The Longevity Plan: Seven Life-Transforming Lessons from Ancient China by Day John D. M.D. & Jane Ann Day & Matthew LaPlante

Author:Day, John D., M.D. & Jane Ann Day & Matthew LaPlante [Day, Jane Ann]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-07-04T04:00:00+00:00

AS A CARDIOLOGIST, I have a privileged perspective on the importance of rhythm in our lives. No matter how often I look at a person’s heart, be it in surgery or through an echocardiogram, I never cease to be amazed at what this exquisitely designed organ does, day in and day out, from just a few weeks into our fetal gestation until the moment of our death.

To do this so well, and for so long, our hearts must stay in near-perfect harmony with our bodies, speeding up when we need more blood (and the oxygen it carries) and slowing down when that need has run its course. As this happens, our hearts must pump oxygenated blood through the aorta at the same rate at which deoxygenated blood comes in through the superior and inferior vena cava, meaning that the heart’s two upper chambers, known as the atria, must beat in near perfect coordination with the two lower chambers, known as the ventricles. This is why, when you listen to your heart through a stethoscope, you hear two beats at a time—lub dub, lub dub, lub dub.

Most people’s hearts beat about 100,000 times each day. Think of what that means when it comes to reliability. Can you imagine anything that, having been used more than 35 million times in a year, is likely to be just as good at what it does next year as it is right now?

When you think of it that way, it’s really quite astounding how rarely things go wrong. But sometimes they do. One of the most common problems is when the heart falls out of rhythm and the atria are no longer beating in synchrony with the ventricles. This is called atrial fibrillation, and it represents a significant number of the cases I see in my clinic each day.

About one in four Americans will have an episode of atrial fibrillation before they die. Commonly when this happens, the atria are beating more than 300 times a minute while the ventricles are beating at half that pace or even less. As a result, blood stops moving through our bodies the way it should. Clots can form. That’s why, according to research I contributed to in 2011, atrial fibrillation is one of the leading causes of stroke.

Even in lieu of stroke, though, atrial fibrillation can be devastating. It can cause chest pains, shortness of breath, and temporary loss of consciousness. When my colleagues and I looked at the cases of nearly 40,000 patients, we found that atrial fibrillation also dramatically increases the risk of heart failure, premature death, and dementia.

When I started my career, I believed that medications and procedures were the answer to atrial fibrillation. Blood thinners are a common pharmacological weapon in this fight, but come along with no shortage of side effects. For instance, even though we use these medications to prevent strokes, our research shows that they increase the risk of intracranial hemorrhage and possibly even dementia if not used correctly. Another approach

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