Heart Problems

Symptoms

Symptoms of Coronary Artery Disease

The most common symptom of coronary artery disease is angina, or chest pain. Angina can be described as a discomfort, heaviness, pressure, aching, burning, fullness, squeezing, or painful feeling in your chest. It can be mistaken for indigestion or heartburn. Angina may also be felt in the shoulders, arms, neck, throat, jaw, or back. Other symptoms of coronary artery disease include:

• Shortness of breath.
• Palpitations (irregular heartbeats, or a "flip-flop" feeling in your chest).
• A faster heartbeat.
• Weakness or dizziness.
• Nausea.
• Sweating.

Symptoms of a Heart Attack

Symptoms of a heart attack can include:

• Discomfort, pressure, heaviness, or pain in the chest, arm, or below the breastbone.
• Discomfort radiating to the back, jaw, throat, or arm.
• Fullness, indigestion, or choking feeling (may feel like heartburn).
• Sweating, nausea, vomiting, or dizziness.
• Extreme weakness, anxiety, or shortness of breath.
• Rapid or irregular heartbeats.

During a heart attack, symptoms typically last 30 minutes or longer and are not relieved by rest or oral medications. Initial symptoms may start as a mild discomfort that progress to significant pain.

Some people have a heart attack without having any symptoms, which is known as a "silent" myocardial infarction (MI). It occurs more often in people with diabetes. If you think you are having a heart attack, DO NOT DELAY. Call for emergency help (dial 911 in most areas). Immediate treatment of a heart attack is very important to lessen the amount of damage to your heart.

Symptoms of ARRHYTHMIAS

When symptoms of arrhythmias, or an abnormal heart rhythm, are present, they may include:

• Palpitations (a feeling of skipped heart beats, fluttering or flip-flops in your chest).
• Pounding in your chest.
• Dizziness or feeling light-headed.
• Fainting.
• Shortness of breath.
• Chest discomfort.
• Weakness or fatigue (feeling very tired).

Symptoms of Atrial Fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a type of arrhythmia. Most people with AF experience one or more of the following symptoms:

• Heart palpitations (a sudden pounding, fluttering, or racing feeling in the heart).
• Lack of energy.
• Dizziness (feeling faint or light-headed).
• Chest discomfort (pain, pressure, or discomfort in the chest).
• Shortness of breath (difficulty breathing during normal activities).

Some patients with atrial fibrillation have no symptoms. Sometimes these episodes are brief.

Symptoms of Heart Valve Disease

Symptoms of heart valve disease may include:

• Shortness of breath and/or difficulty catching your breath. You may notice this most when you are doing your normal daily activities or when you lie down flat in bed.
• Weakness or dizziness.
• Discomfort in your chest. You may feel a pressure or weight in your chest with activity or when going out in cold air.
• Palpitations (this may feel like a rapid heart rhythm, irregular heartbeat, skipped beats, or a flip-flop feeling in your chest).

If valve disease causes heart failure, symptoms may include:

• Swelling of your ankles or feet. Swelling may also occur in your abdomen, which may cause you to feel bloated.
• Quick weight gain (a weight gain of two or three pounds in one day is possible).

Symptoms of heart valve disease do not always relate to the seriousness of your condition. You may have no symptoms at all and have severe valve disease, requiring prompt treatment. Or, as with mitral valve prolapse, you may have severe symptoms, yet tests may show minor valve disease.

Symptoms of Heart Failure

Symptoms of heart failure can include:

• Shortness of breath noted during activity (most commonly) or at rest, especially when you lie down flat in bed.
• Cough that is productive of a white sputum.
• Rapid weight gain (a weight gain of two or three pounds in one day is possible)
• Swelling in ankles, legs, and abdomen.
• Dizziness.
• Fatigue and weakness.
• Rapid or irregular heartbeats.
• Other symptoms include nausea, palpitations, and chest pain.

Like valve disease, heart failure symptoms may not be related to how weak your heart is. You may have many symptoms, but your heart function may be only mildly weakened. Or you may have a severely damaged heart, with few or no symptoms.

Symptoms of Congenital Heart Defects

Congenital heart defects may be diagnosed before birth, right after birth, during childhood, or not until adulthood. It is possible to have a defect and no symptoms at all. Sometimes it can be diagnosed because of a heart murmur on physical exam or an abnormal EKG or chest X-ray in someone with no symptoms.

In adults, if symptoms of congenital heart disease are present, they may include:

• Shortness of breath.
• Limited ability to exercise.
• Symptoms of heart failure (see above) or valve disease (see above).

Congenital Heart Defects in Infants and Children

Symptoms of congenital heart defects in infants and children may include:

• Cyanosis (a bluish tint to the skin, fingernails, and lips).
• Fast breathing and poor feeding.
• Poor weight gain.
• Recurrent lung infections.
• Inability to exercise.

Symptoms of Heart Muscle Disease

Many people with heart muscle disease, or cardiomyopathy, have no symptoms or only minor symptoms, and live a normal life. Other people develop symptoms, which progress and worsen as heart function worsens.

Symptoms of cardiomyopathy may occur at any age and may include:

• Chest pain or pressure (occurs usually with exercise or physical activity, but can also occur with rest or after meals).
• Heart failure symptoms (see above).
• Swelling of the lower extremities.
• Fatigue.
• Fainting.
• Palpitations (fluttering in the chest due to abnormal heart rhythms).

Some people also have arrhythmias. These can lead to sudden death in a small number of people with cardiomyopathy.

Symptoms of Pericarditis

When present, symptoms of pericarditis may include:

• Chest pain. This pain is different from angina (chest pain caused by coronary artery disease). It may be sharp and located in the center of the chest. The pain may radiate to the neck and occasionally, the arms and back. It is made worse when lying down, taking a deep breath in, coughing, or swallowing and relieved by sitting forward.
• Low-grade fever.
• Increased heart rate.

What Actually Causes Heart Disease?

THE CAUSE

Heart conditions can come from a wide variety of causes such as thickening of the artery walls, constricted blood flow, unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, being overweight, smoking or beriberi. Your doctor or holistic chiropractor should work with you to identify any correctable underlying causes of your heart condition and explain to you why you have it.

BeriBeri is caused by the Standard American Diet, which consists of lots of refined and processed carbohydrates. This diet became even more prevalent as it became the gold-standard "heart-healthy diet," prescribed by most cardiologists - the low-fat diet. The fat was simply replaced with carbohydrates, making the underlying cause of heart disease worse. That is the reason why, after 30 years of cholesterol-lowering at all costs combined with the ridiculous low-fat diet, just as many people are dying from heart disease as ever!

In addition to Beriberi, having a Dysbiosis, secondary to antibiotic intake causing a digestive Yeast/Candidia Imbalance and an altered Microbiome will lead to Leaky Gut Syndrome, resulting in increased inflammation, malabsorption of the B-vitamins leading to the irregular heart beats (arrhythmia), palpitation and eventually A-Fib or a Heart Attack.  This is the disease progression and does not need to occur.  This can be remedied under Dr. Huntoon's Alternative Medical Treatment Options and Solution below.

What Beriberi Looks Like 

B vitamin deficiency or beriberi of the heart starts to cause heart palpitations on exertion or excitement early in the disease. Dyspepsea (difficulty breathing or air hunger) follows as the disease progresses. The heart naturally enlarges with beriberi. Most cases of enlarged heart are diagnosed as cardiomyopathy by cardiologists, rather than their true diagnosis of a beriberi heart.

As beriberi heart disease progresses, characteristic changes take place in the electrocardiogram. A cardiologist would call these high P and QRS, with abnormal T waves and prolongation of the PQ interval. Heartbeats begin to become abnormal with what is called eptopic beats. The pulse rate is usually fast, but could just as easily be slow. There is often a characteristically high systolic (1st number) and low diastolic (2nd number) blood pressure - with the diastolic often below 60. This low diastolic number can become critically low in children. And it is frequently found in kids with ADD and ADHD (also B vitamin deficiency problems from the over-utilization of sugar in the diet).

Beriberi produces profound negative effects on the autonomic nervous system (remember, this is the one that runs your heart). The heart can go too fast (tachycardia) or too slow (bradycardia). And beriberi also causes hyperkalemia - too much potassium - critical to the heart. It is remarkably common in heart patients. Both hypokalemia (Hypokalemia is when blood's potassium levels are too low. Potassium is an important electrolyte for nerve and muscle cell functioning, especially for muscle cells in the heart. Your kidneys control your body's potassium levels, allowing for excess potassium to leave the body through urine or sweat.) and a heart condition called long QT syndrome are caused by beriberi of the heart, even though this information is always ignored and the real diagnosis is never considered.

And finally, beriberi also is one of the main causes of diabetes. Diabetes complicates more than half of all cardiac cases. And both are caused or made worse by B vitamin deficiencies and beriberi of the heart - despite that fact that in diabetes, this diagnosis is also never considered.

Traditional Medical Treatment Options and Diagnosis

MEDICINES RECOMMENDATIONS

Remember, heart surgeons who have been inside the heart and coronary arteries of thousands of patients are beginning to finally admit that "we have been wrong for over 30 years!"  Cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease; the low-fat diet has been a disaster, causing more pain and suffering than most epidemics; statins have little to no effect on heart disease; and angioplasty, stents, and bypasses are band aid procedures that buy time at best, while completely ignoring the underlying cause of heart disease, the B vitamin (beriberi) deficiency.  No matter how much money remains to be made from drugs and medical procedures, the cause of heart disease is still beriberi of the heart and inflammation in the linings of the blood vessels.

These things are caused by nutritional deficiencies of vitamin B and phytonutrients like flavinoids brought about by the low-fat and Standard American Diet of excess refined carbohydrates. This causes type 2 diabetes-type changes of excess glucose and insulin coursing through your arteries, and the resultant inflammation to the linings of your blood vessels. These changes cause clogged arteries and plaque, all worsened by the B complex deficiency which causes beriberi syndrome - weakening and almost paralyzing the muscles and nerves of the heart. This produces the usual enlarged, weakened, water-logged heart with leaking valves and erratic beat. Most all other findings on your heart-disease report are simply cascading symptoms that follow the underlying causes that go ignored, undiagnosed, untreated, and worsened by other medical treatments of the symptoms.

Medicines Two Choices

Dr. Huntoon's Alternative Medical Treatment Options

Alternative treatment and Hope 

Dr. Huntoon has helped so many people avoid heart disease by helping to restore balance to their digestive system and placing them on Probiotics and Whole Food B Vitamins called Cataplex B.  By addressing the underlying cause of the imbalance within a person's microbiome, due to the effect of antibiotic treatment that has lead to a Digestive Yeast/Candidia Imbalance, he has helped remedy the reason for B Vitamin Deficiency and the malabsorption that leads to inflammation affecting the person's cardiovascular system.  Helping them to improve their diet, reduce their stress and increasing their exercise, eliminates the basis of heart disease.  This has and continues to be an effective remedy to this major health epidemic in our country.

Working with a Holistic Chiropractor, Acupuncturist, Homeopath or Naturopath has created great results. Looking for life-style imbalances and addressing your diet is important and vital. Developing a pro-active course of care that can help you avoid the negative side-effects of medication is ideal. Sometimes this is not possible due to the chronic nature of a person’s condition. Finding an open-minded medical practitioner who will work with your alternative practitioner is the best form of care.

A Holistic Chiropractor can help you develop a well-rounded, multifaceted approach to addressing your problem and the underlying deficiencies within your life-style and nutrition that contribute to your heart condition. Supplementation with specific heart building products will go a long way towards feeding and balancing your heart. The need for medication can be reduced and sometimes even eliminated through these whole food nutritional treatments.

Care

• Heart Disease Medication                  Too Many Heart Pills, Doctors say
  A person with heart disease usually needs several medications. Taking them correctly is as necessary as it is difficult. Talking with your Pharmacist will allow you to understand how your medication works and what can be done to support you.
• Plant-Based Diet for Heart Health
  Is a plant-based diet good for your heart? More research needs to be done, but early studies suggest it may have a number of benefits.
• Heart Surgery Recovery
  Heart surgery recovery takes a lot of care. There are some very, very important tips for the aftercare of a heart surgery patient.
• Heart Emergency Preparedness
  Don't wait until you've got an unconscious heart patient on your hands. Learn the alphabet of heart emergency preparedness: CPR, AED, and 911.
• Caregiver Burnout
  As much as you may love someone with heart disease, you can't help if you've got caregiver burnout. Be sure to take care of yourself.
• Caregiver Stress
  Taking care of a heart patient can raise your own blood pressure. Be sure to take care of yourself and have stress relief regularly.
• Religion and the Heart
  Not all healing comes from doctors and medicines. For some brief advice on making spirituality part of your care giving, consult with Dr. Huntoon. He has great referral sources he can recommend to you in order to strengthen you spiritual heart.

A Final Note from Dr. Bruce West

Anyone who has read Health Alert for longer than 6 months knows that I have always maintained that cholesterol is not a cause of heart disease. And for a majority of heart disease patients,beriberi (B vitamin deficiency) of the heart is the underlying cause of the disease. Few people in the world of medicine - and even fewer in the world of cardiology - have taken the time to consider, no less test, this theory. I have personally tested it and found it to be true in tens of thousands of heart patients over a period of more than 30 years.

Your heart is run basically by your autonomic nervous system (ANS). This is the nervous system you do not have to think about, but the same one that is under assault when you eat a diet that is deficient in B vitamins and thiamine. A thiamine-deficient diet is the same diet that causes beriberi. The symptoms of a B vitamin-deficient diet are too nurmerous to mention. The combined symptoms make up the clinical picture of patients who have fallen prey to the diseases of the modern era. Not the least of these is heart disease. Still, no one has taken seriously those of us who are attempting to solve a disease (beriberi of the heart) that has been truly epidemic for centuries!

What to Discuss with Your Doctor

DIAGNOSIS & TESTS

Exactly when do you go from having risk factors to having heart disease? These links take you to information on the tests a doctor uses to diagnose heart disease.

Heart Disease Diagnosis
The first step is getting a doctor's exam. Here's a description of what the doctor will do.

Tests

• The Basics of EKG:  Whether you spell it EKG or ECG, it's an electrocardiogram.
• Chest X-Ray: Why get a chest X-ray? What happens?
• Stress Test:  Does your heart respond well to exertion? That's what a stress test looks for.
• Tilt Table Test:  The head-up tilt table test is used to help find the cause of fainting spells.

There are several variations on the echocardiogram, or "echo," as doctors call it. Learn about these ultrasound-like tests of the heart -- and find out what to expect.

• Cardiac catheterization -- also called a coronary angiogram -- means running a catheter into your heart. It's done to help doctors see what's going on in there, and whether they need to operate.
• Electrophysiology -- the EP test -- takes measurements of your heart rhythm -- recording the electrical activity and pathways of your heart.
• Computed tomography (CT scan) of the heart can visualize your heart’s anatomy. Calcium-score heart scan and coronary CT angiography are just a few types used to diagnose heart disease.
• A myocardial biopsy is when a doctor uses a special catheter to remove a piece of your heart tissue for examination.
• A heart MRI is a great way for doctors to get a look -- from the outside -- at how your heart is working.
• Pericardiocentesis -- also called a pericardial tap -- means using a needle to get a sample of the fluid in the sac surrounding the heart.

aRE YOU IN TROUBLE?

So...IF you have heart disease, with or without diabetes, and with or without any of the diagnoses shown in this article, and if your disease is caused by beriberi of the heart (a very good likelihood), and you are undergoing standard medical care which uniformly ignores beriberi as the potential cause of your disease, you are in trouble.

That is why, for example, if you peruse the testimonials on our website (www.healthalert.com/testimonials), you will routinely hear heart patients say that they were spiraling downward under their medical care until they started our heart protocol. The reason is simple - we considered, evaluated, and treated for beriberi of the heart. This resolved the desperate cries (symptoms) coming from the patient's ANS and heart for B vitamins, beginning their cure. And remarkably, the whole B complex was necessary, as isolated thiamine or the synthetic B vitamin would routinely fail to make improvements.

Given this simple treatise on a disease that was epidemic for centuries, and that is still present today as beriberi of the heart - marked by the very symptoms that it causes to the nervous system and heart of millions of Americans. And given the fact that it is universally ignored by medicine, that its symptoms are instead treated with powerful heart drugs and even surgeries, and that it remains fomenting, just below the surface in most heart patients despite any and all medical treatments, it is unnerving at best and horrific at worst.

Do not fall for the contention that beriberi no longer exists. It is the main cause of most heart disease today. Some have likened it to throwing a wet blanket on a fire - like smothering the heart. Once beriberi of the heart sets in, your heart will go through such a myriad of changes and deterioration that diagnosis becomes almost impossible. If you have any kind of heart problem, or most any health problem at all, please consider and treat for beriberi of the heart.

Your Solution

YOUR SOLUTION

Dr. Huntoon enjoys working with people to unwind their Beriberi and the digestive imbalances that lead to the cascade that is Heart Disease. 

Helping you to understand what can be done to truly remedy this health condition is important.  Being walked through the cascade through a discussion specific to your body's health imbalances and demonstrating what the solutions are to solving the very strait forward health concern is not difficult for people to understand. 

Following-up by addressing the whole cascade and each component proves to be a True Solution.  

Developing a healthy life-style is the most important thing you can do for the health of your heart. Proper guidance with routine monitoring from your Holistic Chiropractor is the best prevention when considering how to approach your health. 

Please call Dr. Huntoon at (845)561-2225 so he can help you address your heart health concerns, not kick the can down the road, setting you up for heart surgery.