July 10, 2018
Admin
5 min
Health, Beauty and Fitness
Problems of heart Warning signs of heart disease Diagnosis of heart disease Treatment of heart disease
Disclosure : When you purchase a service or a product through our links, we sometimes earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.
Problems Of The Heart - Why Should You Be Concerned ?
No, we are not we are not talking about the romantic affairs. Here we are talking about something on much more basic level – survival. Yes, if you survive long enough, you can take care of most of your problems, but heart diseases are emerging the world over, as responsible cause for high rates of morbidity and mortality, in 21st century.
The Gravity of the Situation:
In country like USA, every year about 735000 people get a heart attack and 1 in every 4 death, is due to heart disease. In the developing countries like India, also things are gradually progressing in the wrong direction, thanks to rapid changing lifestyle. Some experts have also predicted that India would soon have the highest number of heart disease patients in the world. According to Indian Heart Association --- 50% of all heart attacks in Indians occur, under 50 years of age & population living in the cities are more vulnerable.
Heart Attack
How do you know, if you have heart disease ?(Major warning signs of heart disease ):
- Chest pain or discomfort
- Shortness of breath
- Upper body pain associated with discomfort in the neck, arms, back, jaw or upper stomach
- Nausea, light-headedness or cold sweats.
- Unusual tiredness.
The high risk group:
Although in this age, of rapidly changing lifestyle, it is a bit difficult to predict who will eventually develop heart disease, but certain diseases have shown, consistent association with cardiac problems. They are:
- Diabetes
- Obesity
- Lack of exercise
- Smoking
- Alcohol
- High Cholesterol level
- Stressful Life
- High intake of fatty food (Specially junk foods)
- High Blood pressure
- Men have a higher risk than females, specially in the young age group.
Prevention and diagnosis, of heart disease:
The most important factor, is if you are a male over 40 years of age & have a stressful life, with rather unhealthy diet, then you should go for a periodic evaluation & check up. Some of the investigations, that may help you are:
- Lipid Profile: This is a blood test and will give you an idea of lipids and cholesterol in your blood.
- ECG: This will detect irregularities in heart’s rhythm and structure.
- Stress electrocardiogram: This is an ECG done, while exercising.
- Echocardiogram: This is basically an ultrasound of your chest, which shows detail images of your heart’s structure and function.
- Coronary Angiography: This is basically x ray imaging of blood vessels of heart, after they are filled with a contrast material. This is the gold standard for evaluation of coronary artery diseases.
Control Strategies(Treatment of Heart disease):
Lifestyle Changes:
- Low fat diet
- Low sodium diet (Salt control)
- Absolute stoppage of smoking
- Stop Alcohol
- Exercise after consultation, with experts (So as not to overstress yourself)
- Control of Diabetes and high blood pressure, if present
- Control your weight, if obese.
- Eat more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts and legumes. Dietary supplement like omega fatty acids are helpful for prevention.
- Stress and depression, should be taken care of at an early stage by meditation and consulting psychologist.
- Serum cholesterol levels if increased, should be brought under control by medications.
Medical Opinion:
Consult a cardiologist, if you have any above problems or suspect cardiac disease in any family member. If nearby a cardiologist is not present, then take a preliminary opinion from a specialist in field of Internal medicine. Underestimating the problem and self medications, should always be avoided. Majority of the problems, can be taken care of by medicinal intervention & only in rare / late cases may need of cardiac surgery arise.
(Disclaimer – This article is just for general guidance. Treatment should always be individualised, after thorough examination, by concerned specialist )
(DECLARATION - All the images used in this site, are either from personal collection, or are images available in Public Domain. The owner of this website is grateful to all those, who donated their images to – Wikipedia, Wikimedia, Flickr, Pixabay, Picryl and all other sites; for free use, as images in Public Domain.)
Disclosure: When you purchase a service or a product through our links, we sometimes earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.
