Guest Post | Surprising Information about Heart Disease

If you are someone who keeps up with the latest details about health and fitness you are probably already aware of the fact that heart disease is one leading cause of death in the United States. What you may not know is the many ways that heart disease can be described.

The Faces of Heart Disease

Though it sounds like an umbrella term or another way of saying that someone has a heart problem, the reality is that heart disease comes in more than a dozen different varieties. These include:

• Congenital - This is a form of the disease that is present at birth and due to a heart deformity or abnormality.
• Congestive - Prevalent in the elderly, it is a condition that occurs when the heart is unable to pump blood easily to the rest of the body. It leads to swelling in the lower body, dizziness, fatigue, and eventually to disability.
• Coronary - The most common form of the disease, it is when hardening of the arteries leads to restricted blood flow into the heart.
• Coronary Microvascular - This is when the arteries in the heart are damaged and narrow.
• Cyanotic - A form of congenital heart defect that keeps oxygen levels throughout the entire body lower than normal. It leads to a bluish color in the skin, swollen face, and even to fainting.
• Hypertensive - Heart problems related directly to high blood pressures. This can cause heart attack, heart failure, chest pain, arrhythmias, and more.
• Ischaemic - This is a form that is the result from a thickening of the vessels that feed blood to the heart. Usually arthrosclerosis is the primary cause.
• Inflammatory - When the tissues and muscles around the heart are inflamed by infection or an immune disease it results in this form of the disease and causes angina, fatigue, and swelling in feet and ankles.
• Organic - This is the diagnosis given to someone with heart disease due to a deformity or inflammation of the heart.
• Pulmonary - This is when disease from the lungs spreads to the heart. This damages the right side of the heart and can lead to congestive failure.
• Structural - Refers to any defects in the physical structure of the heart, which means it can be congenital or can be due to aging or other issues. For instance, problems with valves and vessels are considered to be pulmonary heart disease.

What all of this tells us is that a single diagnosis of heart disease must be far more specific. A physician must first identify the exact type of disease present in order to provide the appropriate treatment. It is also essential that a patient learn the details of the condition in order to know warning signs of further problems.

For example, some forms are not prone to progression and can be treated by medication or surgery. Others will worsen and need attention given.

Symptoms and Warnings

We already understand that the different kinds of the disease lead to a wide range of symptoms, but anyone who has been diagnosed with heart disease should understand the different symptoms they can experience. It is also important to note that women tend to experience their symptoms in ways that vary widely from the ways that men do. For instance, a woman may not have the more obvious signs of a pending heart attack that a man will, and must be trained to notice subtle signs instead.

The most common symptoms that all people with heart disease must take seriously include chest pain, difficulty breathing, pain in the abdomen or back, a pain in the arm and neck, and extreme fatigue that does not ease after brief rest. If you have been diagnosed and experience any symptoms, you must get attention right away. 

Guest Author: Valerie Johnston is a health and fitness writer located in East Texas. With ambitions of one day running a marathon, writing for Healthline.comensures she keeps up-to-date on all of the latest health and fitness news.