KNOW YOUR HEART

Heart is the natural pump, supplying oxygenated , purified and nutrient rich blood to body and removing the impure metabolic products.Heart disease is any condition that affects your heart’s ability to do its job, which is to pump blood throughout your body, feeding oxygen to all your tissues and organs. Sometimes, people are born with heart problems; this is called a congenital heart condition. More commonly, heart disease develops as we get older, usually rearing its ugly head for the first time in middle age or later. Heart disease is currently the number one killer .

Key risk factors for developing heart disease include:

• A family history of heart disease
• Poor eating habits
• Lack of exercise or a sedentary lifestyle
• High stress
• Smoking
• Being male
• Being overweight
• Having uncontrolled high blood pressure
• Having uncontrolled diabetes
• Having high cholesterol

Types of Heart Diseases,There are several types of heart disease, which can be divided into four groups:

• Heart valve disease: Your heart has valves that control the flow of blood through its four chambers. You can be born with abnormalities in your heart valves, or they can be damaged by infection or changes that occur in your heart as a result of aging and poor lifestyle habits. Heart valve disease comes in two forms: stenosis, when the valves become too narrow for enough blood to pass through, and regurgitation, where the valve does not perform properly and allows blood to pass both forward and backward, instead of just forward
• Coronary artery disease: The blood vessels leading to your heart can become damaged or blocked up by plaques, which are made up of cholesterol, calcium, and other material. Partially blocked arteries can lead to angina, where you develop chest pain, often upon exerting yourself. A heart attack occurs when one of the arteries becomes completely blocked.
• Heart muscle disease: Many medical conditions directly or indirectly related to the heart, including coronary artery disease, diabetes, and heart valve disease, can eventually lead to damage to the heart muscles. When this happens, the muscles can no longer properly pump blood throughout your body. Eventually, this can lead to heart failure and arrhythmias.
• Arrhythmias: Your heart needs to pump to a regular beat to effectively push blood throughout the body. When this beat becomes irregular, it’s called an arrhythmia. People who have other heart problems are more susceptible to arrhythmias.

Symptoms and signs

• Shortness of breath
• Weakness/fatigue
• Leg swelling
• Chest pain, especially with exertion
• Signs of an impending heart attack that should send you immediately to the emergency room include a sudden onset of:
• Crushing chest pain that may radiate down an arm or into your neck or jaw
• Extreme shortness of breath
• Stomach distress
• Nausea and vomiting

What are the warning signs of a heart attack?

The following are the most common symptoms of a heart attack. However, each individual may experience symptoms differently. Symptoms may include:

• severe pressure, fullness, squeezing, pain and/or discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts for more than a few minutes
• pain or discomfort that spreads to the shoulders, neck, arms, or jaw
• chest pain that increases in intensity
• chest pain that is not relieved by rest or by taking cardiac prescription medication
• chest pain that occurs with any/all of the following (additional) symptoms:
• sweating, cool, clammy skin, and/or paleness
• shortness of breath
• nausea or vomiting
• dizziness or fainting
• unexplained weakness or fatigue
• rapid or irregular pulse
• severe stomach upset that comes on abruptly

Tests for Knowing about Heart and treating

1. ECG.
2. Echocardiography.
3. Stress test.
4. Stress-Echocardiography.
5. Holter Monitoring.
6. 24 Hours Ambulatory BP monitoring
7. Stress MUGA
8. CTCoronary Angiography.
9. Coronary Angiography.
10. Laboratory est-Cardiac Profile including Cholestrol etc.

Also, if you have a family history of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes or stroke, or if you are a heavy smoker, it is extremely important to have your heart checked on a yearly basis and monitor your blood pressure regularly.

For further information, please contact @ Getwell Medical Center (+971 4 3595935)