No ripping hearts apart!

HEALING

Dr GN Shirbur introduces you to EECP, a non-invasive method to repair hearts

Recent studies have shown a drastic dip in the prevalent age group suffering from cardiac disease. From an older age group, cardiac disease is now found to hit 40-55 year olds due to their sedentary lifestyle, stress, and obesity. According to World Health Organization, India is projected to have 214 million people suffering from blood pressure/hypertension by 2025. Heart disease has been established to be due to combined effects of cardiac as well as vascular defects.

Thanks to advanced technologies, heart disease does not mean a death sentence anymore. These days, there are new medicines, new machines, and new procedures which have made this disease less life-threatening. Though invasive procedures like angioplasty and by-pass surgeries have given the much needed relief to patients, there are those who are unable to undergo these surgeries for various reasons – it could be due to old age, underlying disorders like diabetes and hypertension, or risk from the invasive surgery itself.

Also, there are no invasive procedures to address the effects of the vascular component which plays a very important role in creation and progression of cardiac diseases. Now, you might wonder what happens to these patients – do we let them die? Is this the end of their lives? No, it need not be.

You may have heard of complicated and risky procedures like heart transplants, which are expensive and not easily accessible. Others like stem cell therapies are not easily administerable. Thankfully, there is a simple, inexpensive, effective and evidence-based (subjective and objective) non-invasive treatment called Enhanced External Counter Pulsation (EECP). It is the only USA FDA-approved non-invasive cardiac treatment considered as mainstream allopathic treatment. It has also been established as the first line of treatment for many heart diseases.

EECP is especially beneficial for:

*  Patient suffering from coronary artery disease.

*  Patients who have had persistent heart disease symptoms despite having undergone angioplasty or bypass surgery.

*  Patients who cannot undergo surgery due to other medical conditions like diabetics, hypertensions or renal impairment.

*  Patients who just don’t want to go under the knife.

*  Patients who are heavily dependent on medications or have to cut down their activities in order to avoid angina.

Treatment procedure of EECP

1. Time: One hour a day for 35 sessions or 2 hours a day with a 6 hours gap as advised by cardiologist.

2 Procedure: A typical EECP session would be like this – the patient is made to lie on a padded table and three large inflatable cuffs (like the blood pressure cuff) are strapped to his/her legs. The patient’s heart is monitored via the ECG display on the machine, which in turn regulates the inflation and deflation of the cuffs. EECP gives you two benefits. One is that it pumps blood to the coronary arteries and second is that the deflating action creates a vacuum in the arteries when the heart begins to beat.

3. Prerequisites: Treatment is so simple that there are no serious prerequisites. Patients need to have finished meals 2 hours prior and wear tight elastic fitting pants during treatment.

What are the advantages of EECP?

EECP is entirely non-invasive. No medications are given specifically for the treatment but the routine medications given to strengthen the heart and for diabetes, hypertension and cholesterol reduction need to be continued. The treatment is so simple that the patient feels a drastic improvement from symptoms thereby a sense of well being and an enhanced quality of life.

What are the effects of EECP?

*  Heart disease does not mean just blockages. It is a condition that affects your entire vascular system, from the brain to your toes. Merely opening up one or two isolated blockages is not the way to treat the condition. EECP n fact treats the entire vascular system, naturally bypassing any blockages.

*  Apart from this, EECP helps in creating new blood vessels and strengthens your heart, by releasing nitric oxide which relaxes your arteries.

EECP also reduces inflammation in the blood vessels which leads to heart disease.

* EECP is known to reduce stress and depression in patients suffering from heart disease due to improvement in symptoms and ability to go through normal work without pain, discomfort, or anxiety.

Is EECP safe? Any side effects?

EECP has a high standard of safety. The treatment is USA FDA approved and used by doctors in India and across the world to treat extremely ill cardiac patients where no medication and no procedure could provide relief.

The only effects EECP has are increased feeling of well being, improvement in quality of life, and reduction in cardiac medication.

(The writer is a cardio-thoracic specialist)