Heart Disease and Associated Problems

To be told you have heart disease can strike fear into anyone hearing it for the first time, however it's not as bad as it sounds.

In this article I am going to explain some of the terms, causes and remedies associated with heart disease.

Heart disease is a general term used to describe several different conditions, all of which are potentially fatal, but are also treatable and/or preventable.

Heart disease is primarily a disease of lifestyle, and is largely preventable through risk factor awareness and modification.

However it is a serious condition and if ignored it is a major cause for heart attacks (myocardial infarction), congestive heart failure, angina pectoris, stroke, sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), and ischemia (reduced blood flow).

The most common form of heart disease is coronary heart disease, also known as coronary artery disease

CORONARY
Coronary artery disease is the most common form of heart disease, it is caused by a narrowing or clogging of the coronary arteries that supply the heart with oxygen and nutrients.

Coronary artery disease and the resulting reduced blood flow to the heart muscle can lead to other heart problems, such as chest pain (angina) and heart attacks myocardial infarction).

The risk of coronary heart disease can be reduced by taking steps to prevent and control those adverse factors that put people at greater risk for heart disease and heart attacks.

CHOLESTEROL
If you have too much cholesterol in your bloodstream, the excess is deposited in arteries, including the coronary arteries, where it contributes to the narrowing and blockages that cause the signs and symptoms of heart disease.

High levels of the wrong type of cholesterol (LDL) can be life threatening especially because this type of cholesterol has the capability to choke the arteries and thus cause a heart attack.

What happens is that the levels of the lipoprotein, which is made in the liver and in cells lining blood vessels, rise with things that make heart disease more likely, like smoking, obesity, high cholesterol and diabetes.

Conversely the levels fall when patients stop smoking, lose weight and get their cholesterol and diabetes under control.

Cholesterol levels should be less than 5.5. If your cholesterol level is 6.5 mmol/L or greater your risk of heart disease is about 4 times greater than that of a person with a cholesterol level of 4 mmol/L.

The best defense against high cholesterol is simply controlling the risk factors that could lead to coronary artery disease, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, stress, excessive alcohol consumption, physical inactivity and being overweight.

Regular aerobic activities have a good effect on blood vessels and cholesterol.
Dietary aids to lowering cholesterol

1. Reduce cheese intake and/or substitute low fat varieties
2. Choose reduced fat milks
3. Substitute polyunsaturated margarine for butter
4. Choose lean cuts of meat and remove all visible fat
5. Eat skinless chicken, fish or beans
6. Beware of pies, pasties, fish and chips and commercial cakes (hidden fat)
7. Make cakes at home with polyunsaturated fat, cook chips with polyunsaturated or monounsaturated oil
8. Lose weight if overweight.

High blood pressure also causes many other types of cardiovascular disease, such as stroke and heart failure.

ARTERIES
Coronary artery diseases are diseases of the arteries that supply the heart muscle with blood.
If you suffer from CAD it generally means that blood flow through the coronary arteries has become obstructed, reducing blood flow to the heart muscle.

Like any muscle, the heart needs a constant supply of oxygen and nutrients, which are carried to it by the blood in the coronary arteries.

When the coronary arteries become narrowed or clogged by cholesterol and fat deposits (atherosclerosis), the heart cannot get enough and the result is coronary heart disease (CHD).

STROKE
Other cardiovascular diseases include stroke, high blood pressure, angina (chest pain), and rheumatic heart disease. Smoking and uncontrolled high blood pressure are important risk factors for stroke.
Although stroke is highly preventable, certain risk factors such as; family history, age, sex and race can't be controlled.

People with diabetes are also two to four times more likely to die of heart disease and experience stroke.

PREVENTION
Although heart disease is a serious condition that requires constant monitoring, there are many things you can do to reduce your risk for cardiovascular problems and live a full, active life, even if you should suffer a heart attack.

Study results indicate that heart disease is almost twice as likely to develop in inactive people as in those who exercise regularly.

However studies have also shown that after five years of giving up smoking, the risk of developing heart disease is the same as for someone who never smoked.

As well, if you exercise on a regular basis, the chance of your developing heart disease is about half that of people who do no exercise at all.

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How to Live With Heart Disease

The agony of finding out that you may be suffering from some form of heart disease is usually traumatic. Your doctor has just received the laboratory test results for the battery of tests that you have completed during your recent checkup. From what the results indicate, if you do not stop eating all those fatty foods that you love so much, you are going to require bypass surgery very soon. Do not worry that your quality of life will get worse since there are modern treatment plans that get you on to the road of recovery as long as certain lifestyle changes are made.

Living With Heart Disease
The first consideration when living with heart disease is the type of heart problem you are suffering from. Is your doctor tracking your cholesterol levels? Or, is it something a lot more serious? The severity of your heart condition will shed a great deal of light on the kind of lifestyle you can have when living with heart diseases and how it actually affects you.
If the type of heart problem is currently a very mild form, you should be able to keep a lid on it with medication. But for many people in a state of denial, they will refuse to or do not like taking their medication since they would be admitting to the fact that they are living with the disease.
So if you have heart medication to take for your condition and you are too stubborn to take it, understand the consequences of this action. Is it better to take a couple of pills on a daily basis or would you prefer to have to go to the extent of requiring heart surgery? Surely no one wants to undergo heart surgery. So think carefully before rejecting medication. It is a lot easier to deal with than other more complicated treatment methods.
Getting adequate amount of exercise on a regular basis is another facet of living with heart problem. If the heart problem in your case is of the more serious kind, you may not want to overtax yourself. If you sit still all day long you have a higher risk of getting blood clots. So get off your butt and get some exercise. Start with brisk walking over short distances and gradually build up.
There are some more difficult aspects to living with heart disease. One of them is giving up delicious fatty food and desserts. But then again it all boils down to whether or not you would like to prolong your life. There are trade offs in all situations. Nowadays there are so many more options though. Just a few years ago we could not obtain half the low fat option foods that are available today. Not only are they delicious, they are also healthier options.
Your doctor will be able to provide you with information about heart diseases and the Internet has many reputable websites. Some of the heart health websites host forums where you can communicate with other people suffering from the same disease.
Living with heart disease is really just about taking your prescribed medication, ensuring that you eat in a healthy manner and remaining active. With research you will find all the information you ever need to know to manage your condition better.

The Progress Of Heart Disease Research
Due to the debilitating effects of various forms of heart disease, medical technologists around the world are working towards developing more effective treatment methods through heart disease research.The search for knowledge about what heart disease really is and the pursuit of solutions to use to prevent and treat heart disease is extremely vital. There are many companies and organizations that either conduct heart disease research, or support the cause for heart disease research.

Heart Disease Research Organizations
The Research Center for Stroke and Heart Disease is a non-profit organization established to raise awareness of and find solutions for prevention of stroke and heart disease. Its reach is worldwide and it concerns itself with all types of heart disease and stroke. The Research Center for Stroke and Heart Disease designs, implements and evaluates projects that educate people with regards to the risk factors for these illnesses and motivates them to practice good habits in the quest for reducing them.
The Research Center for Stroke and Heart Disease operates from Buffalo General Hospital. There are several full-time and part-time staff members and they make use of contractors who have a background in communications, health care management and computer programming for heart disease research. During the past ten years of their existence the Research Center for Stroke and Heart Disease has built a very good reputation.
Another heart disease research organization is the British Heart Foundation. This organization is considered to be the British nation's heart charity. The British Heart Foundation focuses in particular on three very important issues. They invest in pioneering heart disease research, support and care for heart patients and they provide essential information to assist people to reduce their risk of premature death from heart or circulatory related disease.
Harvard Medical School should also be mentioned. It is a center that concentrates its efforts on heart disease research. Harvard Medical School has been in the heart disease research arena for several decades. They have a vast amount to offer in terms of information and education regarding heart disease: what it is, what its causes are, up-to-date research findings and many statistics.
Research into heart diseases is the only solution that will help to clarify heart related diseases throughout the world today. There is always hope that sometime, preferably in the near future, research will show the way to completely avoid heart related diseases for everyone.

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Dispelling Myths About Heart Disease

Misconceptions about cardiovascular diseases -- heart attacks, stroke and high blood pressure -- have existed for many years and have in effect become myths. Most of them stem from factual observations during the early phase of the current global epidemic and have become deeply rooted in the minds of policymakers, health professionals and the public alike. Since these misconceptions adversely influence the allocation of resources and undermine actions to prevent and control cardiovascular diseases, they need to be firmly squashed.

Myth 1: Heart disease is a problem of developed countries
Every year, cardiovascular diseases cause around 15 million deaths in the world (30% of all deaths), and of these about two-thirds occur in developing countries. So the absolute number of deaths from these causes is twice as high in developing countries as in the industrialized world. Over twice as many deaths from stroke occur in developing countries as in industrialized countries; and the numbers of deaths due to heart attacks are equal in poor and rich countries. It is estimated that in China and India combined, which account for half the population of the developing world, between five and six million deaths are caused each year by cardiovascular diseases.

Myth 2: Heart disease is a problem of the rich
All societies include "early adopters" and "late adopters" of lifestyle changes. Early in the heart disease epidemic, affluent people in developing countries had the means and the opportunity to adopt new lifestyles, involving behaviour such as choosing foods rich in fat and calories, buying cars and using tobacco. Since these goods have become affordable for mass consumption "unhealthy" behaviour of this kind has become common across all social classes. Today, affluent people, especially the urban rich, have better access to health information concerning risk factors in the media and they also possess the means to modify their behaviour in favour of a healthier lifestyle (healthy diets, leisure-time physical activity, abstinence from tobacco). They constitute the "early adopters", while the urban poor and rural communities -- with limited access to information and little time or money for "healthy foods" and "fitness clubs" -- lag behind. As a result, risky behaviour develops, and risk factors increase.

Recent studies from Latin America and South-East Asia, where coronary heart disease is particularly common, indicate that many coronary risk factors are more prevalent among those with lower socioeconomic standing and that the poor are, indeed, at higher risk of heart attacks.
In industrialized countries too, where the epidemic began among the urban rich, though some decades earlier than in the developing world, cardiovascular diseases are now more common in the relatively poor. When the worldwide heart disease epidemic fully develops, the poorest countries and the poorest people within society will be the worst affected.

Myth 3: Heart disease is mostly a man's disease
While coronary heart disease is, in general, less common in pre-menopausal women than in men, in many parts of the world it is the most common cause of death in women, even those aged under 65. Heart disease, as well as its risk factors, varies to a surprising degree between populations. For example, women aged 35-64 years in Glasgow, Scotland, and in Belfast, Northern Ireland, have higher heart attack rates than men in some parts of southern Europe, according to a recent WHO study on trends in cardiovascular diseases (the WHO MONICA Project).

Hypertension and stroke are also major problems that affect women. Given the longer life expectancy of women, they contribute increasingly to cardiovascular deaths and disability after the sixth decade. The result is that, over their entire lifespan, women and men are equally affected by heart attacks and stroke -- a fact that has long been neglected by doctors and health professionals, and by women themselves. Furthermore, pregnancy-associated hypertension is an important health problem in the developing world, where it is the major cause of premature birth and perinatal death, and is also responsible for up to one-third of all maternal deaths.

Myth 4: Heart disease is a problem of old age
Atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (coronary heart disease and stroke) and hypertension increase with age. But research in industrialized countries shows that about one-third of heart attacks and one-quarter of strokes occur in people below the age of 65. Many of the deaths due to cardiovascular diseases also occur early, one-quarter of them below the age of 70. In the developing world, the situation is even more marked: up to half of all deaths attributable to heart diseases occur in persons younger than 70; and a great number of working-age adults suffer from these diseases. This has an enormous impact on the economic situation of individuals and families as well as on society as a whole, and hampers efforts to alleviate poverty.

Myth 5: Heart disease is not susceptible to community action
The predominant factors contributing to the risk of cardiovascular diseases appear to be acquired, and to be lifestyle-related rather than genetic. Risk factors can be modified within a "healthy environment" that supports appropriate lifestyle practices, and most cardiovascular diseases are preventable. The prevention of heart diseases in individuals calls for the active promotion of health in populations.

Programmes that combine community mobilization with governmental regulation through taxation, legislation and pricing policies have proved to be effective in controlling tobacco and encouraging healthier diets in numerous industrialized countries. From these experiences, it is clear that community, national and even global action are key elements in combating the advancing epidemic of cardiovascular diseases in the developing world. Community mobilization can best be attained through educating the public, patients, professionals and policymakers, based on the advice of health professionals.

Myth 6: Heart disease is no longer a public health issue
There is a widespread mistaken belief that the total burden of cardiovascular diseases is diminishing. Despite declining mortality, heart disease remains the dominant public health problem in industrialized countries. Eastern European countries are at present experiencing the highest mortality rates due to cardiovascular diseases. A major cause for concern is the projected rise of these diseases in developing countries in the next century. It is predicted that by 2020 the number of deaths due to heart attacks and stroke in the developing world will have doubled as compared with 1990.

The reasons for this anticipated acceleration of the epidemic are increasing life expectancy related to a decline in infant mortality, unhealthy lifestyle changes related to industrialization and urbanization, and longer periods of exposure to the risk factors of heart disease because of improved socioeconomic conditions.

The public health consequences of an uncontrolled epidemic of cardiovascular diseases in the developing world would be disastrous. Not only would millions of productive years of life be lost, but the high costs of technology-intensive management of these diseases would impose a heavy financial burden on affected individuals, their families and society as a whole. The global epidemic needs a global response now, in the form of an international effort to create awareness and stimulate action in all countries and all sectors of society.

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