Keep Your Heart Healthy (by Dr JB Lim)

Note: The blogger has earlier received a forwarded copy of email from Dr JB Lim in response to certain questions posed by his ex-colleague and good friend Ir. CK Cheong. Although the original Questions were not attached and hence unknown, the Answers provided were found to be very informative. It is published as follows with the consent of Dr Lim.

From: lim juboo
Date: Saturday, 27 August, 2011, 2:15 AM

Dear Ir. CK, BSc (Eng),

Thank you for asking.

Veins & Arteries:
I think that lady was totally confused between veins and arteries. One moment she talks about heart veins which are mainly the superior and inferior venae cavae, pulmonary trunk of the left and right branches of the pulmonary veins which are normally 4 in numbers, although this may vary with individuals.

Firstly, none of these heart veins that return blood from the lungs and the rest of the body into the heart are causes of myocardial infarction (heart attacks). It is normally the coronary arteries (not veins) that feed blood, oxygen and nutrients into the myocardium (heart muscles) that are stenosed (narrowed) by plaques, clogs, and inflammation that either caused angina pectoris (chest pains-on-effort) or an AMI (acute heart attack). But this lady here was very confused which vessel she was referring to?

Coronary Stents:

Secondly, there is no such device as a ‘stint’? I think what she meant was a ‘stent’ which is a short retaining tube (either plain or a drug-eluting stent) inserted into the narrowed coronary vessel during angioplasty to keep the coronary lesion from closing up.

Heart Blocks and CAD:

Thirdly, she was totally confused like most people between a blocked or narrowed artery (stenosis), and the term ‘heart block’ which is totally a different pathology from CAD, angina or myocardial infarction.

In cardiology, the term ‘heart block’ means a defect in electrical system of the heart that causes the heart to beat abnormally or irregularly (arrhythmia or cardiac dysrhythmia). This is due to a blockage in electrical transmission from the upper chambers of the heart (atrium) to the lower chambers (the ventricles) which normally would allow the heart to beat regularly and rhythmically. There are many types and also degrees of heart blocks.

Types of Heart Blocks:
Then again there are many types of heart blocks or electrical blocks to cardiac rhythms. Briefly, they are:

1. Sinoatrial node (SA node) or SA nodal blocks.

2. AV nodal blocks, meaning electrical blocks that occur within the atrioventricular node are described as AV nodal blocks.

3. Infra-Hisian block are blocks that occur below the AV node (named after the bundle of His).

Then there may be many degrees of them, namely: first degree, second degree and total third degree blocks.

Even in the second degree heart block, there are two types: Mobitz type I (Wenckebach's block) and Mobitz type II.

All these have nothing to do with a blockage in the blood vessels of the heart although I am aware of claims from papers published I have read of a relationship between CAD (coronary arterial disease) and (electrical) heart blocks.

No Statistical Correlation:

But to my mind, from the data analyzed and interpretation given by the researchers, none of the above has anything to do with coronary artery disease (CAD) which is disease of the blood vessels of the heart.

I think this lady is totally confused. When a person is confused, there is nothing much for me to comment. We need to ask her which is which in the first place before we can comment and advise.

But from her description I think she meant coronary arterial disease, AMI and angina pectoris and not a heart block in the electrical system of her heart.

In that case, what has lemon, ginger, garlic and apple vinegar to do with warding off a cardiovascular event? What are the mechanisms and mode of action?

Preventive Approaches:

None of these except garlic, and to a lesser extent ginger, may have prophylactic (preventive) values in cardiovascular events. Consumption of mookye (wood fungus), oats, fish oils, fruits and vegetables, gingko biloba, curry leaves, curry powder and Indian spices, especially turmeric, antioxidant-rich foods, lowering of body weight, avoidance of smoking, stress and anger, etc, would have much better cardio-preventive values than all those lemons, and apple vinegar she recommended.

Even a daily intake of a low dose of 100 mg of aspirin, such as Cardiprin would have done a very good job, not only in just thinning the blood and preventing platelet aggregation (clumping of the thrombocytes and blood clogs), but even a diet rich in curry powder and salicylates, like Aspirin have been shown to prevent colorectal cancer as an added advantage.

I hope I have been of some help.

Regards,

Research Nutritionist
Jew-boo Lim
BSc, PG Dip Nutr, MSc, MD, PhD (Med), FRSPH, FRSM