Tag Archives: heart failure

National Tragedy Can Cause Heart Failure Or A Firestorm Of Change

It’s a very sad day in the United States.Fresh Grave

Has your conscience been quickened?

I know mine has.

Your heart may ache, but it’s important to Stand In Truth while you process your emotions.

National tragedy can cause anyone to lose heart.  Stress and sorrow can weaken you, especially if you already have issues going on with your health.

Violence and loss are difficult to process.  Healing from or succumbing to heart failure has a lot to do with the way you process over whelming emotion.

 

Denying the truth won’t bring about change.

Are you hungry for change?

The video below is a wonderful message that calls each of us to hold ourselves accountable.

Please take 15 minutes to hear what needs to be said.

We talk a lot about solutions for heart disease here on Heart Failure Solutions.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan is a story about the most powerful Heart Failure Solution there has ever been or will ever be.

Your Loving Kindness blesses your life just as much as it blesses others.

Fifty years ago scientists proved that a small community in Rosetta Pennsylvania prevented the occurrence of HEART DISEASE in its citizens simply by LOVING each other!

They cared about each other.  They cooked for each other, they celebrated with each other and they listened to each others’ sorrows.

There was NO other explanation for their lack of suffering.  The citizens of Rosetta Pennsylvania just didn’t suffer from heart disease!

Rosetta Pennsylvania was a Village that knew how to BE a Village!

Where every life matters, every life thrives.

The Life Breath Club is all about making every breath matter.

The bio-chemical shift you can create in a single moment can save your life or the life of another.

Please become a member if you haven’t already.  (Membership is free.)

Life Breath Club Details

Can You Starve For Oxygen Without Low Oxygen Levels?

Can You Starve For Oxygen Without Low Oxygen Level?

Does “Low Oxygen Level” information apply to YOU?

If your oxygen levels are not low, maybe you think you don’t need to worry.

How do you know if you have low oxygen levels?

If you go to an appointment with your doctor and you are tested with a blood oxygen level evaluation tool called an oximeter and your blood oxygen saturation levels appear to be fine, does that mean you don’t need to concern yourself with low oxygen level information?

Answer these question for yourself: Continue reading Can You Starve For Oxygen Without Low Oxygen Levels?

Will Fluid Rentention And Shortness Of Breath Destroy Your Health?

Female feet on scales

“Oh come on now, everyone gets a little fluid retention from time to time, right?”

Isn’t it normal to get winded when you take the stairs?  You’re just out of shape not sick.

Do you feel like a hypochondriac if you worry about feeling a little bloated or feel concerned over huffing and puffing up a flight of stairs?

You wouldn’t get anything accomplished if you gave in to such small concerns and quit fighting your way through life! Right?

You might be surprised to hear that even mild fluid retention will drain your energy!

Are your ankles swollen?  Feeling puffy?

 

If fluid retention and/or shortness of breath is getting your attention, are you ready to explore the solution?

It’s likely that if you can ignore your symptoms you aren’t motivated to find answers, but if you wait for desperation to motivate you time may not be on your side.

Rapid fluid weight gain is a sign of heart failure and shortness of breath can go from mild to terrifying in no time!

 

Are you concerned about fluid retention?

It can be difficult to tell if you need to lose fat, or if your issue is really fluid!

The Life Breath Club is always discussing fluid retention AND fluid weight loss!

Life Breath Club Member, Anita, lost 7 pounds in 7 days, just by addressing her low oxygen levels and found out life is a whole lot sweeter with less fluid retention to slow her down!

She just keeps on dropping weight, and she says it hasn’t been difficult!

If you know what you’re doing, losing fluid is easier than losing fat!

Anita ended up losing 20 pounds in less than a month.  Even better, she began to gain muscle and get her life back!

 

Want to get serious?

Get a copy of “Your Sacred Breathing Hand Book” and email the Life Breath Coach to arrange your strategy session.

Let’s get you healthy!

Click on the link and get your download so you can start reading.

Order Yours Today

 

Many blessings,

Carrie Tucker, RCP

The Life Breath Coach

Heart Failure Solutions

 

PS– Remember everyday:

  • Relax and Release tension
  • Exhale Slowly
  • Be active in a way that adds Joy to your life

Plus pure water ~whole foods~sunshine~and laughter

Are Sorrow And Unhappiness Symptoms Of Heart Disease?

Abe-Lincolns-birthday

Does heart disease kill happy people?

You can’t avoid heart disease by being happy can you?  Heart disease is killing all of us more than everything else.

“Come on now, happy people are dying just as much as sad people, right?”

It doesn’t seem possible that happiness could save you from symptoms of heart disease if your doctor can’t.

Cholesterol lowering medication is suppose to be heart disease prevention BUT it will NOT reduce your risk of DEATH!

 

Yet, over 50 years ago scientist studied a small town in Pennsylvania that did not die of heart disease.

They ate too much sugar and fat and didn’t exercise enough, but they still didn’t succumb to heart disease the way that neighboring towns and everybody else in the country was at the time.

Heart disease is STILL killing more than every other cause of death!

The reason the folks in this small community didn’t die of heart disease was because Continue reading Are Sorrow And Unhappiness Symptoms Of Heart Disease?

Will Low Oxygen Saturation Prevent You From Recovering From Heart Failure?

Do you really understand what low oxygen saturation means for you?

Understand that when low oxygen levels become an issue for you, it inevitably leads to a weakened heart muscle because low blood oxygen levels deprive your muscles of oxygen and weaken them.

Your heart is your most important muscle. 

This is one reason that the world is suffering an epidemic of Heart Failure today. It can be difficult to identify and treat Low Oxygen Level (low blood oxygen saturation), but it’s the only way to prevent the oxygen starvation that will eventually weaken your heart.  

Oxygen is THAT important. 

The basic element of all life is Oxygen. Without oxygen life stops.

Is it hard to believe that most people are completely unaware and free of any significant concern while they experience extremely low oxygen levels?

How can you possibly be unaware of a life threatening condition?

When you feel short-of-breath, you are sensing the carbon-dioxide in your body. Oxygen does not effect you the same way. It seems like low oxygen should be accompanied by breathing problems, but it often isn’t until disastrous deterioration has occurred. Carbon dioxide is the culprit causing your anxiety. 

Pain, fatigue, short term memory loss, muscle loss and worsening eye sight are all caused by lack of oxygen.

All of these symptoms may be attributed to old age while your vital organs deteriorate due to low blood oxygen saturation. Your doctor might even give you a “clean bill of health”. Does your doctor even test your oxygen level? 

Over time, you may not even notice the weakening of your heart muscle. 

Feeling winded at the top of a flight of stairs?

Hard to catch your breath when you jump back in bed after a late night pee?

Do you have a frequent moist cough?

Acute Heart Failure doesn’t happen all of a sudden but it can be difficult to recognize early symptoms. 

Once you’ve suffered a bout of acute heart failure, you know your heart is weakened. The fluid in your lungs that make it so hard to breathe got there because your heart is too tired to do its job.  

You can’t breathe when you are drowning in your own fluid. Taking drugs to make you pee helps you breathe but it does not strengthen your heart muscle. If you are depending on pharmaceutical fluid balance, you should value oxygen therapy. 

You can expect low blood oxygen levels:

  • when you are exerting yourself
  • in the early morning hours
  • while sitting in a slouched position

You likely won’t be overly concerned when you first begin to experience symptoms. It’s a really good idea to keep self-checking your blood oxygen with your own personal oximeter (oxygen measuring device). You can’t avoid harm if you don’t recognize it. Just don’t expect this health draining issue to be easy to spot. It’s only easy to see low oxygen levels when you’ve ignored them too long. 

When you use an oximeter to check your blood oxygen level, be aware that the information the oximeter gives you is just one brief window of time AND it may or may not be correct. 

The oximeter is a wonderful diagnostic tool. It just has it’s limitations. Having said that, there are steps you can take to ensure that you are not over looking low oxygen levels. 

How to properly use an oximeter to discover low oxygen levels:

  1. Be patient.
  2. Check frequently, waiting for a steady consistent reading.
  3. Be as active as you feel capable of being (with your doctors permission.)
  4. Walk up a flight of stairs and check your oximetry readings before, during and after exerting yourself.
  5. Keep the monitor probe on your finger for several minutes after you feel completely recovered and without any distress. 

A struggling heart will experience significant low oxygen levels after very little excursion. 

If you have pitting edema at your ankles it’s easy to see that your heart is struggling. If you tend to store fluid in your belly, where it can hide itself a little better, it might be a little less obvious what’s causing your symptoms. 

Fluid in your belly and fluid at your ankles make sleeping a potentially harmful part of your life. Lying down allows the retained and accumulated fluid to creep up into your lungs. 

A struggling heart will experience low oxygen level at 3am when you get up to pee. 

Your doctor may not see low oxygen levels when you are sitting in his/her office, even though you experience dangerous low oxygen levels every time you exert yourself and routinely in the wee hours of the morning. Al the time you spend well oxygenated can’t save you when you are suffering oxygen starvation. 

The oximeter may not tell on you if you don’t use it when you are experiencing low oxygen levels, but the damage low blood oxygen  causes is unmistakable. The devastating consequences of low oxygen are not avoided without addressing the problem. 

Symptoms of chronic low oxygen

  • water retention (especially feet/ ankles)
  • shortness of breath/ difficulty breathing/ dyspnea
  • extreme fatigue
  • blue coloring around lips
  • mental confusion/short-term-memory loss
  • chronic cough of usually clear mucous
  • frequent bouts of pneumonia
  • frequent bacterial infections
  • muscle weakness
  • chest tightness
  • arrhythmia
  • acute heart failure
  • sudden cardiac arrest

Sudden cardiac arrest can occur when extremely low blood oxygen levels stimulate your vagus nerve. 

If you could feel low oxygen level it would be easier to avoid danger, but you can’t. All you can do is err on the side of caution. 

Not all doctors and nurses will be alarmed by oxygen levels that are low enough to be dangerous. Their lack of experience with the damage caused by chronic low oxygen levels causes them to minimize the significance of low oximetry readings. Perhaps supplemental oxygen in a home setting feels like over-kill to many health care professionals. 

Remember that oxygen can only do its job in your body if the pressure of oxygen is high enough to get where it’s going. 92% blood oxygen level is what is required to achieve enough pressure to send oxygen from your lungs, to your blood, to your cells, tissues, organs and organ systems.

Insurance Advice

Your insurance wants your oxygen level to drop to 88% before they are willing to pay for home-oxygen.

Ask your doctor to let you walk before checking you with an oximeter during medical appointments. You need your health care team to know what your normal daily need for oxygen is. Your oximetry reading during a short period of time when you are resting does not indicate how well you manage when you are up and moving around.

portable oxygen

The number “88” really doesn’t mean anything, as far as your health is concerned. It’s just a number that insurance companies require in order to pay for supplemental home oxygen.

Your oxygen level should be well above 92% at all times. If you live in the US you may have a difficult time getting a prescription for home oxygen use. Your health is more important than insurance company profit. It’s my hope that we will soon have single payer health care so we can take an honest look at how cost effective supplemental home oxygen really is. 

What is your situation? Is it difficult to access oxygen for home therapy use?

In order to best advocate for yourself, get your own personal and portable oximeter. They don’t cost a lot and they can allow you to keep an eye on an important indicator of your need to pay more attention to your health. With your own oximeter you know where your blood oxygen level is during your most challenging times.

Knowing about your low blood oxygen levels and doing something about it are two different things. Start by measuring your oxygen levels at least daily and recording them in your health log. Empower yourself to keep track of your health. 

Take a look at Oximeters On Amazon 

 

Is An Epidemic Of Heart Failure A Big Enough Reason To Overcome PTSD?

Want to address your risk of heart failure?

If you have been around for long you know that I am pretty passionate about spreading the truth about heart disease.

The world is dying of an epidemic of heart failure and it just isn’t necessary!

Yet, I can’t seem to make the time to get more blog posts written and get all my programs offered in an easy online format so that it is available for the masses of people suffering and those that soon will be.  What is wrong with me?

That’s a good question.  I use to wonder that myself.

I have been plagued all my life with depression symptoms, but I learned a long time ago that depression meds made me paranoid so I made sure to use those symptoms as a red flag to get my butt busy and be more active.  To choose better foods when I shop so that my home only has wholesome food choices.  That’s what works for me.

Depression is not overwhelming to me.

I know that I can take the steps I need to take to face it and let it guide me to the next chapter of my life, or to heal a relationship that needs attention.

Depression can show me old emotion I suppressed until time could heal enough for me to allow my feelings.

Symptoms of depression make me hold myself accountable for what I’m eating and how inactive my life has become.

I consider early symptoms of depression to be my yellow flag and I don’t wait for the red flags to start showing up, I take action!

Once you’ve lived through clinical depression and come out the other side, you don’t want to go back.

A couple of years ago I started to notice that my depression symptoms were often triggered.

Sometimes the trigger for my depression symptoms didn’t make sense to me.  I would argue with myself.

“What’s the big deal?”  But the depression symptoms still came.  I couldn’t argue with the trigger.

One day a car accident happened directly in front of me.  I got out and helped until the paramedics arrived.

It wasn’t a fatal accident but there were some significant injuries.

As I walked back to my car after telling the paramedic what I’d observed on the scene, I noticed that my hands and feet were numb.

It made me curious, so I began doing some research.  I’m glad I did!

 

How can you have PTSD and not know it? Continue reading Is An Epidemic Of Heart Failure A Big Enough Reason To Overcome PTSD?