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Max Pulse Device for Cardiovascular Screening

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Max Pulse Device for GPs and Family Practices

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One of the biggest challenges that physicians face is treating and managing cardiovascular disease. More Americans die each year from CVD related problems than from any other disease. In many cases, patients are asymptomatic, or they aren’t aware of the severity of their disease until disaster strikes.

The World Health Organization has completed several studies on identifying and managing risk factors of cardiovascular disease, along with the obstacles that doctors encounter:

“The debilitating and often fatal complications of CVD are usually seen in middle-aged or elderly men and women. However, atherosclerosis, the main pathological process leading to coronary artery disease and peripheral artery disease beings early in life and progresses gradually through adolescence and early adulthood. It is usually asymptomatic for a long period.”

“…many people are unaware of their risk status; opportunistic and other forms of screening by healthcare providers are therefore a potentially useful means of detecting risk factors…”. Read more about this study and its findings at www.who.int/cardiovascular_diseases/guidelines/Full%20text.pdf.

General Practice Physicians frequently screen for cardiovascular disease by testing lipids, blood sugar, and regular blood pressure monitoring. However, the Max Pulse is an additional screening tool for cardiovascular disease that actually offers insight into the state of atherosclerosis in a patient.

The test is non-invasive, inexpensive, and takes approximately 3 minutes making it convenient for the doctor and the patient. Additionally, results print out instantly and can be reviewed with the patient right after it is completed.

This is a good tool to use in the course of regular check-ups regardless of age since it can help identify early signs of atherosclerosis. Additionally, it should be used with patients who have a known history and/or risk of CVD and can even help track progression from visit to visit. The Max Pulse should also be used in patients with diabetes as part of their regular testing program.

What Is Heart Rate Variability?

Heart rate variability (HRV) is a measurement of the interaction between the sympathetic (“fight or flight”) nervous system and the parasympathetic (“relaxation”) nervous system in the overall autonomic nervous system.

Basically your nervous system has two main divisions – the part that controls functions that are under conscious voluntary control such as skeletal muscles and sensory neurons of the skin. Then there’s the part that is automatic or involuntary, which is called the autonomic nervous system. Breathing, your beating heart, digestion of food and many other bodily functions are something you don’t have to think about, they just sort of happen on their own. That’s the autonomic nervous system (or ANS for short).
The ANS also breaks down into two major categories. One makes various body functions speed up (called sympathetic nervous system) and the other (called parasympathetic nervous system) slows things down and relaxes you. When you are resting and at ease, the parasympathetic side slows down your heart rate, breathing, digestion and other functions to conserve energy. But, if while you were resting, you heard gun shots or someone screaming, your sympathetic nervous system would suddenly kick in. Your heart would start beating and pumping blood must faster, you would become much more alert, the adrenal glands would kick in with hormones that give you an energy boost.
Heart Rate Variability is a measurement of the interaction between the sympathetic (“fight or flight”) nervous system and the parasympathetic (“relaxation”) nervous system in the overall autonomic nervous system.  In other words, how well your heart rate can vary, or shift gears so-to-speak, between the sympathetic and parasympathetic says a lot about how healthy you are. Even more importantly, it can serve to predict more serious conditions and, if appropriate remedies are employed, can prevent more serious problems later.
Some examples of good Heart Rate Variability would be:
1) You are watching a funny movie on TV and you hear a loud bang. Prior to the bang you  should have been quite relaxed. The bang should have immediately activated your sympathetic nervous system; the adrenals kick in, you are on your feet to investigate, heart rate is quite fast, etc. You then find out it was your cat in the kitchen knocked an empty pot off the counter. You go back to your movie and quickly relax.
2) You wake up at 2am to discover that your teenage son, who was supposed to be home by midnight, is not home yet. You call him on his cell phone and he doesn’t answer. Your sympathetic nervous system kicks in and you are now fully awake and pacing. You start calling hospitals. Your son walks in apologizing, saying he ran out of gas and his cell phone died. You give him his duly earned earful. You thank God that he’s safe and go back to bed. You are able to relax quickly and go back to sleep.
Now, if you had poor HRV you would still be worked up for quite some time, maybe even hours, after these two circumstances. Panic attacks and anxiety disorders are also disorders of heart rate variability in that sympathetic nervous system goes on overdrive.
Another example of poor HRV is the inability for the sympathetic nervous system to kick in. A loud bang in the kitchen might get a glance up and then back to the TV — in other words, the sympathetic nervous system doesn’t kick in at all when it should.
 reflects the heart’s ability to adapt to changing circumstances by detecting and quickly responding to unpredictable stimuli or the lack of stimuli. HRV measures overall health and well-being and measures how efficiently the body adapts and adjusts to circumstances to be able to perform at maximum efficiency.
A wide range of other outcomes and conditions may also be associated with poor heart rate variability, including heart attack, stroke, congestive heart failure, diabetic neuropathy, depression and more.
The Max Pulse is an easy, non-invasive way to to test Heart Rate Variability. It only takes a few minutes.
I highly recommend getting anyone and everyone tested.  Using the test results, one can make lifestyle changes or introduce simple supplements into their daily routine that can improve results. Over time patients may avoid debilitating or even life threatening situations by catching issues early and acting to address these when something can still be done about it.

CVD Mortality in the US – 2018 Update.

Heart Disease in the United States Infographic
Heart Disease in the United States By The Numbers

Cardiovascular disease is still the No 1 cause of death in the US.  In fact, Ischaemic Heart Disease (IHD) is the top killer in the world. Even in countries such as India, where diseases such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, and malaria were once the cause of most deaths.

CVD disease is generally considered to be controlled firstly by lifestyle factors such as smoking, exercise, healthy diet, and weight control. Then, physical factors such as cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose control also enter the mix though these are most often seen as a result of lifestyle issues.

The mortality for males and females in the United States declined from 1979 to 2015 (Chart 12-19). In 2015, 2,712,630 resident deaths were registered in the United States, and 10 leading causes accounted for 74.2% of all registered deaths. The 10 leading causes of death were heart disease (No. 1), cancer (No. 2), chronic lower respiratory diseases (No. 3), unintentional injuries (No. 4), stroke (No. 5), Alzheimer disease (No. 6), DM (No. 7), influenza and pneumonia (No. 8), kidney disease (No. 9), and suicide (No. 10).

CHD (43.8%) is the leading cause of deaths attributable to CVD in the United States, followed by stroke (16.8%), high BP (9.4%), HF (9.0%), diseases of the arteries (3.1%), and other CVDs (17.9%).

This information is quoted from the American Heart Association Journal “Circulation” 2018 Update

CVD is still the biggest killer in the US and worldwide and is directly linked to lifestyle. The problem is that once the problem is bad enough to be diagnosed, the lifestyle problems are thoroughly ingrained. Breaking that chain is vital to cracking this problem. This means it has never been more important than now to have a quick and easy screening tool to catch CVD in its early stages. Such devices have the added benefit that they prompt patients to make lifestyle changes before such changes become too difficult. The longer a person keeps going being overweight and under-exercising the harder the path back to health is. For many people, the impetus to change comes too late and they simply cannot make the journey. Long Life Cardio is proud to be the supplier of two devices that provide this life-saving service. Learn more about the Max Pulse here.