Symptoms and Natural Treatments
Cardiovascular Disease – otherwise known as Heart Disease – encompasses diseases of the heart, arteries, and veins. As you can imagine, the heart, arteries, and veins are rather important. The heart, for example, is a muscle that is working 24 hours a day pumping blood throughout your body. Your arteries and veins act like highways in your body to move blood and other supplies: to the cells in your toes, to the hairs at the top of your head, and everything in between. When there are damage, disease, or toxins it can cause the heart or veins to have to work harder. I like to use diet, DNA analysis, and supplements to find the source of the disease and flush it out. Some different symptoms of Cardiovascular diseases can include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, palpitations, murmurs, arrhythmias, etc.
Common Cardiovascular Diseases
-
Heart Diseases
Heart Disease is an over-arching term that covers infections in the valves of the heart, arrhythmias, aneurysms, strokes, atherosclerosis, and more.
Dr. Brody’s bar stool analogy applies to all of these diseases. If we are missing even one of the legs, the stool will fall over. By giving the body what it needs, taking out the trash, and increasing vitality, we can strengthen our body and prevent cardiovascular diseases from taking place.
However, blood type also plays a factor. Due to a number of factors, Blood Type A’s have a higher risk of heart disease. Their red blood cells are more likely to stick together while traveling through the blood stream, which can create a mass that can get stuck in small vessels or arterys and create cardiovascular events.
-
High Blood Pressure (Hypertension)
Hypertension is caused by elevated blood pressure, the force in your arteries and veins that allows blood to travel around your body. Healthy heart function depends on steady blood pressure. The heart muscle acts a sponge while pumping blood throughout our bodies, constantly filling and expelling blood. We measure both acts while determining our blood pressure. The first number represents the pressure created by the heart contracting and squeezing the blood out, or systole. The second number is pressure made when the heart is filling with blood, or diastolic.
The standard range of blood pressure for adults is 90/60 mmHg and 120/80 mmHg.
Roughly 1 in 3 Americans suffer from hypertension, despite knowing how important healthy blood flow is. Forcing your heart to work extra hard to pump blood through your veins can lead to serious health issues and risks down the road, including increased risk of additional cardiovascular disease.
-
High Cholesterol & Triglycerides
Let’s start by addressing some misconceptions with high cholesterol and triglycerides. Bad cholesterol doesn’t exist. Cholesterol is a multi-functional hormone that’s made for our bodies to repair arteries, make sex and stress hormones, help with Vitamin D synthesis and more. We are usually told that we need a total cholesterol level under 200 with the thought being that if you have any higher than that, it can gunk up your arteries and cause heart attacks, strokes and a whole host of other bad things. As a whole, Dr. Brody agrees with this, but he believes the body makes high cholesterol as a form of protection, not self-harm.
-
Varicose Veins and Hemorrhoids
Varicose veins and hemorrhoids are both causes by a lack of nutrients in the veins. The body will take any nutrients it needs from various parts of the body when its supply is running low, with one of its favorite targets being the veins. The issue is that veins are thin, and removing the elasticity from them causes them to swell from normal amounts of blood pressure. Overall, it is a lack of nutrients that can cause veins to swell and hemorrhoids to appear in the digestive tract. By altering your diet, you can either begin preventative measures or begin treating your cardiovascular disease.
To schedule an appointment, please contact the front desk at the Personalized Natural Medicine Clinic, located in the heart of Newtown, Connecticut.
If you are experiencing a heart attack or other life-threatening cardiac events, please call 911 or another emergency service.