Showing posts with label arteries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label arteries. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

How to lower cholesterol fast and naturally!

Cholesterol is really a soft, fatty substance produced in liver and also present in some foods. Although the body needs cholesterol, too much cholesterol can lead to serious problems for example disease heart. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of deaths in both women and men in the United States.

Excess cholesterol adheres to the walls of the arteries. Your arteries become narrow, slowing or blocking blood is the oxygen flow to his heart. This can lead to a increased risk of heart attack. The blood and oxygen they are able to not reach your brain also increase their risk of stroke. Have you checked your cholesterol High cholesterol does not cause symptoms, so many people know that their levels are extremely high until it's past too far. It is important for adults to them look at your cholesterol at least one time every 5 years. A blood test called a lipoprotein profile tells on the levels of total cholesterol, lipoprotein cholesterol low density (LDL, because of its acronym in English), cholesterol high density lipoprotein (HDL, for its acronym in English) on triglycerides. Cholesterols levels is known as the "Bad cholesterol" since it is the biggest source of compliance and blockage within the arteries, while HDL cholesterol is called the "Good" cholesterol since it helps remove extra cholesterol your body. Triglycerides are a kind of blood fat.

Your nurse practitioner will be able to analyze their blood tests and let you know if your cholesterol levels are extremely high. Changes in lifestyle, together with the possible addition of the prescription, might help to reduce their levels of cholesterol.

Risk factors

Several factors can result in high-cholesterol within your body. You cannot control some of these factors. For instance, high cholesterol can be hereditary, which means that genetically inherited from generation to generation. Age and sex could also play a role in levels high cholesterol levels. To the extent that men and women age, their levels of cholesterol rise. In addition, LDL cholesterol amounts of women often increase after menopause.

Risk factors you can control include the next:

- Diet: Intake of high levels of cholesterol and fats saturated and trans fats in foods lift up your levels of cholesterol.
- Weight: Being overweight or obese has a tendency to increase levels of cholesterol.
- Exercise: Deficiencies in physical activity can help to eliminate HDL cholesterol level.
- Smoking: The smoking damages the walls of blood vessels which make them more prone to accumulate fatty deposits. In addition, smoking lowers HDL cholesterol in the body. Changes in lifestyle maintaining a healthy diet might help decrease your cholesterol. It is important to consume less food saturated fats, fat and cholesterol. Read food labels to understand how much fat and cholesterol you're consuming.

Listed here are some healthy changes you can perform:
- Eat foods with soluble fiber, like beans, oats and cereal grains, which could help reduce total cholesterol level.
- Eat fish for example salmon, mackerel or herring, which contain large amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, a unsaturated fat can lower your triglyceride level.
- Try healthy alternatives such as low fat milk or skim milk rather than dairy, the whites from the eggs or egg substitutes instead of eggs and beans peas, lentils or tofu and soy meat substitutes.
- Limit the amount of alcohol consumed, and consumption still moderate levels can raise your HDL cholesterol.
- Use extension foodstuffs such as margarine or orange juice containing plant sterols added or plant esters, which can reduce cholesterol.

Exercise and weight loss are part of a lifestyle healthy. Adding exercise for thirty minutes a day in most times of the week might help raise HDL cholesterol and reducing LDL cholesterol. Gradually, set time and frequency of the workouts. And when you smoke, quit now. If you do not smoke, don't start.

Friday, May 31, 2013

Heart Attack Causes

Heart Attack Causes
There are few different things that heart attack causes have in common. The primary one, however, is that all these causes put unnecessary strain and stress on the body and the heart. In order to limit your potential for a heart attack it is important to know what the causes are. If you know what causes a heart attack you can develop a plan to eliminate these causes from your life. It may be difficult to eliminate all of the heart attack causes from your life because there are factors at work that you have no control over, such as genetics. However, there are some causes that you can strive to minimize or even eliminate.

One of the most common heart attack causes is stress. If you are a constant worrier who doesn’t get much sleep then you are at a greater risk of having a heart attack. When you are stressed out your body goes into overdrive. This puts unnecessary strain on the heart muscle. Over time, this constant strain on the heart will gradually weaken it. In turn, you may have a heart attack. Good ways to deal with stress include doing something that you enjoy that also has a benefit for the heart. This could include things such as taking a long walk or jumping in the pool to go for a swim. The idea is to take your mind off of what is stressing so that your heart can get a workout in a good way.

Obesity is also one of the major heart attack causes. Becoming obese is directly related to your diet in most cases. If you are putting bad foods into your body you will likely see your weight climb. When this happens you are putting extra pressure on your heart. Your heart must work faster and harder in an effort to carry all of the excess weight around. A poor diet will also contribute to plaque buildup in your arteries. If you have substantial buildup in your arteries then eventually it will stop the blood flow to your heart. Once this happens you will have a heart attack.

Heart attack causes are often things that can be avoided if you decide to take care of yourself both mentally and physically. Making an effort to live more of a stress free lifestyle while also eating healthier can reduce your risk of a heart attack in no time flat.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

What causes heart attacks? Myocardial Infractions Explained

Heart attack
Heart attack, or myocardial infarction as they are commonly referred to by doctors, occur when blood flow to a part of the heart that  is blocked for an extended period of time leading to the damage or death of tissues in that area which can lead to the heart muscles getting damaged and dying. And that is what causes heart attacks.

The main cause of heart attacks is the blockage of the coronary arteries that deliver blood to the heart. This blockage is caused mainly by the buildup of a substance called plaque which is mainly made up of cholesterol and other cells along the walls of the arteries stopping the flow of blood to the muscles starving them of oxygen and causing them to die. The actual causes of heart attacks are not well known, but they can be triggered by heavy physical activity, being active outside in the cold weather or by severe emotional and physical stress.

Causes of heart failure:

One contributing factor for heart attacks is coronary heart disease. This is governed by your heart disease risk factor. These are habits or conditions that increase your risk of getting coronary heart disease and these factors also increase the risk of coronary heart disease worsening.

The main heart disease risk factors are high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, smoking, unhealthy diet and lack of physical activity. Any one of or any combination of these factors greatly increases your likelihood of getting coronary heart disease.

Heart problems are another factor that causes heart attacks. These are related to cardiac heart disease. The main one is the clogging of the coronary arteries due to the buildup of plaque.

Heart failure is when the heart stops functioning properly leading to the heart attack. It’s caused when blood flow is restricted to the cardiac muscles; this means the muscles are deprived of oxygen which they need to function. The muscles gradually stop working and may die, this means that the heart can’t pump blood properly and hence causing heart failure.

Heart failure is normally preceded by certain signs that if spotted in time, can be vital in preventing a heart attack. The most common signs are shortness of breath, coughing or wheezing, tightness around the chest, and buildup of fluids in body tissues, dizziness, nausea, fatigue and anxiety. These signs once seen should be acted upon immediately to avert any impending heart attack.

what causes heart attacks

Here are some facts about heart attacks that show how major an issue it is;

In the US in 2008, heart attacks accounted for 616000 deaths, almost 25% of the deaths, making it the leading killer in the US. It accounts for 25.1% of the deaths in whites making it the leading cause of death among white adults and is estimated to cost the US government $108.9 billion in treatment, medication and lost productivity.

Having answered the question what causes heart attacks with these causes and signs of an impending heart attack, one sees the need to change their lifestyle to lower their risk of heart attack and live a healthy productive life.

Friday, March 15, 2013

Ischemic heart disease

Ischemic heart disease arises when a patient has an obstruction in the arteries feeding their heart (coronary artery disease).  The older you become and if you smoke, have high blood pressure, diabetes or high cholesterol, your risk of IHD increases.  Ischemic heart disease is the leading killer among adults in the United States.

Ischemic heart disease can cause angina (chest pain during exercise) and can bring on a myocardial infarction, otherwise known as a heart attack.  Ischemia may be caused by a high fat diets and little or no exercise, which may also lead to angina.

Angina

The major indication of Angina is pain over the mid chest that sometimes radiates down the left arm, to the jaw or back.  The existence of episodes of angina is in essence diagnostic of Ischemic Heart Disease.  The symptoms of angina pectoris can commonly be controlled by beta-blockers, nitrates and calcium-channel blockers.  Beta blockers have also proven to decrease the risk of troubling cardiac events in patients with angina.



Heart Attack

Most heart attacks are caused by Coronary Artery Disease (CAD), a plaque that has built up on the walls inside your coronary arteries.  These are the arteries that oxygen and blood to your heart.  This plaque can break off and cause a blood clot which can block your artery to which no blood or oxygen can flow, thus causing a Heart Attack or Myocardial Infarction.



So, please be sure to take care of your self by eating healthy and exercising frequently.  Get regular checkups and if you have any question that you may be having angina or a heart attack please seek medical attention right away.


Friday, October 26, 2012

Stents in the heart

Stents in the heart are small medical devices (small mesh tubes) used to treat narrowed arteries (arteries are blood vessels that carry blood from heart to the tissues). The procedure of placing stents in the heart is called angioplasty. Angioplasty alone, without stent placement is associated with a high risk of recurrence of the arterial blockage, in months or years after the procedure. That is why placing stents in the heart solved this disadvantage of the angioplasty, maintaining blood vessels opened and avoiding heart surgery. The risk that the arteries will renarrow is 10-20%  in the first year after angioplasty, while in the absence of a stent the risk is twice as much.
Stents in the heart are usually made of metal mesh or fabric (these ones are used in larger arteries). Some of these stents contain a special substance that prevent blood from coagulating and are called drug-eluting stents.

How are stents in the heart placed? 

Doctors use a balloon inside the artery to compress the plaque (deposits of fats in the arteries wall, also called atherosclerosis) and widen the passage (the arterial lumen through which will flow blood). After this, they place the stent in order to maintain the passage (the artery lumen) opened.

How do we prepare patients before placing stents in the heart?

Patients should be well informed about the stents in the heart procedure, about the risks and the special precautions. These are a few questions u must always ask your doctor about:
  •  Why is it performed?
  •  How is it performed?
  •  What are the risks and precautions of this procedure?
  •  Is there any other alternative?
  •  What happens if I refuse this procedure?
  •  Always sign a consent paper.

Why are stents in the heart placed for?

The purpose for stents in the heart placement is to keep the arterial lumen opened and allow blood to flow, in this way tissues will receive enough blood and the symptoms of ischemia (oxygen deprivation) will be relieved.
  • For carotid arteries blockage: fat deposits in carotid arteries wall (also called plaques, they are a manifestation of the disease named atherosclerosis) can determine neurologic symptoms like dizziness, fainting, headache, memory and concentration problems and in severe cases even stroke.
  • For coronary vessels (blood vessels that supply blood for heart tissues): a special tube called catheter is introduced in the femoral artery (the main artery of the lower limb) and it is conducted in the arterial system until it reaches the coronary arteries. In that moment, a special substance is pumped into the catheter in order to view the arteries and the blockage. This catheter has a tiny balloon on its tip, which is inflated in the narrowed area, compressing the atheroma (the plaque of fats from the artery wall that blocks blood flow) and enlarging the lumen. After this a stent may be placed to keep the lumen opened.
  • For kidney or leg arteries, aneurysm of the aorta.

What are the common precautions after placing stents in the heart?

  •  blood clotting precautions: in order to prevent blood clotting, patients with stents in the heart have to take antiplatelet medication (aspirin, clopidogrel)
  •  if the stent is made of metal, than the patient can’t have MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)
  •  avoid vigorous effort early after the stent placement procedure.

What risks are related to stents in the heart?

  •  restenosis- blood vessel becomes blocked and narrow again, despite the angioplasty procedure
  •  about 1 or 2 percent of the patients with a stented artery are at risk of developing a cloth at the stent site; the consequence of this complication can be a heart attack. This complication is more frequent in the first year after stent placement and can be prevented by antiplatelet medication (like aspirin, clopidogrel).
  •  bleeding at the site of the catheter insertion into the skin
  •  damage of the blood vessel produced by the catheter
  •  irregular heart beats
  •  infection or allergic reaction (due to the substance used to view the arterial lumen)
Stents in the heart brought a significant contribution in cardiology, saving and improving life in patients with heart attack and coronary disease.

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