THE HEART OF THE MATTER
By Jed Wightman
For as long as I can remember we ’ ve always used our “ Heart ” in defining a purpose , a meaning , a promise , in explaining the importance of something . “ heart felt , follow your heart , listen to your heart , don ’ t break my heart , with all my heart , on my heart , cross my heart ”. Is there any you know that I ’ ve missed ? Now these are metaphorical examples of course ; however they represent something truly unique to our human experience and well yes to our “ Heart ” a representation that no other organ represents . Or maybe we ’ d say , “ Just follow your liver and everything will be ok ”… Can you imagine ? Wouldn ’ t that turn out a mess ? In all seriousness , our heart is a focal point of our existence , our motor , it is our most important organ and we must never forget or lose sight of just how critical our heart health is . In my opinion this is where all those metaphors come from , a place and time when it was taken a lot more literally , and then it is now in our current culture .
So within this article , I will discuss some incredibly critical factors regarding protection , maintenance and prevention all aimed at our Heart Health . The areas of this discussion are much less common to the average person than in the mainstream , and equally in our contemporary medical industry business model .
Most people regard the health and longevity of our hearts to be a somewhat scary topic , yet it doesn ’ t have to be , I believe the best way to approach such a necessary topic , is with informed , open dialogue , I ’ m not trying to take this down a road of depressing , morbidity . On the contrary , I want to encourage us to all speak more openly about this and for these discussions to be ones we have regularly within our daily lives . Critical involvement right , not just a conversation had every 6 to 12 months with our Doctors or Healthcare Providers . We need to know what we are doing to influence our lifestyle , health and of course , our hearts . Ultimately , to not damage or fly blind as to what we may be doing that can cause issues , now or in the future , makes you think doesn ’ t it ? So what are the right discussions to have ? What testing can we do to ourselves on a regular basis ? What information and data do we need to look at , to give us a correct bearing on what we should be aware of , concerned about , and protecting ourselves against ? What WE need to address with our healthcare professionals , rather than to just wait for the results of a basic , “ One Size Fits All Basic Chem . Panel ”.
So what you ’ ll find in this article is information on things that we are not aware of , paying attention to , or gaining perspective on , there are many things our doctors are not testing for , or are looking deeper into .
All this Information is in our capabilities to attain , information that is much more intricately detailed and much more important to look into , than what ’ s broadly provided . To be clear , I am not a doctor , I am not telling you what to do , or advocating against what YOUR doctor tells you , I am merely providing information that will leave you with more tools and greater information to go forward with individually as well as what to talk to your doctor about , I will provide key details , not just the basics when you go in for your check up . Moreover and most importantly what you can do on your own , on a daily basis , to stay connected to your heart , its health maintenance and promote the life of our heart ’ s longevity . On that note , LET ’ S get right into the HEART OF THE MATTER !
Why is it that in some cases , what matters most seems to be often neglected , denied purposely , forgotten about or just all together avoided ? Is it human nature ? Are we master procrastinators , or maybe it as simple as fear of the unknown ? Is it that we just feel better leaving something so important in the hands of others , when it really begins and ultimately ends with us ? The medical professionals we see routinely , once or twice a year , tell us what has already happened and NOW what we need to do . In many sad and untimely cases it ends up being too late …. In 2022 alone , 21 well known Bodybuilding and Fitness Professionals have passed due to heart related issues . We live in kind of a bubble , as we have a smaller community than that of football , basketball or other kinds of high intensity and demanding athletic involvement . So 21 is a very high number and this is only what we know about from what ’ s been publicly reported and shown on our “ media outlets ”. Heart related mortality issues seem to on the rise in our current time , and within our small community .
Today we are going to focus on contributing factors to heart related risks , and how we can preemptively protect ourselves while getting ahead of possible issues that could otherwise , in some cases inevitably befall us , the eventuality of our mortality and for some , their untimely demise . What is heart disease ? Heart disease is any condition that affects the structure or function of the heart . Most people think of heart disease as one condition , but in fact , heart disease is a group of conditions with many different root causes . “ Aka Co-morbidities ”
There are in fact a great many , however I ’ m going
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