What are some alternative medicines for heart disease?
First of all, it’s important to understand that Heart diseases are, for most, severe pathologies that won’t be treatable with natural medicines. That does not mean we can’t help with natural treatments, it simply states that we are likely not going to cure anything.
This is why it is capital to work on preventing heart diseases, as once they are there, the damage and the after-effects are almost impossible to avoid.
Of course, that depends on many factors:
- The type of heart disease
- Health state
- Pre-existing conditions
- Chemical treatments taken
- Possible comorbidities
- etc.
Luckily, a holistic health approach using natural medicines is very effective for preventing heart diseases but also represents a great help to people facing the damage and after-effects of their heart condition.
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Different types of heart diseases
Here are the most common heart diseases that we going to look at:
- Heart attack
- Heart failure
- Arrhythmia
- Valve disease
- Myocarditis
Heart Attack
The heart is a muscle, and its contraction allows it to eject blood into the large vessels and thus allow the circulation of blood.
This muscle needs nutrients and oxygen to function. This is possible thanks to the coronary arteries that irrigate the Heart Muscle.
When these arteries become blocked, either by arteriosclerosis which reduces their diameter or by thrombosis, the heart muscle can no longer be oxygenated, it becomes necrotic and dies.
The heart attack is, therefore, a myocardial infarction.
Sometimes the infarction is so massive that the person dies very quickly, but often the emergency service can intervene in time and allow the revascularization of the heart muscle before it dies.
The symptoms can be very clear or rather discrete. They can be spread over several days with chest pains but also abnormal sweating or digestive pains.
The rule is always to intervene very quickly at the slightest doubt and to call an emergency doctor or to go directly to the hospital.
Some people have even had silent infarctions, the after-effects of which will only be discovered on the occasion of an electro-cardiogram.
Heart Failure
Heart failure is the failure of the heart muscle to contract sufficiently to ensure blood ejection. Obviously, it is a serious situation that is categorized into four degrees.
At degree 1, there are almost no symptoms, and at degree 4, movement becomes almost impossible, fatigue is extreme, and shortness of breath permanent.
Treatments can prolong life but have limited effectiveness once heart failure becomes severe.
They consist in relieving the work of the cardiac muscle by decreasing the blood volume thanks to diuretics, by promoting vasodilation, or even by stimulating the cardiac muscle.
Arrhythmia
For the heart muscle to contract, it must receive an electrical impulse from a network of nerve fibers. The rhythm of these electrical impulses is given by cells called pacemakers.
When the rhythm of the impulses becomes irregular, it is called arrhythmia. Obviously, this results in the muscle contraction also becoming irregular and can cause damage to the circulating blood by promoting clotting or making the muscle contraction ineffective.
One of the best-known arrhythmias is atrial fibrillation, which can reach rates of over 150 beats per minute, well above the usual 70.
The symptoms are very variable, and in case of any doubt about chest pain and fatigue, it is necessary to consult. Medication is used to reduce electrical activity with limited success.
Valve disease
The heart has four valves, and these must ensure a perfect opening and closing when blood is expelled from one compartment to another.
Valvular pathologies cannot be cured with medication but require a replacement of the valve when it is too damaged.
Myocarditis
Myocarditis is very fashionable lately as its incidence has literally exploded in young people and children in whom this pathology was extremely rare.
It is an inflammation of the heart muscle. Sometimes it happens in the case of a viral infection, but this is exceptional. Depending on the cause of the myocarditis, it can be very serious and lead to heart failure.
Alternative medicines and treatments for heart diseases
Heart Attack
After the treatment by medical emergencies, natural medicines can work on the causes of the myocardial infarction, i.e. the bad state of the arteries.
We must not forget that if the coronary arteries are affected by arteriosclerosis, other arteries will also be affected. The vessels have the capacity to clean themselves, at least partially, and natural treatments exist, notably in phytotherapy.
Next, a change in diet towards a healthy diet is absolutely essential.
An expert in natural medicines will be able to set up, with the goodwill of the patient, a healthy diet capable of restoring better vascular and general health.
Heart Failure
Heart failure is considered irreversible except perhaps in the early stages of the disease. The objective remains to slow down the aggravation of the disease.
Natural medicines can be of great help in nourishing the heart muscle and protecting it against oxidative stress.
A healthy diet, the treatment of the general state of health by phytotherapy and adapted exercise will be the best allies of the heart.
Arrhythmia
Arrhythmias can be related to stress, a toxic diet, drugs, or medications.
Natural medicines allow us to understand and remove the causes whenever possible.
The result of the removal of causes and natural treatments can be easily evaluated by measuring the heart rhythm, so as long as the arrhythmia is not severe, the first reflex should be to turn to natural medicines.
Valve disease
Valvular problems are not treatable by natural medicines. However, they can be used in conjunction with surgery to promote post-operative recovery and limit the impact of anesthesia on the body.
Myocarditis
Myocarditis requires extensive anti-inflammatory treatment to try to limit the damage to the heart muscle. Sometimes cortisone is necessary. Severe forms can lead to a rapid decompensation of the heart muscle resulting in death or the need for a transplant.
Natural medicines, by treating infections, avoid the risks of myocarditis following the flu. Let’s remember here that infections must be treated and that taking aspirin or paracetamol is not an anti-infectious treatment.
For myocarditis caused by experimental injections, the situation is much more complicated because the cause is an immune reaction attacking the heart muscle.
In all cases, natural medicines can be added to chemical medication and support the organism, even if, in general, cardiac pathologies remain relatively serious situations where prevention is essential.
Holistic treatment and prevention of heart diseases
As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, most heart diseases are not treatable with natural medicines. The heart is a complex and robust organ that is not easily damaged, but once it is, it’s very difficult to repair it.
Therefore, most efforts should be made to prevent them. Luckily, this is where natural medicines are the best.
For good prevention of heart disease, it is important to understand that the possible sources of damage to your heart are, for most, the same as for your overall body.
On top of that, a holistic approach with a personalized assessment of your health can determine more specifically your strengths and weaknesses in order to prevent even better possible diseases.
To do that, you need the help of a holistic natural health expert that will use the diagnostic tools of natural medicines to create an optimized prevention strategy.
In the meantime, you don’t need to wait for anyone to prevent disease! You can start immediately by working on the two biggest health prevention tools at your disposal: diet and lifestyle.
Diet
Diet is undoubtedly the first and most important factor for preventing all kinds of diseases. This is especially true for heart diseases as what you eat is going to influence the composition and quality of your blood directly.
Yet, your blood circulates all day long into your cardio-vascular system, into your heart and vessels. Therefore it is essential that it is of good composition and quality.
If not, if your blood is filled with bad fats and toxic molecules, your heart and its vessels will directly suffer from it. This is very evident in heart attacks, as we explained above.
Therefore, implementing a healthy diet is the number one step to take immediately in order to prevent heart disease.
We know that the human diet is certainly one of the most controversial health topics ever, with an incredible amount of misinformation, that’s why we really took the time to create the ultimate resource for understanding and implementing a healthy diet.
If you want to know more about a healthy diet, go check out our articles on the topic or directly subscribe now to access our ebook: “Healthy food: Your Fundamental Right”.
Lifestyle
The internet is filled with lifestyle advice for everything and anything. In the middle of that, people tend to try out many different things without knowing what is good or bad.
As a result, as holistic experts, we see more and more people coming to us with years of trials and errors on all sorts of lifestyle advice. Most of the time, these people have invested a lot of time and effort in doing so, yet the result is often more harm than good.
Having a healthy diet is applicable to all, and this is why we invite people to transition to a healthy diet as soon as possible, but when it comes to lifestyle advice.
It depends on many factors like:
- Where you live
- Your job
- Daily schedule
- Responsibilities
- Current health state
- Life goals
- etc.
Of course, basic lifestyle advice like “quit smoking”, or “drink more water” or “get enough sleep” are always good for all, but when going deeper, they need to be adapted to your unique situation.
Therefore if you want to start to change your lifestyle significantly for the better, you need to determine what is appropriate for you and your current situation.
You can do that by yourself, but it requires a good level of self-awareness and self-analysis, and often, it is still difficult to do so because of personal implications and emotions.
In that case, the help of an external view can be very helpful, as it will give a much more objective view of the situation, free from most bias.
This is where the help of a holistic natural health expert is also very valuable, as in this case, the external view can be delivered by an expert in holistic health plans, who will be able to advise you not only on your lifestyle but also on your life choices and how they impact your health.
