Inroduction
The heart has long been associated with the very nature of humanity. As long ago as the fourth century BC, Aristotle considered it to be the seat of the soul, the centre of nutrition and the vital source of heat. The very word ‘heart’ is still deeply embedded in our language in phrases such as ‘heart-felt sympathy’, ‘heart-to-heart talk’, or ‘the heart and soul of the party’, no doubt reflecting its central location in the body and its regular beat. It is also associated with many emotional sensations, so heart disorders hit at the very core of a person’s fabric and psyche.
Types of Heart disease
Heart Attack
High blood pressure
Ischemic heart disease
Heart rhythm disorders
Tachycardia
Heart murmurs
Rheumatic heart disease
Pulmonary heart disease
Causes Of Heart Disease :
For almost forty years, the lipid hypothesis or diet-heart idea has dominated medical thinking about heart disease. In broad outlines, this theory proposes that when we eat foods rich in saturated fat and cholesterol, cholesterol is then deposited in our arteries in the form of plaque or thermos that cause blockages. If the blockages become severe, or if a clot forms that cannot get past the plaque, the heart is starved of blood and a heart attack occurs.
Many distinguished scientists have pointed to serious flaws in this theory, beginning with the fact that heart disease in America has increased during the period when consumption of saturated fat has decreased. “The diet-heart idea,” said the distinguished George Mann, “is the greatest scam in the history of medicine.” And the chorus of dissidents continues to grow, even as this increasingly untenable theory has been applied to the whole population, starting with low fat diets for growing children and mass medication with cholesterol-lowering drugs for adults.
But if it isn’t cholesterol, what causes heart disease? We don’t know enough to say for sure but we do have many clues; and although these clues present a complicated picture, it is not beyond the abilities of dedicated scientists to unravel them. Nor is the picture so complex that the consumer cannot make reasonable life-style adjustments to improve his chances.
Heart disease includes the 13 Symptoms listed below:
•Angina- and its symptoms
•Chest discomfort
•Chest pain
•Brief pain episodes- often 2-5 minutes
•Pain worsens on exercise
•Pain relief from rest
•Shortness of breath
•Indigestion
•Palpitations
•Arrhythmias
•Light-headedness
•Fainting
Treatments for Heart Disease
There is a wide range of effective drug treatments for people with heart disease. These drugs can help lower blood pressure or cholesterol, prevent or dissolve blood clots, relieve and prevent angina symptoms or improve the strength or rhythm of the heart’s contractions.
Medical procedures to diagnose and treat heart disease include coronary angiography, coronary artery bypass grafts, coronary angioplasty, coronary stinting, heart transplants, operations for congenital defects, surgery for heart valve defects, electrophysiological treatments and implanting of cardiac defibrillator.
How can I avoid having a heart attack?
Talk to your family doctor about your specific risk factors (see box above) for a heart attack and how to reduce your risk. Your doctor may tell you to do the following:
•Quit smoking. Your doctor can help you. (If you don’t smoke, don’t start!)
•Eat a healthy diet. Cut back on foods high in saturated fat and sodium (salt) to lower cholesterol and blood pressure. Ask your doctor about how to start eating a healthy diet.
Lose weight if you’re overweight
Control your blood pressure if you have hypertension.
Posts Tagged ‘Heart Diseases’
Heart Diseases – How Can We Prevent Them?
Friday, January 1st, 2010Heart Disease Causes, Symptoms, Stress Contribute and Treatment
Thursday, December 24th, 2009Heart Disease
If you’re like most people, you think that heart disease is a problem for other folks. But heart disease is the number one killer in the U.S. It is also a major cause of disability. There are many different forms of heart disease. The most common cause of heart disease is narrowing or blockage of the coronary arteries, the blood vessels that supply blood to the heart itself.
Heart disease is an umbrella term for a number of different diseases affecting the heart. As of 2007, it is the leading cause of death in the United States,[1][2] England, Canada and Wales,[3] killing one person every 34 seconds in the United States alone.
Symptoms of Heart disease
The symptoms of heart disorder include certain types of pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, palpitations (awareness of slow, fast, or irregular heartbeats), light-headedness, fainting, and swelling in the legs, ankles, and feet. However, these symptoms do not necessarily indicate a heart disorder.
Symptoms may be very noticeable, but sometimes you can have the disease and not have any symptoms.
Chest pain or discomfort (angina) is the most common symptom. You feel this pain when the heart is not getting enough blood or oxygen. How bad the pain is varies from person to person.
Causes of Heart Diseases
People on anticoagulants like rivaroxaban should be very careful when it comes to contact sports, as cuts and bruises can be dangerous.
Too much low-density lipoprotein (LDL or “bad cholesterol”) in the blood causes plaque to form on artery walls, which starts a disease process called atherosclerosis. When plaque builds up in the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart, you are at greater risk of having a heart attack.
Many distinguished scientists have pointed to serious flaws in this theory, beginning with the fact that heart disease in America has increased during the period when consumption of saturated fat has decreased. “The diet-heart idea,” said the distinguished George Mann, “is the greatest scam in the history of medicine.
Stress Contribute to Heart Disease
Medical researchers aren’t sure exactly how stress increases the risk of heart disease. Stress itself might be a risk factor, or it could be that high levels of stress make other risk factors (such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure) worse. For example, if you are under stress, your blood pressure goes up, you may overeat, you may exercise less and you may be more likely to smoke.
Treatment of Heart Disease
Diagnosis and Conventional Treatment
In many cases the first indication of cardiovascular disease is a sudden heart attack. There are more than 1.5 million heart attacks in the United States every year and 30% of them are fatal within the first month(5,24). As one popular medical textbook puts it: “Sudden death is the first and only manifestation of coronary heart disease in about 25% of patients.”
Intermittent claudicating involves pain in a muscle to which the blood supply has been restricted due to atherosclerosis. The pains occur with exercise and subside within a couple of minutes once the exercise is stopped. Conventional medical therapy includes an emphasis on daily walks, weight reduction, and total avoidance of smoking.