Heart disease is the number one killer of men and women in the United States and NZ. Every year one in four deaths is caused by heart disease. It’s common knowledge that maintaining a healthy diet and exercising are key factors in preventing heart disease, but do you know that chiropractic treatment is also an effective means to fight heart disease? “Although Chiropractic care is commonly associated with treating musculoskeletal conditions like neck and back pain, several studies have shown that chiropractic adjustments can positively affect heart health,”
Basic Anatomy
Your heart is a hollow muscular organ located in the centre of the chest. It is approximately the size of your fist but strong enough to pump blood over 96,000 Km per day through veins, arteries and capillaries. Blood pumped from the hearts chambers goes to every part of the body except the heart. The heart has its own mini circulatory system (coronary arteries) that feed the heart muscle itself.
Heart Disease
ANGINA- this is a temporary loss of coronary blood supply, often associated with physical or emotional stress. When it is mild it can be mistaken for indigestion
MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION – This is a severe of complete loss off blood flow to the heart that causes destruction of the heart muscle, Indications are squeezing pressure in the chest, difficulty breathing and panic. Fifty percent of those who suffer this will die within the first 24hours
ARTERIOSCLEROSIS – This is the slow narrowing of coronary arteries by fatty deposits that often damage the heart valves as well. Slowly being oxygen starved, small patches of the heart weaken or die. This can eventually lead to angina or heart failure
VASOSPASM- This is a spasm in a cardiac artery and can close off part of the hearts blood supply in otherwise healthy hearts, this can cause heart attacks in people who do not have clogged arteries. Spinal care can be especially beneficial here as a major cause is stress to the nervous system
Medical Approach
As always the medical approach involves medications to reduce Cholesterol and thin the blood or surgery such as Bypass, Stents or angioplasty
Lifestyle
Diet and exercise are vital components of heart health but are often ignored until someone has a heart attack. Vitamins especially vitamin C have been proven to have beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system.
Stress management is also important, the greatest number of fatal heart attacks occur between 8am and 10 am on Monday mornings.
Chiropractic care
There are nerves attached to the heart that speed up or slow down the heart rate depending on the demands of the body. The sympathetic nerves originate from the thoracic spine and cause the heart rate to speed up. The parasympathetic nerves originate from the brain and cause the heart rate to slow down. This is an oversimplification, but the bottom line is that the cardiovascular system is controlled by the nervous system. The brain receives communication from the body for an increased or decreased demand and relays that demand to the heart via the sympathetic or parasympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic and sympathetic are also called the autonomic nervous system because this part of the nervous system works automatically. You do not have to try to make your heart speed up or slow down; the brain regulates it automatically via nervous system communication
This is where Chiropractic care can make a difference. The primary function of the spine is to protect the nervous system. When the spine gets misaligned, by an injury, or stress it can cause interference in nervous system communication. This area of misalignment is called a vertebral subluxation. Chiropractors adjust the subluxation to restore nervous system communication. When the nervous system is able to communicate freely with the rest of the body, optimal health is possible. The body’s amazing ability to be healthy is called homeostasis. For there to be homeostasis in a body there must be proper communication between the brain and tissue cell. If there is interference in the communication optimal health is not possible.
Studies at the Palmer College of Chiropractic investigated the effects of chiropractic treatment on the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems in reference to an analysis of heart rate variability. Findings indicated that chiropractic adjustments do reduce pain and lower participant's mean heart rate.