More people die of heart disease every year than of any other disease known to man. When it’s chronic, it’s the greatest health emergency there is. It can develop over years, slowly and silently, and then strike without warning. In many ways, our society has made many inroads in treating heart disease, and in others, there’s still a long way to go.
Cardiovascular disease refers to many different kinds of problems that affect the heart and circulatory systems of the body. These include heart attack, arrhythmias, heart valve or congenital heart disease, heart muscle disease, pericardial disease, vascular disease or Marfan syndrome. These serious diseases affect the body by attacking the heart or the blood vessels and capillaries of the body, effectively shutting them down and throwing the entire organism into a life-threatening state.
There are many lifestyle risk factors that affect the heart. Smoking, being overweight and sedentary, high cholesterol levels or high blood pressure, anger and high levels of stress, or a diabetic condition can all create or aggravate a heart condition. The good news is that most of these risk factors can be reduced or even eliminated through lifestyle modification. A chiropractor knows all about effective lifestyle modification for health.
Modern medicine can work wonders and save lives with critical heart problems, but over the long-term, conventional medicine has something of a hit and miss record on heart disease. Conventional medicine deals with medicine, and treats heart disease with medicine, but with mixed results. Statin drugs used to treat heart disease by lowering bad cholesterol fail to deal with body inflammation, which is a large factor in heart attacks and strokes. Some patients with other conditions that need treating cannot be treated because of the effects medication may have on their coronary systems.
The American Heart Association gave out new guidelines a couple of years ago, recommending that patients with chronic pain and heart disease be given medication only as a last resort, given the known heart problems that NSAIDS can cause. To these poor souls, chiropractic care, with its emphasis on drug-free therapy, can be a real boon. Pain reduction in those who are also at risk for heart disease can increase the general quality of life and reduce stress, which is a clear contributing factor for heart disease. A heart-healthy diet and exercise are key to heart disease treatment and reduction of inflammation in the body, and a chiropractor is in a great position to be an advisor in this area. Stress reduction is highly beneficial to lowering blood pressure and relieving some of the stress workload that the heart carries, and chiropractic care reduces stress.
A healthy and balanced nervous system can only strengthen the other systems of the body, including the heart and circulatory system. While the medical establishment engages in “disease care”, or waiting for a disease to occur and then treating it, chiropractic care has, for over a century, engaged in “health care”, or holistically treating the whole body for balance and wellness.
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