Natural support for congestive heart failure

Congestive heart failure (CHF) or heart failure (HF) refers to reduced or compromised heart function such that the output of blood is inadequate to meet the body’s oxygen demands. There are many conditions that lead to CHF: Hypertension, failure of heart valves to work properly, congenital malformations, hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis), infections, constrictive infection of the lining around the heart (pericarditis), and hyperthyroidism. 

The symptoms of CHF vary according to the side of the heart affected — left or right. The most common symptoms are shortness of breath, cardiac asthma (an asthma-like condition caused by heart failure), edema (build-up of fluid in various body parts), cyanosis (bluish color to lips, nose, etc., caused by lack of oxygen), and cardiac hypertrophy (heart enlargement).

Conventional medical treatment varies with the cause, but often includes such therapeutic measures as rest; use of oxygen; improvement of heart muscle contractibility by use of certain drugs such as digitalis and diuretics; sodium restriction; and correction of heart arrhythmias.

Is there anything natural medicine can offer in terms of prevention or treatment of this insidious health challenge? Published research indicates “yes” to both.

To read the rest of this article, go to https://biotheorist.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/natural-health-support-measures-for-congestive-heart-failure-rev-7-31-2017.pdf

Intimacy with God

Intimacy has many forms and expressions, as you know — familial, romantic, sexual, and many others. You’ve got intimacy down pat, right? Now go do a Google search using the word intimacy and read a few of the articles concerning human relational intimacy (But skip the porno sites that may have gotten into your search results).  After doing this I suspect you have found yourself questioning whether your mastery of intimacy is as thorough and complete as you thought it to be.

Now take this little self-reflection exercise a step further (provided you are a believer): do a Google search using the phrase (in parentheses) “Intimacy with God”. I did it just now and turned up 524,000 websites, blog entries and what-have-you. Now read through a few of the top ranked articles on this subject.

You probably read a lot about “surrender”, “transparency”, “obedience” and such (All consistent with what the Bible articulates about the God-human relationship). 

What intrigues me is that many writers on the subject have a lot of “how to” steps based, in whole or part, on biblical examples and notions of what tends to draw us closer to the Almighty as well as those things that can throw a monkey wrench in the achievement of intimacy with God or complicate its development over time. Some of these writer-pontificators draw on personal experience. All this is fine and good and is generally valid at various levels and in various ways, I’m sure. And, I suspect, few (if any) believers are so instinctively and spiritually adept (gifted) at establishing and maintaining intimacy with God as to obviate the need for biblical and extrabiblical guidance or other input, such as “how to” guides and personal accounts (I invoked “I suspect” because it is hard to know for sure without surveying all believers).

In addition, I also suspect that many believers either think intimacy (at least the deepest, most profound expression of it) with God is something that he unilaterally ordains, decrees and facilitates, or is a matter of individual volition in the sense of approaching God and having faith he will respond to this and then help or enable us to wade into the waters of intimacy with him (starting with “toes first” and then progressing slowly over time as millimeter by millimeter of our being is submerged), or is a mix of both.