In all cultures, the heart is considered the center of life – especially of human existence. Not by chance, because only when it stands still is earthly existence over. As long as the heart is still beating, a person is alive, even if their consciousness may no longer register it. The heart is also the center of attention in the traditional South Asian schools (tantric Hinduism, Vajrayana, Yoga) and in traditional Chinese medicine.
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Good to know – Numbers that touch your heart
• On average, people fall in love seven times before they get married.
• The Titanic hit “My Heart Will Go On” sold 2,000,000 copies in Germany alone.
• 4000 people in Germany have their hearts on the right side.
• The risk of suffering a heart attack in a “conflict-ridden” partnership is 34% higher.
• The heart beats around 3,000,000,000 times during a human lifetime.
• A gingerbread heart has an average of 235 calories.
The heart chakra, which is located at heart level, forms the core of the chakra system as the fourth energy center. It is the spiritual seat of love, compassion and humanity. An improperly developed heart chakra or disturbances in this area are associated with heart and circulatory problems on a physical level.
The heart, which weighs only 300 grams on average, is a muscular hollow organ that drives blood circulation. Day in, day out, 24 hours a day, it continuously pumps oxygen-rich and nutrient-rich blood through the large and small arteries into all organs and tissues and at the same time collects the used blood again. In metamedicine, therefore, the heart muscle embodies life’s struggles more than any other muscle. It states that heart problems arise when we have to try too hard for happiness, relationships, work, or wealth.
The heart has to endure a lot
Seen in this way, it is only logical that in today’s stress-ridden society, which is characterized by burnout and elbow-thinking, the heart no longer wants to do its job inconspicuously. In fact, our lifestyle predestines us for cardiovascular problems.In Germany, 300,000 people suffer a heart attack every year, and more than half die from it. Over the past two decades, the number of women who have heart attacks between the ages of 35 and 55 has increased dramatically. According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization (WHO), 55 percent of women who died in Europe died from a cardiovascular event (three percent from breast cancer) and “only” 43 percent of men. Cardiovascular disease is also the leading cause of ill health and mortality among women worldwide, more than osteoporosis and cancer combined.
Women live more dangerously
One of the causes is being a woman itself. “Women still do not have equal access to medical treatments and are still underrepresented in studies. Not only are women more affected by cardiovascular diseases in general and fatalities in particular: there is still a widespread belief that heart attacks are primarily a male domain,” reports Marco Stramba Badiale, one of the spokespersons of the European Society of Cardiology. Since 2009, his company has been investigating cardiovascular diseases specifically in women in a large-scale study project called “Red Alert for Women’s Hearts”. 28 cardiological centers and associations throughout Europe take part.
Five tips from the heart
The German Society of Cardiology and the German Heart Foundation give the following recommendations that have a positive effect on heart health:
NUTRITION The Mediterranean diet promotes normal blood pressure and arteriosclerosis-free vessels: vegetable oils instead of butter, lots of fish and little meat, lean milk products, pasta, bread, rice and potatoes, legumes, lots of fruit, vegetables and salad.
EXERCISE Jogging, walking or cycling for 20 minutes at least once or twice a week reduces the risk of heart attack. 5000 steps a day reduces it by 50% after just three weeks.
RELAXATION Stress is the risk factor for high blood pressure. Regular breaks, whether through yoga, meditation, sauna sessions, in short: everything that lets you switch off effectively is a must. And: Noise is one of the worst stress factors – be it on the street, in the office or at home. Places of rest and absolute silence are kind to the heart.
So far, the results of 62 studies have been evaluated, and follow-up studies are ongoing. The results confirm that, especially in middle age (40+ years), cardiovascular diseases in women continue to increase in relation to those in men.
Heart attacks in women are common
The women themselves – and probably also their doctors – simply do not expect such an illness at this age. Normally, the female blood vessels are protected by the sex hormone estrogen until the menopause. However, the proportion of female smokers has increased dramatically in recent years, so that today just as many women as men smoke cigarettes regularly. However, cigarettes are much more dangerous for women than for men, because the female blood vessels are anatomically finer and more sensitive, and women also absorb nicotine more quickly – especially if they also use the pill for contraception.Since a heart attack in women can appear like an upset stomach, including a feeling of pressure in the upper abdomen, sudden nausea and vomiting, but also as a painless attack of weakness with unconsciousness, a pale complexion or cold sweats, not only is it not expected – unfortunately it is still very common overlook. Symptoms in men are more obvious with the typical pain going into the arm, between the shoulder blades, or down the neck or jaw.
The so-called silent ischemia or undetected myocardial infarction in women is also often caused by other diseasesconcealed, not infrequently by psychological or psychosomatic sensitivities. Additionally, some diagnostic tests aren’t as conclusive in women as they are in men — it seems that’s why doctors often don’t do them in the first place. Coronary angiography, a surgical examination of the coronary arteries, is also performed less frequently on women. And even if they are known to have coronary heart disease, their vessels are rarely “flushed out” during surgery – even though a fatal heart attack often occurs in the first year after diagnosis, especially in females. “We are shocked to have found that even after a heart attack, women still do not receive state-of-the-art treatment, but receive dramatically too little medication,” summarizes Prof.
The right treatment for a heart attack
On quiet feet
During a heart attack, a tiny blood clot blocks one of the millimeter-thin veins of the coronary arteries. A part of the heart muscle is no longer supplied with enough oxygen, it gets out of sync. Ventricular fibrillation can occur in the first few hours after constipation. The heart beats over 300 times/minute (normal: 60-70 times/minute), but so inefficiently that the ventricles can no longer fill with enough blood and the circulatory system collapses. Another consequence: the death of a heart muscle area.
Many people around the world have sworn by acetylsalicylic acid (ASA, “aspirin”) for decades because it thins the blood and thus prevents blood clots. In the case of previous vascular diseases in particular, the risk of heart attack and stroke can be significantly reduced. However, the German Heart Foundation warns that taking ASA to protect against heart attacks is not advisable for everyone. Prof. Dr. Helmut Gohlke, who is a member of the board of directors of the German Heart Foundation, emphasizes: “If a person does not have an increased risk of a heart attack or stroke, it is not advisable to take ASA regularly.” In healthy people, the risk of side effects (bleeding in the gastrointestinal area, cerebral hemorrhage) outweighs the benefit – even when only the recommended low dose of 75-100 mg is taken daily. For comparison:Heralds of a real infarction can e.g. B. Angina pectoris attacks: severe pain in the area of the heart that radiates. In metamedicine, they represent a loss of territory. Our territory is what is ours, what we have built or created with perhaps great effort – be it our house, our company, our family, our children, our work.
cholesterol
Blood lipids are a parameter for the risk of heart attack. A normal cholesterol level includes a low LDL cholesterol value (so-called “bad” cholesterol, recommendation: 100–135 mg/dl) and a high HDL cholesterol value (“good” cholesterol, recommendation: over 50 mg/dl).
When the heart breaks
These connections are not inaccurate . Scientists now also recognize that serious psychological and emotional events affect the heart. The University of Hanover published a study on the broken heart phenomenon in September 2013. According to this, 2.5 percent of all patients who come to the hospital with suspected heart attacks suffer from it. It can occur, for example, after the death of a partner or a divorce, in the event of bullying or financial worries. The symptoms, the ECG results and even the laboratory values are similar to those of a heart attack down to the last detail. In the first phase, both diseases are equally life-threatening – in broken heart syndrome, the heart muscle functions normally again when it recovers. A heart attack, on the other hand, causes permanent scars that can impair the pumping function of the organ in the long term. Only the cardiac catheterization shows that when the heart is broken, the coronary arteries are not blocked like in a real heart attack. This invasive examination may soon be replaced: researchers from Hanover and the University of Zurichrecently succeeded in identifying biomarkers in the blood that are unique to broken heart syndrome.
Nobody is immune from a stroke of fate, from a deeply sad event breaking our hearts. We can strengthen our hearts in good time through the necessary mindfulness that we give to ourselves and our loved ones. If we exercise regularly and eat a Mediterranean diet, avoid nicotine, reduce or prevent stress, a lot has already been gained. The heart specialist and organist Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Trappe from the board of directors of the German Heart Foundation also believes in the power of music. It helps with cardiovascular problems, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders and stress. The positive effects on the immune system are well known. He himself recommends classical music in particular. But pop songs are also able to make hearts beat faster and make men and women follow their hearts or give them away,
