Heart disease or cardiovascular disease is the leading health problem in the Western world claiming more than one million lives annually. Heart disease is when the heart and blood vessels fail to maintain the minimal amount of blood circulation throughout the body due to the narrowing of blood vessels.
Heart health contributes to health longevity because it affects not only the body but also the mind, and therefore has a long-term role in anti-aging.
Different Types of Heart Disease:
Coronary heart disease, or coronary artery disease is the accumulation of fatty deposits along the coronary arteries. The fatty deposits may have developed in your childhood, and continue to thicken and enlarge throughout your adult lifespan. That thickening narrows your arteries and can decrease or block the flow of blood to your heart.
Symptoms may include heaviness, tightness, pressure, and/or pain in your chest..A heart attack, or myocardial infarction, occurs when your heart muscle experiences a severe or prolonged lack of oxygen caused by blocked blood flow to the heart muscle.
The blockage is often a result of a buildup of cholesterol and other fatty substances, which obstruct the flow of blood and oxygen to your heart, thus reducing the flow to the rest of your body.
If the blood and oxygen supply is cut off severely or for a long period, the muscle cells of your heart may suffer damage and even die, the result of which is dysfunction of the muscles of your heart in the area affected by the lack of oxygen supply.
Symptoms may include
Severe pressure, fullness, squeezing, pain and/or discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts for more than a few minutes
Pain or discomfort that spreads to the shoulders, neck, arms, or jaw
Chest pain that increases in intensity,not relieved by rest. and/or sweating, paleness, shortness of breath, nausea or vomiting, dizziness or fainting, weakness or fatigue.
Indigestion, bloating, burping and irregular pulse.
. Heart health contributes to health longevity because it affects not only the body but also the mind, and therefore has a long-term role in anti-aging.
Congestive Heart failure is another type of heart disease. It is when the heart is not supplying the other organs of the body with enough oxygenated blood, and can be the result of high blood pressure, high sodium intake, heart valve disease, previous heart attacks ,to name a few.
Symptoms include,
weight gain,
swelling of legs and ankles,
shortness of breath,
fatigue,
loss of appetite
nausea,
persistent cough.
Yet another type of cardiovascular disease can be the result of malfunctioning heart valve.
When the heart valves malfunction, it prevents the flow of blood in and out of the heart. This is called Heart Valve Disease. This can be due to damage from a previous heart attack.