by Lawrence Wilson, MD

HEART ATTACKS AND THEIR PREVENTION

Heart attacks, also called myocardial events or myocardial infarctions, are the most common cause of death around the world. Basically, they are an interruption of the blood supply to the heart. The heart requires a lot of blood because the heart is a special muscle that operates all of the time, 24 hours per day. It is the only such muscle. All other muscles work at times, and then rest at times. Only the heart works all of the time, resting only in between beats.

If the heart’s blood supply is interrupted for even a few seconds, the heart muscle, which needs a lot of blood, starts to die. If the blood supply stops for more than a minute or two, irreversible damage tends to occur to the heart muscle. If the blood supply stops, even partially, for more than about 10 minutes, usually the heart is damaged beyond repair.

In these cases, a person could receive an artificial heart pump, but these don’t work too well because the heart is a rather complex organ, although it looks like it is just a pump. In fact the heart does much more than pump the blood. It sets up a certain rhythm in the body that it helps maintain that is necessary for life. So a heart attack is always a major problem, even if it is mild.

CAUSES FOR HEART ATTACKS

In the medical world the cause of heart attacks is a small piece of arterial plaque – usually a fatty material – that breaks off an artery wall and circulates in the blood. If one is lucky, it gets stuck in some less important smaller artery and just lodges there until the body can hopefully dissolve it away. Otherwise, it could block a smaller artery, causing some pain, discomfort or other symptoms.

If, however, the piece of plaque lodges in a coronary artery – the arteries leading to the heart – then the person will have what is called a heart attack. These can be extremely mild to where one hardly notices it, to very extreme or serious.

The symptoms usually include sharp pain in the chest area, and it may radiate to the left arm and down the arm, as well. Usually, one will feel very weak, sweaty, nauseous and may collapse from impaired blood flow to the brain and other areas of the body. Sometimes one will feel a crushing pressure in the chest, as if someone is sitting on your chest or has a heavy weight on the chest.

Emotional causes. The heart responds very strongly to emotions.

OXIDATION TYPES AND HEART ATTACKS

Two primary types or causes of heart attacks (or myocardial infarctions) occur. Let us correlate how these relate to the metabolic rate and metabolic type, as discovered using hair tissue mineral analysis research.

1. Coronary Thrombosis. This is the most common type of heart attack. It occurs when a small piece of arterial plaque or other foreign material completely clogs a coronary artery leading to the heart muscle. The area served by this artery is then deprived of blood, and therefore of oxygen and nutrients, and the muscle dies, or is damaged to some degree.

This type of heart attack correlates best with slow oxidizers. These individuals tend to develop clogged arteries with a buildup of calcium, toxic metals or fatty plaques in the arteries. They also tend to have more sluggish circulation, which can also lead to plaque buildup.

Hair tissue mineral analyses on these individuals tend to show high levels of calcium and magnesium, and lower levels of sodium and potassium. Toxic metals may or may not be revealed on early tests because the energy level is low and the toxic metals may be hidden deep within body tissues, including the artery walls.

These individuals may also develop high blood pressure and other cardiovascular diseases for the same reasons explained in the paragraph above.

These heart attacks are often non-fatal because only one or a few coronary arteries are involved. With adequate bed rest, magnesium infusions, vitamin E and other standard supportive care, the body can often develop what is called collateral circulation to go around the clogged coronary artery. New blood vessels grow and surrounding blood circulation may also become enhanced to nourish the heart muscle.

2. Sympathetic Nervous System Heart Attack. The arteries have muscles in their walls. In this type of heart attack, the arterial muscles contract or spasm to such a degree that they inhibit the flow of blood to the heart. A vicious cycle occurs, in which the shock of the coronary artery spasm causes an alarm reaction in the body that further stresses the body, causing even more spasm of the coronary artery.

If this cycle is not broken, death can easily result. This

type of heart attack is often fatal because it can affect most or all of the coronary arteries at the same time. Thus there is less chance for the heart to continue receiving enough oxygen and nourishment to continue beating.

This type of heart attack occurs more often in the metabolic type called the fast oxidizer, especially if the oxidation rate is extremely fast. In these individuals, the hair tissue levels of calcium and magnesium tend to be quite low, usually less than 30 mg% or 300 ppm of calcium and usually less than 3 mg% or 30 ppm of magnesium. The hair sodium and potassium levels are often quite elevated due to stress.

These individuals may or may not have somewhat clogged arteries secondarily that contribute to their cardiovascular problems. Also, these individuals may be quite young and may appear to have very healthy coronary arteries.

Blood pressure may be normal or even low at times. Labile hypertension is more common among them, as the pressure can rise and fall as the arterial muscles contract and relax. These are people for whom a shock can cause a sudden, massive and fatal heart attack with no warning. Emotions such as anger, resentment and other strong feelings may play a large role in the causation of this type of heart attack.

HAIR ANALYSIS INDICATORS FOR A POTENTIAL HEART ATTACK

These include mainly a low sodium/potassium ratio – less than 2.5, provided the hair is not washed at the laboratory. Other, less reliable indicators include elevated cadmium, lead, arsenic or other toxic metals, low zinc and perhaps a very fast oxidation rate or a slow oxidation rate with a calcium shell.

HEART ATTACK PREVENTION

Doctors recommend many drugs and supplements to prevent heart attacks. All of them may work to some degree. With nutritional balancing, the key is to balance the sodium/potassium ratio, mainly, and take extra calcium and magnesium. The use of other supplements such as coenzyme q-10, vitamin E, gingko biloba, hawthorn berry and other remedies may be used, but are actually less helpful than balancing the sodium/potassium ratio.

For much about cardiovascular disease, read Cardiovascular Disease on this website.

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