Blood Supply Issues

We have this Divine hint that  ‘the life of the flesh [is] in the blood.  Lev 17:11 ’.   This is a HUGE clue to preserving and continuing life.   Get blood there!!   It can rectify all pathology.  Any tissue suffering from the absence or reduction of this important substance has the death sentence.

Wherein can the problems lie with poor circulation? There are three aspects that need to be examined (1) The composition of the blood, and, (2) the delivery of the blood, and (3) the pump itself. 

1. The composition of the blood.

The contents of the blood is extremely important to your health.

The blood has a clear part and a cellular part. Blood tests determine the amounts of ‘key’ components as diagnostic of imbalances within the body. Detailed blood test analysis is beyond the scope of this discussion. [HOWEVER. if there are a lot of deficiencies ‘L’ AND you are tired, then consider the approaches outlined in letter ‘A’ or ‘B’ below. If there is a lot of ‘too-muchness’ ‘H’ (cholesterol, glucose, etc.), then work the liver.  You will never be sorry.  BTW check your meds– they cause blood imbalances.]

1. Nutrients. Good digestion is a key contributor to nourishing blood, but if digestion is defective, its contributions will be small and your ‘low fuel warning’ light will come on (=fatigue, “tired all the time”, “hungry all the time” or even ‘unexplained’ weight loss).  Go directly to Digestive Path Defects #2 A-C to increase your energy budget.  Secondarily, the well-nourished and supplied liver constructs many nutrients from the food so liver function is also important. And thirdly, being able to regulate blood fuel levels is important as energy from glucose is needed for repair. See if you fit the profile in those links.
2. Hormones. These are ‘regulators’ and are largely responsible for how you feel – a.k.a. your mood. Contributions to the blood composition are made by your endocrines (Pituitary, Pineal, Thyroid, Adrenals, Gonads, Pancreas and their backups) IF they are properly nourished (back to 1A). Herbs do a beautiful job of supporting endocrine function IF they can be digested and delivered. Anxiety and/or depression are determined here or in the liver. Do Master Gland (#3040-3) (4B, 4D reduce w/symptoms) as a good overall balancer if your hormone production is off. Our endocrines are hormone producers; our liver is the hormone reducer. So, for example, if you were told you are ‘estrogen dominant’ does that mean you should smear on progesterone to ‘balance’ your hormones? Nope. Cleanse your liver so it can better remove the excess estrogen in the blood. Conjugating certain estrogens in the liver will help you avoid cancers and non-cancerous growths.
3. Byproducts of bodily functions. These are largely controlled by the liver. The liver is the most important remover of untoward, ‘too much’, or toxic substances in the blood. In Traditional Chinese Medicine the liver is considered the controller of the mood. If the liver ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. The Gentle Liver Cleanse is an effective ‘shotgun approach’ to clear the liver. The liver post may give other indicators that this organ is out of balance. The second most important adjusters of blood composition are the kidneys and indicators of poor function are found in that document.  (Besides herbs there are devices that can improve blood quality.  The blood electrifier is a helpful aid in blood cleansing.)
4. Miscellaneous blood conditions.
   1. Anemia – Internal blood loss is due to weakened vascular tissue may cause this (see below).  Check your meds. Many pharmaceuticals CAUSE this.  If not on any meds, this will fix nicely and quickly. If on meds, these may still work but do your homework.   Take either Yellow Dock (#760-1), if you also tend to be constipated, or, I-X (#1218-4) otherwise.  I-X is Dr Christopher’s formula and it works really well for blood sugar issues too. NEVER NEVER take iron salts for anemia. They cause cancer. Consider adding the concentrated Chinese Blood Stimulator(#1005-9) 2B to support the liver’s function or do the Gentle Liver Cleanse.
   2. Cholesterol – see 2B below for the intelligent purpose for cholesterol. Another cholesterol adjusting therapy shown to work is drinking ½ cup water every ½ hour you’re awake. It’s cheap. That is, trickle the water in and flush out through the working kidneys, the irritants that raise cholesterol (usually C-Reactive Protein will also be high). Drinking water also nicely thins the blood. Most people can also safely use Chinese Red Yeast Rice (#558-3) 3B. Many pharmaceuticals CAUSE elevated cholesterol levels – many diuretics, steroids, beta-blockers, dilantin, Lexapro and others. See Pharm. Phactoids below. Remember from Basic Principles that the body raises its own cholesterol level for a good reason. Forcing it downward without addressing the underlying cause of why it is elevated is uninspired. Studies show that Cholesterol below 170 raises your chances of getting cancer.
   3. Sugar – see Dysglycemia. This includes hypoglycemia, Syndrome X, and diabetes. Many pharmaceuticals CAUSE elevated glucose levels – anti-depressants, beta blockers, steroids, and many others – do your homework.
   4. Clots – These can be painful and life threatening.  The intelligent body forms patches to damaged inflamed vascular tissue.  After the patch is firmly attached, continued stress causes the surrounding vascular tissue to which the patch has attached to deteriorate and the patch attachments fail allowing the patch to become detached from the damaged area as a floating clot.  (According to German New Medicine, ‘self-devaluation conflicts’ damage vascular tissue.)  A well nourished liver will immediately produce plasmin to dissolve the clot. Medical ‘anti-coagulant ‘therapy’’ with coumadin slows the body’s ability to form a clot but does not dissolve a clot. To assist with the removal of excess fibrin in the blood (which keeps the clot in tact), take Nattozimes Plus (#520-7) 1-2B, 1-2D.
   5. Thick blood –  This is an old-time naturopathic term meaning that your blood is more like pudding than water.  The blood-type diet and reducing unsoaked grains in the diet makes a big dent in this problem.  Also, not overwhelming the digestion (by eating too much at a time) would be a life-preserving practice.  As far as supplementation, adding proteolytic enzymes helps like Protease Plus (#1841-7) if the digestion has been overwhelmed.
      These people are hard to draw blood from. I had a nurse tell one of my clients that her blood was like pudding. This person had major circulation problems, duh. And guess what is responsible for the contents of the blood (hint 1C above. So do the recommendations there.).  If cholesterol is also a problem add Garlic Oil Gel caps (#1694-6) 1-B, 1-D. (Garlic Oil is different than garlic powder)  So there are so many wonderful natural blood thinners (I cannot understand why docs prefer rat poison (Coumadin/Warfarin) to foods. Wait – there must have been double-blind, placebo-controlled cross-over studies on Coumadin. Oh, that makes ME feel better. NOT). A simple food-like substance like Garlic Oil  does so much good for the body.  Safe? It won’t even kill rats!  You can cleanse the liver and take your Garlic Oil at the same time. It will do you so much good. Remember, don’t eat when stressed AND don’t eat too much at one time. If digestion doesn’t go down well, it produces lots of undigested residue throughout the body – like a smokey fire. Sometimes enzymes help here which makes me surmise that they were inhibited when needed during the digestive process.
      Finally, not to miss the obvious, sufficient fluids in circulation can be benefit blood viscosity but that is governed by proper kidney function.

 

2. The delivery of the blood.

Outward indicators of impaired circulation are increased

How hard your heart is beating can be easily monitored with a simple wrist Blood Pressure Cuff

blood pressure, cold extremities and creases on the lower ear lobe.  The blood is pumped by the heart through pipes called blood vessels (arteries, veins, capillaries). If it meets resistance, THEN our intelligent design requires  that our heart pump harder to overcome the resistance. This is the ONLY reason that blood pressure goes up – the heart has to beat harder to get the important contents of the blood everywhere past the resistance that is being presented to it!  SO, the kind of resistance presented to the pump (heart) comes in 3 flavors: vascular constriction, vascular inflammation, and thick blood.

1. Vascular constriction is a simple reduction in the cross-sectional area of the pipe, or blood vessel. This is like stepping on your water hose. The pressure upstream of your foot increases, and downstream, it decreases. This condition can arise from a numberSomething may be pressing on the blood delivery pipe that makes your heart beat harder.of sources. The first is stress. Stress causes a nervous contraction (reduction in diameter or size of your arteries), and this generally occurs to all your pipes. Your heart beats harder against the presented resistance yet your extremities are cold – like when you are about to give a presentation.  To balance your vasculars from this type of situation, take Cramp Relief (#1124-9) 2-B, 2-D along with Valerian Root (#720-0) 1-B, 1-D. These two are wonderful for nervous tension as well as contraction of all muscles and vasculars.  The second, and maybe less common cause of vascular constriction, is impingement. That is, something inside your body is pressing on or strangling a blood vessel. Again, like the foot on the hose case, to compensate, your heart has to beat harder to get blood to the other side of the impingement. Large growths can cause impingement. If surgical adhesions are not present then the usual culprit is bloated intestines, in which case, the abdominal massage will help. This can be the cause of intermittent spiking of the blood pressure as fecal material moves past an artery or if your blood pressure increases in certain postures. Try eating much less at meals, or visit Digestive Path Defects. The solution here is to mechanically ‘replace’ whatever became ‘displaced’ by the ab massage and then also reopen the circulation with GC-X (#1212-1) 4-B, 4-D along with Rose Hips (#580-1) 3-B, 3-D for inflammation. Then reduce dosage with symptoms.
2. Vascular Inflammation and consequent occlusion occurs because of stress-induced vascular damage. Irritants in the blood (C-Reactive Protein, CRP) cause the vessel lining to become inflamed (thickens) which reduces the cross sectional area of the pipe. When vascular damage occurs the intelligent well-nourished liver will start making a soothing, sticky, anti-inflammatory substance to line the arterial walls and reduce the vascular inflammation, effect a repair, and prevent the inflammation from advancing to an aneurysm or rupture! This stuff is called cholesterol. With more serious damage, the intelligent well-nourished liver will produce fibrin to make a more substantial local patch and in more serious cases still the vascular wall itself thickens to fortify that area of the blood vessel. The consequent patch presents the beginnings of an occlusion and in order for blood to get to the other side of that patch the heart has to beat harder (a.k.a. increase blood pressure). So BOTH the patch and the increased blood pressure are the body’s attempts to preserve and continue life. In these scenarios anti-oxidants will help tremendously. For vascular inflammation, I’d take Rosehips (#580-1) 6B, 6D and in extreme cases High Potency Grapine (#1699-3) 2B, 2D. Then I’d find ways to increase the berries in my diet. Guggul Lipid (#904-6) is also anti-inflammatory and there is clinical evidence that it lowers cholesterol, likely by its anti-inflammatory action. Please, this is NOT a statin deficiency (statin=med for cholesterol).  Statins are dangerous.  If you are talked into taking statins, make sure to take CoQ10 (#4109-8) as statins inhibit the production of this heart muscle preserving oxygenator.  According to German New Medicine the type of stress that causes this kind of damage has to do with self-devaluation conflicts.
3. Thick Blood.  This was discussed in 1 D e above because it actually has to do with blood composition.   From a blood pressure standpoint you can well appreciate, it is easier to pump water than it is to pump pudding. So when your blood is thick, your heart works very hard to push it everywhere. To balance the blood pressure aspects that this condition brings, a nice combo is Blood PressureX (#554-8) 2-B, 2-D along with Rose Hips (#580-1) 5-B, 5-D.
4. Miscellaneous Pipe Problems
   1. Varicose veins. If, on the face, there is a vertical crease between the eyebrows, then likely the varicosities in the body are liver related. When varicosities occur in the legs, it can also be associated with impingement, that is, something in the lower lateral pelvic area is bearing down on the blood return. Most often this is some part of the digestive tract so the Abdominal Massage will do wonderfully here (and it’s cheap), but it would also be important to clear the Digestive Path by choosing from the array of recommendations in that document according to your symptoms. Often for pregnant women, the baby leans on the blood return. But the same recommendations will apply. If the varicosity is a hemorrhoid, this for some reason seems to be related to liver function, so clear the Digestive Path and then do the Gentle Liver Cleanse.  Topically applying the White Oak Bark packet to the area will give relief.  Finally to address the damage to the veins (AFTER addressing the root cause), take Varigone capsules (#999-9) 3B, 3D and apply the Varigone cream (#1835-1). Reduce dosage with symptoms.
   2. Spider veins. The above recommendations apply if these appear on the legs.
   3. Easy bruising. Bilberry Concentrate (#74-8) 3B, 3D. This is also good for vision problems. Or Rose Hips (#580-1) 3-B, 3-D

 

3. The Pump itself (a.k.a. the heart)

The gums are a nice indicator of heart health.  If they are grey/bluish, it means the heart is not getting enough oxygen (Cardio Assurance (#553-2) 2B, 2D ).  If they bleed easily, the vasculars may be weakened (Bilberry Concentrate (#74-8) 3B, 3D).  If they are receding it means the heart is not getting enough nourishment (improve digestion).  If they are bright red it means there is inflammation (check Adrenals) but take Rose Hips (#580-1) 3-B, 3-D and reduce with symptoms.
The heart is a pretty hardy organ, but like every other organ, it can suffer from a lowered blood supply. To improve circulation of blood to the heart itself, follow the suggestions above. (Now if your doctor is alarmed that your heart muscle is ‘thick’, that just means it has been pumping harder against resistance, just like your bicep when you pump iron.  Reducing the resistance will reduce the thickness, just like your bicep after extended inactivity.  So don’t be unnecessarily alarmed.) Now the harder the heart works the more blood supply it needs, just like any muscle. If your heart has been damaged, or you want to fortify your heart, take Cardio Assurance (#553-2) 2B, 2D for 2-3 bottles and you should notice a difference if your heart was weak in the first place. If you have the ear crease sign, or have had heart problems, you may want to do 2-3 bottles a year.

• Heart Rate Irregularities or Arrhythmia. Heart rhythms are controlled by your nervous system and your endocrine system. If there is an electrical/nerve conduction misfiring affecting the heart rhythm then Gotu Kola (#360-0) 2B, 2D along with Nerve Eight (#873-6) 3B, 3D should help.  Often these irregularities come from electrical disturbances and many report relief from grounding or earthing.  If the heart is responding to thyroid or adrenal hormones review the endocrine  document to determine which supplement may be best based on your other symptoms.  A digestive tract filled with unprocessed food (from eating too much at one time) or gas (from poor digestion) can create upward pressure on the heart causing an irregular or fast heart beat.  Can you guess by now that the ab massage and proteolytic enzymes like Protease Plus (#1841-7) are going to help in this specific case?  That’s just common sense.
• Angina. Liquid Capsicum Extract (#1782-0) will stop an angina attack in seconds, so it is good to have this little bottle on hand and in your car. However, it is good to supplement with Hawthorn Berries (#370-3) 2B, 2D. Studies have shown it to strengthen and normalize the heart beat, to prevent and reduce arrhythmia and to guard the heart against oxygen deficiency (berries are antioxidant). Consider seriously the recommendations for thick blood too (2C above).

FYI if you are on a blood pressure medication then look up the side effects and include pain in the extremities or in some muscles as the heart is being inhibited from reaching its intended destination.

Still writing what you teach me! 

Pharmaceutical Phactoids – In the unlikely event that your doc failed to warn you that…

Parkinson’s–Statin Link (Statin=cholesterol medication)

New research has reported a very strong link between Parkinson’s disease and Statin use (Reuters. 1.15.07). At the University of North Carolina, researchers found a 350% increase risk of Parkinson’s in those with low LDL’s versus those with higher LDL levels. Further research is being done to confirm or refute this link. One of the side effects of statins is brain fog.

Statin ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) link

The World Health Organization drug-monitoring center had found an unexpected association between statins and ALS-like syndrome (Drug Safety, June 2007). [If you are on a statin be sure to report any experiences of stumbling, falling, slurring speech, or difficulty swallowing, muscle pain or weakness. These signal nerve/muscle degeneration.]

Common painkillers raise heart risk (aspirin, ibuprofen and acetaminophen)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Popular painkillers such as aspirin, ibuprofen and acetaminophen can raise blood pressure and thus the risk of heart disease among men, U.S. researchers reported on Monday. Men who took such drugs for most days in a week were about one-third more likely to be diagnosed with high blood pressure than men not taking them, the researchers found.
Their findings, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, reinforce a study published in 2002 that these commonly used drugs raise blood pressure in women. “This is a potentially preventable cause of high blood pressure,” Dr. John Forman of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, who led the study, said in a statement. Millions of people take the painkillers as pills every day to treat headaches, arthritis, muscle pulls and other aches and pains.

[OR because the doc said Baby Aspirin would help their heart!!! Do they read their own double blind placebo controlled studies!!!! Sheesh]

Scientists link diabetes drugs to heart failure (Avandia and Actos)

US may ban treatments used by hundreds of thousands in UK
Sarah Boseley, health editor (Friday July 27, 2007 The Guardian )
Two of the most commonly used drugs for diabetes, which were taken by hundreds of thousands of mostly overweight people in the UK last year, are causing widespread heart failure, scientists warn today.
Use of the drugs, prescribed by doctors for type II diabetes, has doubled in the past three years as a consequence of a growing obesity problem. Last year 1.8m prescriptions were written across the UK, which scientists say equates to several hundred thousand patients taking the drugs which are recommended for use across the NHS by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice).
But researchers today call on Nice to think again, revealing that as many as one in every 50 patients taking the drugs Avandia (rosiglitazone) and Actos (pioglitazone) over a period of 26 months will have to be hospitalised for heart failure.
The class of drugs, they say in the journal Diabetes Care, doubles the risk of heart failure, and even those with no history of heart problems are affected.
“This means that the diabetes drugs could have caused thousands of additional cases of heart failure, creating a substantial burden on hard-pressed NHS services,” said Dr Yoon Loke, a clinical pharmacologist at the University of East Anglia who carried out the research with Wake Forest University in the US. “I think Nice should re-evaluate their decision to recommend these diabetes drugs.”
Concerns about the safety of the drug were triggered in May when a leading US cardiologist published evidence of a link to heart attacks and death. The manufacturers strongly contested his study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Mortality from Cardiovascular Disease Continues to Increase Despite 20 Years of Statin Drugs
New England Journal of Medicine, March 2, 2006

“Despite the development of increasingly potent statins capable of markedly lowering cholesterol levels, coronary disease remains the leading cause of death in western societies. Even after prescribing the drug for nearly 20 years, with no apparent benefit, cholesterol continues to be the target for cardiovascular disease….and statins the treatment of choice.” [Some brave soul needs to tell this sad news to the docs because their drug reps certainly won’t.]

New England Journal of Medicine, April 19, 2007

“The prediction of increased cardiovascular disease should be well reported and disturbing. Rather pharmaceutical companies continue to market their efforts toward continuing the cholesterol hysteria and development of medical agents designed to either block the liver’s ability to produce cholesterol or block its absorption”

©Pat Block ND 2007