It's Only Natural
Chapter XIX
The Heart and Natural Therapy
When I first started my professional career, I assumed that it would be easy to cure every patient that presented himself at my office door. Perhaps in youth if we didn't have such confidence, we would never begin anything, for surely we don't have the experience yet to really be assured of the success we desire.
Although all patients didn't respond to my natural remedies as well as I had hoped, I did have excellent success with one group to whom the natural remedies seemed particularly well adapted. With the ensuing years, I have greatly refined and expanded my techniques; yet the methods I used with my early patients are practically the same as I use today with only minor variations. This group of patients are those with heart conditions, which respond extremely well to the herbal and nutritional remedies that are a basic part of the armamentaria of our profession.
Of the large variety of heart (cardiac) disorders, many are of such a nature, either because of organic changes or because of the severity of their disorder, that even the best natural remedies have only a minimal effect. Long experience has taught me, however, that most early heart conditions (excluding severe congenial problems) respond well to natural remedies, used either by themselves or in combination with the more orthodox prescribed drugs.
Types of Heart Conditions
Heart conditions can be divided into several specific groups. In youth, the most common of these are the disorders caused by bacterial or viral infections such as those due to scarlet fever, rheumatic fever, diphtheria, and other infectious diseases of childhood that can adversely affect the heart structure. Bacterial endocarditis is an infection of the lining of the heart that stems from a variety of systemic bacterial infections.
Many of these conditions can be kept from injuring the heart if the original infection is treated early by natural means. However, if the infection is bacterial rather than viral, and seems to be overwhelming, it is probably best to use the indicated antibiotic to prevent the spread of the infection. This is one instance in which antibiotics have proven extremely useful, and it is better, I believe, to accept the possible adverse effects of antibiotic therapy than to risk permanent damage to the heart.
When heart damage has occurred, the heart valves are frequently left with little nodules called Vegetations, which may in time calcify. Though it isn't generally considered possible to remove these vegetations, it is possible with natural herbs to support the muscular structures of the heart so that the general movement of blood is aided and the patients' symptoms are often greatly improved. The degree of such improvement depends on the extent of damage, but I have found that it is a rare patient, indeed, who is not aided by these therapeutic methods.
With the development of blood chelation methods, it is now possible to dissolve some of the calcium crustations on the heart valves that follow these infections. This new treatment can now offer nonsurgical help to patients for whom the outlook was very bleak just a few years ago. (See Chapter 22 on Chelation.)
Muscular Weakness
One of the most common types of heart disorders-simple muscular weakness-is often missed in its early stages by orthodox medical diagnostic techniques. Most orthodox heart diagnosis has been tailored to detect the character and quality of the more severe disorders and toward this end they have developed many fine sensitive instruments. I have little quarrel with the great advances in this field. However, I find that many patients with mild heart weakness are often ignored or misdiagnosed by general practitioners. There seem to be two reasons for this: first, their methods of detection aren't designed to detect these early muscular disturbances; and second, if they do discover them, the drugs they use are so strong that they must think twice before using them for such a heart problem.
On the other hand, in the natural field we have devoted much time and effort toward discovering chronic ailments in the very earliest stages and then treating them with natural remedies whose actions are mild but thorough, and therefore well adapted to these heart conditions.
Through the use of certain instruments (particularly a phonocardiograph known as the Endocardiograph) and methods, these muscular weaknesses can be detected when the only symptoms are general tiredness and the tendency to become easily exhausted. These symptoms are often attributed to anemia, low blood sugar, or just plain laziness, when in fact the cause may be a mild degree of cardiac muscular insufficiency.
Coronary Problems
When most people think of heart problems, they think of the heart attack, or possibly of the heart pain called angina pectoris. Heart attacks and angina pectoris are related in that they are caused by a disorder of the coronary arteries. The coronary artery is a small artery that branches off the aorta (the large artery emerging from the heart) and supplies the heart muscle itself with blood. Despite what many persons believe, the heart muscle is not able to absorb any of the blood that passes through it. It, like every other organ in the body, must have its own specific blood supply and these small coronary arteries-one on the left and one on the right-supply individual sections of the heart muscle. If these tiny arteries become clogged with cholesterol or perhaps a small blood clot, the blood supply to a section of the heart muscle is stopped, producing a heart attack or coronary occlusion. In angina pectoris, an artery is not completely closed off but is narrowed so that the muscle is able to get some blood but not as much as it needs. If a patient with angina pectoris is under physical or emotional stress, in which the heart needs more oxygen, the artery isn't able to supply it and the heart muscle develops a cramp because of oxygen deficiency. This cramp produces the pain we call angina pectoris. If the patient takes nitroglycerine or another vasodilator, the coronary artery is temporarily dilated, enabling more blood to pass through, thus bringing more oxygen to the heart muscle. The cramp is then overcome and the pain will subside.
Many physicians believe that a narrowing of the coronary artery is not always necessary for angina pains to occur. They hypothesize that in certain persons the artery can be thrown into a nervous spasm that causes the artery to narrow, producing a pain similar as that in angina. This spasm is also relieved by nitroglycerine or similar drugs. These patients are often given tranquilizers and sedatives such as phenobarbital to prevent the spasm from recurring.
Many natural remedies have an effect similar to that of nitroglycerine in helping to dilate the coronary arteries. Their effect, however, is usually slower, though nontoxic, and often more prolonged. In general, such remedies are given to the angina patient to be taken daily. The patient is advised, however, if an attack does occur, to use his nitroglycerine to prevent serious consequences.
The spastic angina symptoms can usually be helped greatly by natural methods, which are aimed at overcoming the overly sensitive nervous system and also by psychologic methods designed to help the patient achieve a more stable nervous system.
Physicians who use the blood chelation method believe that is what will revolutionize the treatment of these patients. They believe the deposits in the coronary arteries can be dissolved by this therapy. Our work has proven to us that this is correct, and many patients now can be saved from an early grave by this treatment.
Nervous Disorders of the Heart
The heart is supplied with a nerve system to control its regular activity. This system is fairly complicated, but it is supplied with various fail-safe mechanisms prepared to take over if the first-line system breaks down. Even so, several nervous problems can affect the heart.
Tachycardia
Tachycardia (rapid heartbeat) can be due to several conditions. General systemic toxicity from infection or from other toxic influences can cause the heart to beat quite rapidly, especially in infections accompanied by a fever.
Tachycardia can also be caused by weakened muscle structure. In this instance, because a smaller amount of blood is ejected from the heart with each beat, the heart must beat more rapidly to keep the necessary volume of blood flowing. Tachycardia may also occur from a variety of mineral imbalances, particularly potassium deficiency.
Tachycardia can also be caused by emotional or psychologic disorders. A condition known as paroxysmal tachycardia is temporary and may be caused by a variety of emotional reactions.
Bradycardia
Most people have experienced spells of rapid heart beat. Slow heartbeat (bradycardia) is less well-known. In bradycardia, the nerve conduction to the heart is such that the heart beats much less than its normal seventy two a minute. In severe cases, it may beat as slow as thirty-six times a minute. This latter condition occurs in heart block. If the beat is a constant thirty-six a minute, it is usually referred to as complete heart block. Beat rates between forty and fifty-five are found in partial heart block.
In the well-trained athlete, the heart may beat between fifty and sixty times a minute. In the athlete, the heart muscle has been strengthened to such a degree that it is capable of putting out sufficient blood volume at this lower rate. On the other hand, if the average patient has a heartbeat much below sixty beats a minute, there probably is some difficulty with his nerve conduction system.
In the heart is a nerve structure known as the pacemaker, whose job is to send the normal seventy two-beat-a-minute impulse throughout the heart musculature. If something happens to the pacemaker so that it becomes incapable of sending its signals to the heart, the heart doesn't stop because the good Lord has put into it a separate self-contained regulating system. This self-contained system, which will continue the heartbeat as long as is necessary without outside nervous influence, causes the heart to beat at approximately half the normal rate-about thirty-six to forty beats a minute. Although such a basal beat is adequate to maintain life, it isn't necessarily to the best interest of the patient to allow such a basal rate to continue long without outside regulation.
Natural remedies have proven successful in initiating adequate nerve irritability in many of these patients so that the heartbeat rate can be increased to near normal. However, in true complete heart block, in which the pacemaker is beyond regeneration, it is perhaps advisable to have one of the new electronic pacemakers installed so that a more normal heartbeat and its attendant normal volume of blood flow can be reinstituted. If this is necessary however, the patient needs to be alerted to the fact that many unscrupulous vendors have been shown to be offering used and otherwise undesirable electronic pacemakers to physicians so feel free to discuss this matter with our surgeon before you agree to such a placement.
Arrhythmias-Heart Irregularities
Heart palpitations usually are imaginary in that only the patient becomes conscious of the heartbeat, for when the heart is examined by a physician, its rhythm is normal and regular. Such instances are quite common during menopause and in the emotional person with a highly sensitive nervous system. Such palpitations, in themselves, are generally innocuous; treatment should be directed to overcoming the underlying physical or psychologic difficulty.
True arrhythmias (heartbeat irregularities) may consist of a regular irregular beat or an irregular irregular beat. Confusing as it may seem, this is exactly what happens. In a regular irregularity the heart may skip every third or fourth beat, actually producing a regular irregular beat. Some hearts, on the other hand, because of the nature of the nerve conductivity, have a completely irregular pattern-the spacing between beats has no discernible rhythm.
Many arrhythmias respond dramatically to natural methods. Some of the more chronic ones may not seem to change rhythm, but the patient usually feels much improved under natural therapy. It seems that while the arrhythmia may not be demonstrably helped, the cardiac musculature is improved and the circulating blood volume per minute is increased, with an increased sense of well-being felt by the patient.
Other heart disorders may occur, but most of them fall into the aforementioned four categories. For instance, the rather common disorder known as congestive heart disease, with its attendant cardiac edema, either of the lungs or the legs, is really nothing more than an advanced form of muscular weakness; this can be helped by the methods that help other muscular weaknesses. In severe congestive heart disease, strong drugs may be required but many times even these can be greatly increased in efficiency by the simultaneous use of natural methods.
The Treatment of Heart Conditions By Natural Therapy
Heart conditions that may be caused by infective agents are usually best treated before the heart is affected. If the recommendations already made about the natural treatment of the various childhood diseases are carried out, one will seldom be distressed with the later aftereffects of heart disease.
Rheumatic Fever
In juvenile rheumatic fever, much care must be taken in handling the young patient and such a condition should never be treated without the aid of a competent physician. Even the mildest case of rheumatic fever can leave a damaged heart if it isn't promptly and properly cared for. The old medical saw that "rheumatic fever licks at the joints but bites the heart," isn't without foundation. In my experience, the most common cause of cardiac muscular weakness has been a mild and sometimes unrecognized rheumatic fever that occurred during the patient's childhood.
The orthodox medical care of rheumatic fever consists of rest and the extended use of antibiotics to keep the infection under control. We have found this method to be generally effective, although it does expose the patient to all the known dangers of long-term antibiotic therapy. These antibiotics can also be augmented with the indicated specific nutritional supplements and herbal therapy. In the patients we have treated, the results have proven very satisfactory.
In caring for the rheumatic child, the physician shouldn't be afraid to demand from the parents adequate rest and the proper dietary regimen for his patient. With even the best of therapies, the heart may be damaged if the diet isn't all it should be or if proper rest is not given at specific vital times in the course of the disease.
When heart damage has occurred, either from untreated or unsatisfactorily treated rheumatic fever, the usual remedies given for general muscular weakness of the heart have proven vital.
Muscular Weakness
Most of the heart is made up of muscle tissue that, unlike the other muscles of the body, must work constantly from before birth until death. It is allowed to rest during this period only a small fraction of a second between each beat. Thus, the occurrence of cardiac muscle weakness is easy to understand. Although the vital force of the body will do everything in its power to keep any injury to the heart muscle to a minimum, many toxic substances do injure this muscle and such weakness, especially the mild variety, is common.
Digitalis and its various derivatives are the most common drugs used by the medical profession in treating cardiac muscular weakness. Although digitalis is powerful and has certain toxic and cumulative effects, it is effective and particularly useful in severe cardiac weaknesses.
Owing to digitalis's toxic effects, however, most physicians don't use it in mild cases of cardiac weakness and it is here that the nontoxic heart herbs have a vital place in treatment.
When the heart muscle is weakened and isn't able to exert sufficient pressure to adequately circulate the blood, edema (fluid in tissues) may occur in the feet and legs. This fluid may also accumulate in the lungs owing to a weakness of the right side of the heart, producing cardiac asthma. Edema is usually treated with diuretics (products that stimulate the excretion of urine, thereby eliminating water from the system).
Most of these congestive heart disease patients are treated medically with digitalis (in one form or another), and if needed, diuretics. Digitalis has a mild diuretic effect and in some instances this alone is sufficient. In severe cases, diuretics are also almost always used.
When these disorders are treated naturally, we attempt to substitute a combination of the herbs Cactus Grandiflorus and Crataegus Oxyeantha in place of digitalis. The cactus-crataegus combination is the sovereign heart remedy of the natural physician. It isn't as strong or as rapid as digitalis and won't help in emergencies, but used by itself in mild muscular weaknesses it will do all that digitalis does without the cumulative effect or toxic side effects. Also, cactus crataegus may be used for an extended period without fear of any possible difficulties. In fact, this combination seems to overcome certain organic difficulties with continued and regular use.
In severe cases of heart muscle weakness in which digitalis and/or diuretics are being used, cactus crataegus can also be used. Even in these cases, considerable improvement is usually experienced when cactus-crataegus is used in addition to the orthodox therapy. I have never experienced any conflicts from these remedies used together.
From long experience, I believe that the cactus crataegus combination is not simply a harmless digitalis. Even though it can do the work of digitalis in milder cases, it also has many specific actions entirely of its own that are deep in their workings and far more curative than any of the known orthodox therapies. Of all the herbal medications used in our office, with the possible exception of our EMP, the cactus-crataegus combination is used more than any other. I have never known it to fail to produce improvement in cardiac muscular weakness. It is truly one of the great sovereign remedies of natural healing.
Although the cactus-crataegus combination is the bulwark of our work on heart muscle disorders, other natural herbal remedies and nutritional remedies have proven their effectiveness. Convallaria (lily of the valley) is one of these. The action of convallaria, however, is somewhat different from that of cactus crataegus. Convallaria increases coronary circulation, promotes more vigorous and regular heart action, corrects dyspnea (difficulty in breathing), and increases urinary activity. Convallaria is indicated in extension of the heart ventricles, in palpitations, in dyspnea due to cardiac asthma, and is helpful in irregular heartbeat. It is a heart tonic. It is of much value too as a diuretic and combines well with other diuretics just as digitalis does. Unlike digitalis, convallaria isn't toxic. It is used, along with cactus-crataegus, where cardiac edema occurs along with the general cardiac muscular weakness.
Other herbs such as pheasants eye (Adonis), Strophanthus, Capsicum and Lobelia, are also used in this type of a heart condition, however, these must be used with great care and only by a physician who is well trained in the individual characteristics of each of these herbs and in the characteristics they exhibit when combined with our other remedies.
In Chapter 14, we discussed protomorphogens. Theoretically it should be possible to extract a protomorphogen of heart muscle to assist in the strengthening of this organ and such a protomorphogen is produced by several of the manufacturers who supply the natural physician. This protomorphogen is used for almost all our patients with cardiac weakness, and when used in addition to the herbal substances, it helps greatly to speed up cardiac improvement. The heart protomorphogen is not a short term option. It must be used for six months to two years to obtain the proper degree of muscle improvement. Any attempt to use it for a shorter period usually results in disappointment both for the patient and the physician.
Our medical division, Woodlands Medical Center, has found that a combination of various natural minerals infused into the blood can have a very beneficial effect in these heart muscle problems. These methods work very well in concert with the natural program outlined above.
Angina-like Problems
The usual medical treatment for these disorders, other than some of the newer surgical methods (By-Pass), is nitroglycerine, Amyl nitrite and other vasodilating drugs. Although most of these drugs don't have particularly lasting side effects, they are likely to cause headaches and other disorders precipitated by the rather violent blood vessel dilation.
The natural remedies for this condition are milder, more extended in their action and usually successful in all but the most severe disorders. A fraction of the vitamin E compound extracted from pea pods and called vitamin E2 has shown promise in the milder forms of angina.
We usually suggest the use of vitamin E2 immediately at the beginning of any cardiac pain. If the cardiac pain does not diminish rapidly, the patient is requested to use his usual dose of nitroglycerine or other prescribed vasodilator. With this regimen, we make no attempt to deprive the patient of the useful effects of orthodox medicine; rather, we try to help the patient so that such medication becomes less and less necessary by improving his basic condition through natural means.
One remedy we have also found useful in this condition is Pangamic Acid (vitamin Bl5). Pangamic acid was originally discovered and isolated by Hans A. Krebs, the famous discoverer of the biochemical cycle known as the Krebs cycle. Unfortunately Krebs wasn't very well appreciated by those in authority, and his product, though admittedly harmless and natural, was banned from production by the FDA for some time.
Some years after this action, Russian investigators also produced pangamic acid and hailed it as one of the great discoveries of the century and, in stories issuing from that country, some of their top scientists stated that this boon to aging humanity should be put on every dining room table and should be used as freely as salt or sugar. There were at that time and for all I know, still are, clinics in Russia in which the only therapy used was pangamic acid and very dramatic results were reported in disorders of the aged. (Whether these are now active in the capitalistic Russia is unknown.)
For a while after the Russian disclosures were made, Krebs was allowed to produce this substance for sale in the United States. This was during the period following Sputnik, when we didn't want Russia to outdo us in any scientific endeavor. As soon as the furor over the Russian discoveries subsided, however, the FDA again lowered the boom on the production of pangamic acid. Very recently, however, the Russian formula has become available in the U.S. and we are now back to using the remedy in our heart cases. It is not known as B15 however.
Of course, one of the best and at times most dramatic treatments for this conditions is interveinous Chelation. While this method is still debated in the medical community our physicians at the Woodlands Medical Center have helped thousands of these patients to better health.
Heart Irregularities
For the various arrhythmias that beset the nerve conduction apparatus of the heart, the most commonly used medical drug is quinidine, a derivative of quinine. Although its action is not entirely understood, as is true of many allopathic drugs, quinidine is useful in stabilizing cardiac arrhythmias. This isn't always true, however; in my own experience, some arrhythmias have been aggravated by this and other quinine derivatives.
At the present time newer and more effective drugs have been developed. The so called Beta Blockers are being used to settle some of these arrhythmias.
In the natural field, we generally treat arrhythmias with the cardiac herbs already mentioned and through the use of specific extracts and combinations of the B complex vitamins. Some functional arrhythmias seem to be due to specific B complex vitamin deficiencies. In fact, cardiac arrhythmias are a integral part of beriberi (B. deficiency) and other frank B complex deficiency diseases.
Mineral Imbalance
Attention to the electrolyte structures of the body (the fluid compounds of the body, containing such minerals as calcium, sodium, magnesium, and potassium) may be important in overcoming functional cardiac arrhythmias. In persistent arrhythmias for which no pathologic condition can be found, we recommend that a blood test and a hair test be done to check the body mineral balance. Most of these patients can be helped once the physician is aware of the specific balance of the minerals in the body.
Severe pathologic arrhythmias are often helped by general cardiac treatment through natural means. The combination of cactus-crataegus, convallaria, heart protomorphogens, vitamin E, vitamin B complex, vitamin C, and other factors has been known to help even the most severe organic arrhythmias, although we never promise a complete cure to these patients. Nor do we suggest that the patient discontinue his orthodox therapy unless through careful investigation and testing, we are sure that such therapy has nothing to offer him at the time.
Diuretics
In treating congestive heart disease, diuretics are often necessary to keep fluid from collecting in the various dependent parts of the body. Such fluid, which collects because of the inability of the heart to keep the blood properly circulating, causes additional strain on the vascular system, further weakening the heart if the fluid isn't removed.
To accomplish this, diuretics are given. Since the drugs used for this purpose are essential in many cases, they usually have toxic side effects so, wherever possible, we try to substitute natural non-toxic remedies.
Since the effect of the fluid build-up in the body is usually far more dangerous than the toxic effects of the diuretic, the physician of natural therapy is justified in taking a patient off diuretics only if he is absolutely sure that his natural methods will produce an equal or superior degree of fluid removal. If this can't be done, he must never remove the medical diuretic.
Some natural diuretics often prove more useful in specific instances than the drug diuretics. In general, however, the
natural compounds are much milder and may not be as vigorous as the situation demands. A combination of a small dose of a drug diuretic combined with a natural diuretic is often as good as or better than a larger dose of the drug diuretic alone and this combination results in less toxicity and fewer side effects than the drug alone. If you are on diuretics or feel that you may need one, feel free to discuss this matter with your Center physician. You can be certain that he will guide you to the best combination for your needs.
The Pros and Cons of Vitamin E
I am fully aware of the work of the Shute brothers of Canada regarding vitamin E and heart diseases. Even though I use vitamin E on almost all my heart cases, I believe that although this vitamin is helpful, it is nowhere near as specific as the herbal remedies. I have never noticed sufficient success with vitamin E alone to use it as a single therapy for heart conditions. This is not meant to dissuade heart patients from the use of vitamin E. I suggest, however, that this vitamin should not be expected to correct heart disorders that are better treated with other natural remedies. Vitamin E must be used with caution in those with high blood pressure because it will raise some pressures.
Office Treatment of Cardiac Conditions
In general, the various office therapies so useful in many acute and chronic conditions have not proven of great value in cardiac disorders. Over the years we have used diathermy, Diapulse, Magnatherm and others modalities for angina and muscular weaknesses. Although I find them useful in specific cases, there have also been just as many cases in which the condition seemed to become aggravated by the use of these therapies. Therefore, such office methods are used by us with great care and discretion in all cardiac disorders.
In counter distinction to these various modalities, we have found that massage, chiropractic, and nerve relaxing manipulative therapies are useful in the cardiac disorders. However, our treatment of these patients is usually much milder than for the general run of patients
Homeopathy
The homeopathic method is useful in almost all cardiac disorders. I have found these remedies most helpful in treating the residual symptoms that may occur after the basic problems are controlled by the herbal and nutritional approach. This is particularly true now that we have instituted our new computerized search for the most effective Homeopathic remedy.
Early Diagnosis of Cardiac Conditions
Because heart disorders respond best to natural therapeutic methods in their earliest stages, the physician who practices this method should diagnose the disorder as soon as possible. To this end, the natural therapist has made extensive use of two instruments whose principles are accepted by the orthodox profession but are little used in medical practice. These are the Phonocardiograph (generally known by the trade name Endocardiograph) and the Cameron Heartometer, which records on a circular graph a tracing of the pulse beat from the brachial or femoral arteries.
The phonocardiograph charts the heart sounds by the use of a small sensitive microphone placed over the four cardiac valve areas that are usually listened to by physicians with their stethoscopes. The sounds produced at these areas give us much information about the rhythm and the muscular integrity of the heart. Unfortunately, the human ear has limited sensitivity, and it isn't possible for small minute changes in duration or rhythm to be readily picked up during normal stethoscopic examination. When the phonocardiograph is used, however, these heart sounds are graphed by a stylus on a piece of rapidly moving waxed ribbon, and the cardiac sounds are thus indelibly recorded so they can be carefully examined at the physician's leisure.
With the use of the Heartometer, the various arrhythmia or muscular disorders can be detected because of the graph alterations of the pulse wave (by the pulse wave we mean the variation in the pressure produced in the artery by the muscular contraction, or beat, of the heart).
[This information on the Cameron Heartometer has been left in this edition of It's Only Natural for historic reasons only. This company is no longer in business and so the needed supplies for this instrument are not now available.]
It is possible to detect muscular and arrhythmic difficulties in very early stages of development with both these instruments.
The electrocardiograph, which is generally used by the orthodox practitioner and which is also used in conjunction with the foregoing instruments by natural physicians, operates by graphing changes in the electrical potential or nervous supply to the heart. Such an instrument is of inestimable value in arrhythmias and after specific cardiac disorders, particularly cardiac arrest (heart attack).
In early muscular weakness, however, often no alterations in the electrocardiographic pattern appear, and if one of these hearts is tested in the orthodox manner, no problem or disease may be found. Thus, the wise natural physician uses all three instruments. For the very earliest discovery of muscular weakness, the phonocardiograph is probably the most effective.
By the use of these cardiac instruments, it is possible for the natural physician to begin therapy of heart disorders long before his orthodox compatriot will be able to offer help. Not only are we able to detect disorders earlier by these means, but also because of the basic nontoxic nature of our remedies, we are able to prescribe the indicated therapy at a time when the stronger allopathic medicines would be entirely inappropriate. Digitalis, for instance, would be far too toxic to prescribe in very early myocardial weakness and most orthodox physicians, even if they were able to detect this weakness, probably wouldn't prescribe digitalis because its adverse effects would outweigh any benefit gained. On the other hand, the cactus crataegus combination may be used from the earliest stages of cardiac muscle weakness and we find that nothing but benefit can be derived from such prompt administration.
In some patients, even an early diagnosis by the phonocardiograph is difficult. These patients may present many of the symptoms of cardiac muscular weakness even though such a condition can't be demonstrated by any diagnostic procedure developed at this time. In these instances, I usually prescribe cactus crataegus therapy for one month. If the patient's symptoms are caused by a mild cardiac problem, they will usually experience great improvement in this trial period; if such improvement occurs, the herbal remedy can be continued as long as deemed necessary. However, if during this period the patient experiences no improvement, either subjectively or objectively, the herbal medication is discontinued and other causes for the symptoms are sought.
Parting Words
In summarizing this chapter, I want to emphasize that natural therapeutic methods are well-adapted to many cardiac problems. In fact, there is almost no type of cardiac condition that can't be helped in some degree by properly selected natural remedies. The relatively mild disorders can usually be completely controlled by the use of these agents. The severe disorders may require the concomitant use of orthodox drugs, but their improvement can still be hastened by the natural remedies. Even terminal disorders have often been staid, at least temporarily, by these natural methods.