Living With Heart Disease

December 17, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Heart disease is a term that denotes an extremely large field of medicine. If you have high blood pressure, you have heart disease. If you have had atrial fibrillation treated by a cardiologist, you have heart disease. If you have to take medication daily to control any heart condition, you have heart disease. While many people think of heart disease as something fatal, and in some cases it can be, most heart conditions are treatable and easy to maintain if the right steps are taken.

Keeping up with health check ups with your family physician or cardiologist is essential to maintaining your health and keeping your heart disease under control. Taking any medication that is prescribed to you is essential in managing your heart disease. These medications are carefully formulated and specific to your type of heart disease. Taking them as directed will keep your heart from causing any problems in your life. Hence, not taking them as directed can have serious, even fatal, side effects. Over time if you do not take your medication as directed, your heart disease can progress, it can easily become more serious and can cause irreversible damage to your heart muscle.

Eating a healthy diet and getting as much exercise as you can are also essential steps to keeping your heart healthy. Cutting out some of the fats in your diet and substituting unhealthy snacks with fruit or low fat snacks is one way you can take charge of your care. Taking a nice walk a few times a week goes a long way in helping to keep the heart muscle strong. Obviously, if you are smoking, you should make every effort to stop. Smoking can cause serious risks to a patient with heart disease.

By just managing your lifestyle a little differently and making some minimal changes, you can keep your heart healthy for a very long time to come.

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Choosing The Right Doctor

December 15, 2010 by Leave a Comment

You have been diagnosed with heart disease. Those two words alone can mean something as minor as a heart beat flutter to full blown blocked arteries and need for surgery. How do you find out what the next step is? Who is the right professional for your needs?

If a baby is born with a heart problem, the professionals will probably be called in right at the time of birth, and these specialists and their colleagues will determine exactly what needs to be done and who is the best specialist for that. Heart disease will need to be followed throughout the child’s life, thus setting up lifelong heart care. If you have never had heart disease, and begin to have symptoms, you would probably start with your family doctor. Yearly physicals are so important for catching heart disease at its earliest and making the treatment of heart disease work the best for you. You may just be starting to have some high blood pressure. Your physician will tell you to exercise more, eat healthier and he may prescribe some blood pressure medication, which you may be on for a lifetime. Taken properly and taking care of yourself can keep this particular heart disease in check forever.

If it something more involved, your family doctor will send you to a heart doctor, or cardiologist. Your cardiologist may handle your issues with just medication if that is all that is necessary or you may need another step. Further testing may be involved, or even surgery. The cardiologist will then send you to a cardiac surgeon, who will do whatever is necessary to diagnose the proper issue with your particular heart. From there you may be sent to another specialist, as the study of the heart and those who have made it their life’s work are vast and varied. Do your research. With the right guidance from your doctors, your heart will be in good hands.

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The Doctor is Right

December 13, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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You have some chest pain, a little indigestion. You take some antacids, stop eating greasy foods so much and figure it will go away. It does not. You try the antacids again, drink more water, maybe cut out the greasy foods altogether. It gets a little better, but it is still there. You are too busy to go to the doctor right now. You will get around to it. What if it is something more serious? What if you should get it checked out. Your spouse makes an appointment for you because they are tired of hearing you complain, and they are concerned it might be something more.

You head to the doctor’s office. The doctor gives you a check up, scolds you about the usual, you should lose some weight, smoking should definitely be cut out, get a little exercise. Just to be sure he does an electrocardiogram, a tracing of your heart. He sees something. Maybe it is nothing, maybe it is something that should be taken care of. He sends you to a cardiologist, the heart doctor.

The cardiologist does some further testing and finds out that you actually may have a blocked valve or something else going on in your heart. He sends you for a cardiac cauterization. This test puts a wire directly into the veins that go to the heart to see if there is a blockage. If there is a blockage, the doctor can place a stent, a little metal piece that will hold the valve open so that it can do its job. You can also have more than one stent placed. In extreme cases, he may need to use veins from other parts of your body to replace blocked or damaged veins, bypass surgery. It also may be something that can be handled with medicine. Whatever the case, listen to your body, and then listen to your doctor.

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Walk Yourself Healthy

December 9, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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You have been diagnosed with heart disease. The cardiology professionals have told you what you need to do. If you have had surgery, you need to let your body heal. If you are taking medicine, you should be taking it properly, as directed. After the major event and the healing has occurred, you now are more aware than ever that you have to take better care of yourself. There are the obvious things, no smoking, keep drinking to a minimum, get your weight under control. You know that these things need to be done. In taking care of your heart remember one thing, the heart is a muscle.

If your leg muscles were sore, you would rest them and then you would exercise them, so that the next time you overdid it a little, there would be no pain. You can exercise your heart in really much the same way. Walking is one of the best ways to exercise your heart. Nobody loves exercise, well maybe Richard Simmons loves exercise. Most of us do it because there is a goal. A goal of a healthy heart should be more than enough motivation to want to exercise more.

It is said that a home walking program can be as beneficial as hospital directed cardiac rehabilitation. Have a check-up to make sure walking for exercise is safe. Start out slow, pick up the pace as you go along and slow it down at the end. Use a pedometer and try adding 2,000 steps to your daily walk, gradually increasing as you go. Walk with friends, walk on your lunch break, or put on your trusty MP3 player and walk to your favorite tunes. Doing this just 30 minutes a day five times a week will be of great benefit to your heart. You will feel so much better, it might even make you want to make other changes to better your health.

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I Believe In Music

December 7, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Heart disease; no one wants it and if it is diagnosed, there are many ways to make it better, or at least get a handle on it in your life. When heart disease is diagnosed a patient may need surgery. If it is a type of heart disease that can be handled with medicine, the cardiologist will prescribe the proper medication. At the same time your heart doctor will probably recommend a healthier lifestyle. He will tell you to take better care of yourself. Even if you are a person who does take care of yourself, you don’t smoke, you are not overweight, you do not drink and your cholesterol is under control, heart disease can affect you. So you take inventory and decide anything in your life that is not good for your heart may need an adjustment. Cut down on your stress, lighten your work load if possible and slow down.

The medical treatments are obvious, but there are many other ways we can help our bodies stay free of heart disease, or keep it from becoming more serious. Music has been proven an affective way to do just that. Research suggests that music therapy can reduce your blood pressure, a big culprit in heart disease. Music can also slow your heart rate and ease anxiety. A study at the University of Maryland School of Medicine showed that when people listened to joyful music, chosen by them because it made them feel good, their blood vessels dilated and there was increased blood flow to the heart. This is significant in that stricture to the vessels can have the opposite effect, chest pain and even a heart attack.

Choose soothing music, music that makes you feel good. Depressing music will not make you feel better. Take some time for yourself, put on those headphones and soothe your aching heart.

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And The Beat Goes On

December 3, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Statistics show that a beating heart is evident in a fetus 22 to 23 days after conception. The baby will not be born for another seven or eight months, and yet the heart is already doing its job. From the time our heart begins beating until the time it stops, it has one of the most important jobs in our body. The heart pumps the blood to all the other organs, the heart regulates the flow so that our body has exactly what it needs all of the time. At the very least, we need to be taking good care of that all important organ.

Most people do not give heart health a second thought, until they need to. We should be taking care of our hearts so that we never need to see a heart specialist. Unfortunately once heart damage is done, most of the time it cannot be reversed. It can be treated and dealt with, but not reversed. Take charge of your heart health before anything happens to make you.

We all know that we should not be abusing our bodies. Maybe it is time to stop talking about it and start doing it. Stop smoking, it is terribly harmful to most of our body, but especially to the heart. Smoking blocks arteries, the all important pathways for transporting the blood to our heart so that it can do its work. To block the pathway is to cause heart disease. Try to take off the extra weight. Carrying around extra weight puts a strain on the heart, making its job more difficult, thereby slowing us down and beginning the process of heart disease. Do not take any illicit drugs. Obviously putting something into your body that does not belong there can cause a myriad of problems.

Take care of your heart, so that the beat can go on, and on, and on.

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The Right Professional

December 2, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Your heart disease may be diagnosed by your family doctor. Once the diagnosis is made, he or she will send you to a cardiology specialist. The cardiology specialist will further stratify your symptoms, perform further testing and narrow down your diagnosis. At that point you may need to see another type of heart specialist. Where 30 years ago the family doctor treated everything from the common cold to cancer, we are now in an age where physicians are further schooled to specialize in different areas of expertise. Can a general cardiologist treat your serious heart disease? Yes. Would you not rather see a physician who went to further schooling and has done more research in your particular type of heart disease?

You may have heart disease that involves your lungs as well. There is a specialist for that. A general cardiologist, while knowledgeable in “matters of the heart” may not be as knowledgeable in lung disease, but there is a specialist who is. You may have other problems going on simultaneously with your heart disease. You can see several different specialists and that may be the best way to go. However, there may be a physician who specializes in more than one aspect of heart disease, and may be just the right physician for your needs.

Being in charge of your care at all times will make your treatment work for you. Asking the right questions will give you the answers your need. Following the instructions of your physicians will make you healthier. It can even keep you from progression of the disease, or stop something fatal from happening. These decisions are too important to leave to chance. Research your type of heart disease, ask your physicians and find the right professional for your needs. If you trust your physician, you will feel more confident about your treatment and you will be more likely to follow his expert advice.

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Living With Heart Disease

November 6, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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There is no cure for coronary artery disease, a chronic disease. If you have been diagnosed with coronary artery disease, it is imperative that you take care of your heart. This is even more important if you have had surgery or another medical procedure to improve your heart’s blood flow. These and other procedures will not cure this disease. You must take the necessary steps to stop any possible progression.

Living with heart disease does not need to be difficult. Here are some ideas to help you:

–You need to recognize the symptoms and be sure to call your physician if you feel an increase in severity or frequency. If after 15 minutes of rest or medication do not alleviate the symptoms, call for emergency assistance. Do not ever wait!

–Make sure you take your medications. These drugs are to help you control your symptoms as well as help your heart. Always follow your doctor’s prescription when taking your medications.

–Take the steps to reduce risk factors. If you have risk factors such as smoking or you are overweight you run the risk of having more problems.

–Visit your doctor on a regular basis for check-ups. Even if you are not exhibiting any symptoms, make sure you have regularly scheduled appointments with both your heart specialist as well as your primary physician.

You may need to make changes in your lifestyle in order to reduce your risk factors. You may need to quit smoking — this takes dedication and a lot of discipline. You should eat a heart-healthy diet and you may need to cut out all those runs to the fast food joints.

When making these changes make sure you have a plan that includes realistic goals. Take one step at time and be prepared for some relapses.

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Open Heart Surgery

August 24, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Open heart surgery refers to operations when the patient’s chest is opened to allow the surgeon to gain access to the heart. It does not mean opening up the heart itself in order to operate inside it. Open heart surgery is a serious undertaking as such an invasive procedure requires a lengthy recuperation time for the patient as their chest cavity heals from the operation.

Cardiovascular surgeons have continually altered and improved their methods, as is the motivation of the medical fraternity to improve upon treatments and methodology. Heart professionals do still operate ‘open heart’, but there are many procedures which can now be carried out in a much less invasive way.

Rather than opening up the chest cavity, which not only takes the patient a long time to recover from, but leaves the patient more exposed to infection and other complications than a less invasive method would. Not only do a few small incisions take less time to heal than one larger one, the patient can quicker recover from the surgery itself as the body does not have to deal with the recovery of a major opening in the chest at the same time as the heart heals.

Robot assisted surgery utilises a machine to carry out the actual operation under the control of the surgeon. This means that rather than opening the patient’s chest, a single small incision, or a few small incisions, can be made into which the robot can access the heart or blood vessels to be operated on. Patient recovery time is dramatically reduced and complications are less likely.

That is not to say that complications do not happen. Operating on the human heart, even relatively minor procedures, always carries some degree of risk. In all heart operations, cardiovascular surgeons work knowing the potential risk of both neurological damage and the possibility of the patient suffering a stroke. This factor further highlights the difficult and complexity of performing surgery on one of the body’s major organs.

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Cardiovascular Surgeons – A Potted History

August 20, 2010 by Leave a Comment
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Given the incredibly high tech nature of cardiovascular surgery, it would be forgivable to think that operating on the heart and blood vessels is a very modern medical intervention. In fact, heart surgery began back in the late nineteenth century, with periodic advancements bringing the medical profession to where it is today.

Early cardiac surgery on the actual heart (previous operations had treated the pericardium, the sac surrounding the heart) involved a young patient inflicted with stab wounds. While the patient died just days after going under the knife, the operation was a breakthrough, and only a few years later a similar case was treated successfully. t

By the standards of the day, when pioneering surgeon, Henry Souttar, inserted his finger into the left atrium of a patient’s heart it may have seemed a reckless approach to the treatment of the patient. The female patient survived the operation, but the doctors’ medical peers did indeed think his approach was too dangerous and banned the procedure.

Up until World War II, heart professionals had a chequered record of success. Undoubtedly they were making incredible progress and did prolong the lives of many patients and relieve the pain and suffering of others, but new technologies paved the way for even further advancements and a better success rate for cardiac patients.

Several surgeons used Henry Souttar’s finger insertion technique, though his method was adapted and improved upon several times since it was first tried. A number of successful heart operations took place throughout the 1940s by separate surgeons operating in different locations, and independently of each other, but each one operated successfully.

To this day, new advances in methodology and technology in heart surgery have continued to be developed. Today’s heart professionals may operate very differently to those acting over a hundred years ago, but their determination and drive to improve and save the lives of their patients exists in today’s surgeons too. And if it were not for the pioneering surgeons of that time, we would not have the awe-inspiring medial techniques that are available today.

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