Table of Contents
Heart Disease Definition
Heart disease describes a range of conditions that affect the heart. Diseases classified as heart disease include the blood vessels, such as coronary artery disease, heart rhythm problems (arrhythmias), and heart defects that you were born with (congenital heart defects).
The term “heart disease” often uses interchangeably with the word “cardiovascular disease.” “Cardiovascular disease” usually refers to diseases that involve narrowing or blockage of the blood boat that can guide to a heart attack, chest pain, or stroke.
The affect the heart muscles, valves, or rhythm, are also considered its forms. Many forms of heart disease can prevent or treated with healthy lifestyle choices.
What are the Symptoms of Heart Disease?
Symptoms of heart disease depend on the condition that affects the individual.
However, the most common include chest pain, cyanosis, dyspnea, and heart palpitations. Chest pain, joint in many heart disease types, is known as angina or angina pectoris, and it occurs when a part of the heart does not receive enough oxygen.
Angina can develop from stressful events or physical exertion and usually lasts less than 10 minutes. Heart attacks occur as a result of types of it. The signs of a heart attack are the same as angina, await that they can happen during rest and tend to be more severe.
Symptoms of a heart attack can occasionally resemble indigestion. Heartburn and stomach pain may occur, as well as a feeling of heaviness in the chest.
Symptoms of a heart attack include:
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- Pain that spreads in the body, for example, from the chest to the arms, neck, back, abdomen, or jaw
- Lightheadedness and dizziness
- Profuse sweating
- Nausea and vomiting
Heart failure is also the result of it, and shortness of breath can experience when the organ becomes too weak to circulate blood. Some heart conditions can be asymptomatic, especially in older adults and people with diabetes.
The term ‘congenital heart disease’ encompasses a variety of conditions, but general symptoms include:
- Sweating
- High levels of fatigue
- Fast heartbeat and breathing
- Short of breath
- Chest pain
- Bluish colour to the skin
- Misshapen nails
- Feeling weak
- Swelling of feet
In severe cases, symptoms can appear from birth. However, they may not develop until the person is over 13 years old. Many types of heart disease affect different parts of this organ, which occur in different ways. If you have experienced any of the above symptoms, you should seek treatment from regenmedky.com as soon as possible.
What are the Causes of Heart Disease?
The causes of heart disease differ depending on the type of it.
1. Cardiovascular Disease
- Cardiovascular disease can refer to other heart or blood vessel problems.
- It often indicates damage to the heart or blood vessels resulting from atherosclerosis, a build-up of fatty plaques in the arteries.
- The build-up of plaque thickens and hardens the artery walls, inhibiting blood flow through the arteries to organs and tissues.
- Atherosclerosis is also the most usual cause of cardiovascular disease. It can be a consequence of correctable problems, such as low diet, lack of exercise, overweight, and smoking.
2. Cardiac Arrhythmia
The causes that conduct to arrhythmia include the following:
- Heart defects from birth (congenital heart defects)
- Coronary artery disease
- High blood pressure
- Diabetes
- Smoking
- Excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages or caffeine
- Drugs abuse
- Stress
3. Valvular Disease
- In healthy people with a normal, healthy heart, a fatal arrhythmia is unlikely to develop without some external trigger, such as an electric shock or illicit drugs.
- It is mainly because a healthy person’s heart does not have abnormal disorders that cause an arrhythmia, such as an area of scar tissue.
- However, in a diseased or deformed heart, the heart’s electrical impulses may not start or be adequately transported through the heart, making arrhythmias more likely to develop.
4. Congenital Heart Defects
- Congenital heart defects usually develop while the baby is in the womb. Heart defects can develop as the heart forms, about a month after conception, and they change the blood flow in the heart.
- Some diseases, some drugs, and some genes can play a decisive role in developing heart defects.
- Heart defects can also occur in adults. As you age, the structure of the heart can change, leading to a heart defect.
5. Cardiomyopathy
The cause of cardiomyopathy, which is a thickening or enlargement of the heart muscle, may depend on the type:
Dilated Cardiomyopathy: The most usual type of cardiomyopathy is often unknown. It can reduce blood flow to the heart (ischemic heart disease), resulting from damage from a heart attack, infections, toxins, or certain medications. It can also inherit from a parent. Usually, it enlarges (dilates) the left ventricle.
Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: In general, this type of cardiomyopathy, in which the heart muscle becomes abnormally thick, is inherited. It can also develop over time from high blood pressure or age.
Restrictive Cardiomyopathy: The less common type, which causes the heart muscle to become stiff and less elastic, can happen for no apparent reason. It may be due to connective tissue disorders, excessive iron accumulation in the body, collection of abnormal proteins (amyloidosis), or some cancer treatments.
6. Heart Infection
A heart infection, such as endocarditis, occurs when an irritant, such as a bacteria, virus, or chemical, reaches the heart muscle. The most usual causes of heart infections are:
- Bacteria
- Virus
- Parasites
7. Heart Valve Disease
There are many causes of heart valve disease. Valve disease can exist from birth, or damage can cause by conditions such as the following:
- Rheumatic fever
- Infections (infective endocarditis)
- Connective tissue disorders
- Heart disease – care at Mayo Clinic
- And also, Omega 6 fatty acids
Risk Factors of Heart Disease
Risk factors for heart disease include the following:
1. Age
Ageing increases the danger that the arteries will damage and narrow and that the heart muscle will become weak or thick.
2. Sex
In general, men are at a greater danger of heart disease. However, the risk for women grows after menopause.
3. Family Background
Heart disease increases your risk of coronary artery disease. One of your parents developed an advanced age (before age 55 for a male relative, like brother or father, and before 65 years for a female relative, like your mother or sister).
4. Smoke
Nicotine constricts blood vessels, and carbon monoxide can damage their inner lining, making them more prone to atherosclerosis. Heart attacks are extra common in smokers than in nonsmokers.
5. Cancer Chemotherapy and Radiation Drugs
The risk of cardiovascular disease may increase with chemotherapy drugs and radiation therapies.
6. Inadequate Nutrition
A diet significant in fat, salt, sugar, and cholesterol can contribute to a heart infection.
7. High Blood Pressure
Unchecked blood pressure can guide to hardening and thickening of the arteries, narrowing the vessels through which blood flows.
8. Cholesterol in the Blood
High blood cholesterol levels can increase the risk of plaque and atherosclerosis.
9. Diabetes
Diabetes grows the danger of heart disease. Both conditions share the same risk factors, such as obesity and high blood pressure.
10. Obesity
Being overweight usually worsens other risk factors.
11. Lack of Physical Activity
Lack of exercise also associates with many heart disease forms and some of its other risk factors.
12. Stress
Untreated stress can damage your arteries and worsen other risk factors for heart infection.
Bad hygiene is not washing your hands regularly and creating other habits. It can help prevent viral or bacterial infections that can put you in danger for heart disease.
Especially whether you already have an undiagnosed heart condition. Poor dental hygiene can also contribute to heart disease.
Complications of Heart Disease
Complications of heart disease include the following:
Heart Failure: Heart failure, one of the most common complications of heart disease, occurs when the heart cannot push sufficient blood to meet the body’s requirements. It can cause many heart disease forms, including heart defects, cardiovascular disease, valvular heart disease, heart infections, or cardiomyopathy.
Heart Attack: A blood lump that blocks blood flow through a blood vessel supplying the heart source a heart attack, possibly damaging or destroying a part of the heart muscle. Atherosclerosis can lead to a heart attack.
Cerebrovascular accident Risk factors for cardiovascular disease can also lead to ischemic stroke, which occurs when the brain’s arteries are narrowed or blocked, so too little blood reaches the brain. A stroke is a medical emergency: within minutes, brain tissue begins to die.
Aneurysm: An aneurysm (a severe complication that can occur anywhere in the body) is a bulge in the artery wall. If an aneurysm ruptures, there may be life-threatening internal bleeding.
Peripheral Arterial Disease: Atherosclerosis can also lead to peripheral arterial disease. When you have peripheral arterial disease, your extremities (usually your legs) don’t get enough blood flow. It causes symptoms, especially pain in the leg when walking (claudication).
Sudden Cardiac Arrest: It is the sudden and unexpected loss of heart function, breathing, and consciousness, often due to an arrhythmia. Sudden cardiac arrest is a medical emergency. If not treated immediately, it is fatal; it causes sudden death from a heart attack.
Prevention of Heart Disease
Certain heart diseases, such as heart defects, cannot be prevented. However, you can help prevent many other heart diseases by making the same lifestyle changes that can improve it, such as:
- Give up smoking
- Control other diseases, like high blood pressure or high cholesterol and diabetes
- Exercising for at least 30 minutes a day on most days of the week
- Keep to a diet small in salt and saturated fat
- keep a healthy weight
- Reduce and manage stress
- And also, practise good hygiene habits
Conclusion
On an individual level, CHD continues to take a toll on the number of lives lost and the quality of life for cardiac events survivors.
And also, the economic burden on the individual and society will continue to grow unless the disease is controlled and prevented.
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