High Blood Pressure and Heart Diseases
Heart disease is the number 1 killer in America, accounting for 1 in every 4 deaths each year. Benjamin Franklin once famously said, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." This is specially true when it comes to heart diseases. There are four common types of heart diseases, which include coronary artery disease(CAD), Heart Arrhythmias, Heart Valve Disease, Pericardial Disease, Cardiomyopathy(Heart Muscle Disease), and Congenital Heart Disease.
Information Source: www.WebMD.com
1. Coronary Artery Diseases (CAD),
CAD is the most common heart problem. With CAD, you may get blockages in your coronary arteries -- the vessels that supply blood to your heart. That can lead to a decrease in the flow of blood to your heart muscle, keeping it from getting the oxygen it needs. The disease usually starts as a result of atherosclerosis, a condition sometimes called hardening of the arteries.
Coronary heart disease can give you pain in your chest, called angina, or lead to a heart attack.
Some things that may put you at a higher risk of coronary artery disease are:
Age (For men, the risk of heart disease goes up after age 55; for women, the risk rises sharply after menopause.)
Being inactive
Family history of coronary heart disease
Genetics
High blood pressure
High levels of LDL "bad" cholesterol or low levels of HDL "good" cholesterol
Obesity
Smoking
Stress
2. Heart Arrhythmias
When you have an arrhythmia, your heart has an irregular beating pattern. Serious arrhythmias often develop from other heart problems but may also happen on their own.
3. Heart Failure
With heart failure, your heart doesn't pump blood as well as it should to meet your body's needs. It is usually caused by coronary artery disease, but it can also happen because you have thyroid disease, high blood pressure, heart muscle disease (cardiomyopathy), or certain other conditions.
4. Heart Valve Disease
Your heart has four valves that open and close to direct blood flow between your heart's four chambers, the lungs, and blood vessels. A defect could make it hard for a valve to open and close the right way. When that happens, your blood flow could be blocked or blood can leak. Your valve may not open and close right.
The causes of heart valve problems include infections such as rheumatic fever, congenital heart disease, high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, or as a result of a heart attack.
Diseases of the heart valves include:
Endocarditis. This is an infection that's usually caused by bacteria, which may enter the blood and take root in your heart during illness, after surgery, or after using intravenous drugs. It often happens if you already have valve problems. Antibiotics can usually cure it, but the disease is life threatening without treatment.
If your heart valves are seriously damaged as a result of endocarditis, you may need valve replacement surgery.
Rheumatic heart disease. This condition develops when your heart muscle and valves are damaged by rheumatic fever, which is linked to strep throat and scarlet fever.
Rheumatic heart disease was more common earlier in the 20th century. But doctors are now able to prevent it by using antibiotics to treat the diseases that lead to it. If you do get it, the symptoms usually show up many years after the infection.
Pericardial Disease
Any disease of the pericardium, the sac that surrounds your heart, is called a pericardial disease. One of the more common diseases is pericarditis or inflammation of the pericardium.
It's usually caused by an infection with a virus, inflammatory diseases such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis, or injury to your pericardium. Pericarditis often follows open heart surgery.
6. Cardiomyopathy (Heart Muscle Disease)
Cardiomyopathy is a disease of your heart muscle, or myocardium. It gets stretched, thickened, or stiff. Your heart may get too weak to pump well.
There are many possible causes of the disease, including genetic heart conditions, reactions to certain drugs or toxins (such as alcohol), and infections from a virus. Sometimes, chemotherapy causes cardiomyopathy. Many times, doctors can't find the exact cause.
7. Congenital Heart Disease
Congenital heart disease happens when something goes wrong while the heart is forming in a baby that's still in the womb. The heart defect sometimes leads to problems right after birth, but other times there aren't any symptoms until you become an adult.
Septal defects are among the most common congenital heart problems. These are holes in the wall that divides the left and right sides of your heart. You can get surgery to patch the hole.
Another type of defect is called pulmonary stenosis. A narrow valve causes a decrease in the flow of blood to your lungs. Surgery can open or replace the valve.
In some babies, a small blood vessel known as the ductus arteriosus doesn't close up at birth as it should. When this happens, some blood leaks back into the pulmonary artery, which puts strain on your heart. Doctors can treat this with surgery or sometimes with medication.
NATURAL TREATMENTS FOR HEART DISEASES
NO. 1 HAWTHORN BEREIES
There are many natural treatments and remedies that can help lower blood pressure, cleanse arteries to remove blockages. They include using garlic, celery, apple cider vinegar, and last but not least lemon. However, Hawthorn berries stand out above them all because of its overall impressive effectiveness for treating and preventing 6 out of 7 above mentioned common heart diseases (except congenital heart disease, which is due to heart function defects from birth.)
Hawthorn is an amazing herb for heart health and blood pressure regulation. The Hawthorn berry contain powerful medicinal ingredients(unique flavonoids - proanthocyanidins). Over thousands of years, Hawthorn has been used to treat congestive heart failure, high blood pressure, manage angina by traditional Chinese medicine, long before any medication was developed by modern medical science.
Recently, Hawthorn has been used in clinical trial studies to test its efficacy in Germany to see if it in fact has the same benefits that we saw historically in traditional herbal medicine. The results have proven to be a very useful treatment for congestive heart failure, high blood pressure and angina. These medical results, called impressively effective by doctors in Germany, have been published in the prestigious medical journal, “Drug Discover” in 2008. Therefore, Hawthorn has been proven to work amazingly well medically in treating heart diseases and high blood pressure, so how does Hawthorn berries work?
- Hawthorn berries increase the heart's ability to convert food into energy. As we get older, the heart has more trouble converting food into energy, so the heart pump gets weaker, and becomes more prune to congestive heart failure as we get older. Hawthorn supplementation has shown to enable heart to make more energy by increasing cyclic AMP. Hawthorn strengthens heart muscles to the way it was when you were younger. That helps to prevent congestive heart failure.
- Hawthorn berries open up blood vessels(including coronary vessels): increased oxygen, nutrientsto heart muscles, (endothelial function). The blood vessels sometimes get clogged with cholesterol and get a bit narrow. Hawthorn opens up the blood vessels by dilating it and allows the oxygen and nutrients to get to the heart muscle and reduces the likelihood that you are going to have a heart attack.
- Hawthorn acts similar to calcium channel blockers to lower blood pressure(without the side effects). Hawthorn keeps blood pressure in the ideal range without really any significant side effects.
No. 2 CHINESE RED DATES
Chinese red dates are rich in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals such as calcium,magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, iron, and dietary fibers. They boost body's energy metabolism and protect liver. They also contain cyclic AMP that increase heart muscle strength, eliminate fatigue, prevent cardiovascular diseases.
No. 3 GOJI BERRIES
No. 1 anti-aging superfood, Goji berries contain 500 times more vitamin C per weight than oranges, with a single serving yielding 20 percent of your daily needs. Other vitamins in Gojiberries include vitamins B-1, B-2, B-6 and E. Gojiberries contain more than 20 trace minerals, including iron, copper, zinc, calcium, selenium and phosphorus.
Goji berries boost immune system to protect against flu. It nourish and protect your liver and kidney against chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart diseases, high blood pressure, arthritis. Goji berries have also been used to treat anemia.
