"LET GO OF YOUR ATTACHMENT TO BEING RIGHT AND SUDDENLY YOUR MIND IS MORE OPEN. YOU'RE ABLE TO BENEFIT FROM THE UNIQUE VIEWPOINTS OF OTHERS WITHOUT BEING CRIPPLED BY YOUR OWN JUDGMENT." - Ralph Marston
The attachment to being right...Do you ever notice that in a group of individuals whether friends or family, there is always someone who believes they are always right? When I look closely I feel that there are many things that most of us need to let go of. For example, Letting Go of Perfection, Letting Go of Timing, Letting Go of Being the Victim et al. Or perhaps shame, mistrust, fear or denial. Even more to the point is Letting Go of desire. That's it! I used to think I was always right in a conversation. I am trying to this day not to talk a lot in a conversation. Just listen. Absorb.
I am always working on not interrupting my partner's or other individual's conversation. I first had to recognize the issues. It took time, patience, prayer and meditation to identify them. Now that I have identified many of the things I want to let go of, I am letting go of them on all levels--mental, emotional, spiritual and physical. Then as the quote above states, my mind can be more OPEN. Giving up the idea that I was always right. An educated man should always be right. Doctors are always right. WRONG! I could be wrong and still be loved and worthy of conversation.
I want to get back to the heart. I want to discuss the right side valves, both tricuspid and pulmonary. I have so much to tell you. Even though the number of heart attacks have been reduced due to technology and awareness, the number of patients with heart failure has increased. I do not think the medical community, cardiologists particularly, understood the treatment. The causes we did understand. The causes of heart failure are numerous--coronary artery disease, valvular, and enlargement of the heart (cardiomyopathy- due to alcohol, viruses and heavy metals). The conventional drugs are used because they do work. These can be angiotension converting inhibitors (ACE), beta blockers, diuretics, and even the beloved foxglove (digitalis).
Conventional physicians should be open to powerful nutritional support like Coenzyme Q10, L-carnitine and D-ribose. This is nutrition directed at the cellular level. This is not easily understood by the general public and even medical professionals. For the medically inclined, he/she must go back in time to Biology and Biochemistry to the Kreb Cycle and other metabolic pathways of the body.
I will discuss CoEnzyme Q10 in the future. Most readers know something about that source of energy. I have used Coenzyme Q10 in a wide variety of cardiovascular diseases such as angina, myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure (CHF), arrhythmias, and even hypertension.
I want to touch on L-carnitine. It is derived from two amino acids--lysine and methionine. To get to carnitine the body needs cofactors to help it along. These cofactors are other vitamins like Vitamin C, niacin and B6. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, therefore a pure vegetarian will have low levels of L-carnitine. In the diet the greatest source of carnitine is from meat. I am not advocating eating meat. If you read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan you can understand why you wouldn't touch a piece of red meat. Those of you who are purists need to supplement your L-carnitine. The asparagus isn't going to do it at 0.08 mm/g carnitine versus beef or lamb at levels of 3.80 - 4.80 mm/g carnitine. So you say I eat beans! Yes that is protein but beans lack methionine even though they contain lysine, so there will be little L-carnitine. You need both of those amino acids to form L-carnitine.
So you could supplement both amino acids, yet isn't it easier just to take L-carnitine. A pure vegetarian from childhood will develop muscle weakness and even failure to thrive. If you are a vegetarian, just simply supplement your carnitine. Those cancer patients who have tried a strict macrobiotic diet need to supplement L-carnitine. Carnitine is produced on a cellular level and exerts its effects on a cellular level. Let's make this easier. It helps with the conversion of energy. In the body, cells must use energy in the form of ATP. ATP is made in cells from larger food molecules like glucose.
Go back to seventh grade biology. Every cell has organelles that do this job. These are called the mitochondria. So a major role of L-carnitine is to assist in the making of ATP within the mitochindria. Other roles include ridding the body of toxins (example, lactic acid and detoxifying ammonia), and acting as an antioxidant. L-carnitine is a free radical scavenger. Free radicals cause disease, so L-carnitine is the vacuum cleaner of the free radicals.
Major deficiency in L-carnitine results in muscle deficiency. So why discuss it here since we are not talking about muscles? I am--the heart is a muscle. It is cardiac muscle as opposed to the other types of muscles, skeletal and smooth. It can lead to cardiomyopathy--weakness of the heart muscle. This cardiomyopathy will lead to CHF (congestive heart failure).
To end our blog today, I want to tell you about an herb I use in heart failure. Actually it is a combination of herbs. I will only mention one, Night Blooming Cactus. I bet you thought I was going to say Hawthorne. I use that also, but not always discussed is the Cactus. The nightblooming cereus is also known as the lunar flower, moon flower and luna flower. This plant is native to the Sonoran Desert in North America. The plant grows as a thin, almost dead looking stick from a single stem in the ground. They bloom just on one or two nights of the year, typically around May 30. Beneath the ground is a large tuber, often the size of a watermelon, that was eaten by Indians and early settlers because of its nutritious content.
I do not know the mechanism of the Queen of the Night flower, but I find it effective when used with hawthorne, motherwort, and scotch broom. I met a medicine man years ago who told me to use the combination for arrhythmias. I did use it--it worked and I continue to use it.
Until tomorrow...
No comments:
Post a Comment