The heart beats 100,000 time per day, 35 million times per year. The heart pumps 5 quarts of blood each minute, around 2000 gallons per day. When all is going well, blood takes about 20 seconds to circulate through the entire vascular system. The heart never rests and its rate, rhythm and tone are dependent on input from the nervous system as well as the efficiency of cellular metabolism. Measuring the heart’s sounds allows us to diagnose problems with the heart valves, heart muscle, and the electrical system of the heart.

The process is simple, we strap a highly sensitive microphone to your chest in four positions (over each of the valves of the heart), and record the results digitally.

The statistical breakdown of heart issues are as follows:

• 80% of heart issues are valvular
• 10% are muscular
• 6% are nervous system related / electrical
• 4% are coronary artery disease

Conventional Cardiology

The above breakdown of heart conditions by type is clinically significant because most medical professionals that monitor the heart look at electrical activity via an EKG, which can tell us if the heart is damaged. More invasive procedures like angiograms (a CT scan with contrast dye injected into the blood) or cardiac catheterization (feeding a camera into the heart through the underarm or femoral artery) can tell us if there is occlusion in a coronary vessel. Echocardiograph (an ultrasound image of the heart) can provide us with a real time image of how efficient the heart muscle is pumping and if there is any valvular insufficiency.

Functional Cardiology

The heart sound recorder by contrast is a very sensitive microphone that picks up on the sounds the heart is making and displays this information as the amplitude of sound across time.  By doing this, we are assessing the valvular and muscular efficiency of the heart muscle, and we can infer how well the electrical conductivity in the heart is working. One of the great things about this tool is that clinicians have figured out that there are specific patterns of heart sounds that correlate with nutritional deficiencies.  By supporting the overall metabolism of the body by giving it what it needs nutritionally, we can see in real-time how the efficiency of the heart is affected.

While the heart sound recorder is not a replacement for conventional cardiology, it does give us real-time, measurable, and clinically actionable information about the most common issues that happen with the heart.  This makes it an ideal screening tool in primary care practice.

What we can tell at a glance with the heart sound recorder:

• Whether there is any degeneration of the heart muscle itself
• Electrical conductivity problems in the heart ex. arrythmia
• Connective tissue problems, manifesting as insufficient heart valve function ex. murmurs
• How the tone of the autonomic nervous system is affecting the heart (aka how stress is affecting the heart)
• What the cause of a fast heart rate is
• Which nutrients the cardiovascular system needs

➤ How long before I start to see results with the nutritional supplements?

Most patients feel better after about a week, and continue to improve over time.

➤ How does the technology work?

The heart sound recorder uses a highly sensitive microphone, and the computer software translates the sound into a graph.

➤ Can the heart sound recorder detect serious problems with the heart?

While the heart sound recorder can't tell us if you have a blockage in your heart, or if your heart tissue is damaged, it can tell us if your heart is functioning inefficiently.  This makes it a great screening tool for cardiovascular issues.