HEART DISEASE

Have  you  ever  wondered how the heart and the circulatory system work? The human heart lies in the upper left center of the chest, next to the lungs .Blood flows in the right side of the heart and out of the left side. To guide the flow of blood in constant direction each chamber connects to the next one through valves that open when the heart contracts.

Deoxygenated blood that no longer contains as much oxygen, because the oxygen has been used by the organs, enters the right side of the heart through large vain called the vena cava. From the right ventricle, blood enters the pulmonary artery to reacquire oxygen in the lungs. The newly oxygen-rich blood leaves the lungs and flows back to the heart’s left side. When this section contracts, blood then rushes into the aorta to repeat its journey around the body. When blood reaches all the organs , it releases oxygen for the body to use to make energy. Once the blood gives up the oxygen, it returns to the heart. This circulatory process continues automatically for as long as you live, your live dependent on it.[1]

            The function of the heart and circulatory system is to keep blood flowing continuously at a consistent rate. This ensures delivery of essential oxygen and nutrients to the body’s tissues. Other processes that occur simultaneously through the circulation include the removal of waste products from cells back to the lungs, liver, and kidney for filtering.

            Unfortunately the heart does not always function perfectly. This is because of the heart problem or also known as heart disease. Heart disease is when u experience chest pains or breathlessness and you realise that something in the body is no longer working the way it should. Heart disease is known to be associated with heart attack, strokes and other cardio vascular disease.

            Heart disease is an umbrella term for a number of different diseases which affect the heart. The most common heart diseases are coronary artery disease, coronary heart disease, ischaemic heart disease, cardiovascular disease, pulmonary heart disease, heridatary heart disease, hypertensive heart disease, inflammatory heart disease, valvular heart disease, pericardial heart disease, congenital heart disease and last but not least heart  failure.[2]

            They are several disorders that can have negative effect on the circulatory process by reducing the blood flow and can lead to heart diseases. The most common disorders are arrhythmias or malfunctions of electric system which cause an irregular heartbeat, congestive heart failure or weakness of the muscular pump which cause fluid to back up into the lungs and other organs, congenital defects such as a hole between two atrial chambers (an atrial septal defect), narrowing the heart valves from calcification (stenosis) or from tumor in the heart, leaking valves which is known as insufficiency causing blood does not flow through chambers optimally and the damage to the heart muscle from blockage of coronary ateries due to atherosclerosis.[3]

Heart failure is one of the heart disease. It  is often called congestive heart failure (CHF), is a common, usually progressive with a poor prognosis. CHF occurs when the heart is unable to pump blood at a rate  sufficient to meet the metabolic demands of the tissue or can do so only at an elevated filling pressure. It can appear during the end stage of many forms of chronic heart disease. In this settings, it most often develops insidiously due to cumulative effects of chronic work overload (such as in valve disease or hypertension) or ischemic heart disease. However, acute hemodynamic stresses such as fluid overload, acute valvular dysfunction, or a large myocardial infarction can cause CHF to appear suddenly.

            In many pathologic state, heart failure is preceded by cardiac hypertrophy, the compensatory response of the myocardium to increased mechanical work. Hypertrophy is dependent upon increased protein synthesis, which enables the assembly of additional sarcomeres. Hypertrophic mycocytes also contain increased number of mitochondria and have enlarged nuclei. The latter alteration appears to be due to increases in DNA ploidy, which result from DNA replication in the absence of cell division. The pattern of hypertrophy  reflects to nature of the stimulus.[4]

            There are a lot of ways to prevent heart disease. One of the way is prevention through prayer.[5]Islam has given a very special attention towards health of the heart, both spiritual and physical. Quran denotes the significance of healthy heart through the words قلب سليم  a peaceful heart. Therefore, Islam has placed remarkable stress on prevention heart diseases through its teachings and practices. Prayer is the most important and fundamental practice of Islam which possesses the highest spiritual and physic-medical significance having positively an effective role in care and treatment of many ailments particularly the heart diseases. Giving identification of the hypocrites, Quran states:

“When they stand up for prayer they perform it languidly.” (Al-Nisa : 142)

            Its means that hypocritical manner of prayer is based on lethargy and carelessness as they get neither any spiritual benefit from prayer nor any physical good is done to their state of health. The Quranic injunction is further elucidated by the Holy Prophet Muhammad SAW tradition:

“Verily the prayer it has cure in it” (Sunan Ibn-i-Mjh)

The constant prayer habit resultantly lessens the hazard of heart disease through this method. Regular prayer habit with real cordial interest and spiritual concentration removes or minimise the strains and provide mental relaxation and contentment which helps in  prevention heart disease. Holy Quran says:

“Surely heart strains and tensions are removed through the remembrance of Allah.”

                                                                                                       (Ar-Ra’d:28)                                     

Islam has prescribed five mandatory prayers a day. The three of them Fajr (morning), Asr (Afternoon) and Maghrib (Sunset) coincide with times when the human stomach is normally is empty. So these prayer comprise less number of rakaats, which involves less quantum of exercise. On the other hand, night prayer (Isha) is normally offered after having the dinner. That’s why it consist of 4 rakaat. 4 parts of exercise which facilitates  the dissolution of excess  cholesterol.

            In the month of Ramadan, the whole day is spent in thirst and hunger. So naturally at the time of iftar there is comparatively more intake of food and drinks. Therefore the night prayer is further added with 20 rakaats of tarawih prayer. There is a very significant tradition of the holy Prophet Muhammad SAW in this respect, reported by Imam Abu Nuaym.

“Dissolve your dietary cholesterol through the process of remembrance of Allah and offering of Prayers.”

            Immediately after meals  neither the sleep is recommended nor any hard exercise. Both can be harmful for heart. Only a soft kin of exercise like the prayer activity is said to be useful. Holy Prophet (PBUH) said :

“Don’t go to bed immediately after the meals; it will harden your heart. Avoid any hard or large quantum of exercise immediately after meals, it will also cause a damage.”               (Abu Nuaym)

            That’s why a very balanced and soft Physico-spritual exercise has been prescribed in the form of prayer activity.

The prayers that provide 5 times mandatory and another 4 to 5 times non mandatory is part of light exercise. This routine is appreciable assistance in accelerating the action of the muscular pump in the calf region. Every time standing up from Sajdah (Prostration) or Qadah (sitting for a new rakaat) a sort of pressure is exerted on the calves. Owing to his process of contraction of the calf muscles, the flow of the abstructed veinal blood is restrored and it rusnes back rapidly to the heart. This helps a good deal in decreasing the pressure on heart and its pumping action somewhat reinforced.

Another way to prevent is prevention through moderate eating habits. Medical research has revealed that most of the heart diseases originate from the stomach. The more one eats the more diseases he contact, whereas abstention from excessive eating is of paramount importance in prevention of heart diseases. The diet and eating habits have a direct effect on the heart itself. That’s why Islam has strongly prescribed the moderate eating habits. Intake of a large quantity of food or having a full breakfast, a full lunch and full dinner daily, is much more than that is essential for good health. Full three meals a day, specially consisting of foods in high calories and saturated in fats, are not only excessive but are highly harmful and surely risky for heart disease.

            The first story about heart disease is about Doug an old handyman. Doug had been an active person  his whole life. Not even retirement could keep this sixty-six-years-old handyman from staying busy, building cabinets and sheds, repairing leaky faucets and rewiring lights. Looking at him now, no one would realise that Doug had almost died of a heart attack several years earlier. Doug’s wife, Joan, always worried about her husband need to “work,work,work.” After all, both of his parents died from heart attacks- his mom at fifty-two and his dad at seventy one. That mean Doug had an increased risk of heart disease. But Doug did not want to slow down. Working with his hand made him feel young and alive.

Then everything changed  when  Doug had his first heart attack, at age fifty-six. Fortunately, it was a mild one, and medicine and rest helped to nurse him back to health. But three years later, Doug had another heart attack. For a while it seemed like he recovering from this one, too. Then things took a turn for the worse. One morning, Doug woke with his lungs filled with fluid. He could hardly breathe, and he had trouble walking, Joan brought him to emergency room. After taking X-rays, the doctor said that he had enlarged heart. Over the next several months, Doug went back and forth to the hospital for evaluations but his conditions only get worse. Doug was no longer lively, energetic guy Joan once knew. Now her husband looked frail, and he could barely walk across the room, dress himself, or even eat. Doug’s heart was badly damaged, and his only hope was a heart transplant. Without it, he would not survive. Doug was put on the heart transplant list, but he was told it could be a long while before they could find  a suitable donor.

Fortunately, Doug’s blood type was A positive which is common and this could help speed up the search for a match. Amazingly, Doug had to wait for only twenty days. Many patient  have to wait for more than a year. In fact a couple of Doug’s friend had died while waiting for a heart. Doug knew how lucky he was. The new heart, which come from a nine-teen-year-old on a respirator, gave Doug another chance at life. Now with a new, healthy heart, Doug is once again back to his active self.[6]

            The second real story is about a young teenager who suffers heart disease. Heart disease is something that old people get, right? That’s what most people think. But New Jersey teenager Jessica Melore found out that it can happen to anyone. As a sixteen years old high school student, Jessica was bright, popular,  outgoing and athletic. She was an avid tennis player and seemed to be generally healthy.

Then one day, celebrating her aunt’s birthday at a restaurant, Jessica suddenly became dizzy. Her arms felt heavy, and pain seemed to be pressing out from her chest up to her neck. Her parent called 9-1-1 and an ambulance rushed Jessica to hospital. The doctors at the emergency room said she was having a heart attack. Test showed that large blood clod was blocking a major artery leading to Jessica’s heart. Emergency surgery to clear up the clot didn’t help neither did the operation to bypass the block by attaching other arteries to the heart muscle. Jessica’s heart was failing and her lungs were filling up with fluid.

The doctors told her parents that Jessica probably  would not survive. They called a priest to give her last rites. Though Jessica did make it through the crisis, her heart was badly damaged. LVAD (a mechanical pump) help her to keep alive through the long wait for the heart transplant. It took more than nine months for a matching donor heart to become available. A few days before she was to graduate from high school, she got new heart and a new lease of life. Four years later, Jessica was one of the American Heart Association volunteers who gathered in May 2003 to ask their senators to support more funding for research on heart diseases and stroke.

There are lot of perspective about heart disease. Al-Kindus known as the philosopher of the Arabs introduced for the first time a scale to define the drugs degrees in order to allow physicians to quantify the potency of their prescriptions. In addition, he wrote numerous encyclopedias on herbs and their pharmaceutical properties, with highly accurate precision.For instance, black seeds (Nigella sativa) can be considered effective for either food consumption or as a preventive of high blood pressure and heart diseases. This also mention in the Holy Quran and in the Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad.

             Abu Hasaan Al tabari a younger colleague of Ibn Masawayh, wrote several medical books, the most famous of which is his Paradise of Wisdom. It discusses the nature of man, cosmology, embryology, temperaments, psychotherapy, hygiene, diet, and diseases, both acute and chronic, and their treatment. He was also precise in describing his therapeutics. To strengthen the stomach and ensure good health, he prescribed black myrobalan powdered in butter, mixed with dissolved plant sugar extract from the licorice. This remedy should be taken daily.[7]

            It is given by Robert Koch  was not solely or even  principal the result of thechnological advancement or empirical discoveries. Instead it rested upon a theoretical reformulation of the nature of disease, which one correctly understood. Cater describes this shift in understanding of disease as the result of the adoption of an “etiological standpoint” which he defines as follow:

  The etiological standpoint can be characterized as the belief that diseases are best controlled and understood by means and cause in particular by causes that are natural, universal and necessary. This concept is defining of modern western thinking.

            Next, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, a highly realised Tibetan Lama, says that the most powerful healing method of all are those based on compassion, the wish to free others being from suffering.

            From my perspective, heart disease is an umbrella term for any type of disorder that affects the heart. Heart disease mainly effect older people but it is not possible for younger people. Like the example I have given above the New Jersey’s teenager, Jessica who suffers heart disease. People always take for granted about this matter they think that they are still young to get this kind of disease. Actually age is not the main factor for the disease. So we should take the precaution from having the disease. There are a lot of ways that we can use in order to prevent the heart diseases. One of the way is the Islamic teaching. Islam is comprehensive it cover all aspect of life event how to prevent and cure disease. Allah do not simply give test to His servant such as the disease. Allah know wheter His servant can bear it or not. It is also stated in the holy Quran :

“Our lord! Do not lay on us a burden that we are uable to bear.”                                                                                                                (Al baqarah:282)

So we should have faith in him, even if he give us a test like suffer from heart disease there must be a reason behind it perhaps blessing in disguise.

As conclusion, our heart does not always function perfectly. This is because the heart diseases. In general heart diseases is when u experience chest pains or breathlessness and you realise that something in the body is no longer working the way it should. Heart disease is an umbrella term for a number of different diseases which affect the heart.

Heart failure is type of heart disease. It usually occurs because of the chronic heart diseases that people get and lead to heart failure. The are many ways prevent the heart disease. One of them is prevention through prayer. As we know islam is syumul even prayer can help us to prevent disease. Allah almighty is very merciful in everything we do actually has the benefit to our life or even to the community. Sometimes we do not realise it because we are too busy about the world life instead of hereafter.

Heart disease can happen to anyone regardless of your age, not only old people can get the disease even young people like Jessica Melore, the 16 years old teenager who suffer heart disease. This is because when Allah said it will happen it will happen. This is also mention in the Holy Quran :

 “ Verily, when He intends a thing, His command is, "Be," and it is! “

                                                                                              (Yasin:82)

In this world everything happen with the will of Allah. We as His servant must worship Allah and keep prayer and have faith in Him. There is blessing in disguise for everything that happend because Allah is the best planner and he know what best for His servant. However we still should take precaution in order to prevent heart disease.

“Verily never will Allah change the condition of a people until they change it themselves (with their own souls)” (Al Ra’ad :11)

            Next is everything is happen with the permission of Allah. Like the example i have shown above about peoples who suffer heart disease. Doug the old handyman only have to wait only for 20 days for available and suitable for heart for himself while Jessica Melore took more than nine months in order to get new heart which suitable for herself. We can see from the story that even there is available heart but it is not suitable for the body, nothing that we can do. Only with the permission of Allah it can happen like the the story of the Doug, he only have to wait for 20 days with the permission of Allah. If Allah do not allow it to happen it would not happen. The Prophet Muhammad SAW said:

“ Be aware that if the whole of mankind gathered together in order to do something to help you, they would only be able to do something for which Allah had already written for you. Likewise, if the whole mankind gathered together to harm you which Allah had already written to happen to you.”

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[1]-MurdocKhaleghi, MD –The Everything Guide to Preventing Heart Disease –Adam media -p.4-5 -2011

[2] Kumar,Abbas,Fausto,Aster-Robbins Catron Phatologic Basis Of Disease-Saunders Elsevier-p.271-2010

[3]-MurdocKhaleghi, MD –The Everything Guide to Preventing Heart Disease –Adam media –p.10-12 -2011

[4] Kumar,Abbas,Fausto,Aster-Robbins Catron Phatologic Basis Of Disease-Saunders Elsevier-p.189-193-2010

[5]Shaykh Ul-Islam,Dr Muhammad Tahir Ul-Qadri-Islam on Prevention of Heart Disease-Minhaj ul-Quran Publications-p.8-12-1993

[6]Alvin & Virginia Silverstain& Laura Silverstain Nunn: Heart Disease,Twenty-first Century Books,p.21-22,2006

[7]Bashar Saad and Omar Said: Greco-Arab and Islamic Herbal Medicine,John& Willey Sons,Inc.,p.56-57,2011