Cardiac Metabolic Syndrome and Cardiac Renal (kidney) Syndrome, Part 1
These syndromes are rapidly emerging as common treatable causes of heart disease, stroke or diabetes and contribute to cancer, hospital errors and medication side effects – all the leading causes of death in America. In addition, they are indicators of silent but treatable damage and impairments to internal organs (heart and arteries, immune system, brain and nervous system, bones, muscles and joints, liver, lungs, digestive system, all hormone glands and more). Treat-ments for many conditions will often be ineffective if these syndromes are not addressed.
It’s very hard to understand, but impaired circulation to the small blood vessels, brain, internal organs, muscles and joints can cause or contribute to a wide variety of problems.
Our genetics, reliance on cars (and refusal to exercise to compensate for sedentary lives), poor or excessive food choices, high stress levels (which imbalance neurotransmitters and impairs blood flow and internal functions), silent inflammation or infections and environmental pollution are the primary treatable causes. Drugs for heart disease, diabetes and cholesterol reduce the risk for heart disease, stroke and progressive complications by only 34% at the very most. Therapeutic lifestyle changes reduce risks 40 – 60% and treat the underlying causes. If labs are normalized with alternative methods (and sometimes drugs), risks for stroke and heart disease are reduced even more.
Very commonly, if we can improve your circulation, other conditions improve or treatments for what seems like unrelated problems becomes more effective. For example, we commonly see a digestive problem (poor absorption, acid problems, IBS, colitis, others) cannot get better without treating Cardiac Metabolic Syndrome. Neuropathy and nervous system problems cannot get better unless you improve small blood vessel circulation. The list goes on and on.
Most people and medical practitioners have a very hard time understanding and correlating these problems. It’s commonly thought that separate medical conditions should be treated separately. People get a prescription or alternative treatment for abnormal glucose, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, anxiety, digestive problems, fibromyalgia, arthritis, etc. never knowing they may be linked together and that better treatments exist. For example, glucose and insulin imbalances contribute to cholesterol imbalances, small and large blood vessel damage that won’t improve unless you correct the glucose/insulin imbalances. Kidney problems commonly and silently cause heart, circulation, nervous and other metabolic problems. Fatigue, indigestion or acid problems, anxiety and sleep disturbances may be a sign of heart or kidney problems. The list goes on and on.
Cardiac Metabolic Syndrome (also known as Pre-Diabetes, Diabetes, abnormal cholesterol patterns, Syndrome X, obesity and other terms) is basically progressively disordered insulin metabolism that causes havoc everywhere in body systems. It is best diagnosed with glucose tolerance and insulin testing.
The primary diagnostic criteria include waist size over 40 inches in men or 35 inches in women, triglycerides 150 or more, HDL cholesterol less than 40 in men or 50 in women , blood pressure over 130/85 and high glucose levels. In most cases, pre-diabetes will progress to this syndrome and these other abnormalities without treatments.
Along with a number of other secondary criteria (abnormal labs), this syndrome substantially increases the risk for progressive cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, certain cancers and most hormonal problems (especially adrenal, thyroid and sex hormones).
Cardiac Renal or Cardio-renal Syndrome (commonly seen with hypertension, glucose/insulin disorders, heart enlargement or failure, fluid retention, environmental toxin accumulation and Cardiac Metabolic Syndrome) is basically progressively stressed or damaged kidney functions.
Most people don’t know the kidneys regulate neurotransmitters (especially serotonin, dopamine norepinephrine and epinephrine), blood pressure and heart functions, blood vessel tone, sodium, potassium and other electrolytes, body fluids, hormones (adrenal and many others), platelets, red cells and affect nitric oxide, white blood cells and artery plaque formation.
All of this occurs silently and progressively if Cardiac Renal Syndrome is not treated, increasing risks for cardiovascular damage (from the head to the toes), stroke, diabetes, kidney disease and other problems.
The primary diagnostic criteria include abnormal kidney tests and scans, along with abnormal cardiovascular or Cardiac Metabolic Syndrome tests.
A number of other secondary clues would include high or low blood pressure, the use of diuretic or ACE inhibitor drugs, early and confounding urine or blood chemistry abnormalities, swelling or edema, heart enlargement, strain or early heart failure, kidney stones and other commonly overlooked data.
What’s the best treatment? Find a practitioner who can make the diagnosis by linking all the various factors together and then uses therapeutic lifestyle changes and combines alternative and conventional treatments as needed. Be certain to repeat your abnormal tests as instructed. It is the only way to gauge effectiveness of treatments for silent progressive conditions and make
necessary adjustments.
It is generally accepted that losing weight, reducing calorie intake and regular exercise (even just walking) is a core part of reversing these syndromes. It is important to reduce refined carbohydrate foods, beverages and snacks. Exercise helps insulin defects or resistance because muscle cells (including heart muscle cells) use 75% of the body’s glucose and become unable to “hear” or respond to insulin messages and the liver is signaled to secrete excess triglycerides and cholesterol.
Why include alternative treatments? First, there are limited drugs to support or improve kidney functions. For example, forcing down blood pressure with drugs to preserve kidney functions often fails. Alternative medicines can support health kidney functions. Second, many drugs for cholesterol, heart disease, hypertension and diabetes, while necessary, deplete nutrients necessary for cardiovascular, kidney and metabolic functions, including regulation of glucose and insulin levels. Third, drugs can have many unexpected side effects. The best medical seminars are encouraging the use of alternatives to minimize prescription drug use. Medical seminars are now including the topic of drug poverty. Drug poverty means the cost of drugs are so high that many people will not be able to afford them.
It’s now recognized most people with diabetes will ultimately fail on diabetic pills and will require insulin, unless lifestyle changes are made. Most people with hypertension will require two or three drugs and still get complications. Most people with high cholesterol will require two or three drugs or stronger drugs with increasing risks of side effects. You can’t fool Mother Nature or override a poor lifestyle by just taking drugs.
Lastly, you won’t find much literature on these the drug topics. These are technical topics limited to medical journals and seminars. Lay publications (magazines, journals) get so much advertising money from drug advertisers they are not going to tell you the drugs may not be all that helpful. It’ll be years before books the population can read will be published. A small number of medical practitioners understand these syndromes but just use drugs because appointment time is limited by insurance which makes it very hard to educate people and/or these are very technical medical issues that are hard to understand, even if your test results are given to you.