Report on Heart diseases

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Report on Heart diseases

Alfredo Silva

28-10-01

What is heart disease?

Heart disease, or coronary heart disease (CHD) to call it by its medical name, happens when your arteries become narrowed and hardened. When this happens less blood can to get to your heart, and your heart becomes less efficient at pumping blood around your body.

What are the symptoms of heart disease?

The main symptom of coronary heart disease is angina, caused by insufficient oxygen reaching your heart muscle because of the lessened blood flow. Angina is a feeling of heaviness, tightness or pain in the middle of your chest that may extend to your arms, neck, jaw, face, back or abdomen.

It is most often experienced during exertion - for example if you run for a bus, play a game such a tennis or football, climb stairs or walk uphill. It may come on in cold weather, after a heavy meal or when you are feeling stressed. It disappears once you stop what you are doing or take medication.

Not everyone with coronary heart disease experiences angina. Sometimes the heart is short of blood (ischaemic) but there is no warning chest pain or tightness. This is known as silent ischaemia.

Unfortunately, for many people the first indication that something is wrong is a heart attack, or myocardial infarction. This happens when the blood supply to a part of the heart muscle is interrupted or stops, usually because of a blood clot or thrombosis. The pain of a heart attack is severe and unlike angina it doesn't go away. Other symptoms include sweating, lightheadedness, nausea or breathlessness which unlike angina are not alleviated by rest.

Identifying symptoms

Symptom Checklist

The following symptoms are by no means always due to coronary heart disease and could be harmless or due to other medical conditions. However if you experience any of them it is a good idea to make an appointment to see your doctor:

Unusual breathlessness when doing light activity or at rest, or breathlessness that comes on suddenly.

Angina - chest pain, heaviness or tightness in the chest that comes on during exertion, emotional stress and may spread to arms, neck, jaw, face, back or stomach.

Palpitations - awareness of your heart beat or a feeling of having a rapid and unusually forceful heart beat, especially if they last for several hours or recur over several days and/or cause chest pain, breathlessness or dizziness.

Fainting - although not always a serious symptom, fainting is due to insufficient oxygen reaching the brain which may be due to many reasons, so you should report it to your doctor.

Fluid retention or puffiness - (oedema to use the medical term) is abnormal accumulation of fluid in tissues such as ankles, legs, lungs and abdomen. Although usually perfectly normal e.g. on a hot day, it can be a sign that the heart is not pumping as well as it should (heart failure).

Bluish tinged fingernails or around lips - known medically as cyanosis - it can be a result of too little-oxygen in the blood.

Fatigue - fatigue is a very common symptom with numerous causes including depression. It is always worth seeing the doctor if you feel unusually fatigued, especially if it is combined with other suspicious symptoms.

Severe crushing chest pain that may come on at rest and is accompanied by sweating, light-headedness, nausea or shortness of breath and lasts more than 15 minutes may be a heart attack. Seek medical help immediately by phoning 999 and asking for an ambulance. This will ensure prompt treatment and less damage to heart muscle may occur.

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What causes coronary heart disease?

The overwhelming cause of coronary heart disease is atherosclerosis. This is a build up of fatty materials within the walls of the arteries.

This occurs when the inner lining of your artery walls becomes furred with a thick, porridge-like sludge (atheroma) made up of fatty deposits of cholesterol, cell waste and other substances. These form raised patches on the artery wall known as 'plaques' which narrow the arteries reducing the space through which blood can flow. At the same time the blood becomes more prone to clotting.

The growing plaques may block the ...

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