Healthy Living

One of the deadliest killers in the world today it is heart disease. Congestive heart failure, one of the so-called secondary conditions to many cardiac diseases has its own mortality rate which can be very high. Five years is the time period in which up to 50% of those diagnosed will die. Scientists and researchers are struggling to understand the exact mechanisms of the disease, and to find a cure.

An heart attack can cause the heart to become nonfunctional and congestive heart failure can cause the cells of the heart to die. 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, they can be the breaking point for patients with heart failure. The body’s blood pressure can be negatively effected by stress, causing an already weakened muscle to be forced to work harder which in turn places an undue amount of pressure on this precious organ. The heart is less likely to fail completely and therefore giving the patient a better prognosis if the heart is under less stress, this is the theory that lies in the belief that by learning to maintain a lower level of mental stress your hearts will not be under so much pressure.

There have been incredible advancements in clinical technology that’s was not available 20 or 30 years ago, this is due to new and advanced holistic methods of treatment. Scientists claim to have identified a set of altered genes that can make an individual more disposed to 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. By using the patient’s own stem cells which have been injected into their heart has shown that patients suffering from congestive heart failure responded very favorably. Stem cells can help facilitate the growth of new vessels in the heart, it is also believed they stimulate and repair the heart by extracting the bodies own healing cells.

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 makes this questionable. 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.

A person’s body cannot reproduce dead cells in the heart and this makes heart failure incredibly dangerous; it is hoped that researchers will one day find a cure with all the modern medical advancements which are being discovered every day.