Keeping Track Of Your Information
Many ICD and CRT devices have built-in features that let your doctor or nurse keep track of your heart rhythm, heart function, and your activity level. You may need to send information to your healthcare provider using a phone or device called a personal digital assistant . If you need to send information, your doctor or nurse will teach you how.
A newer internal monitoring device is the size of a small paper clip. It is placed in a blood vessel near your heart to keep track of pressure in the blood vessel and the left ventricle. The information is sent to a computer server.
Your healthcare provider uses the information sent from the device to make sure you are getting the best treatment possible for your condition and to see if you need any changes in your medication, diet or activity level.
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Can Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy Cure Heart Failure
While CRT can help many people with heart failure resume some of their usual activities and improve their quality of life, it is not a cure. Though you can often manage heart failure, it cannot be cured.
Its worth noting that CRT is usually just one component of heart failure treatment. If you have heart failure, you may also be prescribed anti-hypertensive medications to lower blood pressure, including beta blockers, which slow the heart rate and ease the burden on the heart muscle.
Other medications you may be prescribed include digoxin , which strengthens heart contractions. And, if you have high cholesterol, you may need to take a statin to lower your LDL cholesterol levels.
Depending on the cause, heart failure may be treated with other procedures. For instance, if you have valve disease, surgery or catheter-based procedures to replace or repair a valve may improve your symptoms.
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Myocytes And Myocardial Remodeling
In the failing heart, increased myocardial volume is characterized by larger myocytes approaching the end of their life cycle. As more myocytes drop out, an increased load is placed on the remaining myocardium, and this unfavorable environment is transmitted to the progenitor cells responsible for replacing lost myocytes.
Progenitor cells become progressively less effective as the underlying pathologic process worsens and myocardial failure accelerates. These featuresnamely, the increased myocardial volume and mass, along with a net loss of myocytesare the hallmark of myocardial remodeling. This remodeling process leads to early adaptive mechanisms, such as augmentation of stroke volume and decreased wall stress and, later, to maladaptive mechanisms such as increased myocardial oxygen demand, myocardial ischemia, impaired contractility, and arrhythmogenesis.
As heart failure advances, there is a relative decline in the counterregulatory effects of endogenous vasodilators, including nitric oxide , prostaglandins , bradykinin , atrial natriuretic peptide , and B-type natriuretic peptide . This decline occurs simultaneously with the increase in vasoconstrictor substances from the RAAS and the adrenergic system, which fosters further increases in vasoconstriction and thus preload and afterload. This results in cellular proliferation, adverse myocardial remodeling, and antinatriuresis, with total body fluid excess and worsening of heart failure symptoms.
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Congestive Heart Failure A Serious Disease
Before you read any further, I invite you to watch this one-minute video overview of congestive heart failure so you will become very clear as to what it is.
Here are some sobering statistics: Once a diagnosis of CHF is made, one out of every five CHF patients has only a year more to live 50 percent of newly diagnosed CHF patients have only five more years.
CHF is almost as bad as a cancer diagnosis. There are many underlying reasons for a failing heart.
When you consider all the contributing causes, youll understand that there are treatment options beyond pharmaceutical drugs.
In addition to ones genetic predisposition, there are several reversible health conditions that can also cause CHF:
What about if youve already been diagnosed with heart failure: Is there a treatment path other than what conventional medicine offers? Remember that conventional medicine will still be important, including periodic echocardiograms to monitor your heart strength. Also, some of the prescription medications for CHF have been shown to prolong life and reduce suffering .
Still, the statistics on CHF survival rates are indeed discouraging. Youll improve those statistics dramatically with great nutrition, targeted nutrients and lifestyle optimization. Below is whats available in the natural therapy world for CHF.
Common Types Of Congestive Heart Failure
The most common type of congestive heart failure is the left-sided CHF. It occurs when the left ventricle of your heart does not pump blood properly.
As congestive heart failure progresses, it might get difficult for you to breathe as the fluid builds up in the lungs.
Left-sided congestive heart failure has two types:
- Diastolic heart failure
- Systolic heart failure
The other type of congestive heart failure is the right-sided CHF. In this type, the right ventricle is unable to supply blood to your lungs.
As a result, blood gets backed up in the vessels, causing a buildup of fluid in your abdomen, lower extremities, and your vital organs.
A person can get both right-sided and left-sided congestive heart failure at the same time. It usually begins at the left side of your heart, and if left untreated, travels to the right.
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A Drug To Treat Cancer And Heart Disease
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In a recent New York Times article, physician-author Siddhartha Mukherjee wrote about a clinical trial that he characterized as beautiful, for potentially illuminating a surprising connection between heart disease and cancer. Mukherjee is a justifiably acclaimed writer, who publishes regularly in The New Yorker and The New York Times, and who won a Pulitzer for his bestselling book The Emperor of All Maladies. But I wonder whether the demands of popular writing have caused him to hype a treatment that, while promising, is far from proven.
The treatment targets inflammation by inhibiting an interleukin molecule. Researchers conducted a huge clinical trial to see whether the treatment would reduce the kind of inflammation that damages arteries. But Mukherjee didnt write about the drug because of its ability to prevent heart attacks or strokes. Instead, he was excited about the trial because a secondary analysis of the data showed a drop in all cancer mortality and a stark decrease in deaths from lung cancer.
Holy moly, that’s a misleading sentence! Consider some equally true sentences I could excite readers with:
- If the keeps up their winning ways, they will go undefeated for the next three seasons.
- If my three-year-old son keeps growing at this rate for the next 25 years, hell soon be ten feet tall.
The anti-inflammatory medication Mukherjee wrote about doesnt qualify as a miracle yet, and might never do so.
Causes Of Congestive Heart Failure
Congestive heart failure can often develop in a person when their heart has been weakened or damaged by some other conditions.
Though, it is not always the case. Sometimes it can occur if the heart of a person becomes too stiff.
When a persons heart begins to fail, the ventricles of the heart becomes too stiff, which causes them to not fill properly. Or the heart muscles become so weak and damaged that the ventricles dilate and stretch to an extent that the efficiency of blood circulation throughout the body is affected.
There are certain other conditions that contribute towards congestive heart failure in a person. They are:
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Systolic And Diastolic Failure
Systolic and diastolic heart failure each result in a decrease in stroke volume. This leads to activation of peripheral and central baroreflexes and chemoreflexes that are capable of eliciting marked increases in sympathetic nerve traffic.
Although there are commonalities in the neurohormonal responses to decreased stroke volume, the neurohormone-mediated events that follow have been most clearly elucidated for individuals with systolic heart failure. The ensuing elevation in plasma norepinephrine directly correlates with the degree of cardiac dysfunction and has significant prognostic implications. Norepinephrine, while directly toxic to cardiac myocytes, is also responsible for a variety of signal-transduction abnormalities, such as downregulation of beta1-adrenergic receptors, uncoupling of beta2-adrenergic receptors, and increased activity of inhibitory G-protein. Changes in beta1-adrenergic receptors result in overexpression and promote myocardial hypertrophy.
Best Natural Cures For Congestive Heart Failure
Congestive heart failure occurs when the heart becomes too weak and energy starved to be able to pump blood normally to satisfy the needs of the body. The blood may pool inside the heart and in the veins around it, causing fluid retention in the area, especially the lungs, abdomen and legs. Symptoms include breathlessness, muscular fatigue, coughing and wheezing, and swelling of legs, ankles, and abdomen.
The major cause of this serious medical condition is coronary heart disease, along with conditions such as, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, other heart diseases and a past history of heart attack. Many other factors such as, smoking, alcoholism, nutritional deficiencies, stress, etc. also might contribute to the development of this condition. Congestive heart failure is more commonly seen in the elderly. The survival rate depends on the extent of damage. At early stages, these natural cures are very beneficial for people suffering from congestive heart failure.
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Reversing Congestive Heart Failure
It is possible to reverse congestive heart failure. Once the condition of your heart is assessed, the physician will take further steps to treat your congestive heart failure and start appropriate treatment.
This treatment starts with medications and then other procedures may be done to attempt to help the heart get stronger. There are a lot of medications available that will help in improving the quality of your life.
Cardiac viability tests are non-invasive tests that should be done initially to asses if the heart muscle is still alive and if the hearts condition is reversible. Cardiac viability tests should be done prior to any invasive procedures, to make sure the heart condition is reversible and to see if the invasive procedure is truly needed.
For reversal of this disease, early diagnosis is very important.
Cardiac PET provides one of the best and easiest ways to assess for cardiac viability in all individuals.
What Is A Lvad
A left ventricular assist device is a pump that we use for patients who have reached end-stage heart failure. We surgically implant the LVAD, a battery-operated, mechanical pump, which then helps the left ventricle pump blood to the rest of the body. LVADs can be used as:
- Bridge-to-transplant therapy: This is a life-saving therapy for patients awaiting a heart transplant. Patients use the LVAD until a heart becomes available. In some cases, the LVAD is able to restore the failing heart, eliminating the need for a transplant. Learn more about heart transplant.
- Destination therapy: Some patients are not candidates for heart transplants. In this case, patients can receive long-term treatment using an LVAD, which can prolong and improve patientsâ lives.
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Living With Congestive Heart Failure
Millie Donahue didnt know what was going on. The then-80-year-old denizen from Scarborough, Maine often felt tired and cold, her ankles swelling at random times. But one day, as her daughter, Meg, picked her up to go shopping, Millie suddenly felt short of breath and had chest pain. Were going to the hospital, Meg said as Millie collapsed in her seat.
Tests showed Millie was in congestive heart failure, a condition that occurs when the heart cant pump as it should. Certain heart conditions, such as coronary artery disease and high blood pressure can leave the heart too weak or stiff to function properly.
Natural Treatment For Congestive Heart Failure
Our aging population has ever more reason to focus on health. Why? Because with age comes a greater risk of illness. A rather unpleasant fact is that congestive heart failure is the leading reason for hospitalization of people over 65. But I can tell you about the main contributing causes for heart failure that are reversible.
Ill also share the important foods and lifestyle factors that can definitely reduce CHF severity and death from CHF. In my article next week, Ill discuss the most important nutrient supplements for CHF treatment.
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Types Of Cardiac Devices
Cardiac implantable electronic devices, including pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillator , biventricular pacemakers, and cardiac loop recorders, are designed to help control or monitor irregular heartbeats in people with certain heart rhythm disorders and heart failure.
If you have received a diagnosis of bradycardia, ventricular arrhythmia, or a supraventricular arrhythmia such as atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter, your doctor at NYU Langones Heart Rhythm Center may recommend that you receive one of these devices.
After the device is placed, it continuously collects information about your heart rhythm. This information is transmitted wirelessly to our cardiac device team, either automatically, through prescheduled transmissions, or manually, when you notice symptoms. Remote monitoring allows us to review your hearts electrical activity as needed, without the need for a doctors visit.
Miracles Of Medicine: How To Successfully Treat Congestive Heart Failure
If you have congestive heart failure , this story could change your life. It did for Houri, a tough 61-year-old, Iranian-born woman with CHF.
Her doctors told her she was in for a downhill spiral. The only thing they could do was slow the progression with chemicals. So her physicians stuffed her full of chemicals, including Paxil. She gained a lot of abdominal weight and stopped the psychoactive drugs on her own.
Then she developed CHF. Her doctors, of course, prescribed Cozaar and beta-blockers, which caused balance problems.
She eventually stopped the petrochemicals on her own and her balance improved. But she was not doing anything for CHF. The most important measure of heart function, her ejection fraction, dropped from 44% in September 2000 to 35-40% in August 2003. Ejection fraction is the percentage of blood your heart pumps out from it is left ventricle in one stroke. My minimum standard for good health is 60%. The way Houri was headed, she would fulfill her doctors prognosis of gradual decline.
When she finally came to see me in September 2004, I found her to have a lot of mercury amalgams in her mouth. Diseased hearts tend to have high concentrations of mercury.
I also found disturbances in the empty sockets of two wisdom teeth. Wisdom teeth energetically connect to the heart meridian in German acupuncture theory.
She had significantly elevated levels of lead and modestly elevated levels of mercury on a challenged urine test .
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What Causes Congestive Heart Failure In Dogs
The heart is very, very important. Damaged heart valves and dilated cardiomyopathy are the two most common causes of CHF. Some breeds commonly have genetically defective valves and have a much higher incidence of CHF than other breeds. This includes King Charles Cavalier Spaniels.
But no matter the cause, the underlying issue in all cases of CHF is a degradation of the cardiovascular systems ability to pump blood effectively.
Its important to note here that the heart is an important part of the pumping system for blood. But its by no means the only part of the body that actively pumps blood.
All the arteries actively pump blood in synchrony with the heart. Theres a wave of relaxation followed by a spiraling wave of contraction. This wave flows along every artery and syncs with each heartbeat. Supporting the health of all the blood vessels and the cardiovascular system as a whole is critical in preventing and treating CHF. The capillary bed is especially important. Its an active part of the system that pumps blood around the body.
So there are other causes that arent directly related to problems with the heart valves, muscle or vascular system. These are definitely less common causes of congestive heart failure in dogs and include:
- Defects in the heart walls
- Fluid builds in the sac surrounding the heart
- Arrhythmias
- Endocarditis
Heart Failure And Women
Heart failure affects about 3.6 million women in the United States. Despite the fact that women account for nearly 50% of all hospital admissions for heart failure, only 25% of women are involved in heart failure studies. Consequently, advances in heart failure therapies apply to most men, but have not been adequately studied in women.
Differences of women with heart failure as compared to men with heart failure:
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Can You Get Better After A Diagnosis Of Heart Failure
Heart failure is a chronic, progressive condition, which means it gets worse with time. But even though it doesnt necessarily get better, managing heart failure the right way can help reduce symptoms and slow down the progression of the condition.
I try to get patients to understand that this is not a death sentence, Mountis says.
- Other chronic disease, like diabetes, HIV, or thyroid disease
Depending on the stage and severity of condition, some individuals may need more aggressive treatment, Mountis adds. But it is very possible to live a very good life with a diagnosis of heart failure.
What Is An Implantable Heart Failure Monitoring System
An implantable heart failure monitoring system is a device that is implanted into the pulmonary artery that can monitor the changes in blood pressure through the pulmonary artery. Your doctor will use this information to adjust your treatment plan or medications to stop your heart failure from worsening.
To implant the device, your doctor will use a catheter to insert a guide wire and sensor on top of the wire into the pulmonary artery.
The goal of the system is to reduce hospital readmissions and improve quality of life for heart failure patients.
Who is a candidate for an implantable heart failure monitoring system?
Patients who have been hospitalized in the past year for heart failure are candidates for an implantable heart failure monitoring system.
How does an implantable heart failure monitoring system work?
What are the benefits of an implantable heart failure monitoring system?
What are risks of an implantable heart failure monitoring system?
There are few major risks associated with an implantable heart failure monitoring system, but they may include:
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