Heart to heart

Dr Aditya Rattan 

While the winter and snow brings smiles and cheerfulness on people’s faces, one must be aware of the health related conditions that it brings along. A special mention is made of rise in heart attacks and chest pain in cold weather. This is caused by a constriction of the arteries of your heart with the dip in temperature and thereby reducing the blood supply to the heart. Moreover, the body is overexerting itself to obtain oxygen and also to stay warm. The alteration in this demand-supply ratio precipitates and manifests as angina–chest pain due to reduced blood supply to the heart.

ECP therapy

While standard therapy for angina is medical treatment and interventional procedures like angioplasty, stenting and bypass surgery, a growing interest is seen towards non- interventional treatments and alternative methods of relief nowadays. Recent studies have shown ECP (external counter pulsation) as a very effective and safe option for those with chronic angina and at high risk for invasive procedures. This FDA approved therapy has demonstrated decreased usage of medicines, increased energy levels, better ability to perform activities without angina and thus better quality of life and positive outlook of patients worldwide. 

The ECP is performed as continuous sessions of one hour daily for a period of 35 days thereby avoiding the need of admission, surgery or anesthesia. It helps scientifically by improving and building up collateral channels for the blood supply to the heart—thereby universally accepted as natural bypass therapy. The procedure is performed after placing a series of cuffs on calves thighs and buttocks. A sequential compression of these cuffs is timed so that it increases the blood flow to the heart from the extremities and promotes new vessel formation to supply the heart. It is thus considered as a safe, painless and inexpensive method of treatment.

(Rattan is a Panchkula-based cardiologist)