Heart Blockage Treatment without Surgery

Heart Blockage Treatment without Surgery

Heart blockage is known as coronary artery disease in medical terms. It is mostly caused by deposition of plaque inside the walls of blood vessels that supply blood to the heart. This kind of disease takes place gradually over many years. Hence the symptoms do not come in the notice unless there is a significant blockage in the heart. The prime culprit to this is the sedentary lifestyle.

Signs and symptoms

  • Shortness of breath – When the blood is not able to pump enough blood to the heart, it leads to tiredness and shortness of breath.
  • Chest pain – This is a common symptom manifested as tightness or pressure in the chest. It may be triggered by any mental or physical stress. The pain may also radiate to the neck, back or arm.
  • Heart attack – This happens at the terminal stages when there is a complete blockage of the coronary artery. There is an extreme pressure in the chest radiating to the shoulder and the arm.
  • Abnormal perspiration

Conditions that may occur as a result of heart blockage:

  • STEMI (ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction) – This happens whenever there is a sudden blockage in the blood vessels, leading to a heart attack. A major area of heart muscles may be affected, which is seen through the changes in the ECG and in the chemical markers.
  • N STEMI (non ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction) – This is not noticed on the ECG or electrocardiogram. However, the chemical markers in the blood may warn you about the damage caused to the heart muscle. The blockage may be complete or partial.
  • Unstable angina –Angina can be a frequent sign. It can be relieved by taking oral medications instantly. However, unstable angina can lead to a heart attack.

How is it treated?

Primarily, the following treatments are most commonly used for coronary artery disease.

However, there is also heart blockage treatment without surgery which is discussed below.

What is the best treatment for heart blockage?

Some of the most commonly done treatments for heart blockage are surgical. However, there are some conditions which can also be treated non-surgically if the blockage is not too severe. Let’s go through some of the most effective ways to deal with the heart blockage:

Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery 

This is a surgery that involves creating a bypassed way around the blocked artery to facilitate the blood flow to the heart. The graft is taken from a blood vessel in another part of the body. The surgery is performed under general anaesthesia. The techniques used to perform the surgery can be either open-heart surgery, minimally invasive surgery, and off-pump surgery. The open-heart surgery is the traditional form of surgery which is performed in cases where a wide incision needs to be made to gain access to the blocked artery.

However, with the minimally invasive technique, the surgery can be performed with a smaller incision where there is easy access.

Off-pump surgery is quite similar to the open-heart surgery in which the chest bone is opened. But, the heart does not stop functioning during the surgery. Unlike the traditional technique, the heart-lung bypass machine is not used. This is also known as beating

 

Heart blockage removal without surgery

Many cases of heart blockage can be treated even without surgery. Some of the non-surgical treatments are given below:

Chelation Therapy

This is a new technique that uses chemical processes for the removal of toxic metals and minerals from the body. A substance called EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) is used for the detoxification of the body. The EDTA solution is injected into the patient’s body and it binds with the calcium plaques that cause blockage of the coronary arteries, hence improving the blood flow.

Additional benefits of chelation therapy:

  • It is used in treating metal poisoning, including mercury, iron, arsenic, lead, uranium etc.
  • It may also be used to treat diseases like sickle-cell disease and thalassemia.
  • Moreover, it is used as an antioxidant by reducing the production of free radicals and lower down their negative effect.
  • Chelation therapy is also reported to be used for Alzheimer’s disease.

Lifestyle and dietary changes

A few basic changes in your lifestyle can help you in preventing a heart attack which might happen as a result of heart blockage. Some of these steps:

  • Regular exercise – It is important to walk or do any physical activity on an everyday basis. You may contact your doctor or physiotherapist to learn safe ways to do exercise.
  • Emotional stress – If you are an overly emotional person or take abnormally high stress, its significant to meditate every day. Excessive stress leads to constriction of blood vessels and may also increase the blood pressure.
  • Smoking – Smoking is a major obstacle to recovering from any illness. It should be the first step to be taken when it comes to making lifestyle changes.
  • Dietary changes – Prefer to eat foods which are low in saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, and sodium. Increase the number of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. You may also include fish or fish oil capsules in your daily diet.
  • Weight management – It is important to work on losing weight if you are obese or overweight and also regularly measure your BMI.

 

Can a heart blockage be treated with medicine?

When you visit a cardiologist after noticing certain signs and symptoms, a detailed cardiac evaluation is conducted. Only after the investigations, the doctor can decide the exact line of treatment for you. The medicinal treatment, however, can be used for multiple purposes such as:

  • To reduce the workload on the heart and dilate the arteries, so that the chest pain is relieved.
  • To prevent angina and other symptoms that may occur due to coronary artery disease.
  • To prevent further narrowing of the coronary arteries.
  • To open up the clogged artery.

The most common categories of medicines that are used in such cases are mentioned below:

  • Aspirin – Sometimes, the doctor recommends taking a daily aspirin or some other blood thinner to reduce the chances of blood clotting and thus preventing the obstruction of the coronary artery. However, aspirin cannot be used by all. People who have bleeding disorders or already taking blood thinners should not take it or consult a cardiologist before taking aspirin.
  • Beta-blockers – These medications are given to reduce the heart rate and hence the blood pressure. This, in turn, reduces the oxygen demand by the heart.
  • Cholesterol-modifying medications – These drugs help in the reduction of low-density cholesterol.
  • Calcium channel blockers – These are most commonly used with beta-blockers if they are unable to work alone. These help in improving chest pain.
  • Nitroglycerine – This medication is available in the form of tablets, sprays, patches etc. It is used to control chest pain by temporarily dilating the coronary arteries.
  • ACE Inhibitors – These are used to reduce blood pressure and indirectly also help in preventing the progression of coronary artery disease.

Can ECG detect heart blockage?

An electrocardiogram is a diagnostic test to examine heart-related issues by measuring the electrical activity of the heart as it pumps. It may be recommended by the cardiologist if you smoke or you are overweight, have diabetes or high blood pressure. People having symptoms like chest pain, breathlessness, dizziness or irregular heartbeats may also be advised to get an ECG.

An ECG may help in detecting enlargement of heart, abnormal position of heart, poor blood supply, inflammation of heart, congenital heart defects etc. However, it cannot tell much about blockage in the coronary arteries.

 

 How do you get rid of heart blockage naturally?

Most of us usually prefer to avoid getting treated by surgeries or medicines as these have their own side-effects. Hence, the researchers all over the world continue to find ways to treat such conditions in a natural way. Here are some of the most beneficial and the most commonly used ways to treat heart blockage:

Garlic 

Garlic is grown worldwide, which was originated from Siberia but then spread to other parts of the world in a span of 5000 years. It is often used to treat high blood pressure, low blood pressure, and high cholesterol. It is reported that garlic helps in restricting the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. It has the following effects on the body which ultimately help in preventing and treating the already existing heart blockage. These effects are:

  • Garlic has chloroform extracts which promote anti-thrombotic and antiplatelet aggregatory effect, which inhibits the platelets to accumulate and coagulate the blood.
  • It also helps in enhancing a process called fibrinolysis, which is carried out to dissolve the clots formed in the blood. This further helps in improving the blood circulation in the body.
  • Garlic also helps the management of heart rate and lowering the blood pressure.
  • It also helps lowering down the cholesterol levels in the body.

Co-Enzyme Q10 (CoQ10)

It is a good antioxidant that is naturally produced in our body. The levels are kept reducing with advancing age or those who have heart disease. It is most commonly found in meat, fish and whole grains. Other than this, these days campsure and tablets are also available. It is often used to treat heart conditions as well as migraines.

Flax seeds

The flax seeds are mainly composed of phytosterols, omega-3 and lignans, all of which help in boosting the heart health. Especially, phytosterols are the molecules which have a similar structure to cholesterol. These help in preventing the absorption of cholesterol in the intestine.Flax seeds also have huge amounts of fibre which is also in maintaining cardiac health.

 

Are all Heart blockages harmful?

Arterial supply of the heart

There are three arteries that run over the surface of the heart and supply it with blood (see the diagram above). There is one artery on the right side, and two arteries on the left side. The one on the right is known as the right coronary. On the left side, which is the main side, we have the left anterior descending (LAD) that runs down the front of the heart and supplies the front and main wall, and then the left circumflex that supplies the sidewall. If you look carefully, a major artery called the left main artery supplies the LAD and the circumflex.

 

Mild coronary artery disease

Heart blockage less than 40% is classified as mild coronary artery disease. Such blockages are clearly not causing restriction to blood flow and therefore very unlikely to be causing symptoms. It is important to note, however, that there is clear evidence here of progressive coronary artery disease and such patients need aggressive attention paid to risk factors for coronary disease (cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, blood pressure etc.), appropriate medicines, and healthy lifestyle changes such as exercise, weight loss and dietary modification. Paying close attention to these things can prevent progression of heart blockage and help to stabilize it.

 

MODERATE CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE

A moderate amount of heart blockage is typically that in the 40-70% range. Usually, heart blockage in the moderate range does not cause significant limitation to blood flow and so does not cause symptoms. Moderate coronary artery disease is treated much in the same way as mild disease, basically attention to risk factors, medications, and healthy lifestyle modification. Occasionally, heart blockage at the higher end of the moderate range (50-70%) may require additional testing to see if it is significant or not and may be responsible for symptoms.

 

SEVERE HEART BLOCKAGE

Severe heart blockage is typically that in the greater than 70% range. This degree of narrowing is associated with significantly reduced blood flow to the heart muscle and can underlie symptoms such as chest pain and shortness of breath. The severe heart blockage causes symptoms and are treated with placement of a stent  or sometimes bypass surgery is required in the setting of multiple severe blockages.

 

TOTALLY HEART BLOCKAGE.

 

100% blockage in coronary artery stopping blood flowing any further and, of course, leading to a heart attack. Such a heart blockage is typically accompanied by major symptoms, and treatment needs to be given in a very timely manner.  If the treatment for this isn’t done within good time (usually the first few hours, the sooner the better), then the heart muscle may die, and once dead, cannot usually recover, which results in reduced heart pumping function and heart failure.

Complications of Bypass Surgery

What is coronary bypass graft surgery?

Coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) is a procedure used to treat coronary artery disease. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the narrowing of the coronary arteries – the blood vessels that supply oxygen and nutrients to the heart muscle. CAD is caused by a build-up of fatty material within the walls of the arteries. This build-up narrows the inside of the arteries, limiting the supply of oxygen-rich blood to the heart muscle.

One way to treat the blocked or narrowed arteries is to bypass the blocked portion of the coronary artery with a piece of a healthy blood vessel from elsewhere in your body. Blood vessels, or grafts, used for the bypass procedure may be pieces of a vein from your leg or an artery in your chest. An artery from your wrist may also be used. Your doctor attaches one end of the graft above the blockage and the other end below the blockage. Blood bypasses the blockage by going through the new graft to reach the heart muscle. This is called coronary artery bypass surgery.

Why might I need coronary artery bypass surgery?

Your doctor uses coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) to treat a blockage or narrowing of one or more of the coronary arteries to restore the blood supply to your heart muscle.

Symptoms of coronary artery disease may include:

  • Chest pain
  • Fatigue (severe tiredness)
  • Palpitations
  • Abnormal heart rhythms
  • Shortness of breath
  • Swelling in the hands and feet
  • Indigestion

Unfortunately, you may not have any symptoms in early coronary artery disease, yet the disease will continue to progress until there’s enough artery blockage to cause symptoms and problems. If the blood supply to your heart muscle continues to decrease as a result of increasing blockage of a coronary artery, you may have a heart attack. If the blood flow can’t be restored to the particular area of the heart muscle affected, the tissue dies.

There may be other reasons for your doctor to recommend CABG surgery.

What are the risks of coronary artery bypass surgery?

Possible risks of coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) include:

  • Bleeding during or after the surgery
  • Blood clots that can cause heart attack, stroke, or lung problems
  • Infection at the incision site
  • Pneumonia
  • Breathing problems
  • Pancreatitis
  • Kidney failure
  • Abnormal heart rhythms
  • Failure of the graft
  • Death

 

Alternative Treatment for Heart Blockages

Coronary artery disease is the buildup of plaque in the arteries that supply oxygen-rich blood to your heart. Plaque causes a narrowing or blockage that could result in a heart attack. Symptoms include chest pain or discomfort and shortness of breath. Conventional treatment coronary artery disease are angioplasty and bypass surgery. But due to risk factors related surgery many patient look for alternative treatments for heart blockages. Following are the alternative treatment for heart blockages

 

  1. EECP: EECP in a non-invasive completely safe USA FDA approved treatment which helps in formations of collateral circulation within the heart. It helps in strengthening the heart muscle and in some patients improves the LVEF in heart failure patients. Benefits of EECP are its safe, non-invasive, without side effects so it happens to be the alternative to bypass surgery and as an alternative for angioplasty. Patients looking out for heart blockage treatment without surgery should consider EECP treatment as an alternative option.
  2. PANCHKARMA: According to Ayurveda, Hrudrog or heart diseases are caused due to dysfunctional Rasa Dhatvagni [1] or unbalanced doshas. Panchkarma helps balance the three doshas and improves the body’s healing power which in turn helps people slowly reverse their heart ailment. Other benefits of Panchkarma include Detoxes and purifies the body eliminates toxins, boosts metabolism, reduces weight, enhances the strength of digestive fire, opens up of blocked channels, relaxes the mind, rejuvenation the body, boosts Immunity & relieves stress
  3. CHELATION: Chelation therapy is a chemical process in which a synthetic solution—EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid)—is injected into the bloodstream to remove heavy metals and/or minerals from the body. Chelation means “to grab” or “to bind.” When EDTA is injected into the veins, it “grabs” heavy metals and minerals such as lead, mercury, copper, iron, arsenic, aluminum, and calcium and removes them from the body. Some health professionals have also used chelation therapy to treat atherosclerosis and/or coronary artery disease , although there is not enough scientific evidence to prove that this treatment is effective. Some people believe that EDTA binds with calcium deposits (the part of plaque that obstructs the flow of blood to the heart) in the arteries, and then EDTA “cleans out” the calcium deposits from the arteries, reducing the risk of heart problems.
  4. MEDICAL MANAGEMENT: patient with mild coronary artery disease are medically managed as per symptoms of the patient. Patient with mild coronary artery disease are advised for lifestyle modification like diet modification. Quit smoking/tobacco/alcohol, daily yoga/meditation/walking.