Heart Disease & EECP in Europe
Sunday, December 21, 2008
December 2008 Update
I am still in the very fortunate position of confirming this is a continuing success story - the data I recorded in June 2008 (below) is still essentially the same. No angina, a continuing improvement in stamina and resistance to fatigue and unexpected events. EECP has been, at least for me, a miracle.
I have to observe some disciplines, however, coming down to diet and exercise. Taking the exercise first, I try and walk an average of 8-9000 steps a day, but if I have a long day with up to 16000 steps, there is no effect except some aching muscles - and I feel a little well-used the day after. I am convinced that this regime has a major effect. I follow a moderate mediterranean syle diet, keeping the caffeine intake low. A caffeine shot does make a difference but it soon wears off. My weight varies little less than a kilo over the whole period.
I still follow a complete broad spectrum drug regime, ARB, CCB, beta blocker, statin, anti-coagulant, Omega 3 supplement. There have been no changes in this for the last 2 years and I am fortunate that I have no significant side effects.
I am quite frustrated, however, that the take-up of EECP in the National Health Service is still so slow. The pioneering work at Bradford is showing very good results and this needs publicising across the National Health Service as a cost-effective method of keeping a large population of CVD patients in a much better state than relying just on PCI, CABG and drug regime. Coupled with the essential lifestyle modifications, the economic benefits to the CVD population are potentially very large.
A new UK website (http://www.eecp.co.uk/) sets out the modern knowledge on EECP in a much better fashion than I have done in earlier entries in this blog, and I commend this to anyone wanting to follow up on the background to EECP, especially policy analysts in UK Primary Care Trusts - EECP will make a real difference to your budgets! ¶ 8:09 pm
I have to observe some disciplines, however, coming down to diet and exercise. Taking the exercise first, I try and walk an average of 8-9000 steps a day, but if I have a long day with up to 16000 steps, there is no effect except some aching muscles - and I feel a little well-used the day after. I am convinced that this regime has a major effect. I follow a moderate mediterranean syle diet, keeping the caffeine intake low. A caffeine shot does make a difference but it soon wears off. My weight varies little less than a kilo over the whole period.
I still follow a complete broad spectrum drug regime, ARB, CCB, beta blocker, statin, anti-coagulant, Omega 3 supplement. There have been no changes in this for the last 2 years and I am fortunate that I have no significant side effects.
I am quite frustrated, however, that the take-up of EECP in the National Health Service is still so slow. The pioneering work at Bradford is showing very good results and this needs publicising across the National Health Service as a cost-effective method of keeping a large population of CVD patients in a much better state than relying just on PCI, CABG and drug regime. Coupled with the essential lifestyle modifications, the economic benefits to the CVD population are potentially very large.
A new UK website (http://www.eecp.co.uk/) sets out the modern knowledge on EECP in a much better fashion than I have done in earlier entries in this blog, and I commend this to anyone wanting to follow up on the background to EECP, especially policy analysts in UK Primary Care Trusts - EECP will make a real difference to your budgets! ¶ 8:09 pm
