What is Heart Disease ?

Introduction - Heart disease is the name given to a whole collection of heart conditions that affect people on a daily basis and a term that people across the world are most certainly familiar with. To really understand what heart disease is all about, you need to know what each of the conditions are, and what they do to your body if you are unlucky enough to suffer from one of them.

  It’s a killer disease that affects a vast portion of the world population, but few people know the facts related to heart disease. Heart disease is actually an umbrella term for many different types of afflictions affecting the heart and below we have listed a few conditions that affect the heart; however, this does not represent the full scope of the many specific medical conditions that make up heart disease.

What is Heart Disease? - Coronary Heart Disease

Coronary heart disease is the build up of atheromatous plaque (inflamed tissue) within the arteries that pump blood into the heart; this can build up over time and restrict the flow of blood to the heart causing heart failure. If this does not happen then there is also the possibility that the plaques can rupture causing blood to clot and restrict blood flowing to the heart. The disease progresses over time, and symptoms are often non-existent until the condition manifests itself in the form of a heart attack.

When the plaque builds up to a point where the blood flow to the heart is reduced or cut off, serious consequences can result. Those with an advanced case of coronary heart disease may experience frequent and painful chest pains, due to a symptom known as ‘angina’. The best way of preventing a case of coronary heart disease involves engaging in an active lifestyle, watching what you eat and avoid smoking.

What is Heart Disease?- Ischemic (or ischaemic) heart disease

Those who suffer from Ischemic heart disease experience a decreased flow of blood to the heart. Angina may also occur when a case of Ischemic heart disease is present. Just like Coronary Heart Disease this type of heart disease is very serious and can be prevented by maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

‘Ischaemia’   means an "inadequate blood supply". The only supply of blood to the heart muscle is through the coronary arteries, so any obstruction in the coronary arteries will reduce the supply of blood to the heart muscle.

Atherosclerosis is one of the most common cause of ischemic heart disease and may even exist when the artery lumens appear normal by angiography.

Possible consequences of Ischemic heart disease can be:

v Temporary damage and pain (ischemia)

v Permanent heart muscle damage, heart muscle does not grow back (acute myocardial infarction /infarct)

v Loss of muscle activity (acute heart failure)

v Long term loss of heart muscle activity (chronic heart failure)

v Cardiac arrhythmias: irregular heartbeat which can be fatal. Most death is due to arrhythmias, usually tachyarrhythmias.

v Other structural damage to the heart including damaged heart valves, actual perforation of the heart and a thin walled fibrous floppy heart.

What is Heart Disease? - Cardiovascular Heart Disease

Cardiovascular disease - is a term that represents a number of different types of heart disease. These types of heart disease often affect the blood vessels of the heart. With over 71.3 million citizens of the United States alone affected by a form of cardiovascular disease, it is a common type of illness that can also be avoided by staying healthy.

Pulmonary heart disease - is a very serious form of heart disease. If there is a change in the structure of the right ventricle located in the heart, due to respiratory problems. The affect this has on the right ventricle is great; it can cause increased pressure in the right ventricle, which will eventually lead to the right ventricle stretching through dilation or additional muscle growth in the ventricle to help add strength to the contractions needed for the increase in pressure.

This will add a lot of strain to the heart and will eventually lead to heart failure, and in some cases swelling in the legs.

What is Heart Disease? - Hypertensive Heart Disease

Hypertensive heart disease is related to hypertension, which is commonly known as high blood pressure and affects a large group of people worldwide.

  High blood pressure means the heart has produced an elevated amount of pressure to pump the blood around the body, this can, overtime cause a strain on the heart leading to heart failure or an aortic arterial aneurysm.

An aortic arterial aneurysm is the bulging of a blood vessel in the artery, which will increase to the point that it bursts causing severe pain, and without immediate medical assistance, death.

If found early then surgical intervention can take place and an artificial tube sewn into the aorta and the aneurysm closed so it wont rupture causing a massive internal hemorrhage. This surgery is very invasive so the medical profession will not carry out the surgery unless it is deemed necessary. When arterial hypertension is occurring within the heart, the disease takes over, causing fatigue, an irregular pulse, and a swelling of the feet. The condition can lead to cases of congestive heart failure, and it is a leading cause of death in western society.

What is Heart Disease? - V alvular Heart Disease

There are valves in the heart which assist the bloods journey through the labyrinth of channels that keep the heart functioning. Sometimes there are problems with these valves thus impeding the flow of blood.

The valves in the heart are the tricuspid valve and pulmonic valve, which are both found in the right side of the heart and the mitral valve and aortic valve, which are found in the left side of the heart.

There are a great number of medical conditions that affect the valves in different ways but they all generally involve one or more of the valves being too narrow, wide or loose causing regurgitation of the blood.

What is Heart Disease? - Summary

Now that you know more about the different types of heart disease, you’ll be better able to draw parallels when it comes to acting in a preventative matter and keeping a healthy heart.

By knowing all that you can about:

v   coronary heart disease,

v ischaemic heart disease,

v cardiovascular disease,

v pulmonary heart disease

v valvular heart disease

v hypertensive heart disease,

you’ll be better suited than most when it comes to staying healthy, recognizing symptoms and avoiding a visit to the  A & E of your nearest hospital .

As you can see the causes and affects vary greatly, and it is due to this that we need to be diligent and understand heart disease better, after all it is one of the biggest killers of the present day.

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