Health And Wellness Center: Heart disease

The heart is a muscular structure that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the body to tissues receive nutrients and oxygen they need to perform their function and collect the carbon dioxide they produce and transport it to the lungs to be removed and re-oxygenate blood.

The heart beats thanks to a network of nerve bundles that control heart rate and filling and emptying of the heart chambers (atria and ventricles) in a coordinated manner, through the blood of each other to open and close the valves that connect these cavities. This muscular body is nourished in turn by the coronary arteries and is protected by a layer overlying called pericardium.

This complex vital structure can be affected by different diseases depending on the structures that are altered.

Major heart disease

IHD
Heart failure
Cardiac arrhythmias
Valvular
Cardiomyopathy
Pericardial diseases

Ischemic heart disease is the lack of blood supply to the heart through the different coronary arteries by clogging them and assumes that the heart can not pump exercise its function. It is a disease that in its varying degrees affects 7% of the population diagnosed each year in Spain about 125,000 new cases, with a high mortality rate. It is a disease more prevalent in men than in women, but in these mortality is usually higher.

When clogged coronary insufficient blood supply occurs when heart muscle tissue; depending on the degree of obstruction and caused damage to the heart muscle due to lack of irrigation talking about angina or angina, in which arterial blockage is temporary, or acute myocardial infarction, when the obstruction is complete and permanent

Are risk factors rather than demonstrated: age, consumption of snuff, diabetes, high cholesterol, overweight and obesity, family history, hypertension, excessive waist circumference and physical inactivity. The patient suffers a picture of oppressive chest pain that may radiate to the left arm, neck, back or the stomach, accompanied by sweating, nausea and dizziness. Given these symptoms it is essential to request emergency assistance where it is or alternatively be accompanied as soon as possible to a hospital emergency center.

Heart failure is the inability of the heart to pump enough blood to the lungs as much as to the rest of the body. This disease affects approximately 5% of the population, is the cause of 3% of all hospital admissions and the fourth leading cause of cardiovascular death, with a mortality of 3% in men and 10% in women, It is more than 8% globally in people over 75 years.

With respect to its causes there are two major groups of heart failure associated with chronic hypertension injuries poorly treated and associated with ischemic heart disease. Also, other common causes include heart valve involvement, arrhythmias, congenital abnormalities, some lung diseases or use of certain drugs.

When the left side of the heart fails, fluid accumulates in the veins of the lungs, which causes shortness of breath (dyspnea) and in extreme cases can cause a disease called acute pulmonary edema. However if the pumping of the right heart chambers fails, fluid accumulates in tissues such as the abdomen or ankles. In addition to dyspnea the patient may feel palpitations, chest pain and a marked (asthenia) fatigue.