Congestive Heart Failure

The human body is a magnificent machine that works in harmony with nature. The machinery needs proper care and sometimes parts replaced. Like the machine so the heart also needs help to prevent failure. The pump may not pump enough blood to meet your body’s needs, which can lead into congestive heart failure. Many underlying conditions can cause congestive heart failure.

Over time and with the wear and tear of one’s body the heart itself can develop such things as coronary artery disease or high blood pressure, which can lead to congestive heart failure. These things sap your strength leaving the heart with the inability to pump efficiently causing a break down. It is very important that you take care of yourself because these things while not reversible are preventable.

We have medicines that can treat the conditions you have improving your survival rate. These medications if taken properly can help control your blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and other things that might be affecting your heart. The field of medicine has come a very long way in providing medicines to prevent congestive heart failure.

The cardiologist who is a heart specialist can inform you about by-pass surgery or stents to help open up the flow of your blood through your veins. Many things are possible to prolong your life just ask your doctor for advise as to what you need. It is very possible for you to do things for yourself that will help in good heart health.

Congestive heart failure maybe prevented by changing your lifestyle. This does not always take a big change but some things in your life are controllable. First, look at your diet eat a heart healthy diet. Watch out for salt intake, fatty foods, and over indulgences as these can cause congestive heart failure. Many of us in today’s world need to know how to manage stress overcome depression or simply improve the quality of our life. The problem of being over weight can lead to other problems such as coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. We need to keep these conditions under control in order to prevent congestive heart failure.

Managing stress becomes a stressful problem in itself for many people. While others enjoy the benefit of belonging to a gym or owning equipment that they use in their homes some of us do not have the time, money, or space to afford such luxury’s. A person who sets daily in his office may feel the tensions building up to the point of no relief and farther some even go into a depressive condition. This is very bad for the heart we say that our heart is what feels our emotions like love, sadness, hate, excitement etc. still yet our heart suffers with stress and depression. Congestive heart failure one of the number one killers of men and women can be prevented. Prevention begins as they say at home with you taking care of your needs.

Congestive Heart

A congestive heart can be fatal without the proper treatments. That is why today the government spends a lot of time and resources researching for cures and preventatives.
When you suffer from having a congestive heart then the heart is not able to maintain adequate circulation of blood in the tissues of the body or to pump out the venous blood returned to it by venous circulation. It is very important for all patients to understand what their heart is doing so they may take action to prevent any failure by the heart.

We do realize that you cannot see inside your chest and know what is going on but there are symptoms that will clue you into the fact that you are having some problems. All of a sudden, you notice that you have a shortness of breath whenever you try to walk or go up and down steps. This is one of the major signs of heart congestion.

All of a sudden, you realize that you tire easily and feel constantly tired even after a good nights rest. Fatigue and tiring is another signal that you should call your physician with concerns about your possibility of congestive heart problems. When you find the swelling of the feet, ankles, legs and occasionally the abdomen are constant and very discomforting then you should check with your doctor. Persistent coughing, raspy breathing or wheezing is another symptom of having a congestive heart.

“If you experience any of these symptoms, contact your doctor.”

Suddenly you find that you are gaining weigh and have no way of controlling this gain. When you diet but still find that you are gaining weight, perhaps the problem is with your heart. The fact that you are still gaining weight without any cause may have cause for alarm. This is a symptom of a congestive heart. Breathing can be come rather difficult even when you are lying down. A cough or wheeze may also occur along with spitting up red sputum. These are all signals of a congestive heart and you should see your physician before it becomes congestive heart failure.

You are really into problems if you have chest pain feel palpitations of the heart and develop a fever do not hesitate go straight to the emergency room as this is a signal that your congestive heart failure is happening. You might have started out with some ankle swelling, feet swelling and leg swelling at that point I would immediately contact my physician. I am sure that at this point your physician will send you to a cardiologist. A cardiologist is a heart specialist.

A heart specialist can make suggestions that will help you maintain a healthy life style and provide you with the proper medical care. A proper diet is essential in having a healthy heart. Medicine has improved over the years and so has procedures that your cardiologist will advise you. Congestive heart problems need not become a situation of heart failure.

Why is Peer Review Important in the Publication of Medical

Why is Peer Review Important in the Publication of Medical Research?

When seeking information on the latest updates in the field of medicine the best place to look is in a peer reviewed scientific journal. It is essential that a journal be peer reviewed to ensure that information is as accurate and up to date as possible.

Many publications do not utilize the process of peer review for its articles. Many common periodicals are examples of this. Magazines such as Cosmo, Good Housekeeping, and Time magazine are examples of this. It is up to an editor to decide whether or not to make an article available for public consumption. The flaw in this system can be found in the simple fact that no one is able to know everything about everything. Editors can make mistakes based on their own lack of knowledge. In addition, articles written based upon personal opinion, unfounded statements or biased research may be printed, which is fine if the periodical is searching for an opinion but not so valued when the reader is searching for cold, hard fact. By using peer review, much of this possibility is eliminated.

The process of peer review (or refereeing, as it is also known as in the scientific community) is very simple. All articles written concerning research projects to be published will be submitted to the editor of the journal in question. Copies of the article are then distributed to two or three experts in the field of which the article is written (for example, an article concerning congestive heart failure would be submitted to several experts in the field of cardiology). These professionals (the author’s “peers”) will then evaluate the article for accuracy, quality and relevance to the journal the author wishes it to be published in and submit their evaluation to the editor of the article in question. In this way a great pool of knowledge is being combined to decide if an article is fit for publication.

In the past reviewers have normally retained anonymity, both to the author whose work they have reviewed and the general public, preventing an author from launching a personal vendetta against a specific reviewer; however, in some instances editors have allowed an author to make a rebuttal to a reviewer who had criticized their work, particularly if an article received mixed reviews. This system is gradually changing, as cries for accountability are becoming heard. The Journal of Interactive Media in Education was among the first to utilize an open peer review system, by which reviewers names are made public and they may be held accountable for their statements.

Peer reviewed journals are generally easily distinguished from other periodicals. They present a much more sedate appearance and utilize a great deal of technical language, and all sources will be cited. Topics will focus on scientific research rather than general events, and are quite obviously focused towards fellow professionals in the field rather than the average reader. If they are unsure as to whether a publication has been peer reviewed a number of sources are available for scholars which provide a listing of peer reviewed journals across the country.

What New Therapies for Treatment of Congestive Heart Failure?

Heart disease is one of the deadliest killers in the world to date. Congestive heart failure, a condition found secondary to many major cardiac diseases, possesses its own high mortality rate. Fifty percent of those diagnosed with congestive heart failure will die within the five following years. Scientists and researchers are struggling to understand the exact mechanisms of the disease, and to find a cure.

Congestive heart failure results as the cells in the heart die or become non-functioning due to an event such as a myocardial infarction (a heart attack) or ischemic heart disease. Whatever the cause, the heart is subsequently unable to pump blood adequately throughout the body, resulting in the blood pooling in the organs and fluid building up in and around the lungs as sodium is unable to be properly excreted, causing the dyspnea that is the classic symptom of congestive heart failure.

Clinical research is targeted at both the treatment of the disease and the possibility of repairing the damaged cells in the heart. Current research is underway to test new medications that would assist in vasodilation, as well as a calcium inhibitor that would not result in the higher incidence of cardiac arrhythmia seen with the medications currently on the market.

In the age of natural medicine, the power of the mind has been invoked in clinical trials to use meditation and relaxation techniques to combat the stress on the heart that can be the breaking point for patients with heart failure. Stress has been shown to negatively affect the body’s blood pressure, forcing the heart to work harder and placing an undue amount of pressure on an already weakened muscle. The theory lies in the belief that by learning to maintain a low level of mental stress the heart will be less stressed and therefore less likely to fail completely, and the patient can be given a better prognosis.

Alongside the return to natural, holistic methods of treatment is an incredible advancement in clinical technology that was not available twenty or thirty years ago. Scientists claim to have identified a set of altered genes that can make an individual more disposed to suffer from congestive heart failure and are using their current knowledge of genes and the benefits of gene therapy to attempt to reverse the effect. In addition, medications to tamp down on the genes’ activities, such as beta blockers and alpha-2 agonists are already available and being used in treatment programs.

Also being explored is the possibility of using stem cells, the body’s pluripotent progenitors, to assist in reparation of the damaged heart tissue. Clinical trials showed that patients suffering from congestive heart failure responded very favorably to an injection of their own stem cells into the heart, although the exact means by which this causes improvement is as yet unknown. It is suspected that these cells either facilitate the growth of new vessels in the heart or act as beacon, attracting the body’s own healing cells to the site of the damage and stimulating repair.

The possibility of actually growing healthy tissue from embryonic stem cells to be transplanted is also being explored, although the controversial nature of the use of embryonic stem cells due to the necessary destruction of the embryo makes this questionable in the foreseeable future. Scientists have determined that adult stem cells simply cannot provide an adequate number of new cells to meet the needs of patients who have suffered heart failure.

Heart failure is incredibly dangerous because the body cannot reproduce the dead tissue cells in the heart; however, with modern advancements it is the great hope of researchers everywhere to one day find a cure.