Heal Your Heart Heart Disease, Prevention and Total Healing Dr. Ramesh I. Kapadia MRCP (Cardiology) FRCP (Edin.) Navajivan Publishing House Ahmedabad - 380 014 Two Hundred Rupees $ 9.99 © Dr. Ramesh I. Kapadia 36, Jain Society, Ellisbridge, Ahmedabad-380 006 India Tel : (079) 2657 8025 E-mail: [email protected] Website : www.universalhealing.org First Edition, 5,000 Copies, March 2012 Reprint, 3,000 Copies, November 2012 Total : 8,000 Copies ISBN 978-81-7229-437-3 Printed and Published by Vivek Jitendrabhai Desai Navajivan Publishing House Ahmedabad - 380 014 Phone : 079 - 27540635, 27542634 E-mail : [email protected] Website : www.navajivantrust.org The information provided in this book may not be under- stood as personal medical advice. Readers should consult their physicians on any matter relating to their health. Dedicated to my wife Kokila Kapadia MD, a Pediatrician For her contribution to all the publications and above all enduring my absence from parental and family obligations iii iv Publisher's Note We feel privileged and happy to publish this book on Heart Disease by Dr. Ramesh I Kapadia. This book is the result of nearly five decades of his consulting practice. Dr. Kapadia has shown a very successful, cost-effective approach to a complex problem of coronary heart disease. We feel that this book will be a pillar of hope for a vast multitude of heart patients. Reassurance by a physician is the Key Factor in successful management of Coronary Heart Disease. Dr. Ramesh I. Kapadia MRCP (Cardiology) FRCP (Edin.) v vi Basics of Coronary Heart Disease Coronary heart disease results due to lack of blood supply to the heart muscle. Coronary arteries supply blood to heart muscle. Coronary arteries become nar- row due to fat like deposition in the walls of arteries leading to narrowing of the lumen of the artery. How- ever, the walls of arteries are also very sensitive and they go into spasm due to a variety of reasons leading to narrowing of the artery. E.g. cold weather and stressful situations. The circulating blood can become thicker in consistency for similar reasons. So there is the fixed element due to deposition of fat like material and variable element of spasm and varying consistency or thickness of circulating blood. Further, the heart muscle requires rest when blood supply is curtailed following a sudden occlusion due to a blood clot. We cannot give complete rest to heart muscle as we give rest to other parts of the body. Heart has to function ceaselessly to keep the body alive. So the physical as well as nonphysical, call it spiritual, measures are re- quired to manage coronary heart disease. The book tries to explain this combined perspective in total heal- ing of coronary heart disease. Reassurance by a physician is the Key Factor in successful management of coronary heart disease. In any study coronary revascularization using angioplasty or bypass surgery has not shown advantage in saving life when used in patients with stable angina. Angioplasty is shown to save life only in unstable patients or patients actu- ally having heart attack. On the contrary, the randomized trials have demonstrated that nitrates, as- pirin, low fat diet, beta- blockers, calcium-blockers, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and vii lipid lowering medications can save lives in patients with stable coronary heart disease. Current consen- sus is that angiography should be reserved for patients where surgery or angioplasty is consid- ered necessary. If angiography is done before that decision, just to "look", there is a risk of the patient being scared that he is sitting on a 'volcano' which may kill him at any time. This may not be true. For a large number of patients undergoing bypass surgery there is no evidence that it im- proves their survival compared to those man- aged by medical means. Bypass surgery only improves survival in patients with the left main artery disease or three vessel disease with im- paired left ventricular function but does not offer survival benefit when the left ventricular function is good. Patients with stable angina have very low annual mortality of approximately 1%, which is not significantly higher than that of the general population. When the plaque grows in the wall of the coronary artery, coronary arteries are capable of remodeling themselves and enlarging at the site of obstruction. This reminds us of our father of medicine, Hippocrates's observation that the body has inherent capacity to heal itself. Dr. Ramesh I. Kapadia viii Acknowledgement I wish to acknowledge with all my heart, my heart patients who through their regular follow up visits helped me to develop insight into the coronary heart disease. Let me acknowledge with equally full heart, colleagues who have helped me to improve upon the manuscript with their time consuming involvement. To mention a few, Mr. Ajay Mehta, Ramesh Sanghvi, Vijay Shoerey, Narayan Sheth, Niranjan Bhagat, Dr. G. G. Oza. I have an enviable secretarial assistant in Mr. Nandlal Shah who is older to me by eight years, bubbling with enthusiasm and zeal to scrutinize the manuscript to the minutest detail. I feel deeply obliged to many who magnanimously do not even wish to be mentioned, considering their help for this book, help to the mankind, as it deals with mitigating the fear of the disease and helps to make its management affordable to all. I am deeply indebted to Navajivan Publishing House established by Mahatma Gandhi in 1919, for publish- ing my books since 1992. ix Message from Dr. Larry Dossey on Twenty first Anniversary of UHP Good things endure - and so it is with the Universal Healing Program, nearing its 21st anniversary. I often wonder what Gandhi would think about modern medicine as we live in the third millennium. Although he might not approve of the high-tech or "big science" approach to healthcare, I am certain he would be immensely proud that a project such as the Univer- sal Healing Program has grown roots in the soil of his beloved India. He would recognize at once the value of the nonviolent, nonintrusive, and gentle approach which your program emphasizes. I know of no other program which captures so authentically the essence of healing - the harmony of body, mind, and spirit. While the program wisely honours the spirit, it does not reject the physical. In medicine, we need the insights of the intellect and the fruits of technology, and the best spiritual wisdom as well. Let us go forward in our collective effort to further refine our understanding and implementation of heal- ing. Larry Dossey, M.D. Former co-chair. Panel on Mind/Body Interventions, Office of Alternative Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA x Prof. S. C. Manchanda Dr.Ramesh Kapadia's book "Heal Your Heart" is an excellent work on holistic approach for preventing heart disease, the leading killer of mankind at present. With his vast experi- ence in his technique of Univer- sal Healing Program he has em- phasized that the best way to control heart disease is to com- bine our ancient wisdom (yoga meditation etc.) with modern medicine. There is a lot of scientific support for this approach including our own research studies on Reversal of Heart Disease. This unique book has been extremely well written in a very simple language and should be of immense benefit to both the medical practitioners as well as general public. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in preventing heart disease and wants to lead a happy and stress free life. Prof. S. C. Manchanda MD, DM (Cardiology) Senior Consultant Cardiologist Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi Former Head, Department of Cardiology- AIIMS, New Delhi, India, Padmashree Awardee of President of India xi Narayan Sheth I was introduced to Dr. Kapadia in 1994 with a history of triple vessel blockage and advice for immediate bypass surgery. I promptly earned from him a totally reassuring prognosis of active good-quality life with the UHP regime so convincingly presented in this book. I have since then led a healthy life in peace and bliss to be able to record gratitude at age 80. The rare combination of clinical wisdom and spiritual intuition incorporated by Dr. Kapadia in his unique craft of healing has enriched the lives of his large cohort of patients like me both as patients and human beings. I may add a related thought: I have exhilaratingly witnessed over the years how noble and fulfilling the practice of healing can be if it is practiced Dr. Kapadia's way. Narayan Sheth Ph.D. Former Director, IIM Ahmedabad, India. India’s premier B-school-IIM, Ahmedabad (Affiliate of Harvard Business School). xii Dr. Ramesh I. Kapadia Dr. Ramesh I. Kapadia, MRCP (car- diology) FRCP (Edin.), a distinguished Professor of Medicine and a successful consultant, combines the wisdom of East and knowledge of mainstream western medicine; a rare combination of a physician and a philosopher. Ever since he started practicing cardiology in 1964, Dr. Kapadia was seeking an af- fordable successful approach to the complex problem of Coronary Heart Disease. He came to know of Dr. Dean Ornish's program in the management of CHD in 1991. He started Universal Healing Program for Coronary Heart Disease at Ahmedabad on October 2, 1991. Since that time thousands of patients have participated in his program. The Program not only heals the coronar- ies but also heals the whole individual; so it is called Universal Healing Program. He has been widely felicitated for his missionary work. With the background of consulting experience in conventional medicine over a period of more than four decades, Dr.