“Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye.”

H. Jackson Brown, Jr. an American author best known for his inspirational book, Life’s Little Instruction Book, which was a New York Times bestseller (1991=1994)

Let us first understand how the heart functions. For starters think of a car, without the engine the car won’t move unless pushed in neutral but the engine is still not working at all. Well, the body can’t work at all if the heart isn’t working=dead. Right? We can’t live without the heart but more importantly you can’t function actively and productively with a one that is diseased not cared for or just severely diseased. We need to take good care of our bodies especially if diseased already, that includes your heart.

Looking at the anatomy and physiology of the heart it will help us understand in how it functions. For starters the heart is like an engine in having chambers (2 on the top called atriums and 2 on the bottom called ventricles), 4 chambers to be exact (sort of like a 4 cylinder car). It also has valves, in allowing our blood to go in and out of the heart. They are located before the entrance of the blood entering the heart on the left and right upper chamber, between the upper and lower chambers (atriums & ventricles), at the beginning of arteries and veins involved in moving blood throughout the heart and to or from the lungs to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood, in allowing the blood to leave the heart with oxygenated blood to now go throughout the body (like oil/gas entering and leaving the engine which allows it to work).

Now getting down in how the heart works. First take our blood, in particular our red blood cells are the cells that carry oxygen and carbon dioxide throughout our body; the body without enough oxygen in the body tissues=cellular starvation. We can’t survive without oxygen sent to our tissues=food to our tissues (Ex. poor circulation to any tissue of the body = pain and if not resolved it will go into necrosis = death of the tissue, like in a diabetic that has poor circulation to the toes/foot that has pain/numbness and unresolved = necrosis to amputation). So your blood, in particular the red blood cells, need to transport oxygen (O2) to and take carbon dioxide (CO2) from our tissues in the body and refill up with more 02 and release C02 (O2 used up by our tissues) that takes place at the lungs. This process is done constantly in the body to feed our tissues O2 (by RBC’s picking up 02 upon inhalation), with tissues releasing CO2 picked up by the RBC’s that take the CO2 to the lungs in release it from our body completely via breathing=exhaling but only done due to the heart beating allowing the blood to circulate and recirculate throughout the body and get more 02 from our lungs (just like the engine how the engine works to allow fuels, oils to circulate throughout the engine and other areas of the car to allow the car overall to function).                                                                                                                                                                        In review, our bodies oxygen is the food to our tissues in keeping them alive through our red blood cells (RBC’s) that carry the O2 to the tissues but there through a working heart and lungs only (one organ cannot live without the other). There has to be a systemic way we allow this to work and this is through the heart, lungs, and RBC’s (3 systems that connect with each other). The heart = right side deals with more C02 blood which is blood returning to the heart to get more 02 going first via the Rt. side of the heart to the Rt. and Lt. pulmonary artery, each of which carries blood to the lungs for 02 and C02 exchange to occur. This is for getting more 02 in our RBC’s with allowing them to release C02 at the lungs and then return them to the left side of the heart to be sent through both Lt. chambers of the heart to our blood stream to utilize the new 02 in our RBC’s to our body tissues. This is a 24hr/7days a week job for our red blood cells, lungs and heart in functioning to keep the human body alive.

In simpler terms this is how it works: The blood that needs to be refreshed with more 02 when it enters the right (Rt.) atrium coming from a vessel that brings back mainly carbon dioxide in the blood from the toes and the brain that was mainly used up by the tissues and those RBC’s need to be reoxygenated with higher levels of oxygen for the RBC’s to deliver 02 again to tissues. It first goes to the Rt. atrium & fills up to its max level simultaneously while the left (Lt.) atrium is filling up to its max level. When the Rt. atrium is ready to drop its blood max level into the Rt. ventricle below it the valves open between the chambers simultaneously dropping the blood to the Rt. Ventricle (Lt side does the same thing) but only the Rt. side ends up going to the lungs through a Rt. and Lt. pulmonary artery to get more oxygen to send it to the highly oxygenated side of the heart, being on the left side. The job the Rt. side of the heart does is this, it just goes from the Rt. side of the heart to our lungs and back to the heart on the Lt. side through the 4 pulmonary veins to the L atrium; so the path or distance for the Rt. side of the heart to do its function is a short distance = it gets your used up oxygen in the red blood cells (that are high in carbon dioxide) to get more oxygen by going through the Rt. side of the heart sending them to the lungs where they get more O2 and then they are sent back to the Lt. side of the heart.   This is the Rt. side of the heart’s function.

Now let us look at what the Lt. side of the heart does in function. The RBC’s reoxygenated leave the lungs and sent via the 4 pulmonary veins to the Lt. side of the heart reaching the Lt. atrium thus carries a high 02 level in the RBC’s (this blood just came directly from the lungs where O2 and CO2 exchange for the RBC’s took place). Next the RBC’s go to the Lt. ventricle to our Aorta that sends this high oxygen level of RBC’s out to all our tissues as food to prevent starvation of the tissues).   Again, when the valves open between the chambers and allowing this blood to fill up in the lower chambers called the Rt. and Lt. ventricles it is simultaneously done also including the valves that open and close in the the pulmonary artery and the aorta that is in the Lt. ventricle sending RBC’s out to our circulatory system high in O2 to be utilized by our body tissues.

So the way it works with both sides of the heart is the Rt. side sends blood of highly carbon dioxide blood (RBC’s) to the lungs to get re-oxygenated through 2 vessels from the Rt. side of the heart to the lungs that sends this re-oxygenated RBC’s through 4 vessels to the Lt. side of the heart and it reaches the Lt. side of the heart which sends this highly oxygenated blood throughout the top and bottom of the Lt. side of the heart to the aorta that sends this blood throughout our body tissues. When this oxygen is used all up from dispensing it out to tissues the C02 is taken back from the tissues by RBC’s that replace it with O2, this process starts all over again with these RBC’s that returned to the heart. Ending line the right side of the heart is for higher levels of carbon dioxide in the blood (used up blood) to get more oxygenated whereas the left side of the heart sends higher levels of O2 throughout the body all the way to the toes (a harder job=muscle mass of the left side of the heart works out more than the right making the left side of the heart a bigger muscle vs the right side.

Now knowing the anatomy and physiology of the heart let’s now understand more about cardiac disease in how they develop and in how it effects the engine of the body, being the heart and how it effects other areas of the body in Part 2 this weekend.

Stents help prevent arteries from becoming narrow or blocked again in the months or years after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), sometimes referred to as coronary angioplasty. However, stents aren’t a cure for atherosclerosis or its risk factors.  Making lifestyle changes can help prevent reoccurrence of a blockage.

NIH National Heart, Lung and Blood institute

Risks

Risks include the standard risks of an interventional, catheter-based procedure, which should be specifically discussed with your doctor. Lesions treated with stents can “restenosis” (re- narrow with in weeks to months after the procedure) similar to restenosis associated with angioplasty. This is why patients after having a stent put in they are on a medication for example like Plavix for life to prevent this occurrence from happening. It is a anti platelet medication, meaning it doesn’t allow clotting to happen in the stent so blockage doesn’t reoccur through clotting.

Many new technologies are being tested to reduce the problem of restenosis. These technologies include coating and coverings for the stent, new materials, and radiation. These new technologies are primarily experimental at this point and will reach soon to the market if not already. Technology allows the medical field to continuously expand and this will be replaced at one point but isn’t yet. Just give it time. At one point we had no CABG (coronary artery bypass) but now the stent in certain cases is replaced by angiograms to further expanding to angioplasties and stents furthering allowing the surgery to take place 1x hopefully if the patient is compliant in diet, exercise, and following the doctors orders with meds, activity and follow up visits (which are so vital).   A lot is up to the patient in caring or themselves to prevent having this take place again.

Follow up Instructions

Your doctor will recommend blood thinning medications following your stent procedure. These agents are usually given for one month post procedure along with aspirin and then continued indefinitely. Your doctor may also prescribe antibiotics for a period of time after the stent procedure, to be taken anytime you have a medical or dental procedure. Preventing infection.

MRI tests should not be done for at least eight weeks without your doctor’s approval. Metal detectors do not present a problem. Stents appear to be safe in the long-term; there are no long-term complications associated with a permanent stent.

Diabetics who suffer a heart attack may be better off receiving a coated or “drug-eluting” stent than a cheaper bare-metal model, according to one study.

AHA

A stent is a wire mesh tube that is used to help hold open an artery. To simple understanding this concept think of a plumber or a mechanic. With a plumber sometimes they have to replace a certain area of a pipe that connects the water or like a mechanic replacing a certain area of piping (like the muffler piping connected infront of the muffler than can either can be replaced or just welded with piece of piping welded just to save money. Well a stent opens the artery that was clogged and its put in that place to reinforce that area of the artery to remain open to allow blood to get to that heart from that coronary artery and it will stay there life to keep the artery permanently patent to prevent the blockage from happening again with the synthetic mesh piece.

Description

Stents are used to hold open diseased coronary arteries (these arteries supply blood to the heart), as well as diseased arteries of the peripheral vascular system (PVS). Peripheral means away from the heart the PVS is the arteries that supply blood to the rest of the body (again away from the heart all the way down to the hands and feet).

There are variety of stents currently available.

For a surgeon to find out if you even need one, first usually a angiogram is performed and this is a catheter simply from the femerol artery or from your arm to the coronary arteries. If the MD sees you show a blockage 80% or more an angioplasty is performed which is a balloon at the end of this catheter that blows up and decompresses to give the effect like punching gloves. The balloon inflates and deflates over and over again till the blockage breaks open free and then a stent is put in that area to help keep it open permanently (patent).

Some stents have been compressed onto the outside of an angioplasty balloon catheter and delivered by inflating the balloon in the desired location. Other stents are “self- expanding” spring-loaded devices, which expand automatically upon deployment.

Stents remain in arteries permanently. The tissue lining the arteries actually grows over the metal mesh to cover the inner lumen of the stent.

Stent procedures have become very common like tonsillectomies were in childhood. Stents are sometimes used as an alternative to coronary artery bypass surgery, if the patient is a candidate. Stents are often used in combination with balloon angioplasty. One leads to the other depending on what the angioplasty displays for the surgeon on the T.V. in when they are doing the procedure and if the come up to a blockage high enough to perform the angioplasty followed with a stent it will be done.

Stents are used in cases of “restenosis”, which refers to the re-closing of arteries after balloon angioplasty. In carefully selected patients, the use of stents can dramatically reduce restenosis following balloon angioplasty or other catheter-based procedures. Stents are used frequently to hold open the arteries that have been damaged, torn, or dissected by balloon angioplasty or other catheter-based procedures. Like plumber or mechanic, get it.

Stents allow angioplasty to be done in patients with severe and long-segment obstruction of coronary arteries. As soon as the I initial part of the block is widened, a stent is place, which holds it open allowing further opening to proceed. Stents have also allowed angioplasty to be performed in patients with blocks of multiple vessels, and in multiple blocks in a single artery.

“Experts say the vast majority of heart attack patients have several common warning signs just days leading up to their attacks that if known, could possibly save someone’s life.”

Kim Love (author with http://rmhealthy.com/10-signs-heart-attack)

“Learn about your risks for heart disease and stroke and stay heart healthy for yourself and your loved ones.”  American Heart Association (AHA)

Rheumatoid Arthritis is a chronic disorder resulting from an inflammation of the membranes or tissues that line the joints, typically in the hands and feet, that generally develops in an individual between the ages of forty and sixty. Over time, rheumatoid arthritis can destroy the cartilage, ligaments, tendons, and bone surrounding the joint.

alothealth.com

Osteoarthritis vs Rheutmatoid Arthritis

Arthritis is inflammation of one or more of your joints. (Arthro=joint / itis = inflammation)

The main symptoms of arthritis are joint pain and stiffness, which typically worsen with age. Rheumatoid Arthritis symptoms are joint inflammation that comes from pain, warmth, and swelling. The inflammation is typically symmetrical that is occurring on both sides of the body at the same time (such as hands, wrists, or knees). Other signs of Rheumatoid Arthritis include joint stiffness that is particularly in the AM upon awakening or after periods of inactivity; ongoing fatigue, and low-grade fever. Signs and symptoms come about gradually over years but can come on rapidly for some other people.

The two most common types of arthritis are osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Osteoarthritis is usually caused by normal wear and tear, while rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disorder. Other types of arthritis can be caused by uric acid crystals, infections or even an underlying disease, such as psoriasis or lupus.

Treatments vary depending on the type of arthritis. The main goals of arthritis treatments are to reduce signs or symptoms and improve quality of life through Occupational or Physical Therapy and/or through medications, the old way.

Things that make arthritis worse: 1.) conventional medicine through doctors ordering medications (see Dr. David Brownstein’s website for his Natural Way to Health (with his book) to overcome arthritis). Drugs rarely CURE things. We are trained to believe doctors have all the answers with medications or surgeries in resolving our health problem. NOT THE CASE ALWAYS. It’s unnatural with arthritis and many other diagnoses. Natural therapies and good foods are not taken seriously by enough people in America in regards to helping a condition, like arthritis, or even prevention (which should be your first intervention, don’t wait for the diagnosis).

2.)Infection – check if a bacterial infection started your arthritis. If that is the cause antibiotics, low dose some doctors have given to people in studies and have worked. You would think this would be used more often, at least in testing for before just prescribing anti-inflammatory or analgesics meds. If its infection you need to kill the bacteria and the only way to do that it is with an antibiotic which kills a bacterial infection.

3.)DIET – Too many sugars or chemical preservatives and sweeteners which is in the standard American diet. Processed Foods are BAD.  The same foods that cause obesity, diabetes and coronary artery disease can easily cause arthritis. Increase your fruits and nuts in your diet. Vitamin C and E are good for you. Pomegrante extract also.

4.) Dehydration- main causes of arthritis. Many simplify the problem. Your joints need water and if not enough it will cause an auto immune response=inflammation and get worse with processed foods.

5.) Heavy metal toxicity-Mercury, Arsenic and Nickel it includes. Not a fluke and mercury is one of the worst metals to have toxic in your body. Fish is the second worst source of heavy metal food. Few things you can do now, eat tuna occasionally. Silver malcum fillings have your dentist remove. Have your doctor do a heavy metal toxicity test on you if you never had one done and with arthritis.

6.) Low or imbalances of hormones=headache, faster aging, fatigue/lethargy, skin wrinkling sooner in life. Synthetic hormones don’t perform as well in your body and can lead to problems. Female hormones   can increase your chance to breast cancer for example.

ACT America and one way to do that is go to Dr. David Brownstein website and check out Reverse your Arthritis to deal with your arthritis naturally and reading his books with bonuses.

 Diet and bodyweight impact on arthritis

Experts say that eating a well-balanced diet is vital when you have arthritis. Not only will you be receiving critical nutrients, you will also be either maintaining or arriving more quickly at a healthy bodyweight. If you are overweight you will be adding extra pressure on weight-bearing joints. Many patients have found that losing just a few pounds made a significant difference to their quality of life. Doctors and nutritionists are more frequently advising arthritis patients to keep sugary and/or fatty foods to a minimum – such as red meat, cream and cheese. You should make sure you are eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, as well as whole grains. Omega-3 essential fatty acids are thought to relieve to some extent the symptoms of arthritis. A common source of Omega-3 fatty acids is oily fish, such as sardines, herring, trout, and salmon. Many of us tend to place large portions on our plate. If you reduce the size of the portions you may lose weight more effectively. Make sure that vegetables and fruit make up a large part of your portion.   Those who need a little help in knowing how to lose weight with knowing the 4 food groups including 3 subgroups to each food group telling you what is lean or leaner or the leanest to eat of that food group. You get this through Dr. Anderson’s book “Dr A’s Habits of Health” and myself as your health coach with you deciding on all the foods you want to eat even foods through my website. If you’re interested in getting healthier and want to lose weight with knowing how the body works with food and in proportions than click on my website and go to healthyusa.tsfl.com and be a part of making yourself and America a healthier home by spreading the good news. Our people in this country need to go back in that direction to decrease disease/illness in percentage; join me and many others who have taken the step. So far I have lost 22 lbs., if I can do it so can you it just takes discipline and interest to make America now and in the future a better place to live. The healthier our country gets the better our health care system will turn out for everyone.