Showing posts with label rapid heart beats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rapid heart beats. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Symptoms of congestive heart failure

 
 









Symptoms of congestive heart failure have a great impact on a person’s life, considering this is a progressive and eventually fatal medical condition. Nowadays, in the economic well developed countries, people die because of the heart problems, more then they do from any other cause. It is important to know that symptoms of congestive heart failure have a fluctuating evolution: there are episodes with severe symptoms, followed by long periods of time when the situation is stable, nevertheless, even if people recover from the acute phase, they can’t return to the previous level of functionality. Also, it is very important to mention that is difficult to predict how much time is left to live once the diagnosis is established, because sudden death isn’t uncommon in these patients. Heart failure is not just a disease of an one individual, but a disease that affects the entire family.

What do you know about symptoms of congestive heart failure?

If you are one of the patients suffering from congestive heart failure, you should be informed about the symptoms of congestive heart failure and when to sick medical help. Every readmission to the hospital will increase mortality; there are medical articles that suggest a 20-30% increase of this risk with every readmission. You may experience shortness of breath during effort (exertion dyspnea), during night (nocturnal paroxysmal dyspnea) or even when you rest( in the advanced stages of the congestive heart failure). At the beginning, shortness of breath occurs only during great effort, but in time, daily activities that once were performed very easily, like dressing, shaving, eating etc, can produce shortness of breath and force the patient to give up on his/her social life and depend on other person’s help. Another form of rest dyspnea is orthopnea, meaning that you can’t breathe while lying in the bed and you require elevation of the head with pillows.
Other symptoms of congestive heart failure are palpitations, rapid heart beats, fatigue, fainting, blue coloring of the lips or limb extremities, accumulation of water in the limbs tissues (this  condition is called edema) lungs, pleural and abdominal cavities, heart murmurs.
Because heart can’t deliver enough blood to muscles, patients will experience weakness and heaviness in the limbs. A low blood flow to the kidneys will determine oliguria (diminished amount of urine), this condition appears in advanced stages, when the cardiac output is severely reduced.
Cerebral manifestations of low cardiac output are also symptoms of congestive heart failure: headaches, insomnia, confusion, memory impairment, anxiety or nightmares. In more severe cases, patients experience other symptoms of congestive heart failure that require special medical care: hallucinations, delirium, disorientation.
In the end, we will present a list with a few symptoms of congestive heart failure, which may guide patients to require medical help (they were published in a guide for caregivers, by The Washington Home Center for Palliative Care Studies):
  • gain of 3 pounds or more within a few days or a week,
  • increased swelling in hands, ankles or feet,
  • difficulty breathing at any time or coughing at night,
  • decreased urination,
  • confusion, dizziness, or faintness,
  • nausea or vomiting,
  • increased fatigue,
  • muscle cramps or weakness,
  • any distressing symptom.

For more info on symptoms of congestive heart failure check with your doctor.

Friday, November 30, 2012

Rapid heart beats after eating -worry or not

Rapid heart beats after eating - what should we be worried about?


Rapid heart beats

Some people experience rapid heart beats after eating and this can create an important discomfort as they begin to be afraid or avoid eating in order to prevent these irregular heart beats to occur. Others are worried they might have a heart disease that causes palpitations and sick medical help. In the next part of the article we will find out what is the meaning of these palpitation and how can we prevent them.
After a meal, the digestion process requires more blood in the stomach and intestine and that’s why the heart has to pump more blood in these organs. The process consisting in increasing the amount of blood in the abdominal area after a meal is very important as it helps the body to assimilate food. This routine activity can determine palpitations, because heart has to work harder then usually. Until now, heart palpitation after eating seems to be a normal manifestation that can occur during a daily physiological process of our body.
Along with palpitation, after eating there are other manifestations that can also occur:
  • nausea
  •  dizziness-it occurs because cerebral blood flow is reduced, as the stomach needs more blood then usually in order to digest the food.
  •  fatigue or even exhaustion (the blood will accumulate in the digestive system, while other organs and among them, the brain, will receive a smaller amount of blood)
  • chest pain after eating- many times, patient with coronary disease (chronic heart ischemia determined by deprivation of oxygen) can have a chest pains after eating
  •  sweating
  • insomnia-if you sleep immediately after a meal, you may have problems to fall asleep. Because during night digestion and digestive secretion used in this process are diminished, you may get indigestion with abdominal discomfort, nausea and vomiting.
  •  shortness of breath-the stomach is full of food and presses against diaphragma, restricting lung expansion during breathing
  •  abdominal discomfort-if we eat too much or meals which are difficult to digest

If we experience rapid heart beats after eating should we seek for medical help?

Even if sometimes, heart palpitation after eating it is a normal manifestation, there are other causes for this condition, which need to be evaluated and treated. The answer is yes, if we experience heart palpitation after eating we should pay a visit to our doctor and check if there is something wrong.
What is the cause for heart palpitations after eating?
  •  sudden consumption of food after a long period of starvation. This is often seen in patients suffering from anorexia nervosa, when after a long time of not eating, they start the consumption of food, the level of blood sugar increases rapidly, followed by increased secretion of insulin, which can create arrhythmia and also decreases blood sugar. The rapid decrease of blood sugar will stimulate the secretion of adrenaline, which will stimulate heart activity and create palpitation (it is like when you hurry up a person and it is obviously that in some point she will do mistakes)
  •  hiatal hernia– a small portion of the stomach protrudes into the chest through diaphragm (the muscle that separates chest from abdomen and looks like a roof). This condition is usually associated with gastroesophageal reflux disease and may lead to chest pain and palpitations.
  •  obesity- usually these persons have a diet with lot of sugar and caffeine, with a sedentary lifestyle and they can experience palpitation and chest pain. Their body has a lot of fats and these fats will deposit on the blood vessels wall, blocking them and generating heart disease (coronary arteries disease-with deprivation of blood and oxygen in the heart tissues). Also, the heart has to work extra hard to pump blood into their stomach.
  •  hormonal imbalance could be a possible cause of heart palpitation after eating. For example hyperthyroidism (a thyroid disorder with high level of hormones) determines heart palpitation, tachycardia, chest pain, shortness of breath etc.
  •  Severe anemia can affect heart and determine tachycardia (rapid heart rate) or irregular heart beats. Because there is a small number of oxygen carriers, heart will try to pump the blood faster and faster in order to satisfy the tissues need for blood and oxygen. In the same time, heart needs oxygen for itself, working harder with less oxygen it is a very good condition for palpitation to occur. Persons that avoid eating meat, can have anemia, as the meat is the main source of iron.

How can we treat rapid heart beats after eating?

Preventing heart palpitation after eating should first start with a moderate diet and by this we mean to eat moderate amounts of food at regular intervals. It is not advisable to eat one meal after we starved ourselves an entire day. Regular meals in small proportion, regular exercise, losing weight and periodically check of the hormones level (since hormonal imbalance can determine heart dysfunction) are the solution to this medical issue.

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