HIV and Heart Failure

No one can deny the transformation brought by medical therapy. One could never think that this terminal disease called HIV can become a manageable condition. However, when people who have HIV have longer lives, they are at a higher risk of getting cardiovascular diseases, heart strokes, and attacks.

What Do You Know About Cardiovascular Diseases?

This general term, Cardiovascular Disease (CVD), describes the medical conditions affecting your heart as well as vessels. These conditions have various examples like high blood pressure, heart attacks, hardening of arteries (atherosclerosis), heart failures, coronary disease, and strokes.

The majority of the deaths in the U.S are due to cardiovascular diseases. People who have HIV are greatly concerned about it. This also may be due to the fact that people who have HIV, generally, tend to live longer lives than ever. Similar to their negative peers of HIV, they face a greater risk of having cardiovascular diseases when they enter the ages of 50-60 years.

Moreover, HIV itself has a lot of risks of turning bad in the future. HIV disease, when remains untreated and on-going, it further leads to cardiovascular diseases in upcoming years. This is the major reason that the Federal Government provides for the guideline to treat HIV as soon as you diagnose it. It is also a preventive measure to avoid cardiovascular diseases caused by on-going inflammation. Nevertheless, various drugs used for HIV may also increase the risks of cardiovascular diseases. Triglycerides and cholesterol levels would also increase drastically.

You must be glad to know that you can take a lot of steps for managing and preventing cardiovascular diseases. Many pieces of research are conducted over the years, which show that HIV positive and HIV negative people can reduce the risks of cardiovascular diseases through bringing modifications in their diets, quitting smoking, and exercising regularly. However, if these things would not suffice the need, many other approaches and medications are available readily in the markets. It is very important to pay special consideration to HIV medicines when cardiovascular risk factors need to be curtailed down.

Different Kinds of Cardiovascular Diseases

The capability of functioning and structure of the heart are greatly affected by some diseases. Some diseases may indirectly affect by thickening the blood, which makes it harder to regulate oxygen in your blood vessels. Conditions may arise due to genetic issues, but the majority of the problems are caused merely due to age, disease, or lifestyle. Below is the list of major cardiovascular diseases one may encounter:

Angina: the reduced oxygen supply to the heart causes chest pain.
Aneurysms: It is an irregular heartbeat when the heart beats too slowly, quickly, or unevenly. The blood vessels may burst out.
Cardiomyopathy: The capability to pump blood is reduced because of this damage or disease caused to the heart muscle.
Coronary Heart Disease (CHD)/ Coronary Artery Disease (CAD): This occurs commonly in people when the arteries are blocked by scar tissues and fats in the heart. Heart attacks and angina may increase a lot.
Congestive Heart Failure (CHF): The oxygen and blood supply are reduced significantly to the body when the heart stops working the way it should.
Stroke: This occurs when blood is not supplied properly to your brain due to blood clots or blood vessel ruptures in the brain. Brain Cells may die due to it.
Heart Attack: Myocardial infarction (MI) or heart attack occurs when an injury occurs to the heart muscle because of blood loss due to blood clots.
High Blood Pressure (Hypertension): Excessive pressure force is exerted when blood is pumped through the vessels. It is the major reason for heart failures, heart attacks, kidney damages, and strokes.
Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD): When the arms and legs’ blood vessels are clogged, limb pain occurs which increases the risk of stroke or heart diseases
Valve Problems: The functioning of the blood vessels may get disrupted due to thinning, leakage, or inability to close down properly.

Reasons for CVD in HIV Patients

There are various reasons for the occurrence of CVD in HIV patients. Some might be controlled, while rest cannot be. Some may contribute to increasing the risk factors, and some may exert mild influence only. South Florida CardioVascular Specialist will help you in determining the overall risk for cardiovascular diseases, once you share risk factors of yours.

Age and gender strongly influence cardiovascular diseases. Men are more prone to CVD and at an earlier age than women. After 45 years, risks increase in men and grow every year. Women face it climbing after menopause, and by 65 years, the risks increase greatly. The race also plays a role in CVD. African Americans face high risks related to CVD, like diabetes and high blood pressure. Genetics also has importance in some families. If your ancestors had a disease, it might happen to you too.

However, few risk factors can be controlled with a healthy diet, modification in lifestyle, and regular exercise. Quitting smoking is also a must if you want to avoid risks of CVD as it will increase your blood pressure, leading to arteries hardening, emphysema, and lung cancer.

Final Verdict

To sum up, HIV treatment has greatly increased the risks of cardiovascular diseases. Protease inhibitors (PIs), plus nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), and lastly, non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs), greatly affect the levels of triglycerides and cholesterol in HIV affected people. It also leads to diabetes. Moreover, HIV medicines lead to heart attacks and heart failures. People who delayed their treatments or stopped it completely was more prone to heart diseases such as heart failure in comparison to those who are having treatments. You can maintain this balance favorably with the usage of these medications. This needs constant working with healthcare specialists and providers like South Florida Cardiovascular Specialists. All of the health risks must be shared like smoking, current lipid profile, family history, diet, blood pressure, and exercise regime. Having this information, they could provide you with HIV medicines accordingly after monitoring them. Ensure routine check-ups as people with HIV are more prone to heart diseases.