Heart Disease

What it Means to Have Heart Disease

Heart disease can describe a wide variety of conditions. This can include blood vessel diseases like coronary artery disease; heart rhythm problems (arrhythmias), and congenital heart defects. The term “heart disease” is often used interchangeably with the term cardiovascular disease. The term “cardiovascular disease” applies to narrowed or blocked blood vessels that can lead to a heart attack, chest pain, or stroke. Other heart conditions, such as those that affect your heart’s muscle, valves or rhythm, are also considered forms of heart disease.

Coronary heart disease (CHD) often simply called heart disease, means that the arteries supplying blood to your heart muscle have become hardened and narrowed by plaque. This plaque builds up on their inner walls. Sometimes this plaque bursts, and a clot forms over it, obstructing blood flow and keeping oxygen and nutrients from getting to your heart—this is when a heart attack occurs.

If the blood supply to part of your brain is interrupted or reduced, your brain tissue can lose oxygen and nutrients. If that happens, brain cells begin to die within minutes. This is called a stroke. Strokes can be treated and prevented, but like heart attacks, prompt treatment is crucial.

Working With Your Doctor

Good communication with all of your healthcare professionals can go a long way in helping you feel better sooner. How carefully you stick to your treatment plan affects how well you respond to your medication and surgery. Your team may assume that you are following doctor’s orders perfectly. If you aren’t, having a clear and honest dialogue about the problems you’re having will help them to better help you.

Risk Factors

Ask your doctor about your specific risk factors and how to address them. If you have high levels low-density lipoprotein (LDL), one type of “bad” cholesterol, your goal should be to bring the level to below 100 mg/dL. Be sure to take your medication exactly as advised and tell your doctor right away if you have uncomfortable side effects. He or she may change the medication or dosage to address the issue.

Discuss OTC Medicines

In particular, ask your doctor whether aspirin is right for you. While studies have shown that low-dosage daily aspirin may prevent heart attacks and strokes, the FDA has not approved it to treat individuals who have never experienced these events. While you should educate yourself about your condition, be sure to get professional advice instead of self-medicating.

Depression

Tell your doctor if you are feeling depressed. This is a very common in heart disease, particularly in individuals with congestive heart failure. If you think that you may be experiencing unhealthy levels of depression or anxiety, make it known. Your doctor may prescribe helpful medication or refer you to a mental health provider.

Heart Disease Tests

After taking a careful look at your medical history and performing a physical examination, your doctor may give you one or more of the following tests:

• A Stress test (or Treadmill test) records a heart’s electrical activity during exercise on a treadmill or exercise bike.

• An Electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) makes a graph of your heart’s electrical activity as it beats. An EKG can pick up abnormal heartbeats, blood flow issues in the arteries, heart muscle damage, and heart enlargement.

• Nuclear scans (or thallium stress tests) show the working of the heart muscle as blood flows through the heart. After injecting a small amount of radioactive material into an arm vein, a camera shows how much is taken up by the heart muscle.

• Coronary angiography (or angiogram or arteriography) X-rays the coronary arteries. This can reveal problems with blood flow or any blockages. After inserting a catheter (thin tube) in the artery of an arm or leg up into the heart, a dye is injected to observe the heart and vessels to be filmed as the heart pumps. A ventriculogram—a picture of the left ventricle of the heart—is sometimes taken as part of the coronary angiography procedure.

• Echocardiography changes sound waves into pictures that show the heart’s size, shape, and movement. The sound waves also can be used to see how much blood is pumped out by the heart when it contracts.