When I was twelve, our stern, small-town doctor diagnosed me with mitral valve prolapse (Mvp), though he never explained the disorder. During my teens I had strange symptoms other girls didn't experience: fainting, fatigue, and eyes burning as though wind blew constantly into them. My mom noticed and trotted me off to that detestable, cursing physician.
In his office he scolded me in his nasal voice, "There's not a damn thing wrong with you. God Almighty, don't give your poor mom something more to worry about. Think about her instead of being selfish. What you need is a psychiatrist." I can see his face redden with anger.
Potassium IOdide
Didn't he remember? Earlier, after his Mvp diagnosis, he had curtailed any sports with the use of my arms, which is not the way Mvp is handled now. Agreeing to him, in two years I would be fine. honestly I had felt great before the sports restriction. Without sports for two years I had lost muscle impel and tone.
Mitral Valve Prolapse
Mvp is the most ordinarily inherited heart problem in the United States. Yet it is listed with the National club of Rare Disorders (Nord) because the disorder is not completely understood or acknowledged by most physicians. While the statistics vary with sources, the estimated percentage who have this problem includes as many as thirty percent in this country. Agreeing to a gawk in the late 80s, three times more women have Mvp than men.
The heart has four valves inside it to pump the blood in and out: the aortic, the mitral, the pulmonary, and the tricuspid. The mitral valve acts like a door in the middle of the left atrium and the left ventricle in the heart. When the lower part of a normal heart contracts, the mitral valve closes and prevents any blood leakage into the upper chamber. With Mvp, the valve balloons out of shape. A doctor hears this straight through a stethoscope as a click. If the valve shifts enough, it can allow some blood to flow back into the upper chamber, and the doctor hears a murmur.
Have you heard your own heart straight through a stethoscope? Have you heard the click or the murmur? Ask your doctor to allow you to do this. It's important you know what sound your heart makes. Of course, some murmurs and clicks are difficult even for a cardiologist to detect. But give it a try. If you squat, the hardest position on the heart, you will hear it. One woman chose her doctor based on whether the doctor could hear her murmur.
However, this structural fault is not what usually causes the myriad of symptoms. Most Mvp citizen have healthy hearts.
Mitral Valve Prolapse Syndrome With Dysautonomia
A syndrome is a collection of symptoms which has more than one cause, whereas a disease has a single cause. Mvps/D has a recognizable pattern of symptoms and signs. As the physicians and researchers understand, the symptoms reflect a failure of control mechanisms, specifically in the nervous system. The more they learn about the disorder, the more likely they will be able to find a single cause and change Mvps/D to a disease status.
The nervous law is divided into two parts: voluntary and involuntary. The involuntary nervous system, also known as the autonomic nervous law (Ans), is more involved and controls most corporeal functions such as body temperature, sweating, blood pressure, heart rate, salivation, pupil dilation and contraction, sleep-wakefulness balance, intestinal functions, digestion, and many others. This law has two major divisions: sympathetic, which speeds up the system, and the parasympathetic, which slows the system.
The physicians associate some Mvp symptoms to the Ans, an imbalance known as dysautonomia or an autonomic (which means automatic) nervous law dysfunction. Therefore, when the Mvp inpatient experiences symptoms that involve the Ans, the physicians refer to the disorder as mitral valve prolapse syndrome with dysautonomia, the most base type of dysautonomia.
The central problem of Mvps/D is the body's inordinate response to adrenaline and adrenaline-like hormones. (Hormones and nerves serve as control systems in the body.) Most Mvps/D patients have a bit too much noradrenaline, a connected hormone. Most of the symptoms come from discrete organs' over-responsiveness to even normal amounts of adrenaline-like hormones.
Thus, you can see it would be best for Mvps/D patients to minimize the publish of adrenaline into their blood streams. Of procedure stimulants of any kind-caffeine, sugar, alcohol, chocolate, aspartame, NutraSweet, Splenda, monosodium glutamate, and some over-the-counter medications, those containing caffeine, epinephrine, ephedrine, and pseudoephedrine-should be eliminated from your diet. Stimulants can include citizen and activities. Movies, at times, can over-stimulate my system, even talking.
Check with your doctor before a therapist uses electricity, which can trigger symptoms. Patients should allow only moderate sun and heat exposure and gradually strengthen to condition their bodies to exercise. These cautions will preserve a high blood volume. A higher blood volume means an adrenaline increase is less likely. Patients also need to control their responses to stressful emotional situations. Yeah, right! That's a trick in itself.
Debbie Petersen, who has yet to get her symptoms under control, calls the dysautonomia part an daily hell to live with. "Right now it's just trial and error every day."
'I was so happy to know there was a name for what is partly wrong with me: dysautonomia," wrote Rita McNeil. "Most citizen have never heard of it, let alone know what it means."
"The disorder takes a principal toll on lifestyle and work capacity," commented Linda Smith of the National Dysautonomia investigate Foundation (Ndrf).
Dr. David H. P. Streeten, a investigate pioneer for orthostatic intolerance (Oi), sums the impact of dysautonomia on a person's life: "While we are not constantly aware of the performance of the autonomic nervous law as we are of unusual sensory and motor events, the normal functioning of the autonomic nervous law day and night, from heart-beat to heart-beat, plays a largely unconscious but vital role in our livelihood. It is not surprising, therefore, that autonomic abnormalities, though they are usually more difficult to recognize than a severe pain, a sensory loss, or dullness of a limb, may be even more important in impairing the capability and even jeopardizing the continuation of life."
Space Shuttle Columbia
The astronauts experience similar problems when they take off from Earth and land from outer space. Dr. Andrew Gaffney, cardiologist and astronaut, served as Payload expert on Spacelab Sciences 1 as part of a Space Shuttle Columbia mission in the early 90s to study the astronauts' problems.
Understanding how our Mvps/D problems work helped him understand why the astronauts experience their symptoms such as dizziness and faintness when they stand. During the early part of the space flight, Dr. Gaffney flew with a catheter inserted into his arm vein to narrative the blood pressure colse to his heart. Within a few hours after lift-off, his blood pressure and blood volume dropped remarkably, Agreeing to beloved Science Magazine, March, 1993.
"As we sort out that data," Dr. Gaffney said, "we are learning a lot more about where the blood goes, where it is stored-in terms of the venous system, and the relationship in the middle of the adrenalin levels and the blood volume."
Dr. Gaffney, chief of clinical cardiology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Memphis, Tn, describes what he knows Mvps/D to be: "There is a primary abnormality of autonomic tone so that these citizen tend to be vascularly constricted." That constriction leads to shrinkage of blood volume. The lower volume feeds back and causes more constriction and that becomes a vicious cycle.
That cycle contributes to the symptoms such as fatigue. "We all know patients who are anemic have fatigue, and every person understands that," Dr. Gaffney said. "Well, it is possibly a little more difficult to understand (with Mvps/D). You can have the right whole of blood volume but if you don't have enough red cells in it, then you get tired because you don't deliver the oxygen. That's anemia. You can have the right attention of red blood cells, so you are not anemic, but if you don't have enough blood, then it is the same problem. Absolute whole of red blood cells that carry the oxygen is what determines whether you can practice more."
Blood Volume
"Blood volume is principal to forestall symptoms from starting," said Susan Elliott, who taught physics before Mvps/D symptoms changed her lifestyle. "When blood volume gets low, it tends to trigger a chain of reactive events that cause things like tachycardia, feeling too hot or too cold."
Even a little imbalance in the Ans can cause low blood volume in Mvp patients. Up to twenty-five percent lower. The thirst signal fails to turn on, retention the blood volume low.
It is very important for citizen with Mvps/D to drink at least 70 ounces of fluids daily, more if the temperature is higher. A good way to remember the whole is if the temperature is higher than 70, drink the equal whole of ounces to the degrees in temperature. Such as if it is 86 degrees, drink 86 ounces of fluids. An easy way to perform this is to keep a water bottle with you and try to drink eight ounces every hour. And to make it honestly fun, sing the tune to "Pump Up the Volume," by M/A/R/R/S.
Susan also found the more water, the less her Mvps symptoms such as twisting leg muscles. Also included in her regimen were potassium, zinc, and magnesium, minerals helpful to heart and muscular function and power metabolism.
Fluids "fake out your body," Susan says, development it seem to have higher blood volume. She drinks a gallon of water a day, all the time remembering to salt the water or eat something salty with it. The salt helps preserve water and principal nutrients such as potassium. Other idea is to intake fluids with salt gift like sports drinks or soups. However, patients with hypertension (high blood pressure) need to consult their doctor first.
Vertical Vs Horizontal
When a Mvps/D someone lies down, she can immediately experience symptoms such as tachycardia or heart pounding. "If you lie flat, that can furnish too much blood to your head and heart too fast," Susan said.
While we are vertical, the blood circulates the whole body with less volume than citizen without Mvp. When our bodies come to be horizontal, the blood floods the head and the heart chambers, causing the symptoms, until the pumping adjusts.
To offset this, some citizen sleep on a little incline such as in a recliner. To create her slant, Susan puts a board beneath her headboard. Pat Conrad sleeps on two pillows. Then her palpitations are "not so extreme." When the heart pain continues, she elevates her feet. My husband and I use two thick encyclopedia volumes that help me and his gastrointestinal reflux disorder (Gerd).
Orthostatic Intolerance (Oi)
People take their capability to stand for granted. Oi patients do not. Daily they struggle with the symptoms brought on by the vertical position. Upon standing, a someone with orthostatic hypotension, Other word for Oi, might experience lightheadedness, dizziness, palpitations (throbbing or heavy beats), tremulousness, optic changes, a stuffed head feeling, ears ringing or buzzing, fainting, and poor attention because her blood pressure has suddenly fallen. About a half million Americans have Oi, Agreeing to the National Dysautonomia investigate Foundation.
Being upright produces blood pooling in the lower abdomen and limbs, blood which is no longer ready to the upper body. With an efficient Ans, the body fast compensates by addition the heart rate and other cardiac output.
When the Oi someone stands, her blood volume lowers, her blood vessels lose an inordinate whole of plasma, and her kidneys pour out salt.
Some patients experience fatigue, tachycardia (abnormally rapid heartbeats), and shortness of breath, which is termed sympathontonic or hyperadrenergic orthostatic hypotension because the sympathetic part of the Ans increases.
Not every inpatient has all these abnormalities. Most Oi patients have a mild case which can improve over weeks or months. Most will eventually be free of their symptoms.
However, in patients with severe symptoms or with a sudden Ans alteration such as actor-director Christopher Reeves experienced with his fall, the saving may never come.
A few other names used for Oi are as follows:
orthostatic tachycardia syndrome
postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (Pots)
hyperadrenergic postural hypotension
partial dysautonomia
sympathotonic orthostatic hypotension
hyperadrenergic orthostatic hypotension
mitral valve prolapse syndrome
Supplemental Help
Calcium
Calcium, the body's most abundant mineral, is located mostly in the bones and teeth because its function is to build and articulate bones and teeth. It also is principal for healthy blood, regular heart beats, and permissible nerve transmission. Calcium is beneficial for cardiovascular disorders. Cases of calcium deficiency have provoked heart palpitations, slow pulse rates, and inordinate irritability of nerves and muscles.
The best supplemental source lies in calcium lactate or gluconate because these are natural derivatives and easier to absorb. Foods rich in calcium are milk products, green leafy vegetables, shellfish, and molasses.
Magnesium
This principal mineral lives within the body cells to commence enzymes for the metabolism of carbohydrates and amino acids. It helps to regulate the acid-alkaline balance and to promote absorption and metabolism of other minerals and vitamins. With nearly 70 percent of it located in the bones, magnesium aids During bone growth, is vital for permissible nerve, muscle, and heart functions, helps regulate body temperature and blood sugar change to energy. Magnesium is alkaline, so it should not be taken after meals but can be used in place of antacids.
This mineral can help forestall heart attacks and depression. It is beneficial for neuromuscular disorders, nervousness, and sensitivity to noise. Contrary to the old sayings, magnesium helps form the hard tooth enamel that resists decay, not calcium.
Large amounts of magnesium can be toxic if the calcium is low and phosphorus is high. Magnesium loss increases with the use of diuretics and alcohol. Foods rich in this mineral are seafood, whole grains, dark-green vegetables, molasses, and nuts.
Potassium
Elaine Hansen had spells of irregular heartbeats that would last up to twelve hours, often During the night. She felt very tired afterwards. Her family doctor said the cause was low potassium.
This principal mineral works with sodium to help normalize the heartbeat. If you're prone to palpitations, you might feel them when you are in the low-to-normal range for serum potassium. When they come on, try drinking orange juice to help the palpitations go away.
Together, potassium and sodium regulate the body's water balance, i.e. They distribute the fluids on the cells' walls. They equalize the acid-alkali factor, help in muscle contraction and expansion and in nerve stimulation. With phosphorus, potassium sends oxygen to the brain and with calcium regulates neuromuscular activity. This is a handy little mineral for our bodies.
However, potassium and sodium must be in balance or inordinate salt will deplete potassium. Alcohol and inordinate sugar can deplete both potassium and magnesium. Potassium is excreted straight through excretion and perspiration. Foods with potassium are lean meats, whole grains, vegetables, dried fruits, legumes, and sunflower seeds. A high potassium level can be life-threatening and can occur in renal failure.
Sodium
Half of our body's sodium is found in the extra-cellular fluids such as the blood vessels, arteries, veins, and capillaries. As I wrote in the last section, sodium works in conjunction with potassium. It keeps other blood minerals soluble so they won't come to be deposits in the bloodstream. Foods simply rich in sodium are seafood, celery, milk products, table salt, and baking powder.
Water
In elementary school we learned water is two-thirds of our body weight, so we know it's our body's most important nutrient. It makes up about 70 percent of our weight. We can live longer without food than we can without water. Water is needed for everything from maintaining body temperature to carrying away our waste. For Mvps/D, water is principal to articulate a level high blood volume.
My young neighbor Ryan had a problem with constipation. His parents used all the usual remedies. Still, Ryan might wait as long as five days without a bowel movement.
Finally his doctor asked how much water he drank daily. When his mom answered, the doctor said that was enough for some; however, some people's colons dispell water at dissimilar rates. The faster the absorbency, the firmer the stools. Presumably then (assuming no other variants), the more water one drinks, the softer the stools.
I never determined water as an sass to my irritable bowel syndrome (Ibs). I had assured myself I drank enough water. Besides, my stools usually change when I've overworked and my other symptoms, such as migraine and fatigue, come out of hiding.
When I began drinking my gallon (and that takes discipline!), my stools softened to normal consistency without my other Mvps/D appearing. Since I've been on the gallon regimen, my stools have been firm or softened, never irritably hard.
Of course, other elements can be involved such as the foods we eat and much more. Chocolate and red meats preserve stools. I discovered . . . For me . . . That water helped my Ibs.
Someone commented about drinking too much water. In the May, 2000, issue of Town and Country magazine, Diane Quagliani, a registered dietitian and spokesman for the American Dietetic Association, was quoted, "Everyone loses about ten cups of water daily, so it's important to drink about eight eight-ounce cups of fluid-the rest is made up by water in foods and the water the body makes in metabolism. The bigger, more active, and more overheated you are, the more fluids you should take in. Taking in too much (water) is not very likely, unless it is gallons a day, and the main danger would be flushing out too many electrolytes. healthy kidneys can keep up with most consumption."
Others complained they would have to run to the potty more often. In hot humid weather, the median someone should eliminate urine every two hours if the someone drinks enough water to cover sweating, Agreeing to my family physician.
When I tried the gallon experiment, some days I hit the toilet plunger more than the norm. But Other day I wouldn't. What is normal anyway? The inquire should be "What is best for your body?"
The Town and Country narrative writer, Ila Stranger, wrote that it "makes sense that drinking enough water is bound to help us avoid dehydration-which can happen as honestly in the overheated rooms of midwinter as in the summer sun-and make us look and feel alive and well."
Each day I grab a gallon jug of spring water or fill a gallon pitcher and set it on the counter to remind me to strive to drink more water. Not only for my Ibs but for my blood volume, blood pressure, and the many other tasks my body constantly performs. I've found in the winter lukewarm water is swallowed easier. Ice water is a shock to the throat, sometimes even in hot weather.
Some citizen prefer to drink mineral water rather than tap water. Others use well water. Neither should be relied upon for a person's source of minerals. Distilled means the water has been boiled water with all harmful or beneficial minerals eliminated. Fruits and vegetables are good dietary sources for chemically pure water, which is 100 percent pure hydrogen and oxygen. The use of these are an private choice.
The Environmental safety Agency's hot line is 1-800-426-4791; its website is http://www.epa.gov/safewater. The Natural Resources Defense Council website (www.nrdc.org) contains in its archives the results of a recent four-year study on bottled waters. The author of the overview results is Dr. Andrew Weil on the website http://www.pathfinder.com/drweil.
Antibiotics
Before any invasive procedures, Mvps/D patients with valve leakage should take antibiotics to forestall bacterial infection from forming on their valve. Such as dental work, body piercing, tattoo, and surgery. A few years ago the physicians recommended antibiotics for all Mvp patients. Now only those with exact regurgitation (leakage) are urged to do this, and the dosage has been cutback to only before the procedure.
For other surgeries and procedures you can consult with your doctor or the Mvp clinics.
Research In Mvps/D
Dr. Al Davies, associate professor of rehabilitation at Baylor College of rehabilitation in Houston, has led the Mvps/D investigate of chemical reactions in the middle of adrenaline and several important proteins.
The proteins are located near the lining membrane of a cell of a body organ. Three proteins of most importance are: the receptor on the cell's surface, a G-protein located inward, and an enzyme called adenylyl cyclase on the inside cell membrane's surface.
Normally, adrenaline attaches to the receptor protein, which combines with the G-protein. (Full name is stimulatory guanine nucleotide regulatory protein.) Once these are activated, they turn on the enzyme which causes internal actions such as rising blood pressure or increased heart rate.
Dr. Davies and his colleagues have shown that the Mvps/D patient's abnormally increased sensitivity to adrenaline is due to an overly active, abnormal G-protein.
The possibilities to the inquire "Why?" are numerous. And there are many steps before a full sass and rehabilitation are developed. The researchers idea this might be due to an abnormal gene since the illness is hereditary. However, their studies show the gene is normal.
To the Mvps/D patient, that looking carries hope because the cause is not something as simple as a bad gene passed down from our grandfather. Something happens to the protein after the gene makes it and before the adrenaline activates it.
Editor of the November, 1998, special American Journal of healing Sciences supplement on Oi, Dr. David Robertson entitled the issue "Epidemic of Orthostatic Tachycardia and Orthostatic Intolerance." Dr. Robinson writes that many centers actively pursue Oi investigate and expect rapid improvements in diagnosis and therapy. The director of the Clinical investigate town at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, he adds, "A healthy appearing 20-year-old woman with dizziness, palpitations, and fatigue is honestly no longer passed over as having a psychosomatic illness!" Well, maybe not in Nashville. ordinarily the tilt table test is used to diagnose a dysautonomia.
Many Physicians' Attitudes
My old country doctor may sound old-fashioned and something of the past; however, we with Mvps/D know his attitude remains with most of the physicians we meet today. One of the tough barriers we have to get colse to is looking a knowledgeable, caring physician.
For most citizen who have diabetes, cancer, or even strange diseases, they can experience a physician, and within a few visits they have their illnesses diagnosed. They are believed from the time they enter the physician's office.
We with Mvps/D are not believed. We must investigate our own disorder, be abreast of the most recent drug regimens, carry literature about our illness to give to the physician, and then know the doctor probably will not consider our illness legitimate or treat us. It's just crazy when you think about it! How much proof does a doctor need? Why can't they keep informed about Mvps/D when a fifth of the nation has Mvp and might possibly come to be symptomatic?
Education and investigate are keys to solving the Mvps/D puzzle in our bodies. With these all the time lies hope. Miles and miles of hope!
Mitral Valve Prolapse Syndrome - Being dissimilar
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