Healing the Heart

Using an Old, New Treatment

Many of you know that earlier this year, I formed a new business venture, Tenpenny Health Restoration Center, focusing on ECP, External Counter Pulsation. This long over-looked medical device can offer relief from a myriad of conditions, but it is primarily an FDA-approved treatment for refractory angina. Over the years, it has been found to also address other types of heart disease - hypertension, arrhythmias, cardiomyopathies, congestive heart failure (CHF) and myocarditis - and a long list of other medical conditions including COPD, kidney disorders, ischemic strokes, depression, mild vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease, ischemic eye diseases, and even erectile dysfunction.

In fact, this article published in 2019, has a long list of conditions that ECP has been documented to help.

Getting started with this business has been a tremendous amount of work – from writing the business plan and raising the capital, to doing the build out and furnishing the space, to hiring/training the staff. We started the endeavor in late-March…and we opened for business on July 19. I knew time was of the essence. But launching a new business in midst of the threat of an economic meltdown looming over use by the tyrannical Globalists who are running the show right has been more than a little stressful.

Even though the future landscape is fraught with landmines, when the Lord puts something on your heart...you need to listen, even when you don’t really want to do the task.

Smaller and Focused

Everyone wants to dream big. People desperately want a new healthcare system. The current system is incredibly broken and trust in doctors has never been lower.

But in reality, people want the same thing to be somehow magically different. They want to keep their doctor AND their health insurance. In my opinion, that’s rather like ‘putting lipstick on a pig’ - an expression that means that by making only cosmetic changes to the system, it is a futile effort to disguise its fundamental failings.

I have been on countless phone calls over the last two years with various groups who are fired up about “starting a new healthcare system” or “building a new wellness center.” While the idea may be novel to them, each group thinks they have a unique idea and their center will shift the paradigm…like it’s never been done before. I’m not being critical and I certainly don’t want to rain on their respective parades, but it is an accurate observation. Having run a successful, cash-based medical clinic for over 26 years, it is a huge undertaking. And in the days where there are help wanted signs everywhere and barely anyone to hire, finding consistent, high quality employees is more challenging than ever before.

So, when the Lord started nudging me to DO SOMETHING…I really didn’t want to start anything new. Well, the nudge became a SHOVE… and our first ECP Clinic was born.

What is ECP?

External counterpulsation (EECP) therapy is chest pain therapy that is most commonly recommended for people who are not candidates for stints (too many small blockages) and candidates or are in eligible for by-pass surgery (heart is too weak.)

EECP therapy uses wraps, similar to blood pressure cuffs, to improve your blood flow. The cuffs are hydraulic and connected to your heart using a 3-lead EKG monitor. It is painless, noninvasive, and akin to passive exercise. In fact, you get six times more oxygen to your heart during an ECP treatment than you do running uphill on a treadmill for an hour! The treatment increases circulatory nitric oxide, which dilates your arteries and increases vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). VEGF stimulates your body to grow new blood vessels. In the heart, the new blood vessels created are collateral circulation around blocked blood vessels.

The medical literature describes a full course of treatment as daily treatments over seven weeks, 35 treatments in total. However, benefit can be achieved from 10 or 20 treatments; and a person can do two sessions per day. Sessions are a hour in duration; most people listen to music, read, or take a nap during the treatment!

What Results are Achieved?

With ECP, an increase in exercise tolerance without symptoms is seen almost immediately. Patients experience lowered blood pressure, more energy and an overall sense of improved well being in as few as 3 treatments. Most are able to reduce the number of medications or the dosage of their medications as the protocol proceeds. There are essentially no side effects, and it is safe even for patients who have a stint or pacemaker in place and/or have had previous by-pass surgery.

How long do the results last?

In 2000, the Journal of Clinical Cardiology published a 5-year follow up study that concluded:

The overall survival of ECP-treated patients was 88%. This is comparable to that seen with medical and revascularization therapies. The study concluded:

This study suggests that, particularly for the majority of patients demonstrating improvement in radionuclide stress perfusion post treatment, EECP may be an effective long-term therapy.

After completing my sessions, do I need to come back for a tune-up?

I like to explain it this way: Imagine you are overweight and out of shape and then went to the gym for several months. During that time, you lost weight and got into shape. Would you then cancel your gym membership… or would you want a long term membership?

At Tenpenny Health Restoration Center in Middleburg Heights we offer long term membership packages where you can come weekly, bi-weekly or even once a month to maintain your health. Most people feel so good after completing their sessions, they want to continue forever!

For more information, call Tenpenny Health Restoration Center - the number is on the website. We’ve already had patients from TN, VA, MI, LA, CO, OK, PA and AZ!

If you’re on the West Coast, I also own a second, smaller health related location in Ventura, CA - the website and phone number is here: www.ECPStudio.com

(Have you seen it? I write a Sunday Substack called “Walking with God” - find it here.)