Heart Disease Symptoms

Health professionals have recognized the nutritive and the health benefits of wine for years even centuries. Hippocrates recommended specific wines to purge fever, disinfect wounds, as diuretics, or nutritional supplements, around 450 B.C. Many books have been written about the curative properties of wine as early as 1410 A.D. Many studies worldwide have concluded that most healthy people who drink wine on a regular basis and with moderation live longer. Wine, for centuries, has been considered as a remedy rather than a toxin. In America, for a whole generation, mainly following the Prohibition years, the potential health benefits of wine were denied. But, in 1991, the medicinal properties of wine begin to return when the French Paradox was publicly revealed following a closed scrutiny on the diet of people in Southern France. It was found out that they had a much lower rate of heart disease than in America notwithstanding their intake of high proportion of fatty foods. Since then, over three thousands studies have broken out all over the World, most importantly in America and provided evidence that wine has positive health effects.

HEALTH BENEFITS OF WINE

Many medical studies have showed multiple benefits of regular moderate wine drinking, including lowered risks of stroke, colorectal tumors, some types of cancers, senile dementia, and even the common cold. A Harvard research has indicated that moderate intake of red wine is very beneficial for heart health. The cardio protective effect has been attributed to antioxidants present in the skin and seeds of red grapes. Scientists believe that the antioxidants, called flavonoids, reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. Other researches have found that moderate red wine may also inhibit tumor development in some cancers and may as well be helpful in the treatment of diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. At the University of California, reasearchers have determined that Cabernet Sauvignon has the highest concentration of flavonoids. Sweeter the wine, the fewer flavonoids. Dryer red wines are the best bet for a flavonoid boost.

They have also found out that grape juice or non alcoholic red wine contains the same antioxydant profile as red wine. However, grape juice does not lower LDL cholesterol the Bad cholesterol) levels compared to red wine. Flavonoids increase HDL cholesterol(the Good cholesterol) and prevent blood clotting , plaques formation in arteries and reduce the blood vessel damage caused by fat deposits. It is very important here to mention that wine consumption should be limited to two servings per day for Men and one serving per day for Women to reap the maximum benefits. Moderate amounts of wine should be limited to individuals with a clean bill of health. People with medical and social conditions worsened by alcohol should not consume alcohol at all.

Since the evidence seems clear now that red wine is beneficial for our health, here is a toast to your health! Cheers!

Gilles Coulombe B.A. B.LL D.S.A.

Cholesterol is also found in some of the foods you eat. Cholesterol is a lipid found in the cell membranes of all animal tissues, and it is transported in the blood plasma of all animals. Cholesterol is a waxy, fat-like substance made in the liver and found in certain foods, such as food from animals, like dairy products (whole milk), eggs and meat.

When you have too much cholesterol, it can be dangerous to your health. Managing high cholesterol may be different for each individual depending on your medical history and your health. Lowering your cholesterol level decreases your chance for having a plaque burst and cause a heart attack.

Below are some suggested natural ways to reduce your cholesterol:

Reduce Your Fat Intake. Saturated fat elevates your blood cholesterol count, polyunsaturated fats lower blood cholesterol, and dietary cholesterol can also contributed to elevated blood cholesterol levels. Out of all of these, the saturated fat has the most impact on your cholesterol level. You will want to cut back on saturated fat foods such as meat, butter, cheese, whenever possible. Replace these with fish, poultry, low fat dairy products, and polyunsaturated oils such as corn, sunflower, and soybean.You will want to reduce the amount of eggs you eat. You might want to limit yourself to 3 whole eggs a week to be on the safe side. Since egg yokes contain the cholesterol, the eggs whites are ok to eat freely.

Legumes (Beans) are nutritious and don’t cost a lot. Beans and other legumes contain water-soluable fiber which helps to transport cholesterol out of your system before it can cause problems. You can try eating kidney beans, pinto beans, soybeans, lima beans, navy beans, lentils, etc. All of these are excellent sources of fiber as well.

Oats appear to to lower serum cholesterol levels. Eating oat bran does as good a job of reducing your cholesterol levels as legumes do.Carrots(which contain calcium pectate) can also help to reduce cholesterol, but not to the extent which legumes and oats do.

Corn is as effective s oats and beans in lowering your cholesterol. Using about one ounce of corn meal with each meal can really help to bring down high levels of cholesterol.Its important to drink lots of skim milk. Cutting out fat-bearing milk will help to bring down your cholesterol.

Raw garlic can help to reduce harmful level of blood fat. If you take one gram a day for 6 months, you cholesterol levels should fall an average of 40 points within six months.Vigorous exercise has been proven to raise your level of HDL(good cholesterol) when modestly lowers your level of HDL(bad cholesterol).

As part of the natural ways to reduce cholesterol mentioned above, you will want to avoid, coffee, cigarettes, and most red meat (for now).

You are taking quite a few prescription medications to help with the symptoms of cardiomyopathy, and you are feeling okay, but the improvements in your heart aren’t happening very quickly or maybe not at all. You are feeling better, but you still have heart failure and you might be wondering if you will need to take all these medications from now on. Are they going to fix your cardiomyopathy or is this just a temporary fix?

Cardiomyopathy can become a more serious condition if your heart doesn’t improve its muscle functions. The heart muscle loses its ability to pump blood and becomes abnormally enlarged. Blood clots may form because of the stagnation of blood in the heart chambers and this may lead to embolism and reduced blood supply to other areas such as the brain, gut and extremities.

There are different types of Cardiomyopathy:

Dilated Cardiomyopathy, also known as congestive cardiomyopathy is a condition where the heart becomes enlarged or dilated because the heart muscles are too weak to pump enough oxygen-rich blood to the body. Arrhythmia or Abnormal heart rhythms are sometimes present in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. The heart structure that has changed with the cardiomyopathy affects the way that the electrical signals regulating the heartbeat travel through the heart, therefore causing tachycardia, which is increased heartbeat or rbradycardia, meaning decreased heartbeat.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is an abnormal thickening of the muscular heart wall. This leads to obstruction of blood flow from the heart, known as HOCM or hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy.

Restrictive cardiomyopathy is a rare form of cardiomyopathy. In this case, the heart muscle becomes rigid and so the heart has difficulty relaxing and cannot fill properly. The heart is unable to pump blood as effectively as it should be.

Prescription drugs will help tremendously to help you heart function better for now, but will they heal your heart? Medical doctors concede that the medications that are given to Cardiomyopathy patients cannot reverse the damage already done to the heart muscle. So this means that you will probably need to stay on them for a very long time just to keep your heart functioning normally. The problem is that in most cases, over time your heart may eventually get weaker and a heart transplant will be recommended by your cardiologist.

There are other solutions that can be effective but where do you turn? I have found that proper nutrition is the key to most all sickness. And it can help your heart failure or cardiomyopathy. There are no known bad side effects, and recommended nutrition along with your prescribed medications can have positive results in cardiomyopathy patients.

Instead of accepting that prescription medications alone are the only treatment for cardiomyopathy, it might be beneficial to investigate the latest nutritional advantages just for your heart health.

Symptoms of heart attack vary greatly.

The symptoms you experience may be different from the one experienced by a relative or a friend. For instance, you may have only minor chest pain while your relative or friend has violent pain……

A heart attack is, what can I say, a traumatic and frightening event. You probably don’t want to think about it. But, if you know the symptoms and know what to do, you can save a life – your friend’s; neighbor’s; colleague’s or even your own life.

You may think a heart attack is sudden and intense, like a usual heart attack scene potrayed in a movie or TV show – a person clutches his or her chest and then collapses……

It might be like that but you’d be surprised to know that most heart attacks begin slowly as a mild pain or discomfort in the center of your chest that lasts for more than a few minutes, or that goes away and comes back. You feel an uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain in your chest.

However, you won’t be sure of the symptom; even those who have had a heart attack before may not recognize their symptoms, because the next attack can have entirely different symptoms.

What are the typical symptoms of a heart attack that you can “rely” on then?

1. Chest Discomfort or Pain

This chest discomfort or pain can feel like a tight ache, pressure, fullness or squeezing in the center of your chest lasting more than a few minutes. It may come and go.

2. Upper Body Pain

Pain or discomfort in your shoulders, arms, back, neck, teeth or jaw.

You may have upper body pain but no pain in your chest.

3. Stomach pain

Pain may extend downward into your abdominal area and may feel like heartburn.

4. Shortness of Breath

You may pant for breath or struggle to take in deep breaths. This often happens before you get chest discomfort.

5. Anxiety

You may feel a sense of doom or feel as if you’re having a panic attack for no good reason.

6. Dizziness

You may feel dizzy or feel like you might pass out.

7. Sweating

You may suddenly break into a sweat with cold, clammy skin.

8. Nausea And Vomiting

You may feel sick to your stomach or vomit.

My advice is this: even if you’re not sure it’s a heart attack, you should still have it checked out. Fast action can save your life or someone else life……

While there are many illnesses that fall under the umbrella of heart disease, one that receives little attention is Cardiomyopathy. This disease is caused by long term alcohol abuse and leads to heart failure in the victim.

The symptoms of this debilitating disease usually start to occur after the disease has advanced. The symptoms are swelling of the ankles, feet and legs; loss of appetite, difficulty breathing, fatigue, shortness of breath, decreased concentration, cough with mucus or pink material, need to urinate at night, palpitations, and irregular or rapid pulse. Once these symptoms have begun to present themselves the disease has already advanced.

The treatment course for this disease is a complete abstinence from alcohol. A restricted diet and medications will also be prescribed. The most difficult part of the treatment may be the abstinence from alcohol. If a patient has abused alcohol to the point of causing heart disease they have probably suffered with the disease of alcoholism for most of their life. It is absolutely imperative that the patient seeks treatment for alcoholism as part of their overall treatment plan.

Finding the correct course of treatment for alcoholism is not always easy. The patient must understand and be willing to treat their abuse of alcohol in order for treatment to be successful. The connection between the heart disease and the alcoholism must be clear to the patient for them to understand the ramifications of their continued drinking. While the heart disease may never be able to be reversed its progress can be slowed or stopped.

Many alcoholics fail to see the correlation between their physical problems and the alcohol they consume. One of the most frustrating aspects of alcoholism is the denial that usually accompanies it. Families and friends of alcoholics are usually guilty of this denial as well. Many families will cover up for a loved ones drinking so that they do not feel any ill effects from their disease. This must stop in every case but most especially in the case of alcoholic heart disease.

The patient is suffering from two diseases and both must be treated successfully for the patient to survive. Families must understand that they are not helping the alcoholic by covering up their problems and allowing them to drink uncontrollably. It will be necessary for every member of a family to participate in their loved ones recovery. By participation it may mean that family members will no longer cover up drinking and not allow the alcoholic to lie about their drinking. Facing their responsibilities is the best medicine a family can provide to the alcoholic.

While alcohol may have caused the heart disease the patient is suffering from it does not have to continue to add to further deterioration. Heart disease that is caused by excessive and chronic drinking is a wake up call to the alcoholic. It is a message from the body that their continued abuse must stop. They must heed the warnings that their body is telling them before it is too late.

The best time to consider a bypass is before you have any symptoms of heart disease.Though weighing only about ten ounces, a healthy heart is capable of pumping 1,000 gallons of life sustaining blood through 60,000 miles of blood vessels by beating an incredible 100,000 times a day for as much as 100 years or more.

Understanding Your Heart

To get an idea of the intensity of your heart’s job, let’s do an experiment. Take a tennis ball and fold your fingers over it. Now squeeze the ball every second for an entire minute – sixty times. It’s an exhausting job, isn’t it?

That’s the work your heart has to do for your whole life – 60 to 70 times every minute, 4,000 times every hour, 24 hours a day, all day – every day.

Maybe you’ve been taking your heart for granted!

This highly efficient pump is the most amazing organ in your body. It’s also probably the most abused, although I’m sure nobody does it intentionally.

But the fact is, heart disease is the number one killer in the U.S. and in over 50% of the cases, there are no prior indications – the first symptom of the disease is death.

Cardiovascular Disease and Your Heart

Many types of coronary diseases are known. Some are caused by an infection, some are congenital but most heart problems are caused by hardening of the arteries.

And if you add oxidized cholesterol to the blood, you get an even more serious condition. Both hardening of the arteries and oxidized cholesterol restrict the flow of blood to the body’s cells, causing major health concerns for your heart.

Different cardiovascular conditions can vary by degrees, but may have common signs and symptoms. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, poor LDL ratios, elevated triglyceride and homocysteine levels are the most common indicators of trouble ahead.

Common symptoms include angina (chest pain), shortness of breath, irregular heartbeats, faster heartbeats, dizziness, nausea and sweating.

Here’s Good News for Your Heart

Changes in your lifestyle – diet, exercise, stress management – can prevent, control and even reverse many of these problems to help you have a healthy heart.

To bypass heart disease and to have a healthy heart, start by cleaning up your lifestyle. Stop smoking, cut out caffeine and sugar, manage your alcohol consumption, decrease stress, exercise regularly and drink lots of water – it’s good for your heart.

For next, it’s time to switch to a whole food plan. Eat low glycemic carbohydrates, more whole grains, colorful fruits, vegetables and other fiber rich, nutritious foods.

Also, it’s a good idea to lower your fat intake to around 25% of daily calories. Avoid all processed fats. Stick with extra virgin olive oil and very small amounts of butter instead.

But, even when you do the best you can, it’s next to impossible, to get everything you need from the foods you eat. This is where whole food supplements can help.

Important Supplements for Heart Health

Start with a basic, natural whole food multiple. To this add extra nutrients, such as natural vitamins B, C and E (excellent for cardiovascular health).

Certain B vitamins, for example, help manage the homocyteine cycle. But make sure your B vitamins are in a balanced B complex that includes the whole vitamin B family (isolating one B vitamin can prevent the efficient uptake of all the others).

Omega 3 fish oil that’s high in EPA and DHA has also been proven to have many benefits for heart health and should be part of everyone’s daily nutritional program.

You have been diagnosed with cardiomyopathy or congestive heart failure and there’s a possibility that you will be put on the heart transplant list. This can be very frightening to most of us! How did we get to this point in the first place?

Maybe it was lack of all the prescription drugs your doctor is now giving you. For some reason I don’ think that was why. The prescription drugs, as good as they are for helping your heart function well now, won’t be able to sustain the heart functions in the long run.

If you injured your leg muscles and couldn’t walk, would you use a crutch for the rest of your life or would you try physical therapy? You are allowing your leg muscles to get stronger and heal by using them with physical therapy. If you were to use a crutch from now on and never try to walk, you would certainly stay crippled.

Prescription drugs are like a crutch. They can only help for a certain amount of time and then your heart will eventually get weaker. The reason this happens is that your heart is not allowed to function on its own because of the drugs intervention. So then it doesn’t have a chance of getting stronger and healthier.

Taking just prescription drugs for treatment, hasn’t shown to heal cardiomyopathy. The common belief of the general public for years is that all you need to do is take a prescription drugs prescribed from your physician for most all of your health problems. Prescription drugs are a big business with hidden discrepancies. The prescribed drugs have not been the complete answer for the good of the patient’s health or healing. This is hurting the general public, both in their success of cardiomyopathy treatment, or any other major illness outcome. Not to mention the outrageous prescription drug prices!

It has been said that “you are what you eat.” That really rings true because your body can get run down or has a more difficult time fighting off even the common cold, if your diet mainly consists of junk food and excess sugar. In this case your heart was more than likely lacking important nutrients to keep it healthy. Your heart failure was a result of years of not feeding it the right nutrition.

It is up to you to help get back on the road to recovery with the recommended vitamins and nutrients. Remember, your cardiologist won’t mention nutrition along with your prescription drug treatment. They are not trained to incorporate that into the congestive heart failure or cardiomyopathy treatment.

Prescription drugs are not the complete answer for cardiomyopathy. Get correct nutritional information, and achieve the power you need to help you and your cardiomyopathy on the road to better health. You can stop worrying and start doing something about your cardiomyopathy treatment today!