“The heart is the great warm center of your life…The heart is the place of great departure in the body. From here, all your blood flows out to every inner territory. The heart is also the place of great return, the place to where all the tired blood returns to be reinvigorated.”
– Eternal Echoes, John O’Donohue
Greetings,
         May you be inspired by the bright blue skies that hold us all in the space of Springs momentum. I am trying my best to wrap up quite a bit of research to make time to honor the needs of the garden that awaits. I have also been knee-deep in researching and practicing a holistic life style – meaning one without medical intervention unless in the case of an acute emergency. Currently my focus is a deep dive into the causes behind cardiovascular problems. With heart disease as the #1 killer around the world; (in the USA alone 650,000 people die of heart disease each year), it seems like it would be important to know more details about how to prevent it beyond don’t smoke and do exercise.
         We are dependent on our hearts beating 100,000 times each day but they don’t do this task alone. Everything we eat has an affect; our digestion / absorption ability is critical to healthy hearts. Our nervous system, emotional health, gum conditions, organ health, even spinal alignment has involvement. There is just no separating out the heart as if it can be taken care of alone. Below are a few of the heart threat connections that all come down to causing inflammation. I have found these after 8 hours of research in books, online doctors’ newsletters, blogs, and interviews. You may be as surprised as I was at the list, but each one can be addressed to find the WHY or root causes behind heart disease or what we might also call dysfunction:
  • Leaky gut – leaky junctions/leaky lining of our blood vessels
  • Deep pockets in gums – gum disease
  • Root canal teeth – containing deadly bacteria often with no mouth symptoms (discover in high-resolution 3D imaging unlike the 2D x-rays used in most dental offices, ask your dentist for a reference)
  • Heavy Metal toxic load – often affecting the health of heart, brain and kidneys from fish, amalgam fillings, toxins in air, water, vaccines, even household pipes!
  • Blood sugar issues
  • Sleep apnea – starving for oxygen keeps the fight or flight hormones charged when they need to be resting
  • Sedentary life styles, obesity – Or – long term over-training
  • Diet missing digestive enzymes – poor hydrochloric acid levels
  • Extremely low magnesium levels – also potassium, etc.
  • Hydration issues – dehydration, long term diuretic use
  • Low Vit. D levels – and/or Vit. B deficiencies
  • Chronic infections of any kind that continue to spill poisons into the body
  • Compromised liver due to alcohol, medications, fast foods, long-term use of toxic sunscreens, etc.
  • Contaminated blood – a need for detoxification
  • Trauma and grief – emotions that challenge the hearts function
  • A diet poor in nutrition
  • Taking drugs such as statins, BP and diabetes meds – deplete CoQ-10, B- vitamins, and or minerals creating dire problems (dietary changes such as herbs and supplements can help correct deficiencies)
  • Smoking and 2nd hand smoke exposure
         A complete blood panel can give us a great deal of information about where to look for root causes to our problem. Ask a doctor to have inflammatory markers measured. Tests such as fasting insulin, hemoglobin A1C, fibrinogen, C-reactive proteins (CRP), ESR test, Serum ferritin, cholesterol, triglycerides, ALT, AST, CO2, MCH & MCHC, Vit. D levels, a full thyroid panel – these offer critical data that doctors can help decipher but its most helpful to do research with alternative medicine doctors or to use a Naturopath to help compare the results as their medical training includes natural means to healing; whereas western medicine doctors* are generally limited.
         In David Hawkins book, Power versus Force, we learned that we are vibrational beings and that where our thoughts take us is where we are living. The highest vibrational thoughts such as love, joy, peace and gratitude help keep us heart healthy. The low end of the scale is guilt, fear, anger, jealousy and lowest of all – shame. Meditation, breathing practices, drinking clean water, getting good sunlight and sleep, connecting with the earth thru our bare feet, all build relationship to high frequencies and restore emotions that support strong cardio health.
         My hope is that one day we will teach about these marvelous vessels called ‘bodies’ in depth in all K-12 grades. That we will teach about the interconnected nature of health, that we are not machines to be fixed but sacred beings that are as affected by the purity of the foods we eat as we are to the environment we live in. I recently learned that we now have heart-sound recorders, basically electronic stethoscopes that can inform us just how much food affects heart function, in a matter of only 15-30 seconds after ingestion.There is so much yet to learn!
         I send best wishes for all of us finding new ways to nourish our hearts by being the private investigators it might take to discover root causes when the need presents. I believe learning how to care for these miraculous bodies is one of our most challenging tasks we have in life. None of us can do it alone.
– Kathryn
“Enhance physical health and balance your body lowering strain on the heart. Boost breathing and balance heart rates. Improve immune system to reduce blood pressure. Grow vigilance power in every anxiety-ridden condition.”
PS – I have many more notes in case you are interested. One of the new sites I use to explore natural ways to heal and to get leads: https://druglessdoctor.com/health-topics/… Look up Dr. Robert DeMaria. 
* Western medicine’s healing methods leave a gap – US ratings for best healthcare worldwide is at a low 37th.
Try soothing music for your heart health? – Ninad Music