By E Douglas Kihn, OMD, LAc, CPT
Heart disease is a complicated subject because the heart is a complex organ. Imagine what it would take to keep a machine working smoothly for a hundred years without stopping once! Dozens of factors can intervene to cause problems. We’re going to examine those causes with the intention of developing habits that will prevent or postpone for as long as possible the heart attack.
Heart attack is the leading cause of death for both men and women worldwide and in the U.S. A heart attack is a sudden, serious, usually painful, and sometimes fatal interruption of the heart’s normal functioning. Any time the normal heart beat is disrupted for any reason, there is a possibility that insufficient blood will reach a section of heart muscle. The longer the interruption, the greater the danger. Without blood and oxygen, that part of the heart muscle suffocates and dies. When heart muscle dies, it is called an “infarction” – a myocardial (heart muscle) infarction.
In adult humans, dead heart muscle does not regenerate, and so this hundred-year blood pump will from then on be operating at less than 100% capacity. This means that any body tissue, including the heart itself, will probably suffer some degree of blood and oxygen deprivation. Obviously, preventing heart attack and myocardial infarction is far preferable to dealing with it after the fact.
Three Causes That Are Minimally Preventable
1. Pre-natal Jing Deficiency
This means physical abnormalities that are present at birth. Jing is that substance that influences growth, development, and reproduction. Part of jing is already determined before we are born. This part is called pre-natal.
Some pre-natal jing is inherited genetically. If a parent passes on genes that are defective, one possible result is a baby’s heart that doesn’t work properly. Another consequence could be a dangerously high concentration of cholesterol that congests the arteries around the heart (see below). Not much preventing is possible in these circumstances, without the intervention of genetic engineering sometime in the 2020s.
Other birth defects – including heart defects - are acquired by the fetus during pregnancy. These are preventable, but the subject of preventing birth defects is beyond the scope of this essay.
2. Heart Trauma
Diseases such as scarlet fever as well as physical injuries can damage the heart to the extent that its functioning can be interrupted and a heart attack ensues.
3. Heart Yin Deficiency
Yin is synonymous with material, while yang can be equated with energy or movement.
Starvation – the chronic lack of food – will eventually wear down all the material in the body, as the body cannibalizes itself for energy. This includes the material – yin – of the heart muscle itself. In the U.S., which leads the world in obesity, no one starves to death except those who embark on a conscious or unconscious suicide mission. The subject of preventing suicide will not be addressed here.
Four Causes That Are Mostly Preventable
1. Food Stagnation
This is by far the most common cause of heart attack in the U.S. Western medicine calls this situation “coronary heart disease.” The most common symptom of coronary heart disease is angina pectoris, a squeezing chest pain that may radiate to the neck, jaw, back, and left arm, and cause the lips, tongue, and fingernails to exhibit a blueish or purplish hue. Angina, also known as “heart blood stagnation,” may last for years, and usually worsens with movement and anxiety.
Simply put, coronary heart disease is a blockage in the arteries that supply blood and oxygen to the heart muscle itself. The blockage is the result of excess calories (a calorie is a measure of stored bio-energy) in the form of LDL cholesterol that clog the blood vessels feeding the heart. LDL stands for “low-density lipids.” “Lipids” is the medical term for fats, which furnish a whopping nine calories per gram, as compared to proteins and carbohydrates at a mere four calories per gram.
These excess lipid calories that stagnate in the blood vessels are primarily the result of excessive food intake. The body will store calories that it can’t immediately use. Most will be stored as body fat, but often the human body will store a portion of excess calories on the inside of blood vessels as cholesterol. This condition is known as “atherosclerosis,” or “hardening of the arteries.”
During a long and lean winter, the heart does not need to work hard, since a maximum conservation of energy is required for survival. And so the body does not anticipate a problem with temporarily depositing this valuable source of energy on the inside lining of the blood vessels. The problem is that obese and overweight Americans aren’t sleeping, lounging, and fasting in a cave for six months at a time, but rather are working, exercising, and eating every day, year after year. This state of affairs puts an unnatural strain on a cardiovascular system that just isn’t prepared for it.
Statistical evidence conclusively links excess body fat, atherosclerosis, and heart attack. There is also a connection, although somewhat less significant, between the consumption of animal fats, atherosclerosis, and heart attack. If one eats more calories than necessary for daily maintenance, and some of those calories come from animal fats, the body will more likely store those animal fats as dangerous blood cholesterol than it would most vegetable fats. The same is true of highly processed vegetable fats, such as margarine.
There is also a strong statistical connection between tobacco smoking and coronary heart disease. The nicotine in tobacco combines with carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke to damage the lining of blood vessels by making the blood stickier. Sticky blood will mix easily with low-density lipids that clog the arteries and lead to atherosclerosis. This is one important way in which tobacco smoking contributes to heart attack.
Your Chinese liver is not the same thing as your Western liver. Your Chinese liver, also known as “gan,” is like a manager or a regulator, whose main task is to keep mental and physical energy (qi) flowing smoothly. When the flow of qi is uneven and stagnant, liver is unhappy and must be appeased.
A sedentary lifestyle does nothing to expand the blood vessels that supply oxygen to the heart or brain. Without exercise, they lose their elasticity and become narrowed. In addition, numerous studies show that regular exercise dramatically decreases anxiety and improves mental capacity and emotional well-being.
Narrowed coronary arteries will decrease oxygen flow to the heart, and can trigger a heart attack and myocardial infarction. This is especially true for someone who already has restricted blood flow to the heart as the result of food stagnation.
Excessive heat in the chest area can inflame the heart, speed up the heart beat (tachycardia), and upset the sinoatrial node, a small mass of specialized muscle fibers in the heart from which originate the regular electrical impulses that stimulate the heartbeat and keep it regular. When this node goes whacky, it causes fibrillation – a rapid chaotic beating of the heart muscle or individual muscle fibers of the heart.
The pandemonium that follows will prevent normal blood circulation and likely cause suffocation and death to some muscle fibers of the heart. The usual emergency procedure in the case of fibrillation is to apply an electric shock to the heart, resetting the sinoatrial node to its normal rhythm.
Preventative measures:
Nicotine for example will cause arteries to constrict, contributing to a reduction of blood flow. Nicotine also combines with the carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke to damage the lining of blood vessels and make the blood stickier. This same carbon dioxide deprives the body of oxygen, binding to red blood cells in place of the oxygen molecule and forcing the heart to work harder than it should.
Alcohol is “bottled damp heat.” Alcoholics tend to have high blood levels of the hormone epinephrine (used to be called “adrenalin”) and deficiencies of the mineral magnesium. This combination disturbs the sinoatrial node, producing heartbeat irregularities. The heat can speed up the pulse, while the “damp” can muffle and slow it down. This capriciousness can lead to a heart attack, and is a common cause of sudden death in heavy drinkers.
Preventative measures:
Heart disease is a complicated subject because the heart is a complex organ. Imagine what it would take to keep a machine working smoothly for a hundred years without stopping once! Dozens of factors can intervene to cause problems. We’re going to examine those causes with the intention of developing habits that will prevent or postpone for as long as possible the heart attack.
Heart attack is the leading cause of death for both men and women worldwide and in the U.S. A heart attack is a sudden, serious, usually painful, and sometimes fatal interruption of the heart’s normal functioning. Any time the normal heart beat is disrupted for any reason, there is a possibility that insufficient blood will reach a section of heart muscle. The longer the interruption, the greater the danger. Without blood and oxygen, that part of the heart muscle suffocates and dies. When heart muscle dies, it is called an “infarction” – a myocardial (heart muscle) infarction.
In adult humans, dead heart muscle does not regenerate, and so this hundred-year blood pump will from then on be operating at less than 100% capacity. This means that any body tissue, including the heart itself, will probably suffer some degree of blood and oxygen deprivation. Obviously, preventing heart attack and myocardial infarction is far preferable to dealing with it after the fact.
Three Causes That Are Minimally Preventable
1. Pre-natal Jing Deficiency
This means physical abnormalities that are present at birth. Jing is that substance that influences growth, development, and reproduction. Part of jing is already determined before we are born. This part is called pre-natal.
Some pre-natal jing is inherited genetically. If a parent passes on genes that are defective, one possible result is a baby’s heart that doesn’t work properly. Another consequence could be a dangerously high concentration of cholesterol that congests the arteries around the heart (see below). Not much preventing is possible in these circumstances, without the intervention of genetic engineering sometime in the 2020s.
Other birth defects – including heart defects - are acquired by the fetus during pregnancy. These are preventable, but the subject of preventing birth defects is beyond the scope of this essay.
2. Heart Trauma
Diseases such as scarlet fever as well as physical injuries can damage the heart to the extent that its functioning can be interrupted and a heart attack ensues.
3. Heart Yin Deficiency
Yin is synonymous with material, while yang can be equated with energy or movement.
Starvation – the chronic lack of food – will eventually wear down all the material in the body, as the body cannibalizes itself for energy. This includes the material – yin – of the heart muscle itself. In the U.S., which leads the world in obesity, no one starves to death except those who embark on a conscious or unconscious suicide mission. The subject of preventing suicide will not be addressed here.
Four Causes That Are Mostly Preventable
1. Food Stagnation
This is by far the most common cause of heart attack in the U.S. Western medicine calls this situation “coronary heart disease.” The most common symptom of coronary heart disease is angina pectoris, a squeezing chest pain that may radiate to the neck, jaw, back, and left arm, and cause the lips, tongue, and fingernails to exhibit a blueish or purplish hue. Angina, also known as “heart blood stagnation,” may last for years, and usually worsens with movement and anxiety.
Simply put, coronary heart disease is a blockage in the arteries that supply blood and oxygen to the heart muscle itself. The blockage is the result of excess calories (a calorie is a measure of stored bio-energy) in the form of LDL cholesterol that clog the blood vessels feeding the heart. LDL stands for “low-density lipids.” “Lipids” is the medical term for fats, which furnish a whopping nine calories per gram, as compared to proteins and carbohydrates at a mere four calories per gram.
These excess lipid calories that stagnate in the blood vessels are primarily the result of excessive food intake. The body will store calories that it can’t immediately use. Most will be stored as body fat, but often the human body will store a portion of excess calories on the inside of blood vessels as cholesterol. This condition is known as “atherosclerosis,” or “hardening of the arteries.”
During a long and lean winter, the heart does not need to work hard, since a maximum conservation of energy is required for survival. And so the body does not anticipate a problem with temporarily depositing this valuable source of energy on the inside lining of the blood vessels. The problem is that obese and overweight Americans aren’t sleeping, lounging, and fasting in a cave for six months at a time, but rather are working, exercising, and eating every day, year after year. This state of affairs puts an unnatural strain on a cardiovascular system that just isn’t prepared for it.
Statistical evidence conclusively links excess body fat, atherosclerosis, and heart attack. There is also a connection, although somewhat less significant, between the consumption of animal fats, atherosclerosis, and heart attack. If one eats more calories than necessary for daily maintenance, and some of those calories come from animal fats, the body will more likely store those animal fats as dangerous blood cholesterol than it would most vegetable fats. The same is true of highly processed vegetable fats, such as margarine.
There is also a strong statistical connection between tobacco smoking and coronary heart disease. The nicotine in tobacco combines with carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke to damage the lining of blood vessels by making the blood stickier. Sticky blood will mix easily with low-density lipids that clog the arteries and lead to atherosclerosis. This is one important way in which tobacco smoking contributes to heart attack.
Preventative measures:
- Eat less food. Wait for hunger, and stop when you are comfortable.
- Get lean. Five to seven percent body fat for men, seven to twelve percent for women.
- Moderate your intake of animal-derived food, especially red meat and eggs. Not every meal, and not every day.
- Do not smoke tobacco. Not daily or in a binge cycle.
2. Liver Qi Stagnation
Mental fixation on the past or future will stagnate the qi, since only the moment is real and flowing. The result is anxiety of various forms and a consequent tightening of muscles in preparation an emergency response. Chronic anxiety brings with it a chronic tightening of muscles, including the muscles surrounding the heart and the blood vessels themselves, which are, in essence, muscles.
Preventative measures:
- Calm the mind. Stop worrying. Increase awareness of the big picture by studying and practicing Taoism or other similar philosophies.
- Calm the body. Get plenty of sleep and rest. Practice hatha yoga, tai qi, qi gong, or meditation on a regular basis.
- Exercise vigorously on a daily basis. Aerobic conditioning is especially important, as it improves the ability of the heart to deliver blood and oxygen to the body and itself. Work with a trainer if you need to.
3. Excess Heart Heat
Of all organs, the heart is most susceptible to the danger of overheating. It’s like a nuclear reactor that must constantly be cooled. The continuous beating creates friction, and friction creates heat.
The danger is that the heat can get out of control, causing a heart attack (an interruption of the heart’s normal functioning). Any type of heart attack can deprive the heart muscle of blood and oxygen, causing myocardial infarction.
Excessive heat in the chest area can inflame the heart, speed up the heart beat (tachycardia), and upset the sinoatrial node, a small mass of specialized muscle fibers in the heart from which originate the regular electrical impulses that stimulate the heartbeat and keep it regular. When this node goes whacky, it causes fibrillation – a rapid chaotic beating of the heart muscle or individual muscle fibers of the heart.
The pandemonium that follows will prevent normal blood circulation and likely cause suffocation and death to some muscle fibers of the heart. The usual emergency procedure in the case of fibrillation is to apply an electric shock to the heart, resetting the sinoatrial node to its normal rhythm.
Preventative measures:
- Do not smoke. The regular inhalation of hot gas from any source will inflame the chest area, likely starting with the lungs. This bronchitis, if allowed to continue and worsen, can nudge the sinoatrial node into chaos.
- Do not make a habit of hurrying or overworking. Remember that movement creates friction, which gives rise to heat. Excessive and continuous movement leads to excess heat. Plenty of sleep and rest, and a relaxed pace in most activities will prevent a buildup of heat.
- Stay away from chemical stimulants such as caffeine, cocaine, and pharmaceutical “uppers.”
4. Poisoning
There are many toxic substances that will interrupt the normal functioning of the heart. Poisons will speed it up, slow it down, add to arterial clogging, or even paralyze the heart.
Nicotine for example will cause arteries to constrict, contributing to a reduction of blood flow. Nicotine also combines with the carbon monoxide in tobacco smoke to damage the lining of blood vessels and make the blood stickier. This same carbon dioxide deprives the body of oxygen, binding to red blood cells in place of the oxygen molecule and forcing the heart to work harder than it should.
Alcohol is “bottled damp heat.” Alcoholics tend to have high blood levels of the hormone epinephrine (used to be called “adrenalin”) and deficiencies of the mineral magnesium. This combination disturbs the sinoatrial node, producing heartbeat irregularities. The heat can speed up the pulse, while the “damp” can muffle and slow it down. This capriciousness can lead to a heart attack, and is a common cause of sudden death in heavy drinkers.
Preventative measures:
- Avoid addictions to smoking, alcohol, and other substances, be they prescribed, over-the-counter, or illicit. Work on improving your mental and physical health instead.
- Be careful about the mushrooms and curare-tipped darts!
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