Heart Disease

Heart disease is a major cause of disability and it is the leading cause of death in the United States. Around 700,000 Americans die of heart disease every year, thus accounting for 29% of the total deaths in the US. Heart disease is an umbrella term that covers various diseases affecting the heart. As such, a better approach to understanding heart disease (its nature, symptoms, and treatment) is to tackle each of the heart-related diseases. The following is an overview of the most common heart diseases.

What is the cause?

Risk Factors
People can reduce their risk of developing heart disease and prevent heart attack by addressing the disease's risk factors. The risk factors of heart disease can be classified into three: conditions (blood cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, and diabetes mellitus); behavioral factors (smoking, alcohol, unhealthy diet, obesity, and lack of physical exercise); and hereditary factors.

What are the symptoms of heart disease?
Coronary Heart Disease (CHD). Otherwise called CAD, atherosclerotic heart disease or ischaemic heart disease, CHD is caused by the accumulation of atheromatous plaques in the walls of the arteries responsible for supplying the myocardium with nutrients and oxygen. The signs and symptoms of CHD start to appear in the advanced stage or as the disease progresses.

Ischaemic heart disease. As the term "ischaemia" implies, this problem is characterized by the reduced amount of blood supply to the heart. Since the coronary arteries are responsible for supplying blood to the heart, any blockage in them reduces the amount of blood supplied to the heart muscle. This disease is usually caused by atherosclerosis.

Cardiovascular disease. This heart problem refers to a number of diseases involving the heart and/or the blood vessels (arteries and veins). Heart diseases under this category are: Athersclerosis, Arrhythmia, Angina, Aneurysms, Congestive Heart Failure, Congenital Heart Disease, Cardiomyopathy, Valve Disease, Myocarditis, Coronary Artery Disease, Diastolic Dysfunction, Dialated Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, High Blood Pressure (or Hypertension), Endocarditis, Myocardial Ischemia, and Mitral Valve Prolapse.

Cor pulmonale. This term is used to refer to a change in the function and structure of the right ventricle as a result of a disorder in the respiratory system. Two major causes of cor pulmonale are chronic hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction and vascular changes due to tissue damage. The elimination of the factors causing cor pulmonale is very important.

Hypertensive heart diseases. This category covers several complications of arterial hypertension affecting the heart. Some of the symptoms of hypertensive heart diseases include: fatigue, irregular pulse, swelling of the feet, dyspnea, and weight gain. Hypertensive heart diseases can lead to left ventricular hypertrophy, coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, and hypertensive cardiomyopathy.

Valvular heart disease. This heart problem refers to any disease that involves one or more valves of the heart. The valves found at the right side of the heart are the pulmonic and tricuspid valves. The valves found at the left side of the heart are the aortic and mitral valves. The different kinds of valvular heart disease include: aortic insufficiency, aortic valve stenosis, endocarditis, heart valve dysplasia, libman-Sacks endocarditis, loeffler endocarditis, mitral regurgitation, mitral stenosis, mitral valve prolapse, pulmonary valve stenosis, tricuspid insufficiency, and tricuspid valve stenosis.

Treatment Overview
Angina, which falls under CHD, can be treated with nitroglycerin, oxygen, morphine, and aspirin. On the other hand, treatments of ischaemic heart disease include: specialized coronary care, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, defibrillator, artificial pacemaker, drugs like adrenaline, thrombolytic agents, anticoagulation, inotropic medicines, angioplasty, and surgery. Treatments for cor pulmonale include: thrombolysis (or enzymatic dissolution of the blood clot) for pulmonary embolism, oxygen therapy (long-term) for COPD, diuretics, nitrates, phosphodiesterase inhibitors (tadalafil, Sildenafil, and inotropes). Besides a preventative lifestyle, treatments of cardiovascular disease include: statin cholesterol-lowering drugs, aspirin, and blood pressure reducing medicines.

Prevention of heart disease
The best treatment to any health problem, including heart disease, is observing a healthy lifestyle. The following is a list of preventative measures you can take in order to avoid the risk of developing and succumbing to heart disease. First, prevent and control high blood pressure and your cholesterol level. Second, prevent and control diabetes. Third, quit smoking. Fourth, drink alcohol moderately. Fifth, keep a healthy weight. Sixth, exercise regularly. Seventh, observe a healthy and proper diet.