Dr Mo - Our Father Art in Heaven

[Guest guest]

http://web.archive.org/web/20070404173631/www.dimensionsmagazine

com/dimtext/lerner/drmo80.html

This is a doctor writing about heart palpatations.

THE TROUBLE WITH LIFE IS THERE IS NO BACKGROUND MUSIC!!

[Guest guest]

Hi there,

Tried to access the link but it says 'not archived'?

Regards

Sara

>

> http://web.archive.org/web/20070404173631/www.dimensionsmagazine

> com/dimtext/lerner/drmo80.html

>

> This is a doctor writing about heart palpatations.

>

>

>

>

> THE TROUBLE WITH LIFE IS THERE IS NO BACKGROUND MUSIC!!

>

>

[Guest guest]

http://web.archive.org/web/20070404173631/www.dimensionsmagazine.com/dimtext/ler\

ner/drmo80.html

For some reason, the " . " between dimensionsmagazine and com did not come

through in the original.

Our Father Art in Heaven

by Dr. Mo Lerner

I know what you're thinking. This must be an article about the Lord's

Prayer or have some spiritual slant. But you're wrong. This is maybe the

most important column you will ever read. It may save someone else's life

or, more importantly, your own. By the time you finish reading it I expect

every one who may be affected by an irregular heart beat (or know someone

else who is) to let me know. So get a pen and paper and read on.

My father, whose name was Art, recently passed away at the age of 82. My

little nephews and nieces were wondering what happened to him and, as kids

do, where exactly he went to. Hence the title above. Is there a heaven? I'm

not sure but that is where they think our father Art is. I'll bet you all

have your own opinions. Regardless of what they are we all subliminally hope

there is a heaven. We usually tell youngsters that this is where loved ones

end up.

Art was an interesting guy. Born in 1915 in our frozen north (I'm

Canadian) he was raised with all the usual expectations of immigrant

parents. He was preordained a doctor. And so he became one. Struggling

against anti-semitism and quotas (common at the time) he graduated at 23,

married a 17-year-old small town girl and leapt into the depression era with

no money and few prospects. So he started his career as a country doctor.

The old time country physicians were called upon any time of day or night to

repair battered bodies, deliver babies and even pull teeth. Because people

rarely had money in the dust bowl days, Art was remunerated with chickens,

guns, vegetables, and in a few other unusual ways. He was given a live owl

(I think by a famous old aboriginal chief), a dog that used to raid local

chicken coups at night, and he and my mother even had a bathtub full of baby

chicks. Like most young men of the time he entered the military and served

as a medical officer in a prison camp for what was described as dangerous

P.O.W.'s.

Although he did some pioneering work in cardiac surgery (there were no

heart-lung bypass machines in those days) the rigors and politics of

academia did not agree with him. After being examined for his fellowship by

Sir Frederick Banting (the discoverer of Insulin) he pursued general surgery

and remained in practice for almost six decades.

Like all human beings even Art would have admitted he was not perfect.

Even though we were a large family there were many problems at home, which,

for the sake of brevity I will not go into at this point. My father was

somewhat cool and distant during troubled times and--like thousands of

teenagers who feel (rightly or wrongly) that they lack emotional support--I

was out on my own at a fairly young age. One wouldn't consider anyone in our

family as close. As my father aged and became ill he seemed to mellow and

become somewhat sentimental. Along with this transformation, so too did

those of us who suffered come to reconciliation. My brothers, sisters, and I

have grown closer. I have never been one to hold a grudge. I feel that life

is too short and there are enough tribulations put in our way that one

should be forgiving especially with family. When lovers and friends are

gone, family is forever.

One of the interesting things about Art was that he was an eternal

optimist. When my grandmother was 99 years old and totally debilitated in a

nursing home bed, he felt that her life was worthwhile mostly because she

was beyond the fear of death. In his latter years Art began walking for

fitness. He felt that it would prolong his life. He always kept busy and

until his dying days wondered if he should return to medical practice. His

patients loved him and relied on him. He was a wonderful grandparent to my

nephews and nieces. Although our relationship (and certainly my own

personality) was far from perfect and I might have been a different parent

than he was, I respected him. I shall miss him. Perhaps our father Art is in

heaven.

Strong Heart

Art had a series of strokes. In his terminal coma people always spoke

about his strong heart and lungs and that it was sad that the thing that did

him in was his greatest strength in life; his mind. Yet I noticed on his

cardiac monitor an irregular heart rhythm. Although this problem may run in

the family, he was thankfully never aware of it nor did it stop him from

walking several miles a day into his eighties.

One of our readers called me describing her experience with an irregular

heart rhythm that required emergency intervention and asked me write about

it.

Sponge in a Bucket

Every cell in the human heart is a potential pacemaker. Fortunately, only

one small area usually takes on that role for a lifetime. As an electric

pump we should really consider the heart in terms of a top half that takes

blood in, and a bottom half that pumps it out.

The Sinus Node, which is the dominant pacemaker, resides in the top part

of the heart. It works on the same principle as a sponge. When you drop a

sponge in a bucket it soaks up fluid until it reaches its threshold and can't

take in any more water. A heart's pacemaker soaks up electrolytes like

Sodium and Potassium. When it reaches its threshold it kicks the cell next

to it, which repeats the process, sucking up electrolytes and kicking cells

in sequence all over the top of the heart. The action causes the atrial

chambers to squeeze blood into the bottom half.

Then there is a pause in this sweeping electrical buzz at a gatekeeper

area situated between the top and bottom halves of the heart. This pause is

designed to allow the lower ventricles time to accept the blood from the top

and to fill. After this pause the gatekeeper (the A-V node) then lets the

electrical wave carry on down so the bottom half of the heart can start its

own electrical domino, effect and pump blood to the rest of the body. The

whole process only takes a second.

But why and how does the process repeat itself several times a minute so

blood is constantly flowing? Just as you would wring out a sponge to get it

back to its original state, the pacemaker (and all the cells that followed

the leader) wring themselves out using the energy supplied by oxygen and

calories. Then the heart gets ready for its next beat.

Fish out of water

But what happens if the supplier of oxygen and calories to the heart gets

clogged, such as in cases of coronary artery disease? Then the dominant

pacer may start to falter. And if the other cells in the top of the heart

don't get kicked into action after a few seconds, they may begin to compete

for the top job themselves.

Atrial Fibrillation describes a bunch of would-be pacemakers in the top

part of the heart discharging irregularly. The heart muscle simply

fibrillates and it can neither fill nor empty its chambers properly. It

looks like a fish flopping around aimlessly on dry land...it doesn't get

anywhere. Fortunately, gravity allows some of the blood, that gets back to

the heart by the action of bodily muscles (via the venous system), to fall

into the lower chambers. Because the ventricles are still working, most

people survive, but are keenly aware of irregular palpitations in the chest

and are often short of breath. The back-up of blood in the system may cause

congestive heart failure. In this situation, fluld has nowhere else to go

and usually ends up in the lungs or bodily tissues. The skin is often puffy

especially in dependent areas like the ankles.

Thanks goodness for the gatekeeper (the A-V node), for it stops most of

these chaotic impulses from ever reaching the lower half of the heart. If

they were all let through, the whole heart would be a useless mass of

rapidly beating jelly. As is, the A-V node only lets through an occasional

beat-albeit irregularly-allowing the Ventricles to at least have time to

fill and empty properly.

However, if the A-V node gets sick (also from coronary heart disease,

scarring, or other problems) it may not be able to hold back the

aforementioned flood of electrical activity. This sad scenario is

incompatible with life for it now allows ventricular fibrillation to occur,

and virtually no blood gets to the body. Ventricular fibrillation can only

be stopped by an immediate electrical shock. Defibrillation (the shock

paddles seen on all the ER TV dramas) usually stuns the erratic pacemakers

into " emptying their sponges " all at once in the hope that a single dominant

pacemaker will resume command of a normally beating system.

My heart's all aflutter

Sometimes, if the normal pacemaker is sick, only a few dominant cells

(rather than thousands in atrial fibrillation) will compete for the top job.

Atrial flutter means that these few cells kick each other repetitively in a

rapid sequence. On an Electrocardiogram, the activity has a sawtooth

appearance as pacers bounce their messages back and forth in a jousting

match which can never be won. However, even though there is a little more

regularity than with Fibrillation, this is still a potentially life

threatening situation. It all depends on the rapidity of these top chamber

rogues. If the impulses are rapid (usually in the neighborhood of 150

impulses a minute) survival once again depends on how many the gatekeeper

allows through to the life-sustaining ventricles.

In a hospital, if the doctors feel that the gatekeeper is letting too many

impulses through (eg. if the heart is beating more than 150 times per

minute) they may try to slow things down. One way is by massaging the neck

which causes a reflex slowing in some lucky people. Another way is to give

medicine which makes the holes in the electrical sponges smaller so they can't

soak up the electrolytes and saturate as fast. If all else falls, shock

treatment is still an option. The shock hurts but patients are usually

sedated and given a mild anaesthetic.

Extra beats

As people get older, the millions of sponge-like cells in the heart get

aggravated or wear out. Sometimes they get overexcitable and fire on their

own without waiting for the master pacemaker to cue them. This can happen in

any of the chambers and it results in extra beats called extrasystoles. For

many years doctors were very fearful of these extra beats because it was

felt that they inevitably caused all the other cells to go crazy, leading to

dangerous fibrillation. After all, it is well known that people don't die

from clogging of the arteries (heart attacks); they expire from sudden death

cardiac arrhythmias.

Over the past few years doctors have learned that extra beats are more

common than they thought. Huge numbers of " normal " asymptomatic volunteers

had cardiac monitoring for 24 hours at a time. Scientists found that 60

percent of what they considered the normal ( " thin " ) population have a few

extra beats every day. Most people don't even realize these beats occur.

They often feel like a tickle in the throat or chest. Unfortunately, some

people are painfully aware of these skips and feel the heart

" flip-flopping. "

As long as there is no underlying clogging of the arteries or any other

serious damage from illness or infection, these beats are usually innocuous.

Or so it was thought.

What about us?

Over the past few years I have heard from many large people who experience

extra beats, and whose doctors have told them they have nothing to worry

about. The problem is that no one has ever surveyed or done proper research

on obese subjects. This is worrisome because any advice is anecdotal and

pure guesswork. I surveyed some so-called experts who have given me

conflicting advice. Some say the hearts of large people have been damaged by

fat infiltrating the electrical system (fat cardiomyopathy) causing serious

extra beats. Others usually point to sleep apnea as a cause. In a previous

article I described apnea as a condition whereby the large thick structures

in the neck and throat cause bouts of gasping and snoring during sleep. The

resultant lack of oxygen definitely causes extra beats or bouts of very

rapid beating in an effort for the body to at least get what little payload

is in the system quickiy to where it is needed.

The problem with this seemingly simple explanation of why large people get

irregular of fast rhythms, is that even when the apnea is corrected (or when

people have lost lots of weight and no longer require sleep apnea machines)

the extra beats seem to persist during the day. In this scenario sleep apnea

is not the problem. I am not satisfied with all of these explanations.

I am especially perturbed at the usual answer; " tell fat people to lose

weight and they will be better off. " I know of many large people who lost

huge amounts of weight and their irregular heart beats often got worse. It

is well known that rapid dieting is deadly and many succumb to sudden death

from heart arrhythmias.

The prejudice against large people has negated a proper study of exactly

what is going on.

Write me now

There are many more heart beat abnormalities to discuss and I will be

pleased to go in to these in greater detail if there is interest. But right

now we have a more pressing project to address. If you, or someone you love,

is large and/or has irregular skipped or flip-flop heart beats, write to me

at Dimensions, Dr. M. Lerner, POB 640, Folsom, CA 95 763-0640. Specifically,

tell me the following:

a) the person's age

gender

c) approximate weight

d) how often these irregular beats occur (hourly?, every day?),

e) the circumstances which make them appear or get worse (eg. tense

situations, exercise etc.),

f) the time of day they occur,

g) any medication which is prescribed,

h) any other information that you think is important.

Depending on the response I may be able to stimulate the scientific

community to pay attention to the millions of large people who deserve the

same benefits of medical research as our thinner brethren.

In terms of my father Art? He will be missed. I'm sure he would understand

that I'm in no hurry to join him. Heaven can wait. ß

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Heretic Physician

Re: Dr Mo - Our Father Art in Heaven

> Can you repost this link or use http://www.tinyurl.com ?

>

> Even when I cut and paste it doesn't seem to work. I do have palps on

> and off and am interested in this.

>

>

>

>

>

>

>>

>> http://web.archive.org/web/20070404173631/www.dimensionsmagazine

>> com/dimtext/lerner/drmo80.html

>>

>> This is a doctor writing about heart palpatations.

[Guest guest]

The link didn't work for me...I'd really love to read the article!

Kim

Dr Mo - Our Father Art in Heaven

http://web.archive.org/web/20070404173631/www.dimensionsmagazine

com/dimtext/lerner/drmo80.html

This is a doctor writing about heart palpatations.

THE TROUBLE WITH LIFE IS THERE IS NO BACKGROUND MUSIC!!

[Guest guest]

If someone could give a brief synopsis of this article I would appreciate it. I

have trouble with long articles...very overwhelming to me! I can't concentrate

enough...

Thanks!

Kim

Re: Dr Mo - Our Father Art in Heaven

> Can you repost this link or use http://www.tinyurl.com ?

>

> Even when I cut and paste it doesn't seem to work. I do have palps on

> and off and am interested in this.

>

>

>

>

>

>

>>

>> http://web.archive.org/web/20070404173631/www.dimensionsmagazine

>> com/dimtext/lerner/drmo80.html

>>

>> This is a doctor writing about heart palpatations.

[Guest guest]

Thank you!

>

>

http://web.archive.org/web/20070404173631/www.dimensionsmagazine.com/dimtext/ler\

ner/drmo80.html

>

> For some reason, the " . " between dimensionsmagazine and com did not

come

> through in the original.

>

>

>

> Our Father Art in Heaven

> by Dr. Mo Lerner

>

>

[Guest guest]

The article IS archived, plus the entire text was posted here. Did that not

come through for you? Cheri

-----Original Message-----

I wish I'd caught this article before it went away. If they do archive it,

let me know!

Concerning background music: What if your life had background music but

you didn't like it? )

Hensley <>< 8-)

Dr Mo - Our Father Art in Heaven

Posted by: " Klasi Lady " ronicamelian@... witchin39

Wed Jan 2, 2008 8:43 pm (PST)

http://web.archive.org/web/20070404173631/www.dimensionsmagazine

com/dimtext/lerner/drmo80.html

.

[Guest guest]

I wish I'd caught this article before it went away. If they do archive it, let

me know!

Concerning background music: What if your life had background music but you

didn't like it? )

Hensley <>< 8-)

Dr Mo - Our Father Art in Heaven

Posted by: " Klasi Lady " ronicamelian@... witchin39

Wed Jan 2, 2008 8:43 pm (PST)

http://web.archive.org/web/20070404173631/www.dimensionsmagazine

com/dimtext/lerner/drmo80.html

This is a doctor writing about heart palpatations.

THE TROUBLE WITH LIFE IS THERE IS NO BACKGROUND MUSIC!!

[Guest guest]

Yes, after I scrolled down a few more letters I found the entire text. That was

after I posted.

I am going to write him with my info on heart beat AND my ideas about Heaven.

Hensley <>< 8-)

[Guest guest]

I'm happy that you could see it. I liked reading his essays on those

various health things.

-- Re: Dr Mo - Our Father Art in Heaven

Yes, after I scrolled down a few more letters I found the entire text. That

was after I posted.

I am going to write him with my info on heart beat AND my ideas about Heaven

Hensley <>< 8-)

[Guest guest]

.....about the background music.....that would be the pits if you

didn't like it.....I just thought is was funny as I thought of movies with

all that music that gets you revved up or scared....You made me laugh thanks

-- RE: Re:Dr Mo - Our Father Art in Heaven

The article IS archived, plus the entire text was posted here. Did that not

come through for you? Cheri

-----Original Message-----

I wish I'd caught this article before it went away. If they do archive it,

let me know!

Concerning background music: What if your life had background music but

you didn't like it? )

Hensley <>< 8-)

Dr Mo - Our Father Art in Heaven

Posted by: " Klasi Lady " ronicamelian@... witchin39

Wed Jan 2, 2008 8:43 pm (PST)

http://web.archive.org/web/20070404173631/www.dimensionsmagazine

com/dimtext/lerner/drmo80.html

..