Heart disease - Ayurvedic and other treatments

Tapati said:


After reading your post I thought of starting this thread, since heart disease is the number one killer, and we also get older and may develop this disease.

Others may also have their share to say to this topic.

First of all it can be said that heart disease is not an irreversible process. Given the variety of types of the symptoms involved (types of diseases in Western terms), there are a number of remedies to deal with acute symptoms. Heart pain can be reduced and/or stopped with Cactus mother-tincture. I have met a homeopath in India who said he had been able repeatedly to stop heart-attacks with Cactus and Crataegus mother-tinctures. Crataegus (German Weissdorn) is a generally known good heart-tonic which taken over years shows good results.

In Ayurveda Sringi Bhasma is used to cure and prevent heart problems. It is made from the horn of the white spotted deer which is protected in India.

I have met a well known ayurvedic physician in Pune, Maharastra who has proven in a systematic study that by-pass surgeries could be avoided in patients who needed one urgently.

Do you have time and facility to visit Pune? Think about it.

In terms of adjustment of life-style you should not use any other oil than Olive oil. It has been shown that people who use lots of olive oil on a daily basis have no heart problems.

Good luck.

Thank you, Prabhu, for taking the time to think of my dilemma and offer thoughtful solutions. I have often used natural medicines over the years and generally speaking prefer them whenever possible. However, there has not been much in the way of research as to how various natural medicines react when combined with allopathic medicines. Often, the natural herbs have some of the same base ingredients as the allopathic meds, and combining them can lead to overdose. So far my course of allopathic treatments have opened the blood flow to my heart. I already had a quaduple by-pass in 2001, and after one of those grafts failed they put a stent in that artery. I will probably need another stent at some point as they only last a few years before scar tissue closes them up.

I don't have angina at this time, I am more thinking ahead to the future and what other solutions I might find to the more severe pain a full heart attack will bring. Nitro works for minor angina if needed (I suspect the cactus might have natural nitrates) but when it's severe they turn to morphine. I just cannot abide the stuff.

Dr. Ornish has also had good results with his program to increase blood flow non-surgically, confirmed by cardiac catheterizations. If I had the money I'd see if I could get into one of his treatment centers. (My insurance wouldn't cover it since I'm stable.)

You are certainly correct that this is our number one killer. Prevention is important, and while you may not stop it if you have the genetic disposition you can definitely help delay it and minimize the symptoms.

If anyone wants to know more about the mechanisms of heart disease, etc., I know a great deal about it now and between us I am sure we can answer most questions or point you to a good link. I have (at work) a list of good sites. I'd be interested also in learning more about the studies of Maharastra.

The one thing I do want to caution people about is the common assumption that you are fine if you've passed a treadmill test. I passed one two years before my surgery! It turns out, you must be over 75 per cent or more blocked before it will register with a simple treadmill test. The gold standard is the angiogram (aka cardiac catheterization) where they thread a catheter through to your coronary arteries and insert a radioactive dye. (It is not harmful.) Then they can see clearly which arteries are blocked and how much. You can get by for quite a while with fairly blocked arteries because your peripheral blood vessels widen to take on part of the load. Eventually things get to the point where this doesn't work, and you have shortness of breath, fatigue, maybe light headed, and finally you start to have pain. (Fatigue as in, you do something active, feel weak or tired easily and need to go sit down and rest.) Many people experience these early symptoms and say to themselves, "I'm just out of shape, I need to exercise more." or "I'm just getting older and slowing down."

This is denial.

If you catch these early symptoms, go in and see your doctor for a complete check up. I would start taking a baby aspirin every day as a precaution against blood clots. But get checked out. If you catch it early you may avoid a fatal heart attack.

Women used to not be expected to have heart attacks until post menopause, but that is changing and more women are having heart attacks as early as their 30s. On womenheart.org I have read accounts from women who are raising small children, dealing with heart disease! This is fast food and sedentary work habits and lifestyle. The Amish walk from 7 to 20 miles a day in the course of their daily work. Other Americans are lucky if they walk as much as 1.

Men of course start being potentially at risk from their 30s on, with risk increasing with age.

Doctors have lowered cholesterol limits recently and those with a family history may need statin drugs to keep it as low as they need to. Most people do well on statins. My total cholesterol used to be between 200-210 and now it's below 145. I should have been on them much earlier but my former doctor wasn't as proactive as my present doctor, who probably saved my life by putting me on statins and daily aspirin as a precaution. Yes, olive oil is great, and there are a few like peanut that are close. I do use peanut oil in Indian cooking because olive oil doesn't taste quite right to me.

Allopathic researchers are finding many promising avenues of research also, including growing new blood vessels! It's an exciting time in medicine.

Thanks again for bringing this up. On one hand I want to warn everyone what to look for and how to delay heart disease, on the other I don't want to bore everyone with it if they're not interested.

The thing about olive oil is that it is the most heat stable plant based oils commonly available. Cocunut oil is more heat stable than olive but it like animal fats is too high in saturated fat.

However, the cooking of any oils and fats, whether it be ghee or olive oil or sesame oil, will ultimately have negative effects on the liver and may
*contribute to carcinogenic illnesses
*disturb the liver's cholesterol production (we need good cholesterol for various functions in the body).

If you are using olive oil in any nutritional therapy, it is best to use the raw form and virgin cold pressed as a dressing on salads and vegetables etc. Never ever cook it.

I agree, olive oil is best in its raw state. Basically, these days I use as little as possible. When I cook Indian food I use as little as I can for the spices, as I still prefer to apply them to the hot oil. I'm talking a teaspoon or so.

If you are using such a small amount it is better to use ghee (usli ghee). Ghee is the most heat stable fat available for vegetarians. It may be cholesterol forming but it wont be anywhere near as carcinogenic as other oils under cooking heat. You could offset its negatives by ensuring there is raw virgin olive oil in your diet and by sprinkling good quality lecithin granules on your fruit salad dessert.

Of course, I do not practise what I preach. I eat neither ghee nor any extracted oils of any sort in my diet. Haven't done so for over 30 years.

My advice is informed by the corpus of Udo Erasmus and others which you can looksee on Google and my experiences in seeing friends' health improve on taking my advice.

Recently an elderly aunt had way over the top cholesterol reading and I told her to go dairy free for 10 days, minimise salt to 1 teaspoon sea salt a day (drastic by indo standards!), rice, lentils, fruits, and lemon juice and olive oil dressing on steamed vegies. She did this and the doctor couldn't believe her drastic improvement.

After that I said to her she could add a little yoghourt to her diet and some panir and could fry in just a teeny weeny bit of ghee. But unfortunately she has reverted to her old ways again for the time being. Until the next crisis I s'pose.

Yes, it's easy to get complacent about diet.

I've been afraid to use ghee at all, frankly. I hardly ever cook Indian food these days so have hardly had the need, but my friends request it from time to time. Back in my gallbladder-attack days I read about not cooking oils, so I would put a little in after things were cooked (soups mostly). I never eat butter or margarine. I eat toast dry and as it's whole wheat I've learned to appreciate it that way. I got out of the fried food habit for my gallbladder, which is not with me any more.

I don't really think much about cancer. I realize I'm not immune but since my Mom had her first bypass when I was just 18 I've expected that heart disease would likely be what gets me. I do know of someone who had heart disease and later died of cancer, so it's obviously not impossible.

Dr. Ornish has a book of heart healthy recipes and he encourages braising in vegetable broth rather than sauteeing in fat.

The other thing you may like to consider is restricting mineral salt.
Have you researched this?

Tapati:"I've been afraid to use ghee at all, frankly."

I am not up on this subject, but I was told by a fine doctor who was treating Satsvaruapa das that Ghee is the "good" fat in the cholesteral "bad and good". Is that correct? I have been giving this info out for years! Boy! I hope so! Hare Krishna

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.f...5&dopt=Abstract

and

http://www.yaledining.org/menu_nutr.cfm?mRecp=3917

So I would have to say, no, ghee is not a good component to a heart healthy diet. The absolute worst thing, however, is the trans fatty acids in many prepared foods and snacks today. Look for "hydrogenated oil" in the ingredient list--then avoid it like the plague.

Today I am cursing my HMO. These HMOs (Health Management Organizations) make deals with the drug companies to get certain medications at a reduced rate if they switch their patients over to them from another drug in the same class.

So I got a note from my doctor that my HMO was switching me from Avapro to Benicar. Avapro is one of my important heart medications, and works to soften the hard effects of the Lopressor. Lopressor lowers my heart rate and blood pressure, but interfering with the heart's rate like that can be hard on it and the Avapro supports its functioning and helps it pump efficiently. Or so I gather.

So I was reluctant to mess with a combination that's working for me but since I can't afford these meds without my HMO's help I was stuck with the change. I went on the new med on Tuesday. By Friday I noticed I was having some trouble breathing, my chest felt tight, and I became short of breath easily. At first I thought maybe I was getting bronchitis, but the symptoms were stronger by Friday night and I had difficulty getting up the stairs to my apartment. I had to stop every few steps and just breathe. I got out the printout of side effects--I usually wait a few days to read these or I'd freak out and not want to take anything--and sure enough, there's something about not taking it if you need diuretics and that it can decrease urine output in some patients.

Sure enough, my symptoms matched the time after my surgery when I had fluids backing up into my lungs because I needed a higher dose of the diuretic than I was getting.

My dilemma was that our room was prepaid and we couldn't get our money back, and I really didn't want to spend the evening at Urgent Care. So I simply stopped taking it and hoped my diuretic would be able to work normally then and start clearing the excess fluids. In retrospect I should have gone in but I resent how much heart disease intrudes on my life and was determined to go have my nice weekend in Monterey.

Today I did go in and there was still some fluid on my lungs so I was given potassium to take with an increased dose of my diuretic. (I don't normally take potassium; I get it through diet because the pills are hard on my stomach.) I was sternly warned that going into congestive heart failure like that could have brought on a heart attack and that I should have gone in.

Needless to say my HMO is going to be hearing from me.

By the way, congestive heart failure sounds awful but there are stages of it and when controlled by the diuretic mine is fairly mild and hardly noticeable in symptoms. It can take years to become serious. The excess fluid is a temporary situation being corrected as I write. Fortunately everything turned out ok. But the whole thing was completely unnecessary.

Feeling better today as I've lost 3 pounds of water weight already and am back on my Avapro as well.

And what a good opportunity to practice tolerance.

My readings and my personal experience is that overcoming the salt obsession is critical.

I don't do too badly in the salt department since I was raised on a low salt diet. My mother already had high blood pressure when I was quite small. I used to think everyone else's cooking was so salty!

Even one grain of it
Grates the Goddess

Wow, I can't say I do that good, as I do allow for a little. I shall redouble my efforts!