HEART DISEASE: ORIGINS OF DISEASE - THE SPECIALIST

No one whose knowledge of physiology and logic has led him to a proper understanding of cardiac disease could ever be a specialist. Intelligent treatment of the heart demands so complete a grasp of the situation - both within the tissues of the body and in the patient's environment - that the term 'heart specialist' must be self-contradicting. Concentration upon a single organ means a deliberate ignoring of everything that contributes to its state. With a few unusual exceptions, those investigating cardiac illness along orthodox lines cannot see where it arises; they are blind to the destructive effects of symptomatic and suppressive treatment. They will not accept that every dose given to stop a headache, to induce sleep, to calm the nerves, to stop diarrhoea, to purge the bowels or to arrest a skin rash must eventually bring an unfair extra burden on the heart. They will not accept that faulty nutrition of any kind must adversely affect the quality of the blood, and so demand greater effort of the heart. At most, they may admit that certain kinds of fats may be associated with certain forms of cardiac disorder; that those who eat much and exercise little are more prone to heart attacks than those who eat little and are physically active.

Even these tiny advances towards rationality are grudgingly made; the 'culprit' of one year is likely to be exonerated five years later, and another factor becomes suspect, as a 'scientific and statistical relationship' proves elusive. In simple terms, although an excess of fats may be a significant contributory cause of coronary thrombosis in a proportion of cases, it need not be so. Other factors may be mainly responsible, either dietetic or environmental. This spoils the specialist' s hope of a' positive correlation', which would enable him to specify that the cause of disease .t is factor y. And in case the reader may wonder why there should be so persistent a desire to particularize, let him remember that fortunes are made not by teaching people how to live healthily but by offering specific remedies; preparations which will cure disease x by destroying factor y.

This brings us to an enormously expanding cause of cardiac distress - the use of ever-more-powerful medication. Any medical work on cardiology will specify drugs appropriate to a variety of conditions. There are drugs which slow down a too-fast beat; others which speed up a slow one; others to reduce tendency to clotting; others to induce a more regular rhythm, and so on. Yet the medico who uses digitalis to slow, adrenalin to accelerate, anticoagulant to clear or amyl nitrite to relax, at best succeeds only in temporarily stopping a symptom. And he achieves this at the high, vital cost of imposing great additional strains upon an already overloaded organ and its sensitive controls.

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Cardio & Blood