Patent ID: 8165674

Claim:
A method for pacing a heart of a patient comprising: determining the patient is suffering from at least one of hypertension, and excessive retention of fluid and sodium; during a first pacing period synchronously pacing at least one atria and at least one ventricle of the patient's heart; during a second pacing period, asynchronously pacing the at least one atria of the patient's heart at an atrial pacing rate and synchronously pacing the at least one ventricle of the patient's heart at a ventricular pacing rate, such that the atrial pacing rate exceeds the ventricular pacing rate; during the pacing of the second pacing period, stressing, beyond a natural stress condition, a wall of the at least one atria due to the atrial pacing rate, wherein the stressed wall secretes a hormone at an elevated secretion level above a secretion level occurring while a natural atrial rate and a natural ventricular rate are equal; achieving a beneficial therapeutic effect in the patient by the elevated level of the secreted hormone, wherein the beneficial therapeutic effect includes at least one of: limiting a degree of vasoconstriction, limiting a degree of sodium retention, increasing urine output, inhibiting a renin-angiotensin system, inhibiting endothelin secretion, inhibiting systemic and renal sympathetic activity, and counteracting effects of at least one of norepinephrine, endothelin, and angiotensin II, and repeatedly alternating the first pacing period and the second pacing period to pace the patient's heart, wherein each alternating second pacing period has a duration of at least ten minutes.