Health and Wellness

Archive for the ‘Heart Disease’ Category

If you have heart disease, or think you do, there’s a lot you can do to protect your heart health. This fact sheet gives you the key steps to control the disease, including how to survive a heart attack and prevent serious damage to heart muscle.

What Is Heart Disease?

Coronary heart disease often simply called heart disease occurs when the arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle become hardened and narrowed due to a buildup of plaque on the inner walls of the arteries.

Getting Tested

If you have been told that you have heart disease, you may have had one or more screening tests. Tests for blood pressure and cholesterol levels are often done as part of routine physicals. Additional tests that may indicate heart muscle damage or blood flow problems help doctors evaluate the severity of your condition.

Risk Factors

Risk factors are health conditions or habits that increase the chances of developing a disease or having it worsen. Because you already have heart disease, you’ll need to work especially hard to control your risk factors.

Treatment

Heart disease and its risk factors can be treated in three ways: by making heart healthy changes in your daily habits, by taking medication, and in some cases, by having a medical procedure.

Making lifestyle changes. Adopting new habits, such as not smoking, following a heart healthy eating plan, maintaining a healthy weight, and becoming more physically active can go a long way in helping to reduce your risk for worsened heart disease.

You may need to manage certain risk factors vigorously. For example, having heart disease means that if you have high levels of a type of cholesterol called low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the “bad” cholesterol, your goal should be to bring the level to below 100 mg/dL. With your doctor, go over your heart disease risk factors and discuss how to reduce or eliminate each one.

Taking medication. Sometimes, lifestyle changes alone aren’t enough to control heart disease and its risk factors. Medications are often used to treat high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, or heart disease itself. For instance, medicine may be used to relieve angina, the chest pain that often accompanies heart disease.

Special procedures. Advanced heart disease may require procedures to open an artery and improve blood flow. These procedures are usually done to ease severe chest pain or to clear blockages in blood vessels. Two common procedures are coronary angioplasty (or “balloon” angioplasty) and coronary artery bypass graft (or bypass surgery).

How does smoking affect blood pressure?

Cigarette smoking causes a temporary increase in blood pressure. Smoking is a major risk factor for heart disease. Smoking and high blood pressure together triple your risk for heart attack.

How does smoking affect the heart and blood vessels?

• Cigarette smoking speeds up the pulse rate and makes the heart work harder.
• Smoking makes arteries contract and reduces blood flow to the heart.
• Nicotine, carbon monoxide and other harmful substances in cigarettes damage the arteries. Cholesterol clings to the damaged area, reducing blood flow to the heart.
• Smoking affects the health of the smoker and others around them, including children.

Will quitting smoking really help if smoked for years?

YES! No matter how long you’ve smoked, your body begins to repair itself as soon as you quit. In fact, within 24 hours after the last cigarette, blood pressure and pulse rate drop to normal and heart attack risk starts to drop.

Are nicotine patches and gum safe?

Yes. The small amount of nicotine in patches and gum is not harmful. Ask your doctor to suggest the best quitting aid for you.