Tag: Heart disease

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.

How To Get Moving, Stay Fit, And Stay Motivated

When it comes to staying or getting into good shape, motivation may be hard to come by. As the seasons change so do our motivation to stay in shape. Holiday schedules, cold winter days, and all those convient gadgets that keep us from drudging up the motivation to get in shape or maintain a daily routine of exercise are definite culprits. But we should be totally aware of the effects that inactivity has on the body.

Heart disease, stroke or diabetes is just some of the unhealthy affects of inactivity in the body. The good news is that studies show without discrepancy that these affects can be prevented or reversed; meaning that switching from a sedentary lifestyle to an active one can be extremely beneficial over time. Exercise alone, without change in diet, can greatly reduce the risks for these diseases even in small amounts. Doing what ever you can to increase your motivation to exercise is the first step to overcoming the lack of motivation to actually do it. Any of the arrays of methods to motivate you will be of great importance. Listening to music while running, simply finding out the exercises that you truly enjoy, setting particular times when exercise is the main focus of the day, all help you to stay motivated to stay in motion. Developing a habit or pattern for exercising is the best way to stay motivated; your body will become accustomed to working out heavy at a certain time each and every time. Your mind posses the ability to create positive ideas that leads to positive actions allowing you to live a strong and healthy life. Positive self talk can do wonders for motivation as well as just viewing the results of previous attempts (i.e. thinner waistline, six pack, etc). Self encouragement is the ultimate motivation. Youll have no one to thank but yourself.

Fitness motivation is the essential part of changing your body, so creating a fitness motivation plan maybe the answer for you. For men, setting goals and providing adequate challenges work best. Changing scenery from indoors to outdoors may be the answer. If you just dont feel like exercising or giving up on an established routine, constantly reminding yourself that the pay off is great will help. Psychological benefits like increased confidence, self-esteem, and relief from anxiety, stress and depression and better sexual performance can be all the motivation thats needed. Remaining realistic about your goals will also aid in the fight to stay motivated to exercise. Setting a goal that is extremely difficult to obtain is depleting and counterproductive. Achieving a challenging appropriate goal boosts pride, satisfaction and will create more motivation.
Making the exercise routine fun by adding variety in routines, exercises, or persons that you exercise with is a likely way to stick to any exercise routine.

If you are not particularly knowledgeable when it comes to fitness issues, you should consider hiring a professional trainer to help you out with your routine. This can take a lot of the mystery out of getting fit, as your trainer will custom tailor exercises and routines for your bodily needs, so as to maximize the results that you see. This is a slightly costly thing to do, so you should be sure about your commitment to exercising before you spend money to hire a personal trainer. You can also use the amazing technology of the internet to tap the brains of professionals. There are many different blogs that are updated daily with exercise routines that anyone can do.

So setting attainable goals, adding things to increase enjoyment of the exercise routine, challenges, and the addition of a buddy to assist are all great ways to stay motivated, stay fit, and most importantly stay moving. You will benefit in the short term, and in the long run as well with physical and mental benefits in almost every way.

Help With Quitting Smoking

Enhancing the quality and length of your life by quitting smoking is a worthwhile effort. It is definitely not an easy task, but it can be accomplished with time and patience. To quit smoking successfully, finding out what your options are. Knowing where to go for help is a wise first step. Quitting smoking is the best move that you can make for your health and the health of all of those around you. Just about everyone knows by now that smoking causes diseases that shorten your life or those that may even end it. Diseases such as lung cancer, throat, esophagus, bladder, and kidney, and pancreas cancers are some horrible things caused by smoking for a start. Not to mention some leukemia, stomach, and cervix cancers, and newly added by the Surgeon General is pneumonia. People who smoke are more than three times as likely to die due to heart attack as non smokers. Smoking is a major risk factor for a disease that narrow the blood vessels that transport blood to the limbs and muscles called peripheral vascular disease as well as the disease that causes some strokes.

If thats not enough to convince you to stop smoking, lets look at your appearance. Premature wrinkling of skin, chronic bad breath, discolored fingernails and hair, and an increase risk of macular degeneration a leading cause of blindness in the elderly. Smoking over the age of thirty-five if you are a woman can put you in a high risk group for stroke, heart attack, and blood clots of the legs, low birth weight of babies and miscarriages. But the hopeful portion of this message is that if you decide to quite regardless of how long youve smoked or how much, quitting will help you to live longer. In as little as twenty minutes after quitting smoking the heart rate and blood pressure drops and in one to nine months following quitting smoking, circulation in your hands extremities and lung function increases. Shortness of breath decreases and your lungs begin to function properly, cleaning the lungs and removing mucus that causes infection. Fifteen years of non smoking and your risk of heart disease is that of non smoking persons. These benefits can be obtained from quitting smoking even if you are suffering from a smoking related illness already. Smoking is less socially accepted now more than ever. Smoking bans have been placed in just about every workplace in the nation along with airports, public buildings. Even friends may insist that you not smoke in their houses or cars. Some people may even find dating more difficult because of a bad smoking habit. So the social impacts of not smoking will probably change your life for the better if you quit.

If you have a family, that is another great motivation to quit smoking. The main reason is that the secondhand smoke could pose serious health problems for others who do not deserve such things. You should also consider what kind of role model you are being to any small children that you live with, whether they are your own kids, siblings, nieces and nephews, or any other relation. You may be living with kids who look up to you as an authority figure, and if you teach them that smoking is alright you will feel very guilty later in life.

Some of the many new products used to help an individual to stop smoking are really very effective. Counseling services, reading materials, medicines, and patches are all widely available and have produced some amazing results. Educational materials alone may be the best beginning start to an attempt to quit because once you know what kind of damage you are doing to your body the prudent and reasonable person will definitely see that it is the very best thing to do. However, it has been documented and researched that the highest success rates occur when a combination of methods are used simultaneously. Take the time and do it for yourself and your loved ones, quit for life.

Understanding Your Blood Pressure

What is blood pressure? Blood pressure is the force of your blood against the walls of your arteries. Blood pressure consists of two number; a top and bottom number. The top number is the systolic pressure. The bottom number is the diastolic pressure.

Systolic blood pressure is the force of blood in your arteries as your heart beats. If your systolic number is higher than one hundred and forty you have high blood pressure. Even if your diastolic number is not high you can still have ‘isolated systolic hypertension.’ This means only your systolic number is high.

This is more common for older Americans. This pressure usually increases with age whereas diastolic pressure decreases after fifty-five. You might not know if you have isolated systolic hypertension so ask your doctor if you are concerned.

Diastolic blood pressure is the force of blood in your arteries when your heart relaxes between beats. For younger people this is a very important number. The higher this pressure is the more you are at risk. This blood pressure lowers as you get older and your systolic increases. Therefore diastolic is more important in younger people and systolic in older.

Normal blood pressure is less than one hundred and twenty over less than eighty. If your pressure is between the normal numbers and one hundred and thirty-nine over eighty-nine, you have what is called prehypertension. This puts you at risk to develop high blood pressure in the future but it easily preventable.

Hypertension is a name for high blood pressure. Having high blood pressure puts you at risk for heart disease or even strokes. High blood pressure makes your heart work harder than it should and can lead to blindness, kidney disease and even congestive heart failure.

According to statistics high blood pressure killed over fifty-four thousand people in 2004. Statistics also show that twenty-eight percent of people have high blood pressure and aren’t even aware of it. Are you one of them?

You should be aware of the risks of high blood pressure so you can avoid them as best as you can. High blood pressure is a risk for stroke and heart disease. While some risks can be altered or fixed, some cannot. For instance if you use tobacco or are overweight you are at risk for high blood pressure.

You can easily fix this by trying to quit using tobacco and watching your diet to help lose weight. If you have trouble doing either of these on your own, consult your physician. They may be able to prescribe you something or give you useful information to help.

High blood pressure can affect certain parts of your body as well. You might suffer from a stroke. This happens because the high blood pressure can break a weak blood vessel leaving it to bleed into the brain. Also if you have a blood clot blocking a narrow artery, you can also experience a stroke.

Sometimes impaired vision or blindness can occur from high blood pressure. It might eventually cause your blood vessels in your eye to bleed or burst leaving you with blurred or impaired vision.

Your arteries harden as you age, even more so for those in your heart, brain and kidneys. These harder arteries are associated with high blood pressure. When this happens your kidneys and heart have to work harder.

If you have any questions or concerns about your blood pressure ask your doctor. They can answer any questions you might have and find a solution if you do in fact have high blood pressure or might be prone to it. It’s never too late to take care of your body, including your blood pressure.