Your Heart

The most important part of our cardiovascular system is our heart. This heart is basically a pump. It pumps blood and reaches our various parts. In the left side, the pump A pumps the blood from the lungs to the tissues and reaches oxygen to them. The right side pump B, pumps blood from the tissues to the lung reaching the carbon dioxide to the lung for removal. This way our heart pumps about 5 liters of blood per minute beating about 70 times, thus beating 70 x 60 x 24hrs x 375 days x 70 years approximately 257,54,40,000 times non stop, i.e. in our life span, some two thousand million times without a single shut down for repairs.

The beating of the heart is called heart rate. This heart beat rate can vary from person to person depending upon their age and their health level. Based on this, the rate could vary plus or minus 20. With exercises or emotional change, it could even go up to 200 beats per minute.

The total blood in our body is only about 5 liters and all this five liters get pumped and recycled every minute on an average. This is one cycle. In this one cycle, our heart first contracts and then relaxes. The contraction phase is called systole. The contraction of the heart is basically to generate pressure for pumping of the blood. It can also be said that the pressure generated for the pumping of the blood is systolic pressure.

After contraction, the heart has to come back to normal. This is the relaxation phase. This is called diastole. In this relaxation phase also, the heart has to ensure that the blood pumped out does not back flow into the heart. For this too, certain minimum pressure has to be maintained. This pressure is diastolic pressure.

It is said that systole lasts three tenth of the second and diastole lasts five tenth of a second. This systole and diastole together form one cycle.

The pressures above change from person to person but the broad range is as under:

Pressure while pumping Systolic 100 to 140
Pressure while in relaxation Diastolic 60 to 90

Now we saw earlier that whenever you do an exercise or get emotionally charged, your heart beat increases. This effectively means that the time available for relaxation is reduced, i.e. diastole is reduced. When relaxation is affected, the heart over works. This would be bad for your health. We need to keep the above pressures normal at 120:80.

The pumping job that goes on in our heart also produces a sound which is generally observed through the doctor’s stethoscope. The sound is observed as “lub dub, lub dub, lub dub”. These sounds are also captured by ECG machine in a graphic form as under:

R

P T


Q S

This is a normal ECG where the total systole system gets picturised. Doctors call the P as the atrial systole and QRST as ventricular systole. The QRS jump in waves is the result of the heart beat influencing different parts of the ventricle. The T is due to some parts of the heart relaxing slightly before the other parts. In some ECGs, the Q may not be present. But if there are heart problems, the ECG can give pictures as:


R R
S
P T P

Q S T

Picture 1 Picture 2

In both the pictures you can see S and T segment is affected. In picture 1 the ST segment is elevated and whereas in picture 2, the ST is depressed. Doctors call the picture 1, anterior thrombosis and picture 2 as posterior thrombosis. We can understand the above as the case where our ventricle has an insufficient supply from the arteries which cause heart problems medically called ischaemic heart disease or miocardial infarction. So, keep your heart pump in good condition and enjoy good life.

The reflections of our heart beat can also be seen in terms of ‘the pulse’. Many doctors check the pulse to determine the heart rate. Pulse can be seen in the forearm near the wrist generally. Some patients could even be pulse-less.

Heart Attack

Heart attack is a short circuit in your heart. Heart attack occurs in diabetics a decade earlier than in normal people. Therefore if you have diabetes, have it under control. If cardiac complications are to be avoided, there should be early detection when the condition is reversible

People with aggressiveness, sense of time urgency, impatience and high drive are coronary prone personalities. Those having job dissatisfaction, grief, depression and hopelessness are also likely trigger heart attacks. On the contrary those who are relaxed and easy going are likely to be free from coronary heart problems.

The likely causes of a heart attack

· Narrowing and clogging of coronary arteries [atherosclerosis]
· High Blood pressure
· High blood sugar
· Cholesterol problem – Low HDL or High LDL
· Over weight
· Lack of physical exercises
· High work or relationship stress
· Sudden exertion like running, climbing, etc.
· Fat rich fast foods
· Smoking
· Alcohol
· Emotional excitements such as angry moods, worry, anxiety, fear

Steps to avoid heart attacks

· Avoid working long hours
· Curb your violent and quick emotional outbursts
· Reduce your weight
· Don’t be in a hurry to do anything such as climbing stairs, etc.
· Avoid worrying and anxiety. Be cheerful at all times
· Stop smoking

Keep physically active. Ten weeks of regular exercise would restore your youthful heart.

The oil controversy

As the incidence of heart ailments grows among people, there is a spate of advertisements on edible oils claiming to be fat free. These advertisements mislead the readers to believe that they have the choice of oils which are fat free.

There are various terms like saturated fat, poly saturated fat and mono saturated fat. Let us not get into these terminologies and the associated mathematics. Let us be simply clear that no oil is fat free. To live a fat free life, we need to avoid oils totally or have it to the very minimum. In typical cases, the arteries leading to the heart become narrow due to fatty deposits leading to chest pains like angina. We need to change our life styles and opt for oil free foods. The skimpier your diet, the healthier and longer you are likely to live, provided you do not touch malnutrition. This helps you release out toxic residues deposited in your bodies.

It takes 70% closure of an artery before, you even feel a symptom of a heart attack. So, keep the arteries healthy by eating a low fat, dairy free, diet and stay active

Surgery option to avoid heart attack

Of late there is an increasing acceptance of surgery as an option and a number of people opt for bypass surgeries. There is also an aggressive promotion of by pass surgeries by certain private hospitals and patients are even pushed into it. Since cost of bypass surgeries are earning lot of money to such hospitals, it is a money spinning exercise for them. Thus both bypass surgeries and angioplasties are overdone and such unnecessary surgeries ranges upto 25%. Patients should be clear that bypass surgery does not treat the basic disease whose progression can only be halted by non-interventionary treatment like exercise, meditation and diet.

Symptoms of a heart attack

· Unusual discomfort / sensation in or around the chest. If it is heart attack, you would feel a pressure and squeezing there instead of pain.
It may start in the middle or left side of the chest and spread to the whole chest, neck, shoulder, Left arm, hand and wrist. It could extend to the jaws and also towards the back, say the middle of the shoulder blades at the back.
· Or start from one of the above regions and radiate towards the chest
· You may start feeling heaviness or tightness in the region of your chest
· It may be associated with giddiness, breathlessness and sweating
· You could experience shortening of breath and sweating.

If the discomfort stops, don’t assume the problem is gone. It is good that it went away, but seek medical check up.

These are the warning signals The warning time could be as short as 10 inutes or last up to 1 hour. During this critical time, the patient may actually swing between life and death. He needs immediate medical help. Do not be under the impression that it is due to ‘gas’ or ‘muscle catch’. Rush him to the nearest medical help and save him.

Duty of relatives and friends

Those around the suffering patient, should avoid creating panic. They should concentrate on efforts to call for medical help. If possible, they should take the patient immediately to nearby center. In the meantime, they can give the patient an aspirin tablet / Sorbitrate for the patient to keep it under his/her tongue. And they should avoid over crowding around the patient

Transportation of the patient

The person who had had an attack needs to be transported to the nearest medical facility as early as possible. The maximum time one could survive is just one hour. So do things fast, but not get affected by hurry.

· Let there be minimum two persons accompanying the patient in the vehicle. One may drive the vehicle, and another may to attend to the patient

· Make the patient sit. Pain could increase when the patient is made to lie

· Enroute, stop at any medical store, have a nitroglycerin tablet and make the patient to have it kept under his tongue

· Don’t worry about the bumps on the road. Unless severe, they would not affect

A real life case on Heart attack

Recently, one of my friends suffered from the heart attack. He was rushed to the hospital and kept in ICU. After the crucial days were over, he was shifted to the general ward and I went over to visit him and was conversing with him. Initially I offered my sympathies and support and gave him enough of psychological boost which he needed most.

My second visit that followed after a few days was even more purposeful, because I introduced him to the new dimensions of the ailment as under. I introduced him to the famous writings of Napoleon Hill at this time

The author wrote that when his friend had suffered a heart attack, he sent a telegram to him congratulating for his heart attack. That made both the patient and his family members furious. After sending the said telegram, he also visited the friend in the hospital to congratulate him for his heart attack. The agitated family members pounced upon him when the author explained as follows:

· Many people who suffer a heart attack die. And this man has been saved. So he deserved all the congratulations for his second life.
· The very hospitalization suggests that God wants him to live long and so he deserves all the congratulations.
· The very heart attack had come because of either stress or bad habits like hurry, curry or worry. Now he had been afforded enough opportunities and time in the hospital bed to think about his life style and make the needed changes. And these changes would ensure that he lives longer. And this too deserves congratulations.
· Heart attack is your second birthday and hence congratulations.

The family members soon realized the good intentions and great teachings behind the congratulatory messages from the author and expressed their appreciation and apologies to the author.

Thus heart attack is nothing to be feared about, but has every positive intent of God in awarding this minor punishment. It is said that no person who lives as per the codes of God is ever hospitalized and that only those who had forgotten God and His commandments are hospitalized so that from the hospital bed, they have time to look upwards.

In case you develop some problems, you can consider any of the home remedies as under:

Home Medicines

Heart Problems

1 Eat ¼ tsp asafoetida with one large raisin every day

2 Boil 2 petals of Shoe flower in 1 cup water and strain
Mix with 1 tsp honey and take every day

3 Eat gulkand 2 tsp every day

Weak Heart

1 Boil 5 shoe flower in a cup of water till water reduced to ½ cup
Add to milk and sugar and take once a day

2 Regularly take ripe banana

Angina Pectoris

1 Mix well 2 tsp almond oil and 1 tsp rose oil and rub gently on chest twice a day

2 Boil 1 tsp fenugreek seeds in 1 ½ cups water; strain and add 2 tsp
honey
Take twice daily

3 Mix some heeng powder to water and drink

4 Make rasam out of murungai leaf and take. Make rasam by putting the leaves to water added with tamarind juice and salt to taste and boil. After good boiling, put into it paste of pepper, jeera and little chillis and boil once more.

Post Heart attack life style reform

As already stated above, the heart attack and the attendant hospitalization is a good time for introspection and reform. The question now is how do you make changes in your life after the heart attack. Here are some advices:

· You were in bed for quite a good time. It means your body and muscles were inactive. So you would feel weak. To overcome this weakness, start your activities slowly and increase gradually and introduce moderate exercises in your daily activities. Ask the doctor as to what you can do in this direction. But I can tell you, walking is the best exercise. Walk, increasing your distance a little daily.
· Take to meditation. Read the chapter “All Time Medicines” in this book.
· Take bath in warm water. Avoid using cold or hot water, as it would affect your blood circulation.
· Control your diet. Cut your fat intake and step up your consumption of vegetables and fruits.. Take to fruit juices.
· Get your blood examined regularly for cholesterol and tryglycerides.
· Also check on your blood pressure and diaibetes
· Stop smoking and stop adding to your cholesterol.
· You would have more urge for sex. Tell yourself a NO till four weeks are over after your discharge from the hospital. Even afterwards, a gradual start only is advised. The timing should not be within three hours of your meal. Take care of your positions and be passive and allow your partner to be active.
· Don’t opt for driving your vehicle for quite a good time. If you have to travel, opt for train journey – of course, not in metropolitan electric trains.
· Take to regular stress tests as advised by the doctor and determine your progress.
· Laughter should be a part of your schedule. People with heart disease generally laugh less even in positive situations and they display more hostility and anger. Avoid this mind set.
· The greatest protection available to you is achievement of equanimity.
· Learn a new language
· Choose some activity you enjoy, say painting and submerge yourself into it.
· Read self development books