Unfortunately, many people find out they have heart disease only when they are taken to an emergency room. Symptoms are often ignored, brushed off as “indigestion” or “tiredness” by people too busy or too fearful to find out if they have heart disease.
Heart disease doesn't take one form but has many different types. One very common condition is Ischemic heart disease, or more commonly called coronary artery disease (CAD). This occurs when arteries are clogged with cholesterol, the fatty substance most often associated with red meat and eggs. Eventually the cholesterol takes up so much space in the artery that the blood cannot get to the heart, resulting in a heart attack. Arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat, is often a first warning sign of CAD. Occasional irregular heart rhythms can also occur in healthy hearts.
Congenital Heart Disease
Congenital heart disease (CHD) occurs when a fetus' heart doesn't develop properly before birth. Obstructions in the arteries, defective valves or an infection passed through the placenta can cause defects in the child's heart. At birth, CHD is suspected if the infant is bluish or has difficulty breathing. Obstetricians can order an ultrasound in the second trimester to determine how healthy the fetal heart is. If results are suspect, the mother is usually referred to a cardiologist for a fetal echocardiograph, which is more detailed than ultrasound. Sometimes surgeons can repair heart defects before birth. Often, CHD isn't detected until later in childhood or even adulthood. With the phenomenal advances in cardiac surgery in the past decades, the prognosis for CHD is more often than not very good.
Heart valve disease is a defect, congenital or developed over time, which causes a heart valve opening to become smaller than the heart needs to pump blood. This can occur in all four valves or even a single one. The valves can become restricted through hardening due to cholesterol buildup, high blood pressure or smoking and worsened by obesity and stress. This condition, called atherosclerosis, can take many years to reach the critical point of affecting the heart enough to make the patient aware of it.
Heart Disease You may have Heard about
Another type of heart disease is Cardiomyopathy (heart muscle disease), a progressive condition in which the heart becomes enlarged and its ability to pump blood is compromised.
Then there is the full-fledge heart attack, or myocardial infarction (MI), often the first warning a person has of heart disease. One of many misconceptions of heart attack is the fictional media portrayal of a dramatic and painful collapse resulting in death or debilitation. This type of incident doesn't happen nearly as often as most people believe. The typical symptoms of advanced heart disease and heart attack are:
- Palpitations: your heart skips beats or you feel a flip-flopping feeling in the chest
- Shortness of breath
- Nausea, dizziness and/or sweating
- Angina, a painful feeling in the chest or upper extremities or a feeling of great pressure. Often, pain will radiate down one or more of your arms.
Hope for Heart Disease Patients
Heart disease isn't the death sentence it was thirty or even twenty years ago. Surgery and medications have made serious progress in patient recovery. Angioplasty is often used to clean out blocked arteries. This procedure is usually followed by insertion of a stent, which is a very small wire mesh tube, to prop open the clean artery. This is a minimally invasive procedure and very effective. The alternative, Coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) is very invasive and traumatic though it gets very good results. CABG uses grafts to make new arteries, rerouting blood flow around the blocked arteries.
Surgery is usually the last resort in the treatment of heart disease. Detected early enough, most can be treated with medication such as aspirin and anti-angina drugs, blood pressure control and beta-blockers that lower cholesterol. Lifestyle changes such as a healthier diet, regular exercise and stopping smoking go a long way towards arresting heart diseases.
There are many resources available to diagnose, treat, live with or prevent heart disease. The most well known of these is the American Heart Association, a national organization that provides patient information, prevention education and researches heart disease. The AHA provides tools for healthy eating, smoking cessation, classes, weight loss, and care of a loved one with heart disease. The Department of Health and Human Services provides free publications and lists resources for help with heart disease. Many internet medical sites, such as WebMD, are excellent resources for dealing with or preventing heart disease.
Prevention, of course, is the best weapon. Regular physical checkups, a healthy lifestyle and education are a good start towards a life free of heart disease.
