Heart Disease — Congestive Heart Failure
   by James Occhiogrosso, N.D.

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Heart disease is a leading cause of death in the United States. We all fear the sudden heart attack, but modern medical intervention has been quite good at reducing the death rate from these sudden unexpected occurrences. On the other hand, long-term chronic heart conditions, (like congestive heart failure) come on gradually and have few symptoms until they have progressed significantly.
 
With a little knowledge of heart-healthy foods, vitamins and herbs, we can help delay the onset of cardiac conditions and lead a healthier life. When it comes to nutrition, many of us treat our automobiles better that we treat our bodies. We feed our vehicles premium gas and high priced synthetic oils in the hope they will give us long service—and then—we feed our bodies junk foods with little nutrition, the cheapest multivitamin supplements, and expect a healthy lifespan to the age of 100. Unfortunately, the real world does not work that way.

While heart conditions have many different names, they commonly fall into two general categories as follows:

• Heart Failure — Often called congestive heart failure or coronary artery disease (CHF or CAD). This is the result of years of heart stress from many causes. It results in the inability of the heart to pump sufficient blood through the body to meet its needs. Symptoms include, swelling of the feet and legs, shortness of breath, and exercise intolerance.

• Arrhythmias— A general term for disturbances of the heart rhythm. Most have no known cause. Some arrhythmias like missed or skipped beats can be relatively benign and need little or no treatment. Others, like atrial fibrillation vary from benign to serious, and some, like ventricular fibrillation—can be life threatening and require immediate emergency intervention.

In this article, I discuss the first category above of heart failure, the conditions that cause it, and some ways to help minimize its effects. In other articles, I discuss various cardiac arrhythmias, and supporting good heart health with proper nutrition and supplements.

Most heart conditions tend to occur with advancing age. However, this is not so much a matter of aging but more a matter of multiple nutrient deficiencies encountered over many years. We eat poorly—following a standard American diet (SAD)—(an appropriate abbreviation)—and then we are surprised when told that we have a heart problem and should see a cardiologist.

Short of a sudden heart attack, heart disease does not come about suddenly like an attack of the flu but instead it occurs after many years of poor lifestyle and nutrition. If the condition is diagnosed early, and is not too far advanced, it can often be helped with lifestyle changes, correction of nutritional deficiencies and various herbal remedies

Heart Disease takes a long time to develop. It can result from long-term hypertension (high blood pressure) and/or artery blockages. Elevated blood pressure has been called the silent killer. It often does not have noticeable symptoms until it has caused serious problems with inability of the heart to pump properly and/or a stroke. Over time, untreated high blood pressure, along with other artery stressors like cigarette smoking, diabetes, poor nutrition and lack of exercise, causes arteries to stiffen and lose elasticity, a condition called arteriosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is a related condition with many of the same causal factors. Both are slow, progressive diseases that result in internal damage to artery walls. This internal damage attracts plaque buildup that then thickens the artery walls allowing less blood to flow. The reduced blood flow forces the heart to pump harder to maintain blood flow, resulting in an additional increase in blood pressure.

Thus, a vicious circle is created where one stressor influences another causing overall deterioration of function. Coronary Artery Disease (CAD), Congestive Heart Failure (CHF), Arteriosclerosis and Atherosclerosis are basically variants of the same condition with different names depending on the primary area of involvement. However, with all of them, the end result is the same—organs and tissues of the body do not receive enough blood to function properly.

With all cardiac conditions, eliminating the factors that cause the problems goes a long way towards resolving them. The first elements to address are related to lifestyle and diet. Increasing exercise levels and eliminating dietary items that cause problems can substantially improve one’s condition. Secondly, proper vitamin, mineral, and herbal supplementation can help reduce nutrient deficiencies that can further complicate the problem.

One of the measurements cardiologists use to measure the extent of heart disease is called the “Ejection Fraction”. This is a measure of the amount of blood in percent pumped out of the main chamber of the heart—the left ventricle. Tests (like echo cardiograms) typically list it as LVEF (Left Ventricle Ejection Fraction). For healthy people this number is typically in the range of 50 to 65%. People with heart disease have substantially lower numbers. Since this is measured frequently with cardiac patients, it can be a good indicator of overall progress for someone on a natural program to improve heart function.

Often folks with diagnosed heart disease and low ejection fraction can improve their condition with herbal and vitamin supplements. However, many cardiac patients are on multiple medications and must be extremely careful that supplements they use will not interfere with their medications.

As a natural health practitioner, I am often asked which herbs and nutrients someone with congestive heart failure can take. This is a question that is unanswerable on a general basis. Each person has a different profile of lifestyle, medications, symptoms and disease progress that needs to be individually addressed. Furthermore, heart disease is not a condition that lends itself to self-treatment.

To naturally address heart disease requires multiple approaches. First, one must correct any lifestyle and dietary issues. Second, based on a nutritional deficiency analysis, dietary nutrient deficiencies should be addressed with vitamin and mineral supplements. Third, herbal remedies can be used to help strengthen the heart, increase blood flow and lower blood pressure. Fourth, it is critical to address deficiencies in immune function. Low immune function can be improved with herbal items so that there is less chance of contracting other debilitating diseases that can exacerbate the heart condition.

As I mentioned earlier, self-treating heart disease is not in your best interests. The best way to achieve positive results is to work with both a cardiologist and a natural health practitioner and make sure each is aware of what the other is doing.

One common thread I see with folks that improve their conditions is that they assume responsibility for their treatment rather than just take advice from someone else. Over the years, I have seen many folks with relatively severe heart disease have a significant improvement in ejection fraction after a few months of supplementation with nutrients and herbals.

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