Life Threatening Heart Disease That You Must Know

Everything You Need to Know About Heart Disease
Everything You Need to Know About Heart Disease
Everything You Need to Know About Heart Disease

According to CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and WHO (World Health Organization, a United Nations Department on Healthcare) stats that heart disease is the leading reasons of death in the United States, United Kingdom, Hispanics, and Asian Subcontinent. In the United State, heart disease becomes so high in numbers in that 1 in every 4 deaths is due to heart disease and defects (half of the millions of death yearly due to heart issues).

There are various heart diseases. Some of them occur at the time of birth, some happen at adult age while some start after 40 years. However, any heart disease that not properly treated becomes life-threatening. Some of the heart diseases are as follows.

  • Congenital Heart Disease or Defect: Irregularities of Heart at birth time
  • Arrhythmia: Heart rhythm Abnormality
  • Endocarditis: Infection in Heart due to parasites, bacteria or viruses
  • CAD (Coronary Artery Disease): the buildup of plaque in the heart arteries
  • Atherosclerosis: hardening of arteries

Congenital Heart Disease

Congenital heart disease is also known as a congenital heart defect. It is a heart abnormality that can affect the blood vessels, heart walls, and heart valves. It happens at the time of birth.

congenital heart disease
congenital heart disease

The congenital heart disease ranges from simple conditions i.e. earlier stage of the disease, to complex conditions of this disease. Even if it is not treated properly, it becomes a severe life-threatening for anyone. As per stats of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, numbers of patients carrying out congenital heart defect are 1 million in children and 1 million in adults.

Arrhythmia

Arrhythmia is a heart disease that happens due to abnormal rhythm and heartbeats. The major reason for Arrhythmia is non-functioning or improper functioning of electrical impulses.

Arrhythmia
Arrhythmia

Electrical impulses direct and regulate the heartbeats in our bodies. When these electrical impulses leave their work or don’t function properly, it leads to arrhythmia. The basic symptoms to identify the arrhythmia includes too fast heartbeat (medically too fast heart beating called tachycardia), too slow heartbeat (medically too slow heartbeat called bradycardia), too erratically heartbeat (in medical terms too erratically heartbeat called fibrillation) and too early heartbeat (medically too early heartbeat called premature contraction). All these are the symptoms of arrhythmia.

Arrhythmia is a very serious and critical heart disease. If it is not treated properly, it gives severe dangers to your life. When arrhythmia interferes with your body with the flow of blood, it can lead to damage to your lungs, brain, and damage to other vital organs. It may become also life-threatening.

Endocarditis

Endocarditis is an infection of endocardium. The endocardium is the inner lining of the heart valves and heart chambers. The basic reasons for Endocarditis are the infection of heart due to the entering of bacteria and fungi to your bloodstream.

Endocarditis
Endocarditis

Endocarditis generally happens when you don’t care about your overall lifestyle. When bacteria, fungi, or viruses enter into the bloodstream of your body via another part of the body such as mouth, etc, the damaged area in your heart. When bacteria or other viruses enter your bloodstream, it becomes very complex for the heart to circulate the blood supply in normal conditions. Thus, Endocarditis happens.

CAD (Coronary Artery Disease)

Coronary Artery Disease is a common type of heart disease. This is the leading cause of deaths in America. CAD (Coronary Artery Disease) happens when arteries that supply the blood to the heart, become narrow and hardened. It is such a dangerous disease that affects 16 million Americans over the age of 20.

CAD (Coronary Artery Disease)
CAD (Coronary Artery Disease)

If we study the heart structure, we see that four basic coronary arteries are situated in the heart surface i.e. right main coronary artery, left main coronary artery, left circumflex artery, and left anterior descending artery. The heart is responsible for the pumping of blood throughout your body and these four arteries bring back the oxygenated blood to your heart.  When plaques of blood in these arteries build-up, then arteries become hardened and narrow. This situation leads to Coronary Artery Disease.

Atherosclerosis

Atherosclerosis is a heart disease that happens due to plaque builds up inside the arteries and becomes a hurdle in the supply of oxygenated blood to the heart. Generally, these plaques are made up of calcium, cholesterol, fat, and other elements found in the blood. The symptoms of Atherosclerosis include fatigue, chest pain, muscle weakness, and shortness of breath. However, these symptoms don’t show up unless complete blockage occurs in arteries due to the building of plaques.

Atherosclerosis
Atherosclerosis

When we cross-age limit of 20, calcium, fats and cholesterol starts to collect in your arteries and becomes a cause to form plaque. These elements are naturally found in our blood, but when they become more in required numbers (due to inactivity of the body like exercise, running, more eating, etc) they start to build up the plaque. This plaque can be formed in any artery of your body like kidneys, legs, and hearts. If it is not treated properly or left untreated, it leads to severe heart attack, non-functioning of heart and heart strokes.

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