Introduction
Heart disease is also referred to as cardiopathy, a condition that affects the heart. The awareness of the disease has been raised because it is among the leading causes of death especially in Canada, the United States, England, and Wales. Heart disease is of various types but with related risk factors, symptoms, and prevention measures. The disease is mostly linked to lifestyle but also hereditary, gender, and racial factors. The research on the disease has been vast with intentions of increasing awareness and treatment to avert the deaths associated with it. The disease remains crucial with the realization that most people do not seek diagnosis earlier thus treating it becomes difficult.
Types of Heart Disease
The types of heart disease range with the causes associated with it, how it affects the heart, the risk factors associated with it as well as the treatment available. The types are also based on the research done on the disease and the geographical conditions offering different risk factors (Preedy and Watson 156). They include heart failure, coronary heart disease, ischemic heart disease, inflammatory heart disease, hypertensive heart disease, valvular heart disease, and cardiomyopathy (Michel and Herbert 340). Heart failure is associated with functional or structural cardiac disorder impairing the heart’s ability to pump blood throughout the body sufficiently. Coronary heart disease is associated with the failure of the heart to circulate blood to the cardiac muscle and the surrounding tissues and can lead to a heart attack due to the lack of enough oxygen supply to the heart. Ischemic heart disease is associated with a reduction in blood supply to the organs. Inflammatory heart disease is where the heart muscle and the tissues surrounding it are inflamed. Hypertensive heart disease is usually associated with high blood pressure (Michel and Herbert 442). Valvular heart disease is a result of the disease affecting the valves of the heart mainly the aortic and mitral valves on the left side of the heart and the aortic and tricuspid valves on the right side of the heart. Cardiomyopathy on the other hand affects the muscles of the heart with the myocardium deteriorating in function.
Risk Factors associated with Heart Disease
The risk factors of heart disease though associated with lifestyle fall into the category of either the modifiable factors which can be adjusted to reduce the risk inherent or the non-modifiable factors which cannot be changed but can be adjusted to reduce risk level (Esselstyn 114). High blood pressure or uncontrolled hypertension is a high-risk factor for heart disease and is more associated with heart attack common with a stroke which leads to deaths (Chilnick 27). The other modifiable risk factors include high cholesterol levels due to association with blood lipid, physical inactivity, obesity, uncontrolled diabetes especially type 2 diabetes, and increased alcohol consumption (Preedy and Watson 59). Excessive use of tobacco especially at an early age poses a controllable risk factor of heart disease. Uncontrolled stress and anger also pose as controllable risk factors as well as poverty and the use of certain medicines (Honan 5).
The non-modifiable risk factors of heart disease are composed of factors beyond the control of the individual. They include the family history of heart disease due to the genetic nature of the disease, age factor where the risk increases with the increase in age, gender factors where men and post-menstrual women are at higher risks of the disease (Esselstyn 279). Additionally, it has been shown that ethnicity and race influence the risk factors associated with the disease. In this case, individuals of Asian or African ancestry face higher risks as compared to other races (Chilnick 77).
Symptoms of Heart Disease
The increased deaths from heart disease are linked to the late diagnosis or misdiagnosis where prior symptoms are interpreted as minor conditions (Michel and Herbert 343). The symptoms of heart disease differ in nature and are dependent on the area of the heart affected, the type of heart disease as well as individual differences and usually vary in intensity with some very mild and others sudden as to even cause instant death. The symptoms range from mild ones such as weakness, dizziness, feelings of indigestion, backache, and general fatigue. Since the heart is strategically located in the chest, heart disease is associated with chest pains of varying intensity which may also affect the neck, back, arms, jaw, or shoulders and involve a feeling of tightness, fullness, squeezing, or pressure in the chest. The symptoms also involve heart palpitations such as the racing feeling of the heart, sudden pounding, or fluttering. They also include fainting and other major symptoms such as heart failure, stroke, cardiac arrhythmias, embolism, or aneurysm of the heart (Chilnick 179).
Treatment of the Heart Disease
The different types of heart disease also vary in treatment since each affects the heart differently which requires diagnosis in the event of the symptoms (Esselstyn 203). The treatments are available for heart disease to range from control of the controllable risk factors and lowering the inherent risk, medical treatment, medication, and surgery. The medical treatments and surgery differ with the type of heart disease. However, the general medical treatment for heart disease includes increasing the supply of oxygen through a facial or nose mask, aspirin, use of pain medicines, the induction of nitroglycerin usually under the tongue, use of clot-dissolving medicines, angioplasty, atherectomy, stenting, and medications such as angiotensin-converting enzyme for preventing repetitive heart attacks, heparin to reduce blood clotting, intravenous nitroglycerin for improving blood flow to the heart and beta-blockers for decreasing the blood pressure and heart rate among other medications and treatment (Preedy and Watson 235). Treatment may also require the need for surgery depending on the extent of the disease.
Prevention of Heart Disease
The association of heart disease with lifestyles that increase the risk factors as well as the increased death associated with the disease calls for fast preventive measures. The preventive measures mainly include reducing the controllable risk factors such as quitting smoking and use of tobacco, reducing the level of cholesterol through healthy dieting, increasing the level of physical activity which acts as a way of reducing obesity through weight management, controlling blood pressure as well as diabetes and use of stress management techniques (Esselstyn 102). It is also recommended for one to seek a proper diagnosis in the event of the symptoms (Preedy and Watson 297). Additionally, research shows that the disease can be prevented by taking care of the heart condition to make it stronger through such as standing and physical activity, management of stress as well as keeping updated with research on heart disease (Honan 32).
Conclusion
Heart disease has become rampant in causing death hence the increased need for awareness of the disease. This paper acknowledges the different types of heart disease, identifies the risk factors associated with the disease, the symptoms from the disease, treatments available as well as preventive measures. It is however worth noting that following the increased awareness of the disease, more research has been done and is still underway.
Works Cited
Chilnick, Lawrence. Heart Disease: An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2008.
Esselstyn, Caldwell. Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease: The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition based Cure. Washington, D.C: Avery Publishing, 2007.
Honan, James. Heart Disease – Its Care, Cure and Prevention. New York: Twenty First Century Books, 2009.
Michel, Accad, and Fred Herbert. “On Redefining Hypertension.” Texas Heart Institute Journal, 37.4 (2010): 339-441.
Preedy, Victor, and Ronald Watson. Nutrition and Heart Disease: Causation and Prevention. Arizona: CRC Press, 2004.