Living Well with Mitral Valve Prolaspe Syndrome

    Mitral Valve Prolaspe (MVP), is present in 10% of the population. It is said to be the most common cardiac variation and women have it more than men. Of that 10% - 25% have mild to severe symptoms.

The mitral valve and the autonomic nervous system are formed at the same time in the unborn infant. When there is a slight variation in this heart valve it can be reflected as a slight variation in the functioning of the autonomic nervous system. Usually the syndrome is activated after a major crisis(s) takes place; that is how mine was uncovered. Most often there is no logical connection to the crisis and activation of the symptoms. Although the MVP and heart look as if they should get the primary attention, it is actually the autonomic nervous system that needs to be the focus for any healing work from the crisis. (Candida/parasites can also be a cause of an MVP.)

The basis for the physical description of the MVP and the list of symptoms comes from the work of Lyn Frederickson M.S.N. Author of “Confronting Mitral Valve Prolaspe Syndrome” published in 1988. It is a combination of her medical description and my 8 year exploration with this syndrome that is the basis for this article.

The valve is located between the left ventricle and left atrium in the heart. When the lower part of the heart contracts, the mitral valve (without a prolaspe) remains firm and allows no blood to leak back into the upper chambers. When the valve is prolapsed, there is slight variation in the shape of the valve that allows one part of the valve to billow somewhat back into the upper chamber during contraction of the left ventricle. This protrusion can often be heard through a stethoscope, and the sound is known as a “click." There may also be a slight unusually insignificant leak of the valve during the contraction of the ventricle, which may also be heard as a soft murmur. The variation in the shape of the valve is a condition that is hereditary and may appear in various members of a family. It can feel life threatening but it isn’t. It can be life-style threatening. Here is a list of some of the common symptoms that make up this syndrome.

Fatigue and low exercise tolerance
Chest pain, aches, or tightness
Palpitations or irregular heart beat, including missing beats
Migraine headaches
Panic or anxiety attacks
Depression
Shortness of breath
Heightened awareness of heartbeats
Fluttering feeling in the chest
Difficult getting to sleep or staying asleep
Acid indigestion
Feeling hot or cold not related to external temperature
Dizziness, shakiness, jitters or feinting spells
Excessive perspiration or inability to perspire
Trouble with eyes or visual disturbances
Allergies
Memory problems

If you experience any of these symptoms, it is best to get them checked out professionally first. Usually nothing is found to be wrong. For example, chest pain and shortness of breath are not the result of a heart attack. This often comforts people in knowing that their symptoms are related to the imbalance in their nervous system and not some life-threatening condition. You may have to keep reminding yourself that there is nothing wrong with you other than what you already know. So it will challenge and teach you but it will not kill you. The challenge is from the symptoms that arise and how they affect your physical, emotional, and mental states -- your style of living.

I would like to share with you what some of my days used to feel like and still can, and what I have done to help deal with this syndrome. Lets speak first about the general environment that this condition helps create. MVP syndrome people have an extremely sensitive nervous system. If there is also a heightened emotional sensitivity, then no matter how strong our boundaries are we probably feel almost everything that is going on in and around us. The challenge here is that without any training in how to use this heightened awareness we usually don’t have a framework for interpreting what we are picking up in our sensors. In personal relationships the question then becomes who is feeling what. If the “other” does not have the ability or interest to investigate what is happening on a deeper level, then we can be left with allot of unanswered questions. Or if we are feeling what is going on in them and they don’t want to look at it, then the result may be that they wil!
l project it back onto us. If we don’t trust our own experience and stand our ground then this can be a crazy-making experience. I have since learned how to modulate my sensitivities. I have synthesized various techniques into several processes that work. We also tend to be somatic focused, which means excessively focused on our bodily process. I have these types of sensitivities and I am continually learning how to integrate them into my life.

On the physical plane, I didn’t have the on-going fatigue problem. My loss of energy came in episodes. Some days I had lots of energy and then for no understandable reason my energy would disappear. It felt like someone had pulled the plug on my energy tank and it all drained out. The same kind of on and off episodes would happen with my heart rhythms. When I would have irregular beats they would come in several forms. Extra beats, which were easier to tolerate, and missing beats, more difficult to tolerate. The missing beat(s) would give me a chance to actually have a thought like “will it start again” or “is there something I wrong with me”. When these types of rhythms occurred it would be very disorientating and stressful. Panic attacks, which resemble heart attack symptoms, could come at any time. They would grab hold of me and the ride would begin. The truth is that at the time I was in panic I did believe that I was going to die. It is not logical and it ha!
s nothing to do with whether I actually have a fear of death. It is a very primal set of sensations. Add to this a disruptive sleep pattern where I would wake up every 2-3 hours. I mean wide awake -- sometimes with worry or anxiety, sometimes not, but awake just the same. Now let's throw in a couple more panic attacks and all their symptoms, the stress would build and then maybe off to the ER room to be checked out for a heart attack only to find that there is nothing wrong with me. When I was having these symptoms my life felt kind of crazy. For several years I wasn’t sure what was happening. I was able to perform most of my work responsibilities but my personal relationships all suffered. I would have done anything to stop the symptoms but I couldn’t pin point anything that activated them. I started staying home allot, looking for anything, person or place that would help me feel safe. I was living out of the energy of desperation.

Luckily I found some caring support practitioners who helped keep me going towards balance. They were also loving enough to handle a constant question I had “Is there something wrong with me?”. Oh yes another added awareness that came with the package. I could feel the fluids being released in my brain during certain types of emotional responses to what was going on in my environment.

There is support available. I have tried most if not all the possible methods. There are many avenues to check out; most that I have found have been in the non-allopathic healing community. The allopathic system has some great tests to reassure you that nothing else is going on but what they have to offer in the remedy mode is, as I see it, limited at best. There is not enough room in this article to cover all that is available. For any information in this area you can consult with me before seeing one of the following: holistic doctor, naturopath, homeopath.