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Heart disease is a term used to describe all the diseases that will affect your heart. The so-called heart diseases are heart infections, coronary artery disease, heart attacks, arrhythmias, heart failure, and heart muscle disease.
Usually is a solid relationship between heart disease and cardiovascular diseases. The last one includes blocked blood vessels which will eventually conduct to a heart attack.
You should know that many heart diseases could be prevented with good alimentation and by practicing some sports in your spare time.
Heart diseases are a significant problem in our modern society, because of our alimentation and lifestyle. It will be a big advantage for you against these diseases if you have some information about them and know how to recognize them from the beginning when the first symptoms are visible.
Here are a few symptoms for heart diseases mentioned above:
There are many types of heart infections, but the most common of them are pericarditis, which will cause an infection of the sac that surrounds the heart, which will lead to inflammation of that membrane. Endocarditis represents an infection of the valves inside the heart and, in most cases, is caused by bacteria. Another common heart infection is Rheumatic fever, which will attack tissues of the heart. Left untreated, this disease can cause permanent damage to the heart valves.
A few symptoms of heart infections are:
It is also sometimes called coronary heart disease (CHD) because this is the main cause of CHD, but it is not the only one. This terrible disease causes the most death worldwide. The symptoms of coronary artery disease are notable from the initial phase, but most people show no symptoms for this disease for many years until a sudden heart attack appears.
A few symptoms of coronary artery disease are:
A heart attack occurs your blood flow to a part of the heart is blocked for a sufficient time to cause damages to the muscle of the heart because of the lack of oxygen. The main reason for the heart attack is a blood clot that blocks a coronary artery. The symptoms of heart attack are:
Arrhythmia, also called dysrhythmia, is an irregular heartbeat. The heart could beat too fast, too slow, or too irregularly because the electrical impulses to the heart are not working properly. Usually, arrhythmias aren’t a huge problem, but they could have fatal effects if the heartbeat differs very much from normal. A few symptoms for arrhythmias are:
Heart failure represents the inability of the heart to deliver sufficient blood to meet the needs of the body; this does not mean that the heart stopped working. This is a common disease, costly, and it could be a deadly condition. The symptoms of heart failure could be:
There are two types of heart muscle diseases: cardiomyopathy, which will change the muscle of your heart, and myocarditis which represents an acute inflammation of your heart muscle, usually caused by a viral infection. The main symptoms of this condition of the heart are:
I want to point out that these symptoms for heart diseases are only informative. If you have one or two symptoms, it does not necessarily mean that you have heart disease, but you should go to the hospital to run some tests to see what caused those problems.
Heart disease treatment is dependent on your signs and symptoms and just how severe the condition is. If you or someone you care about has coronary heart disease or has had a heart attack, you need to read the following information.
Knowing the heart disease treatments available can literally be life-saving. Where surgery and prescription drugs were once the only treatments, today, there are more options.
Here are the top five treatments for heart disease. These are the least to most invasive, but the exact treatment will vary with your symptoms and severity.
In any case, you should know about all of them to discuss them with your doctor.
When you are first identified with cardiovascular disease, chances are your physician will ask you to make lifestyle changes. Examples include eating a heart-nutritious diet and becoming more physically active. In fact, here are some foods that lower cholesterol to help reduce coronary disease.
If you’re really overweight, you may want to read about obesity and heart disease.
If you smoke, you’ll be urged to stop. If you drink more than a drink a day, you’ll be told to cut down or even stop, although a small glass of red wine may be heart-healthy.
Healthy habits can slow and even stop heart disease. Sure, it’s difficult to change the way you eat and how much physical exercise you do (or don’t) get. However, diet and exercise are potent remedies again the risk of future attacks.
There are nutritional supplements that can help to stave off more damage to your heart. For example, it’s well-known that fish oil and niacin are heart-healthy treatments. In fact, there are even prescription coronary medications that are based on these two supplements!
Other supplements that can help treat heart disease include Coenzyme Q10, omega-3 fatty acids (including flaxseed oil), red yeast rice, and turmeric.
Of course, we can’t forget about aspirin, which slows the clotting of blood. Check with your doctor before starting a low-dose aspirin regimen if they haven’t already recommended it.
Your doctor may prescribe medications for heart disease treatment. You are probably familiar with at least some of the statin drugs that are often prescribed, as they have been highly advertised on TV and in magazines. The statin prescription medications are primarily for issues with cholesterol, which of course, contributes to heart disease. Examples of statin drugs include Lipitor, Crestor, Zocor, and Lescol.
Beta-blockers, which make your heart beat more slowly and less forcefully, help reduce the strain. Similarly, calcium channel blockers relax arteries, thereby lowering high blood pressure and reducing the strain on your heart, reducing the chances of further attacks.
You may also get a prescription for drugs that can improve your heart’s pumping ability, such as ACE inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers.
Several medical devices and types of interventional procedures are also part of the treatment for heart disease.
One device that you’re probably familiar with is a heart pacemaker, which helps maintain a proper heart rhythm. You may not know that there are a few different types of machines that fall under the term pacemaker. The type received depends on the reason for the heart disease.
Angioplasty is a procedure in which a balloon catheter (a flattened balloon on the guidewire) is passed through arteries to the designated location. The balloon is then inflated to some fixed size under high pressure. This device crushes the fatty deposits, opening the circulation system for enhanced flow, and afterward withdrawn. This procedure also helps reduce angina (i.e., “chest pain”).
A stent (also known as a coronary stent) is a tube put into a coronary artery to help keep the artery open for blood flow. The medical procedure is called percutaneous coronary intervention (abbreviated PCI).
In some cases, the indicated heart disease treatment is heart surgery. Coronary artery bypass surgery is the most common, where arteries or veins from somewhere else in your body are grafted. The result of grafting is that severely narrowed or clogged arteries are bypassed, which improves the blood supply to the heart muscle.
One or more coronary arteries are bypassed, resulting in double, triple, and quadruple bypass.
This is major surgery, usually performed with the heart stopped, which introduces additional risks (along with all the normal surgical complication possibilities).
As you can see, there are a lot of different ways that heart disease can be treated. Obviously, the less invasive, the better, so treatment begins with lifestyle changes. For example, eating a heart-healthy diet and exercising more often can help a great deal. It will also reduce your risk of having a heart attack or stroke.
Other treatments may be added, depending on the type and severity of the heart disease. For example, you might want to include a nutritional supplement like niacin if cholesterol buildup is a problem. And, of course, your doctor might include other prescription medications.
Your options may change depending on the kind and severity of your coronary disease. But as there are many types of heart disease treatment, you and your medical professional can customize the treatment to fit your heart’s needs.
By knowing your options, you can save a life – your own.
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