is performed immediately after a heart attack or angina has been shown to increase the risk of stroke within a few months after the surgery is performed.

– Heart Catheterization: A 1996 study showed that “straight heart catheterization,” a conventional diagnostic procedure, can greatly increase the risk of death. The procedure is performed by inserting a catheter tube down through the neck to measure blood pressure levels inside the heart. Although it has never demonstrated adequate evaluations to show its safety and effectiveness, each year more than half a million Americans undergo cardiac catheterization. Furthermore, the use of cardiac catheterization has been shown to result in a significant increase in angioplasty and bypass surgery, despite the fact that studies show that when catheterization is followed by either of these procedures, the risk of dying from a heart attack increases by 36%.