Cardiac toxicity and lifestyle
Cardiac toxicity and lifestyle can be affected by the daily toxin exposure from the environment and the foods we eat.
Cardiac toxicity and lifestyle: Preventing heart diseases
Unless we expand our knowledge about the dangers of diseases around us, we are likely to sink with them. There are very many health conditions affecting people from all walks of life and the sooner we pool together to fight them from a common front the better for everyone. Most of these diseases could be avoided if we chose to live a healthy lifestyle. What we eat and how we live our lives contributes greatly to the risks of some of these conditions. For instance damaging the heart using toxins could be prevented if we eat the right organic foods and live an active life. You may be wondering how best you can protect yourself and your children from the effects of such health problems. We have a solution for you and you are just in time to meet with our qualified and experienced team of experts from AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under the able leadership of doctor Dalal Akoury MD who will be helping us discuss the real issues and how to go about them.
Doctor Akoury says that many people may not know but chemotherapy drugs are toxins in themselves and can cause injury to your heart. This is what is referred to us as cardiac toxicity. These injuries to the heart will incapacitate the heart and render it in effective. When this happens the heart will be unable to pump enough blood to supply the body with essential oxygen and nutrients. Even though several chemotherapy drugs may cause cardiac toxicity, the most common cause in cancer patients may include treatment with chemotherapy drugs known as anthraxcyclines. Doxorubicin (Adriamycin®) is a frequently prescribed anthraxcyclines. Although the best way to currently prevent cardiac toxicity from anthraxcyclines is to limit the amount of anthraxcyclines administered, forms of less toxic anthraxcyclines drugs and drugs that may relieve side effects are being developed to supplement the on what is already available. As we progress into the discussion, doctor Akoury is going to respond to some of the questions that are being raised by many patients from time to time. The questions include:
- What is cardiac toxicity?
- What causes cardiac toxicity?
- How is it diagnosed?
- What are the symptoms of cardiac toxicity?
- How can it be prevented?
- How is cardiac toxicity treated?
What is cardiac toxicity?
Damage to the heart muscle by a toxin is called cardiac toxicity she says. Cardiac toxicity may cause arrhythmias which are changes in heart rhythm or it can develop into heart failure. Remember that when we talk heart failure it does not mean that your heart has stopped or is about to stop. It simply means that the heart muscle cannot pump with enough force to supply the body with blood containing essential oxygen and nutrients. Heart failure develops over time as the pumping action of the heart grows weaker.
