Reducing the Risk of Heart Disease

Heart disease can take a lot of different forms. It can quickly strike and once it has, your life is usually dramatic altered. Although it can strike quickly, most versions of this disease develop over time. If you are vigilant about taking care of yourself and watching for the warning signs, you should never place yourself in an emergency situation where you require immediate medical treatment because of this disease.

Since this is such a critical problem in today’s society, we have included a bit of information related to what constitutes heart disease, some of the common symptoms/signs, and what can be done to prevent this problem.

Unfortunately, we are only providing a top level view of this tragic problem. At the bottom of this page we have included some links that are much more focused on this topic.

So, what exactly constitutes “heart disease”? Great question! There are many things that fall into the category of heart disease, but the general definition would be, “an abnormal condition which affects either the heart or the blood vessels within the heart”. So what does this mean? Essentially, this means that anything that affects the normal operation of the heart and of the way it pumps blood to your body is considered to be a heart disease.

Coronary artery disease is the most common form of heart disease and is the leading cause of death in the US today. When you have coronary artery disease the heart has trouble beating and sending blood to the body because the arteries have become hard (excess plaque) and clogged. This forces the heart to work harder to pump blood and less blood getting back to the heart. This condition builds up over time and gets to a point where the heart is no longer able to provide the needed blood to the critical organs of the body.

There are several versions of coronary heart disease. One of these is angina, which manifests itself as a pain in the chest, arms, neck, or back, that is caused by the heart not getting enough blood. If you have symptoms of angina, you are not having a heart attack, but the likelihood is high that you will soon have a heart attack if you don’t make a lifestyle change.

Another more commonly know coronary disease is a heart attack. This occurs when the heart is getting no blood, which if not corrected will lead to death.

Other forms of this disease include heart failure (the heart is not able to provide the vital organs with the blood that they need to properly function) and heart arrhythmia (a change to the beating rhythm of the heart). Both of these are serious conditions that need to be addressed immediately.

A stroke is another form of this disease. A stroke occurs when a sufficient amount of blood is not provided to parts of the brain, often due to a clogged or blocked artery. When this occurs, certain parts of the brain are deprived of oxygen (as provided by the blood) and these parts of the brain die.

Strokes are currently the third highest cause of death in the US and are the leading cause of disabilities in the US.

Symptoms/Signs

For heart disease related conditions, there are almost always warning signs that a threat is near. Unlike what you see on television or in the movies, heart attacks usually don’t occur out of the blue. The conditions that lead to heart problems develop over a long period of time. If, however, you have not noticed these signs or have ignored them, these are some of the symptoms that should raise a red flag:

• chest pain
• upper torso pain (arms, neck, back, shoulders)
• shortness of breath
• swelling of the joints (wrists, elbows, arms, ankles, knees, legs)
• fatigue
• nausea
• cold sweats
• dizziness/lightheadedness
• stomach ache
• heart palpitations
• loss of appetite

The symptoms above are also warning signs of a stroke since like heart disease, the cause for a stroke are usually the same. Since a stroke is damage to the brain, however, there are additional symptoms that you should be aware of. These include:

• numbness to the face or extremities (usually a single side of the body)
• loss of balance
• severe headache
• problem with vision
• confusion
• difficulty speaking

What do you do if these conditions appear?

Ideally, you would be very aware of your body and recognize some of the symptoms well before your condition become critical. If, however, this is not the case and you find yourself in a situation where these symptoms appear, the best course of action is immediate medical treatment. I don’t mean make an appointment with your doctor, but call 911 as soon as possible.

Studies have shown that the best way of preventing permanent damage is through medication and medical care. Don’t wait!!

Prevention

The last thing anybody wants to do is to put them self in a life or death medical situation. As we’ve all heard, the best defense if a good offense. In this case, that means taking care of yourself and not allowing your risk of heart disease to become elevated.

You need to monitor your health, which means regular doctor visits to check your key health indicators. These indicators include cholesterol levels, triglyceride levels, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels. As we age, we need to become even more vigilant about doctor visits and taking care of ourselves.

Ask any doctor or read any article and it will tell you that you need to take care of yourself. This includes regular exercise, eating a health diet, taking a good supplement, not smoking, and keeping your weight down.

To learn more about preventing heart attacks, click here

To see what the Mayo clinic has to say about this problem, click here

To read more about heart diseases, click here

To see what the American Heart Association has to say, click here

To see what Web MD has to say, click here

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