The constitution of heart is that it supplies blood to all parts of the body and of that purpose it works constantly like a pump at mechanical rate of about 70 times in a minute, except with increased rate during exertion, exercise and mental tension.
Blood is the life-liquid of the body, because it is blood that carries not only oxygen and food materials to the body’s organs, but also brings back from them poisonous wastes, like Carbon-dioxide to lungs for purification and then taking the purified blood to the heart.
The passage of blood is through arteries and small capillaries to the cells and, in the return journey, in carrying the CO2 etc. through the veins.
All this work of pumping blood into the arteries then through capillaries to the cells of organs and back from the organs through the veins, is performed non-stop by this pump, we call by the name of HEART.
Even such an efficient working machine of the heart, suffers set backs. Let us find out the cause, the culprit for all heart troubles.
Due to wrong habits of eating, more of non-vegetarian diet, demineralized foods, consumption of excess of fats and beverages, like alcohol, strong tea and coffee, toxic materials begin to form in the body, the effects of which run into the blood with the formation of fatty deposits (plaques) in the arteries.
That makes the walls of the arteries hard and rough. The narrowing down of the arteries, then, begins. In extreme cases, these deposits (plaques) cause clogging in the arteries, thus obstructing the normal passage of blood through arteries.
This is the stage of disease we call as hypertension, or blood-pressure. Constant suffering of the body due to hypertension, leads to undue pressure on the heart, resulting in its overworking—a sort of resultant fatigue—and thus is caused a weakness of the heart.
Also the in-take of constant allopathic medicines for occasional body ailments, adds to the weakness of the heart.
To add to this all, there is another development, that is, the coronary arteries, which nourish the heart itself also get affected for similar reasons and the blood-vessel (artery), which leads directly out of the heart, gets affected.
All these factors reduce the heart’s blood-supply and cause the disease, called ‘Angine Pestoris’, or a heart-attack.
When the attack comes, it produces alarming symptoms, like a severe pain in the region of the chest-bone and a sense of constriction in the chest. The pain radiates into the back, shoulders and arms, particularly the left arm and the body perspires.
In such a condition, the patient should be made to lie down and have no movement of the body.
A hot towel should be applied over the heart region, which will relieve the constriction in the chest by dilating the clogged artery and easing the flow of blood. In serious cases the patient is kept on oxygen, which may be possible, better in a hospital.
Treatment
In the treatment of a heart patient, or one of hypertension, Nature-cure lays stress on elimination of the causes of the trouble, for which a patient has to be brought on restricted diet.
Depending on the body’s strength the patient should, now and then, keep short fasts for a day or so, or miss a meal, otherwise he can have fruit fasts, that is, use of juicy fruits, followed by light diets.
The menu of diet should have bread of wholesome wheat, vegetables and salads. Carrots and beet roots are very useful vegetables, while in fruits, orange, apples and grapes are advised. Ghee should not be taken, nor any food prepared in fats.
Fresh butter in measured quantities may be taken to fill up the deficiency of ghee. Salt has to be avoided, or only meagre quantity used, because salt-deficiency is made up by vegetables, by their organic salts.
Smoking, which is one of the causes, has no place in the treatment.
Care has to be taken that one does not have constipation otherwise warm-water enema should be taken at night to bring the bowels to normal state. Slight breathing exercise is advised. Walking is the best exercise. Hot-bath, if taken, should not be quite hot.