ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the bottom line in the treatment of any form of cardiovascular disease, and especially in congestive heart failure (CHF), is the restoration of the heart’s supply of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Cardiac conditions like angina, CHF, silent ischemia, and diastolic dysfunction all cause an ATP deficit. Metabolic cardiology offers the greatest hope for the largest number of patients with cardiovascular disease. Natural therapies, which are virtually side effect free, can reduce the reliance on conventional medicines. They are being utilized, and even preferred, by more and more people. In many cases, alternative therapies can augment traditional medicines and provide the final measure of relief that is lacking with drug therapy alone. Cardiac energetics also provides important prognostic information in patients with heart failure, and determining the myocardial contractile reserve has been suggested as a method of differentiating which patients seeking to reverse left ventricular remodeling would most likely respond to cardiac resynchronization therapy.
