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Heart diseases
- Angina Pectoris
Angina pectoris is the medical term for the symptom of chest pain or discomfort due to lack of enough blood supply to the heart muscle. Most common cause of Angina Pectoris is due to blockages (atherosclerotic plaque) building up in the coronary arteries (arteries that carry oxygenated blood to heart muscle). Angina Pectoris is usually a precursor for major adverse heart events including heart attack and sudden death. Healthy life style changes including maintenance of healthy weight, dietary habits, avoidance of tobacco and regular aerobic exercise can help to lower your chances of developing coronary artery disease (CAD).
- Heart attack
Heart is a muscular pump. Heart attack means damage to the heart muscle due to lack of enough blood flow, and is a life threatening condition. Once heart muscle is damaged, it doesn’t regenerate. If one survives a heart attack the damaged muscle heals by scar formation. Heart attack could be heralded by symptoms of chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness, extreme fatigue, profuse sweating, “gas pain or upset stomach” or could be silent. If you experience any of these symptoms or think that you are having a heart attack, seek emergency medical help immediately by dialing 911. Once blood supply is completely cut off to heart muscle by a blocked artery, the heart muscle supplied by that particular artery completely dies in the succeeding few hours. This is the reason for getting immediate medical help (first hour is called “golden hour”) so that your medical team can take measures to improve the blood flow in the blocked artery to limit the amount of damage. There are many ways people could die after a heart attack, the commonest being failure of the heart as a pump or development of life threatening arrhythmias.
- High Blood Pressure (Hypertension)
Approximately one in three adults in United States suffer from high blood pressure. Since high blood pressure usually doesn’t cause symptoms, many people have years of high blood pressure without knowing it. Uncontrolled long-standing high blood pressure has many consequences including stroke, heart attack, heart failure, loss of vision and kidney failure. This is why blood pressure is often called as the “silent killer”. By adoption of healthy life style habits including maintaining healthy weight, healthy dietary habits, avoidance of tobacco, regular aerobic exercise in conjunction with proper monitoring and treatment by your doctor, you can control your blood pressure and avoid its serious consequences.
- Heart Failure
Heart Failure is failure of the heart as a pump and is a chronic disease. It is usually is the end result of various insults to the heart such as previous heart attack, long standing untreated high blood pressure, long standing untreated valvular heart diseases, viral infection of the heart etc. By the time heart failure is diagnosed due to various symptoms like shortness of breath, weight gain, leg swelling, fatigue etc. chances are that the heart has been losing pumping capacity slowly for a while. During this silent phase, body does so many compensatory mechanisms, which temporarily masks the symptoms of heart failure. By appropriate screening in patients at risk for heart failure, this can be diagnosed at an earlier stage. Such earlier diagnosis and treatment ensures better prognosis and quality of life in these patients.
- Cholesterol
There are two sources for cholesterol (a kind of fat) in the human body, from the food we eat (about 30%) and produced within our body by liver (about 70%). Cholesterol is normally needed by the body for certain bodily functions and carrying out synthesis. Blood cholesterol is made up of two kinds of cholesterol. LDL cholesterol, also called the “bad cholesterol” because when too much of it circulates in blood, it can slowly build up in the walls of arteries and cause blockages. HDL cholesterol, also called “good cholesterol” because it removes bad cholesterol from the walls of arteries. Triglyceride is another kind of fat and comes from food and synthesized in the body as well. Regular aerobic exercise, maintaining healthy weight, and controlling diet can help to keep your cholesterol within acceptable limits. In some instances you will still need medications since the majority of cholesterol is produced within your body.
- PAD (Peripheral arterial disease) and Leg pain
People often disregard the symptom of leg pain, thinking it is stiffness from aging or from arthritis or sciatica. Though the typical pain of PAD (blockages in disease to extremities like legs and arms) occurs in calf, thigh and or buttocks as a cramp like pain brought on by exertion and relieved by rest, such typical symptoms are less common. In fact most people have no symptoms or have atypical symptoms like leg fatigue, numbness of legs or restless legs during sleep. People with silent PAD are at increased risk of developing heart attack and stroke and hence the importance of detecting it at an earlier stage. PAD can also progress to cause ulcers, gangrene and amputation. PAD can often be detected by examination of all pulses and by comparing the blood pressure in the legs and arms.
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