EECP: The New Hope for Heart Patients

Angina is a coronary artery disease, which happens when the heart does not get its usual supply of blood. When the vessels that carry the supply of blood to the heart become inoperative, it is mainly due being blocked or narrowed. When you feel that you are short of breath and certain tightness in the chest, then you may be suffering from an Angina attack. The symptoms of Angina may vary from one patient to another.

EECP also known as Enhanced External Counter Pulsation therapy is a heart blockage treatment, which is not only cost effective but also non-invasive treatment option for people that are suffering from heart diseases. This therapy does not need any painful or invasive procedures and there is also no need to get the hospitalization. All the people who undergo this treatment are able to live a normal life and resume their activities after they have received the treatment. 

The ideal patient for the EECP treatment is:

-          Person that has undergone the heart bypass surgery or angioplasty, however, there are still symptoms of breathlessness and chest pain.

-          If you have had a heart attack in the past that required intervention, then the chances are that your 50% cardiac muscles have already been damaged as a result of the heart attack. This condition is diagnosed on the ECG as poor functioning of the heart or nuclear cardiac test that reveals dead muscles.

-          One who cannot undergo the surgery due to diabetic condition, stroke, liver failure, diffuse heart blood vessel disease that makes you an illegible candidate for the invasive techniques?

-          One who belongs to an old age group and cannot go through the invasive surgeries without exposing themselves to the risk of complications. If you have been advised second bypass surgery even then you qualify for EECP.

-          One who has been advised to undergo invasive treatment like angioplasty or invasive bypass surgery but is unwilling to take the treatment out of their own choice. 

-          One who cannot undergo the weight loss program due to being overweight but wants to live the active life and need a jumpstart. 

EECP technique is relatively safe and has high results when it comes to the treatment. The patients report that their life has improved after undergoing the EECP treatment. Although there are many reasons why EECP has gained so much popularity in all these years, the most important of these reasons is that it is an outpatient procedure and a very comfortable one at that. You don’t need any piercing needles hence the risk of getting infected are lowered significantly. It has been declared safe by many doctors and hundreds of patients get treated using EECP and have experienced an improvement in their life soon after the treatment.

Apart from minor skin abrasions as a result from blood pressure cuffs, EECP is a safe process. For the discomfort due to cuffs, you can request the doctor to help you with extra padding. You may, however, experience slight fatigue in the beginning but it will subside after a few sessions. 

The reasons to opt for the EECP therapy

“Enhanced external counter pulsation therapy” that we commonly refer to as EECP therapy, happens to be most advanced treatment to the ailment of angina. This is performed on those individuals who are suffering from the said ailment of the heart to reduce the acuteness of the problems they are suffering from. The objective to go for this therapy includes the achievement of the purposes like improving the functional capacity of the affected heart and eventually to bring some better in the life of the affected individuals. 

In case one suffers from angina, he needs to seek for a solution that is viable. In most of the cases, it is observed that the people suffering from cardiac ailments even after going through several remedial steps find worse to the some extent. For them, this therapy had emerged as a blessing. Best parts of this therapy are that since it is non-invasive, the patient neither needs to go through any medication nor they require to get admitted to the serenity of the hospitals for the time they undergo this treatment. The probable outcome of this treatment is the enhancement to the limit of tolerance for exercises. 

 Now let us discuss the impact of EECP therapy that had been experienced by the majority of persons undergoing the same.

What is the specialty of this therapy?

Patients undergoing the therapy are really impressed with the effectiveness of it. People having complaints like diseases related to the heart, chest pain, fatigue, angina, problems of kidneys, obesity, disorders of the liver and faint response to medications due to older age, have to bear high expenses for medication and treatment. If the patient does not show any betterment with traditional methods of treatment, the alternative options like the EECP workout. People had experienced their pain to get reduced by eighty percent. The best part is the patients need not to go through any medication or hospitalization should they desire to undergo this alternate form of treatment. Yet another point worth to mention shall be that there lays no need for the patients to get surgeries. Recovering from the surgeries had been a point to worry upon. The process neither makes the patient to feel further pains. People with very old ages and the obese are generally found to be prone to catch allergy from some types of medicines and drugs. This therapy does not involve the uses of drug and formulations. 

What the people feel post undergoing the therapy?

People are found to give a try to this method with a smile. The cost implication is also not very high and once one undergoes this therapy, he needs not to worry upon the period of recovery. As the method involves no surgery or the usage of drugs, the chance of side effects are beyond questions. 

The impact that the therapy creates happens to be long lasting and wide. Irrespective of the bracket of age that the person might fit in, they can expect to get hugely benefitted just in lesser span of two months. No wonder, this therapy is growing upon its popularity.

EECP therapy- A breakthrough in medical science

Medication has been the only treatment available to patients suffering from angina and heart failure.  It has been found that even surgical procedures like bypass surgery and angioplasty sometimes do not prove to be effective. As an alternative form of treatment, Enhanced External Counter Pulsation has been introduced. More commonly known as the EECP therapy, it is a recent breakthrough in the field of medical science.

Who can go for EECP treatment?

According to the EECP patient guidelines, patients who have ailments like renal problems, diabetes and lung diseases are best suited for receiving the EECP treatment. This is mainly because of the fact that EECP treatment is a non invasive procedure. This means that no part of the patient's body is surgically opened. Hence, no surgical wounds are inflicted on the patient. There are no side effects of the EECP therapy. The sheer simplicity of this innovative procedure ensures that the patient is not required to take any kind of pills, which can cure the side effects of the therapy. Hence, there is absolutely no kind of medication involved in this process that interferes with the patient's regular medication and ailments. This significantly reduces the risk of the entire procedure.

Specialty of the EECP treatment

According to doctors, the specialty of the EECP procedure lies behind the fact that it significantly decreases the angina attacks that a person may have to suffer. Along with this, it also reduces the strength of these attacks to such an extent that their effect on the patient's body is almost diminished. This procedure has been designed for both the male as well as the female body. Independent research has shown that after undergoing EECP therapy, the patients can reduce their dosage of heart related medicines. Hence, this therapy also helps to cut down the medication costs that a patient has to bear. 

Steps involved in the procedure

·         The patient's legs are attached to pneumatic cuffs. These cuffs are then fed in to the machinery that observes the patient's vital signs like heart rate, pulse, blood pressure, etc. Then according to the results obtained from the patient's echocardiogram, these pneumatic cuffs expand and contract.

·         This set up ensures that the after load is steadily reduced while there is a consequent rise in the preload. Thus, the cardiac output of the patient increases. This therapy is in some ways similar to the intra aortic balloon pump system.

·         Blood flow is increased to the heart rapidly by carefully compressing the blood vessels of the patient's lower limbs. The flow of blood is timed with the patient's heart's relaxed state. With utmost precision, the pressure is removed as the heart starts to pump again.

·         This leads to creation of smaller blood vessels, which acts as natural bypass channels, thus, reducing the cardiac pain experienced by the patient due to angina.

An EECP session lasts for about two hours each day and the therapy is completed within duration of five weeks. After this, the patient is free to continue with his life without any kind of medically imposed restrictions.

Spot out the presence of stable angin

Angina is not a new medical term. Instead it has becomes one of the common term heard in present medical word. This is the common form of chest pain that comes related with or signals heart failure. There are several causes that results in angina. This disease or medical condition is divided in the two types; stable angina and unstable angina. Stable angina comes frequently and last for only few minutes. On the other hand, unstable angina come unexpectedly and last for long minutes. If you feel any pain in chest, then it is must to check for the presence of stable angina. Here are some of the important symptoms of stable angina that help you to spot out the presence of disease.

Important symptom

The common symptom of stable angina is nothing but heavy pain and high pressure in the chest. Patients generally feel tight squeezing effect in the chest and the pain feel descending down to neck, shoulders, arms and jaw. When you feel severe pain, it should be treated as emergency condition and should consult the doctor immediately. It is all because of the insufficient supply of oxygen. Hence, never wait for even a single second to get medical help when the pain is severe.

Other symptoms

Other important symptoms include shortness of breath, heavy sweating, anxiety, giddiness, and rise in blood pressure, nausea and loss of energy. All these are the supporting symptoms of stable angina. Presence of any of these symptoms without pain in the chest can’t be said as stable angina. These symptoms can be experienced before, at the time, or after the chest pain. It is must to know about all these symptoms to protect your chest from severe pains. Knowledge about symptoms of diseases helps a lot in starting with early treatment.

Never ignore the symptoms

Once you have any or some of these symptoms, never ignore it. Give attention to it and consult the doctors to diagnose the exact problem. In case of stable angina, you can also feel tired and strong pain when handling heavy objects or loads. This pain shows that the heart fail to get sufficient oxygen required to engage in heavy works and doing exercise. Ignoring the symptoms can turn small chest pain to severe heart failure. Also have a look the causes of stable angina to know about how to prevent it. Also keep distance from unhealthy food habits, smoking, and excess drinking.

When symptoms are severe

When symptoms are severe, and the stable angina goes to its final stage, medical experts or doctors usually suggest for bypass surgery and balloon angioplasty. These are surgical procedures to remove the plague and make the blood circulation smooth without getting blocked.  If you are looking for a best alternative that is free from surgeries, then you can prefer EECP (Enhanced External Counter Pulsation).

These are some of the important symptoms of stable angina.

Proper medication and prevention can give you a healthy and angina free life

Angina pectoris or angina can be referred as a temporary pain in chest that can result in a cardiac arrest or a heart attack, if ignored. In an attack of angina, the patient feel a sense of stiffness around the chest arean which results in choking, heaviness, squeezing or burning along with pain in neck, shoulders, jaws or back.

Causes

First of all, we need to know what the causes of angina are. Angina is primarily known as a coronary artery disorder. A cholesterol deposition in the arteries causes the narrowing of the blood passage through arteries resulting in the less supply of blood as compared to the demand of the body. This cause a lack of oxygen in the heart muscles during exercise or heavy work, and causes angina or chest pain.

Men above the age of 55 and women above the age of 65 are the most likely to suffer from angina. A high diabetes or cigarette smoking can also alleviate the disease to greater level. Other factors that can contribute to angina are obesity, irregular blood pressure, and a family history of heart disorders.

Types

The angina is classified into two types- stable and unstable angina. Patients suffer from chronic stable angina when the heart demands more oxygen than the regular amount, for example during exercise. This pain of chest decreases if the patient takes some rest. The patient can suffers from unstable angina anytime, and pain does not decrease even when the patient is resting. This is dangerous as it can convert in to a heart attack.

Treatment and medication

The medications for angina treatment vary according to its type. Stable angina can be treated with some rest and medication such as acebutolol, nitro-glycerine, and metroprolol. If you are diagnosed with unstable angina, then, it is advisable that you should consult a doctor so that your condition could be done in a right way. Another medicine that can relieve the angina is aspirin. It may not prevent the attack of angina, but can reduce the extent of heart damage, and buy you time to get medical advice. The studies have shown that a daily dose of aspirin has helped in preventing the episodes of angina in patients. The men who take aspirin regularly in the prescribed manner have less chance to suffer from angina than the men who don’t take aspirin regularly.

Preventive measures

As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure. You should change your life style in order to prevent the episodes of chronic angina. Start it today by doing the following:

·         Quit smoking or any use of tobacco

·         Maintain a healthy diet full of essential nutrients and vitamins

·         Do exercise regularly

·         Avoid any type of stress, professional or emotional.

·         Lose weight if you are obese and maintain a healthy weight.

·         Maintain unhealthy fat and cholesterol.

With complete information and proper treatment, it is possible to achieve a healthy life style.