Monthly Archives: March 2010

Prevent Heart Disease NOW – 7 Steps

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Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in America. Good heart health can easily be achieved and maintained by taking a few simple steps.

Read below to see how you can help keep your heart healthy.

1. Get Active – The easiest way to prevent heart disease is to exercise regularly. Not only does is strenghthen your heart, it helps you maintain a healthy weight. It doesn’t have to be rigorous to be good for you. Things like walking, gardening and taking the stairs are all activity.

2. Omega 3′s – Omega 3 fatty acids are the only acids that your body cannot produce on its own. Fish are the main source of this essential nutrient, but most you can also take a daily supplement.

3.  Maintain A Healthy Weight – As we get older, we tend to store more fat than muscle. This excess fat increase your chance for heart disease. Reducing your weight by even 10% greatly reduces the strain on your heart, blood and organs.

4. Reduce Your Salt Intake – Our body needs salt, about a teaspoon a day. But many people easily get far more salt in their diets daily. Excessive salt intake cause a strain on our heart and raises hypertension. Hold the salt and help your heart.

5. Choose Whole Grains – Studies show that people who eat 3-4 servings of whole grains a day reduce their risk for heart disease by 20-30%. This is because whole grains include fiber, which is essential to keeping arteries healthy.

6. De-Stress – Stress is the biggest causes to heart attacks and general illness. Stress represses your immune system and strains you heart. Meditation has shown in studies to boost your heart health and reduce stress. A great way to meditate is to use a proven method, like the silva method, or the sedona method.

 

Using Mitral Valve Surgery To Solve Leaflet Problems

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After arriving at your heart via the vena cavae, blood enters the right atrium. When that chamber contracts, blood is pushed into the right ventricle. From there, blood moves to your lungs to pick up oxygen before flowing into your left atrium. When your left atrium contracts, blood flows to your left ventricle where it remains until it moves into your aorta.

This flow is regulated by a series of valves. Each can develop problems which might pose symptoms. The severity of the problem dictates how noticeable the symptoms are. Below, we’ll take a look at how these valves work before focusing primarily on the mitral valve (MV). You’ll learn about the problems that can form and how mitral valve repair (MVR) is performed to correct them.

Valves And Leaflets

As blood flows from each chamber, it does so through one of four valves. Each has a specific responsibility: opening to allow blood to flow through and closing to prevent backflow. For example, your MV is located between your left atrium and left ventricle. When the atrium contracts, the valve open to allow blood to flow into the ventricle. Then, it closes to prevent blood from flowing back into the atrium. All four valves work in the same manner.

Each valve has a set of flaps, known as leaflets. The mitral valve only has two while the others have three. Under normal circumstances, these flaps should tightly seal the opening after blood has flowed through them. Unfortunately, problems can prevent them from working properly.

Potential Problems That Can Form

The most commonly occuring issues that impact the MV’s leaflets are prolapse, calcification and stenosis. With prolapse, the flaps fail to close and seal properly. That allows a backflow problem. For instance, blood that travels throught the mitral valve into the left ventricle can flow back through the poorly sealed exit into the left atrium. This condition is often referred to as regurgitation.

Calcification is the term for an accumulation of calcium along the ring of the MV. If the calcium concentration gets to high, it can prevent the leaflets from opeing and closing properly. In some cases, it can contribute to stenosis.

A stenotic mitral valve is one that does not fully open. That prevents blood from moving between your heart’s left atrium and ventricle. This condition is far less common and is nearly always a byproduct of rheumatic fever. Infection related to the illness causes the flaps to thicken, which narrows the passageway.

How Mitral Valve Repair Is Performed

Mitral valve repair is a surgical operation that is usued to repair problems affecting the leaflets of the MV. It can take several different forms depending on the nature of the disorder. For example, prolapse is divided into to seperate issues, once which affects the posterior flap and the other with affect the anterior leaflet. In the former case, a surgeon will perform a triangular resection. In the latter (a more difficult problem), the surgeon will do a chordal transfer.

Stenosis is dealt with a little differently. The surgeon may perform a procedure called valvuloplasty. In some cases, a scalpel is used to cut an opening into the mitral valve in order to allow blood to flow through. In other cases, a tiny balloon is affixed to a catheter and guided to the site. There, it is expanded to widen the opening. It is possible for patients suffering a stenotic mitral valve to experience a recurrence of the problem several years later. In such cases, the procedure can be performed again.

Doctors are increasingly using minimally invasive techniques to perform mitral valve repair. Doing so shortens the recovery period and lowers the risk of complications. As always, consult your physician to determine whether it is an appropriate course for your condition.

PHillips Heart Start Automatic Defibrillators: A Life Saving Device for SCA Emergencies

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Any person, teenager or old, masculine or feminine, slim or overweight, can be a victim of a circulatory arrest, an unanticipated medical situation where in the heart fails to contract effectively and causes the blood to halt circulating. According to the AHA, about 350,000 adults lose their life from SCA each yearly. An Estimated twenty-thousand to one-hundred-thousand of these cardiopulmonary failure victims might have been saved with proper training, timely help, and use of life-saving tools such as Philips HeartStart Automated External Defibrillators.

Automated external defibrillator (AED) is a device that administers doses of electrical charge to the victim’s heart, thereby stopping its irregular heartbeat and permitting the heart to reestablish its normal rhythm.

If you are uncertain whether you have seen an automated defibrillator or not, this is the medical tool that doctors use when they try to resuscitate a person. The EMT shouts, “Clear,” then delivers an jolt of electricty to the patients chest to fix heart rythm. That medical device is the automated defibrillator.

Studies show that the use of Onsite AED improves the rate of survival of heart attack cases by as much as 49%.

In an attempt to create a more vigorous United States, the AHA institutes the deployment of Automatic External Defibrillators in public areas such like restaurants.

Fundamental education is required for the effective use of Philips HeartStart AEDs although any layperson can run this life-saving gadget during situations of SCA. According to surveys, most Americans are uncomfortable in giving CPR and using AEDs during a heart attack. With proper instruction, the AHA plans to help us to get over their fears in making lifesaving decisions.

The AHA spends millions yearly to subsidize seminars for these situations. inexpensive classes are also provided by the American Red Cross on CPR and Automated Defibs use. People from all ages can attend these trainings, after which they become nationally recognized certified rescuers. They will use the same AED life saving devices used by lifeguards, firefighters, and police officers, like the Philips onsite AED device. Accordingly, if used within the first minute of circulatory arrest, Philips onsite AED can save the lives of up to 90% of the victims.

Philips HeartStart home defibrillator is obtainable over-the-counter without prescription. Others should be purchased with prescription.

One favored AED models is the LIFEPAK CR(R) Plus. A voice prompt leads the user through the rescue process. The lightweight gadget is available in semi-automatic and automatic models, depending on the user needs.

In using the semi-automatic model, judgement of the rescuer is required first before applying the electrodes. The device confirms the heart’s rhythm then prompts the user if there is a need to be defibrillated. In the automatic version, the device does everything for the rescuer. She simply needs to apply it; the Aed does the analysis and administers the electric jolt if required.

The American Heart Association is a voluntary health association seeking to build a country free from cardiovascular diseases and stroke. Created in 1924 by 6 doctors providing enlightenment about heart diseases.

Gene Medame regularly tackles health issues and writes about medical products and devices like Philips HeartStart AED. Learn more about AEDs is available at http://www.Aedrx.com.

Signs and Symptoms of HBP – Know the Signs When High Blood Pressure Begins

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Every year millions are downed by this mysterious syndrome. All over the world perhaps the family members, friends or even colleagues of a high blood pressure victim can testify that their loved one is healthy and has no visible symptoms of the disease, yet die because of it. In America alone, there were as many as one in every three Americans has this malady already. Except for those who have their blood pressure checked and knew that they by now have the syndrome, still more than half of those who were left doesn’t know that they were victims already.

Things to Know about HBP

There were a number of things that we need to know and consider when HBP is concerned. Here are some of the most universal facts regarding the silent killer:

  • A normal adult blood pressure will have a sphygmomanometer reading of 120/80mmHg. If in any circumstances that your blood pressure (BP) reading exceeds both the upper and the lower number or either, you are a candidate for hypertension.
  • HBP can be a result of many risk factors including poor lifestyle and unhealthy diet like smoking, too much lingering stress, excessive caffeine intake, above normal sodium or salt consumption, drugs overuse and even contraceptives.
  • If your family has a persistent history of hypertension, your chances of developing this malady is much greater compared to those people with no historical background of it.
  • Most of the cases have no recorded symptoms.
  • HBP will eventually go back to normal when all of the risk factors are inhibited from entering the body.

These factors and other significant things related to increasing the normal blood pressure should be put in mind to free our self from the most dreadful and mysterious condition.

What are HBP Symptoms?

Until now it is not clear what causes high blood pressure and even its origin is still vague. Except for some advanced stages or more severe HBP conditions, these symptoms could be more or less felt:

  • Headaches with no known origins.
  • Profuse sweating and sudden breath shortness.
  • Rapid or abnormal pulse.
  • Sudden vision blurredness or even vision loss.
  • Dizziness.

These symptoms can be felt only during advanced high blood pressure stages when your BP measurement reaches an abnormally high reading. Don’t wait for these symptoms to be felt, it could have been too late. Live a healthy life and be hypertension-free.

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Heart Disease Problem And My Condition

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So an angioplasty was in my immediate future. I’m told that’s a relatively safe and painless procedure and not to worry. There have been numerous things to fret about however. The heart specialists don’t have a desire to shove a camera into my heart for no reason. Still, an angioplasty is definitely an outpatient procedure where the cardiologist opens an artery in your leg and works a camera into the center muscle arteries. It sounds much worse than it is however the benefit is that you learn exactly what the condition of your heart and arteries are immediately. This said, I am now ready!

At a minimum I would learn how serious a issue, if any, I really had. The Cardiologist nevertheless must have been concerned simply because he scheduled the angioplasty 4 days later.

On the day of this appointment, I checked into the Cardiology center at the local hospital and was mentally ready to undergo the angioplasty. An IV was inserted and I was ready to go. Once inside the angioplasty center, I was given sedatives that kept me painless but conscious. I could not see what was happening as they sent the wire through the vein to the area to check it out. When the nurses and technicians talked directly to me I was able to respond.

The great thing about an angioplasty is that if they find blockages, the cardiologist can usually place metal stents or pipe-like devices within the arteries to open the blockage by expanding the device thus flattening the plaque and increase the blood flow. This procedure is simple compared to just a few years ago when the only course of action was to crack oen your chest. After
an hour, the doctor apparently lowered the dosage of sedative as I remembering him giving me a status on my condition.

The finding!
The poor news was that I did have calcium deposits inside the walls of my arteries. This was what that they had seen with the tests. The good news is that my arteries had not been fully clogged on the inside and were considered extremely large. Big pipes with a thin plaque coating of calcium equated to a possible future issue only.

Being a large individual from a family of large people for many generations, the terrible fact that my arteries had been regarded “huge” didn’t surprise me. I can not prove it but maybe the vitamins and minerals I have been taking for over a decade have protected me from developing a life threatening heart illness at this time in my life. The Cardiologist however continues to be concerned about my future survivability due to the high calcium scores from the blood tests.

What to do now!

So it’s a major change in lifestyle for me. I’ve gone from being a relatively sedentary individual to one who rides an exercise bike nearly 7 miles a day, everyday. I continue to require an adult aspirin each day and also have modified my eating habits. Although my dangerous cholesterol is at 90 (something underneath one hundred ten is considered good) the Cardiologist has prescribed statins to reduce the dangerous cholesterol even more. I do believe that statins will soon be regarded a critical part of living a normal, healthy life.

Thus that is my story. Exercise and an aspirin a day to thin the blood. Statins to lower the bad cholesterol even more. Vitamins solely for the reason that I’ve done well taking them over the years . Optimistically, I will live long while not having to suffer the debilitating effects of major heart disease and hopefully avoid having a heart attack.