Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine is a Toronto naturopathic clinic dedicated to providing safe and effective treatment of a wide variety of health conditions using natural therapies and the principles of naturopathic medicine.
Heart disease is well treated using naturopathic medicine. The terms “heart disease”, “cardiovascular disease” and “coronary heart disease” are often used interchangeably to describe a variety of health concerns affecting the heart and blood vessels. Common illnesses that are described as heart disease include narrowing of blood vessels resulting in high blood pressure (hypertension), and heart rhythm irregularities (heart arrhythmias). Untreated hypertension can result in heart attack, stroke, aneurysm and peripheral artery disease among other serious complications. Professional healthcare should be sought out if you notice any symptoms of heart disease.
Seek emergency medical care if your heart disease symptoms include:
- Chest pain
- Shortness of breath
- Fainting
Symptoms of heart disease
Possible symptoms of narrowing of blood vessels include:
- Pain, numbness, weakness or coldness in arms or legs
- Chest pain
- Shortness of breath
Possible symptoms of heart arrhythmias include:
- Fluttering sensation in your chest
- Fast heartbeat
- Slow heartbeat
- Lightheadedness
- Chest pain
- Shortness of breath
- Fainting
Heart disease treatment at Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine
At Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine, the goals of heart disease treatment are reduction of risk factors of serious heart disease complications (e.g., high low-density cholesterol levels), reduction of heart disease symptoms and prevention of serious heart disease complications.
Conventional treatment for heart disease may include a variety of medications, including diuretics, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or beta blockers, blood thinning medications or cholesterol-lowering medications, which may have short- or long-term side effects. For this reason, you may choose to try natural treatment to possibly avoid use of conventional medications, or together with conventional medications in order to decrease dosages of conventional medications required to manage your heart disease symptoms.
Naturopathic treatment of any chronic health concern must be recognized as a process that involves identifying specific treatment goals, a thorough understanding by your naturopathic doctor of all factors affecting your health, including physical, psychological, emotional and lifestyle factors, development of a comprehensive treatment plan and execution of that plan through periodic monitoring and adjustment.
At Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine a typical approach to treating heart disease is to first identify and address underlying factors in your lifestyle (e.g., poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, stress, smoking) or general health (e.g., high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity). Where appropriate, a number of therapeutic options are available, to be used alone, or more often in a complementary fashion, including:
- Exercise prescription
- Relaxation techniques
- Acupuncture
- Nutritional supplements
- Botanical (herbal) medicines
- Bowen Therapy
- Homeopathic medicines
- Lifestyle counseling
Reference
Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Heart disease [Online]. [cited 2009 Feb 18]; Available from: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/heart-disease/DS01120