What are the signs of a heart attack?

Not everyone has all of the warning signs of heart attack. And, sometimes these signs can go away and come back.
Symptoms of a heart attack include:

• Pain or discomfort in the center of the chest
• Pain or discomfort in other areas of the upper body, including the arms, back, neck, jaw, or stomach

Other symptoms, such as shortness of breath (feeling like you can't get enough air), breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea (feeling sick to your stomach), or feeling faint or woozy

Some women have more vague symptoms such as:

• Unusual tiredness
• Trouble sleeping
• Problems breathing
• Indigestion (upset stomach)

Anxiety (feeling uneasy or worried) 

What can I do to prevent heart disease?

You can reduce your chances of getting heart disease by taking these steps:

Know your blood pressure. Your heart moves blood through your body. If it is hard for your heart to do this, your heart works harder, and your blood pressure will rise. People with high blood pressure often have no symptoms, so have your blood pressure checked every 1 to 2 years. If you have high blood pressure ,

Don't smoke. If you smoke, try to quit. If you're having trouble quitting, there are products and programs that can help:

• Nicotine patches and gums
• Support groups
• Programs to help you stop smoking

Get tested for diabetes . People with diabetes have high blood glucose (often called blood sugar). People with high blood sugar often have no symptoms, so have your blood sugar checked regularly. Having diabetes raises your chances of getting heart disease. If you have diabetes, your doctor will decide if you need diabetes pills or insulin shots. Your doctor can also help you make a healthy eating and exercise plan.

Get your cholesterol and triglyceride levels tested. High blood cholesterol can clog your arteries and keep your heart from getting the blood it needs. This can cause a heart attack. Triglycerides are a form of fat in your blood stream. High levels of triglycerides are linked to heart disease in some people. People with high blood cholesterol or high blood triglycerides often have no symptoms, so have your blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels checked regularly. If your cholesterol or triglyceride levels are high, talk to your doctor about what you can do to lower them. You may be able to lower your cholesterol and triglyceride levels by eating better and exercising more. Your doctor may prescribe medication to help lower your cholesterol.

Maintain a healthy weight. Being overweight raises your risk for heart disease. Calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI) to see if you are at a healthy weight. Eat a healthy diet and exercise at a moderate intensity for at least 30 minutes most days of the week. Start by adding more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to your diet. Take a brisk walk on your lunch break or take the stairs instead of the elevator.

If you drink alcohol, limit it to no more than one drink (one 12 ounce beer, one 5 ounce glass of wine, or one 1.5 ounce shot of hard liquor) a day.

Find healthy ways to cope with stress. Lower your stress level by talking to your friends, exercising, or writing in a journal. 

What is Heart Failure? (Article-05)

Heart Failure 

Heart failure occurs when the heart is unable to adequately fill with blood, or is unable to adequately pump enough blood to meet the body's needs. Many types of heart conditions can lead to heart failure, including coronary artery disease, heart valve disease, high blood pressure, congenital heart disease, or cardiac viral infections. Patients with heart failure often suffer from shortness of breath, fatigue, and have difficulty exercising. Their life expectancy is often significantly reduced.

Fortunately, a lot of progress is being made in reducing symptoms and increasing survival of patients with heart failure. But, unfortunately, studies show that many doctors fail to offer adequate treatment to their patients with heart failure. Thus, patients with heart failure need to make special efforts to educate themselves about their disease and the available treatments, and to be especially vigilant in monitoring new breakthroughs in therapy. Here you will find many of the resources necessary to make sure you're getting the care you need.

How the Heart Works ?

How the heart's chambers and valves control the flow of blood through the heart, and how the normal pumping action of the heart supplies the body's needs for oxygen and nutrients.

Types of Heart Failure

There are three general varieties of heart failure - dilated cardiomyopathy (cardiomyopathy is heart muscle disease), hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and diastolic heart failure. 

Dilated cardiomyopathy is the most common variety of heart failure. It occurs when the ventricles (the large pumping chambers of the heart) become weakened, flaccid and dilated. As a result, the pumping action of the ventricle becomes weak, the amount of blood pumped with each heart beat drops, and the body's organs may not receive their full quotient of blood. Dilated cardiomyopathy is the end result of many types of heart disease, especially coronary artery disease and valvular heart disease. 

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is usually a genetic condition, and often runs in families. It is characterized by a thickening of the heart muscle, resulting in "stiff" ventricles. The stiffness impairs the filling of the heart with blood, and can lead to episodes of extreme shortness of breath in some patients, especially during exercise. The thickening of the heart muscle also can cause an obstruction in the left ventricle similar to that seen with aortic stenosis. And some patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy have an increased risk of sudden death.

Diastolic heart failure is similar to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in that it is caused by a "stiffening" of the heart muscle, leading to impaired filling of the heart with blood. But unlike hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, diastolic heart failure is often not accompanied by thickening of the heart muscle, and is not thought to be a genetic disorder. It tends to occur in older individuals, often in women, and often in people with high blood pressure. It is characterized by relatively sudden episodes of severe shortness of breath, which is caused by too much fluid in the lungs (a condition called pulmonary edema). 

Cardiac Arrhythmias-Cardiac Disturbances (Article-04)

Cardiac Arrhythmias-Cardiac Disturbances

Disorders of the heart rhythm can produce symptoms ranging from mild palpitations to sudden death. Heart arrhythmias come in two general “flavors:” those that are too slow (bradycardia) and those that are too fast (tachycardia). 

Women don't really get much heart disease, and when they do, it behaves pretty much like the heart disease that men get. The real facts are that heart disease is the number one killer of women, and when women get heart disease it often acts quite differently than it does in men. Failing to understand these two fundamental facts leads to a lot of preventable deaths and disability in women with heart disease. 

In a recent survey conducted by the American Heart Association, 6 in 10 women said that the major threat to their health was breast cancer; only 1 in 10 said it was heart disease. But in 1999, while cancer was killing 264,000 American women (41,000 of who died of breast cancer,) cardiovascular disease killed 513,000 -- and it's the same story every year. In fact, each year since 1984, more women than men have died of heart disease. Many doctors don't get it either. Less than half the doctors in one recent survey considered heart disease to be a major threat to their female patients. Worse, less than half of all women receiving regular medical care say that their doctors have ever talked to them about reducing their risk of heart disease.

Worst of all, the symptoms of heart disease -- and even the heart disease itself -- can be quite different in women than in men. And since medical textbooks almost exclusively describe "typical" heart disease (that is, the kind men get), doctors often fail to recognize heart disease when they see it in their female patients. The fact that heart disease is so common in women, and at the same time is underestimated and misunderstood by both women and their doctors, contributes in no small way to the high death rate. 

What is Coronary Artery Disease? (Article-03)

Coronary Artery Disease

The coronary arteries supply blood to the heart muscle. Because the heart muscle is continuously working at a high level, and thus requires a continuous supply of oxygen and nutrients, any obstruction of the coronary arteries leads to problems almost immediately. The most common cause of coronary artery disease is atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is a chronic, progressive disease of the arteries in which “plaques” made up of cholesterol deposits, calcium, and abnormal cells develop on the inner lining of the arteries.

What is Cardiomyopathy? (Article -02)

Heart muscle problems – Cardiomyopathy

Many cardiac disorders (including coronary artery disease, valvular heart disease, viral infections, diabetes, kidney failure, and a variety of inflammatory diseases) can cause a weakness of the cardiac muscle, mostly affecting the ventricles. Weakening of the heart muscle is called cardiomyopathy. 

Cardiomyopathy takes two basic forms: dilated cardiomyopathy, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. 

Dilated cardiomyopathy occurs when the ventricle (generally the left ventricle) becomes dilated, and the ventricular muscle weak and relatively flaccid. As a result, the pumping action of the ventricle becomes weak; the amount of blood pumped with each heart beat drops; and the body’s organs do not receive their full quotient of blood.  Probably the best measure of the severity of a person’s dilated cardiomyopathy is the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), a measure of the percentage of the left ventricle’s volume that is ejected with each heart beat. Normally, the LVEF is greater than 50%. Patients generally experience a reduction in exercise capacity as the LVEF approaches 40%, and often experience symptoms at rest (weakness, fatigue, shortness of breath) when the LVEF is in the 20 - 30% range. 

As dilated cardiomyopathy progresses, symptoms of shortness of breath, weakness, fatigue, and leg swelling worsen. The propensity to develop life-threatening arrhythmias (ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation) also increases as the LVEF drops. The mainstay of therapy is drug treatment: digitalis, diuretics, ACE inhibitors and beta blockers are commonly used. For many patients, a new breed of pacemakers that synchronize and optimize ventricular contraction can improve both symptoms and survival.Various types of cardiac assist devices (essentially, implantable pumps) are also progressing rapidly.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a primary disease of the myocardium (the muscle of the heart) in which a portion of the myocardium is hypertrophied (thickened) without any obvious cause, creating functional impairment of the cardiac muscle. It is a leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young athletes.

What is Heart Disease? (Article -01)

The heart is the organ that pumps blood, with its life-giving oxygen and nutrients, to all tissues of the body. If the pumping action of the heart becomes inefficient, vital organs like the brain and kidneys suffer.And if the heart stops working altogether, death occur within minutes. Life itself is completely dependent on the efficient operation of the heart. 

There are many kinds of heart disease, and they can affect the heart in several ways. But the ultimate problem with all varieties of heart disease is that, in one way or another, they can disrupt the vital pumping action of the heart. and kidneys suffer.And if the heart stops working altogether, death occur within minutes. Life itself is completely dependent on the efficient operation of the heart. 

 

Valvular Heart Disease:

While there are many causes of valvular heart disease (including rheumatic fever, congenital heart disease, cardiac dilation, and age-related calcification of the valves), whatever the cause, heart valve problems are specially manifested in one of two ways. Either the valve openings become too narrow and blood has a difficult time crossing the valves (i.e., stenosis), or the valves become incompetent, allowing blood to leak across the valves when they are supposed to be closed (i.e., regurgitation). Valvular stenosis causes “damming up” of the blood behind the valve. This damming up of blood leads to increased pressure in the cardiac chambers behind the valve. 

Valvular regurgitation allows blood to wash backwards across the valve when the valve should be closed. This extra volume of blood produced by this backwash causes dilation of the cardiac chambers receiving the extra blood.

Both increased pressures and increased blood volume in any of the cardiac chambers can eventually produce permanent weakening of the cardiac muscle, and can ultimately lead to heart failure. Either stenosis or regurgitation in a cardiac valve causes turbulence of blood flow, and that turbulence is detected as a “heart murmur” when the doctor listens to the heart with a stethoscope. specially, heart valve problems can be readily diagnosed by performing an echo cardiogram.