blood to the various parts of the body.
Patients with these conditions usually experience shortness of breath with minimal exercise and have pains in their legs or peripheral skeletal muscles, because the heart cannot pump enough blood to supply the oxygen needed by the rest of the body to make energy. Fluid builds up in the legs and lungs, and finally, the heart itself becomes congested with blood because it is no longer strong enough to move it forward out of the circulation.
Hearts in congestive heart failure are energy-starved. There is dysfunction of the cardiac energy recycling in these hearts, and the cardiac energy pool is depleted. Patients in congestive heart failure are deficient in co-enzyme Q10, pqq and carnitine, restricting mitochondrial functions and exacerbating the metabolic dysfunction.
Cardiomyopathy is the state in which the muscle tissue of the heart has become damaged, diseased, or enlarged, or stretched and thin.
This most often happens as the result of heart attacks or longstanding, untreated high blood pressure. Cardiomyopathy can also be caused by genetic modification associated with energy production. There may also be a result of nutritional deficiencies or longstanding excessive alcohol consumption, infection, or severe inflammation such as a viral assault on the heart. Cardiomyopathic hearts just do not metabolize enough energy.
No matter the cause, the patient with cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure are unable to generate enough energy, or to allow sufficient relaxation for refilling of the heart. Studies have shown improvement in cardiac energy metabolism with Q10, carnitine, and d-ribose therapy.
Heart palpitations or cardiac arrhythmias are a common complaint that bring people to the cardiologist. Fortunately, irregular heartbeats are rarely a cause for concern, in about one-third of normal hearts. One of the more common arrhythmias is premature ventricular contractions. The patient may experience a “skipped heartbeat.” There are many causes for premature ventricular contractions such as stimulants like caffeine, chocolate, low-potassium states, alcohol, and age and conduction systems, anti-arrhythmics, street drugs, lack of oxygen at high altitudes, mitral valve prolapse, and so on–the list is long. Initial interventions include eliminating the cause if possible, or normalizing electrolytes such as potassium. potassium.
Most cardiologists do not treat premature ventricular contractions (PVC’s) unless they are happening frequently and on a regular basis, like more than six times a minute in couplets, triplets, or in short runs. . By stabilizing the membrane of the electrical conduction system, Q10 can make it harder for arrhythmias to occur in the first place.
The complexity of the cardiac energy system is clear. The bottom line is that patients need to be aware of the vital importance of energy metabolism in cardiac disease, both from the standpoint of accelerating adequate ATP turnover, as well as reserve, and maintaining the size of the energy pool itself.
The triad of cardiac supplements, including Q10 magnesium , L-carnitine, pqq and d-ribose are critical for establishing the energy health of the heart and to assist the ailing heart in its quest to supply the energy it needs.
In summary, metabolic cardiology is a fascinating new concept.
Attention is given to the energy demands of the diseased heart, and it is often missed in conventional cardiology practice. Disease states such as heart disease, heart failure, or cardiomyopathy are associated with low cardiac energy production.
Optimal cardiovascular function is dependent on maintaining adequate levels and energy reserves. Metabolic cardiology highlights the importance of sustaining key enzymatic and biochemical reactions that revitalize the energy charge in failing hearts. Efforts to support the metabolic needs of the heart have been well documented, yet are not known to most cardiologists. These therapies have an excellent safety profile, and are a key factor in light of the finding that the fourth leading cause of deat