Heart Disease Early Detection Is Important

Your heart beats as long as you are alive. However, the heartbeat can be faster or slower than normal, depending on your state of mind or the activities you are involved in. Your heartbeat also implies that your heart is transporting blood filled with the oxygen around your body at varying rates. You already know by now that the heart is a vital organ. Therefore, you should always try and maintain a healthy heart. Some of the ways to achieve this are regular exercise, an active lifestyle and avoiding risk factors that can damage your heart, such as smoking, high consumption of alcohol, or being overweight.

No doubt, the heart is a vital organ of the body. Just as the heart sends blood around your body, it also needs blood, and the coronary arteries supply blood back to the heart. Early detection of heart disease is important; for instance, the coronary arteries can become narrow and not carry enough oxygen to the heart due to some underlying factors. Those factors can result in serious heart problems.

Different Heart Problems

Can affect both men and women. Heart diseases include coronary artery disease, heart arrhythmias, congenital heart disease, pericardial disease, heart valve disease, heart muscle disease, heart failure, and each one has its symptoms and treatments. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, coronary artery disease that affects blood flow to the heart is the most common type of heart disease in America.

Keep reading to find out more tips on how to detect any heart problem early enough. You shouldn’t ignore whatever signs or symptoms you notice. Seek medical attention immediately if you suspect any related sign or symptoms.

Symptoms

These are the minor signs to look out for while checking for heart disease. You should take these signs and symptoms seriously in order to keep a healthy heart. Now, some heart problems might not come with significant warning signs.

In case of any heart disease

You might experience pain in your chest and or other areas of the body. It would be quite helpful if you take cognizance of these likely pointers to heart disease or problem:

Chest pain or discomfort: Discomfort in the chest, including a dull ache, a crushing or burning feeling, sharp stabbing pain and pain that radiates to the neck or shoulder.
Nausea: the feeling of vomiting
Indigestion
Heartburn: it is a burning sensation in your chest. The pain is often worse after eating.
Stomach pain: this can be as a result of indigestion.
Pain around the left arm starts from the chest: if you feel pain from your chest region that moves towards your left arm, it will be best not to overlook it.
Lightheadedness or dizzy feeling: you get dizzy, your head spins, you feel like passing out.
Irregular heartbeat: pay attention to your heartbeat. If the heartbeat seems abnormal, especially when you are not doing any strenuous activity, you should not hesitate to see a doctor.
Getting worn out quickly: you get tired quickly when you work or walk; this is a sign that something is wrong.
Cold sweat: If you do something that is not supposed to make you sweat, and you notice you get so sweaty. You should take that seriously and seek medical care.

While some heart issues come with obvious or easily detectable signs or symptoms, others may remain unnoticeable for a long time. This is why you should go for check-ups regularly so that such heart problems can be detected early.

Risk factors for heart disease

Include lifestyle factors or conditions that may result in heart disease. Some of these risk factors include:

Being Overweight: if your body mass index is very high, you become overweight or obese. This can be an underlying factor for a heart problem.
Unhealthy eating: when you make the wrong choice of food you take, or you take unhealthy diets regularly; such as an unbalanced diet or taking food high in fat or sugar, you put yourself at risk of heart diseases and other organ diseases. Always ensure you take a balanced diet with fruits and vegetables too.
Smoking: whatever you smoke, whether shisha, cigarettes or tobacco, they put your heart at risk.
Family history of heart disease: if there is a history of heart issues in your family, this is more reasons to get yourself checked up for heart diseases quite often.

Diagnosis

Now that you know that heart problems may not always present themselves as expected. This brings us to the question, how exactly do you determine if you have a heart issue?

Specific tests have to be carried out by the cardiologist, a specialist medical practitioner trained to identify, manage and treat heart problems. The different tests carried out are to check the health status of your heart and also determine if you are at risk of any heart problem. These clinical tests include:

Blood pressure check: Your blood pressure level check-ups is to ascertain if the rate at which your heart pumps blood is normal. The standard/normal blood pressure rate is 120/80mmHg. If it is higher or lower than this normal blood pressure rate, you need to take it seriously and go for further clinical diagnosis and medical care for your heart.
Cholesterol level in the body: a doctor may carry out a blood test to check the total amount of cholesterol in your body. If you have a high risk of heart disease, the doctor would advise you to visit the hospital in order to monitor your cholesterol level regularly. Excess cholesterol level is a risk factor for heart diseases.
Body Mass Index (BMI): Being overweight puts your heart at risk. Your weight should be checked regularly either at home or the hospital.
Blood Sugar Level: your blood sugar level also needs to be checked. Excess blood sugar causes diabetes, and diabetes also puts you at higher risk of heart disease.
Electrocardiogram (ECG): your doctor recommends you carry out an ECG to measure the regularity of your heartbeat.
Echocardiogram: the doctor uses ultrasound to get a picture of your heart to evaluate the pumping action of the heart.
Chest X-rays: the heart, lungs, and other organs in the chest are checked to ensure you are not at risk of a heart problem via an image gotten through x-rays.
Test through exercise: this entails checking your heart rate or changes in heart rate when you take on physical activities. It can be measured while you walk on a treadmill. This helps to know how well your heart adjusts when doing a physical activity like walking or working. If someone always gets tired easily while doing just a little work or physical activity, this might be a pointer for a heart problem.

Treatment

Different heart conditions involve various treatment procedures like surgery, medications, and lifestyle changes. Sometimes it may require a heart surgery like:

Open heart surgery
Coronary angioplasty and stenting
Heart bypass

There are various medications for heart diseases like:

Vasodilators
Diuretics
Cholesterol-lowering medications
Digitalis preparations
Calcium channel blockers
Beta-blockers
Angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitors
Angiotensin II receptor blockers
Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors
Anticoagulant
Antiplatelet agent and dual antiplatelet

An individual who is obese will have to lose weight by taking a healthy diet and avoiding food high in cholesterol. Another favorable lifestyle change is to prevent chest pain by doing less strenuous activities.

Prevention

Healthy diets: you must eat a balanced diet meal. Take fruits and vegetables. Reduce food high in cholesterol and eat food low in cholesterol.
Quit smoking: if you smoke all the time, for the sake of your health, quit smoking as the smoke damages your lungs and consequently the heart.
Reduce alcohol consumption: if your alcohol intake is high, you have to quit or reduce your alcohol intake. Too much alcohol damages the liver. It can even affect your blood pressure and make you gain some weight which can be detrimental to your heart health.
Weight reduction: being overweight leads to high blood pressure and excess fat in the blood. If you are overweight, avoid fatty foods, lose some weight and eat healthily.
Exercise regularly: when you engage in physical fitness activities regularly, you strengthen your heart and reduce your chances of having heart problems. It favours your body systems, reduces fat, and maintains your blood pressure.

Summary

Now you know the symptoms of heart diseases. It is not something to be overlooked. As you go about your daily activities, be deliberate about your health and note any slight changes. Once you start feeling any form of pain, pay keen attention to it. Sometimes the pain can be triggered by stress, cold weather, heavy meals, exercises and can last within two to ten minutes or more.

Whenever you feel any unusual sign on your chest or body as a whole, do not underestimate it. A little sign and symptom owing to heart problems may lead to more severe heart disease if ignored. The earlier you get treated through regular check-ups, medications, lifestyle changes, physical exercise and a healthy diet, the more you get to live a healthier life. If you are having any pain or notice any signs, make sure you get a clinical check-up immediately. You can schedule your appointment with us today if you need help.