Heart diseases is not just one condition; it’s a general term that includes many different disorders that affect how the heart works and its structure. It’s also known as cardiovascular disease, or CVD, and encompasses issues with the blood vessels, including arteries and veins, the heart’s electrical system, the heart muscle, and the heart valves.
Heart diseases is the main reason people die around the world, causing about one out of every five deaths in places like the United States. Some of the factors that can lead to heart disease include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, being overweight, smoking, not being active, family history, and eating unhealthy foods. Some people are born with heart problems, but most heart diseases develop over time because of how someone lives and the environment they’re in.
Read further to learn about various types of heart diseases, including their symptoms and treatment.
Types of Heart Diseases
Coronary Artery Disease (CAD)
Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is the most prevalent and deadly form of heart disease. This disease occurs when the supply chain of the coronary arteries becomes narrowed or blocked, preventing blood from reaching the heart muscles. It is blocked as cholesterol-rich plaque (atherosclerosis) builds up around the arteries. After the blockage, one is not able to take proper oxygen or nutrients.
What are the symptoms of CAD?
- Chest pain or discomfort (angina)
- General Weakness
- Breathing Issues
- Fatique
- Heart Attack
Factors Resulting in CAD:
- If you smoke or have diabetes
- High Blood Pressure
- High Cholesterol
- Genetic and Family History
This disease must be treated on an urgent basis. If untreated, CAD can lead to heart attack, heart failure, or even arrhythmia.
Treatment and Tests Required
To examine this disease, doctors usually prefer physical tests like imaging, like EKG, stress tests, or angiograms, and blood tests. Treatment will require some changes in your lifestyle, diet, and you have to quit smoking and exercise daily to keep your heart healthy. Medicine is provided to cure the relevant symptoms, like low cholesterol, controlling blood pressure, and sometimes to reduce heart strain. If the disease is prolonged, the next and final treatment is bypass surgery, but if you make your lifestyle healthy and fruitful, it will reduce the chances of heart failure and related diseases.
Cardiomyopathy
This is a type of heart disease in which the major effect occurs on the heart muscles. It affects the heart muscle’s structure and causes it to become large, thick, or rigid. Unlike coronary artery disease, it doesn’t block the heart; rather, it weakens the heart muscles.
It affects under three cases:
- Dilated, where heart chambers stretch and thin out, weakening contractions.
- Hypertrophic, in which the abnormal thickening of the heart muscles occurs, which is considered to be inherited.
- Restrictive, where the heart muscle becomes stiff and restricts expansion.
What are the symptoms of Cardiomyopathy?
- Weakness in the body.
- Fatigue
- Swelling in legs, ankles, or feet
- Irregular heartbeat
- Shortness of breath
- Dizziness and Fainting
Factors Resulting in Cardiomyopathy
- Some people might be more likely to develop certain conditions because of their family history.
- Other factors like getting sick or having ongoing inflammation in the body can also play a role.
- Using alcohol or drugs too much can be harmful.
- Some cancer treatments might also have effects on the body.
Treatment and Tests Required
The whole treatment involves physical tests like echocardiogram, MRI, genetic testing, or biopsy. Some lifestyle changes are also required, followed by medications for reducing heart strain or to control arrhythmias. If the situation persists, the final option left is a heart transplantation.
Rheumatic Heart Disease
Rheumatic heart disease happens when a streptococcal throat infection isn’t treated properly, which can lead to rheumatic fever. This fever causes inflammation in the heart, and the damage mainly affects the heart valves, making them scarred or unable to work properly.
What are the symptoms of Rheumatic?
- Fatigue
- Chest Pain
- Swelling in the extremities
- Irregular heartbeat
- Shortness of breath
Factors Resulting in Rheumatic
This particular disease is seen in children and adolescents, especially when they do not have the proper resources to get the required antibiotics.
If the fever is lifelong and increases with the bacterial endocarditis, it may lead to heart failure, arrhythmias, or stroke.
Treatment and Tests Required
Diagnosis includes looking at the person’s medical history, doing a physical exam, using an ultrasound of the heart, and checking for a strep infection. Treatment mainly involves medications to cure the strep infection, medicines to reduce inflammation like aspirin or steroids, and drugs to help with heart failure or irregular heartbeats. In more severe cases, the heart valve might need to be fixed or replaced. It’s important to stop the first strep infection and treat strep throat quickly to prevent it from getting worse.
Hypertensive Heart Disease
If you face high blood pressure, be careful; you may be suffering from Hypertensive Heart Disease. It is a type of disease which encompasses heart complications caused by chronically high blood pressure. Hypertension often forces our heart to pump harder, which results in thickening and stiffening of the heart muscle and leads to heart failure.
What are the symptoms of Hypertensive Heart Disease?
- Since it is affected by a fever, the sufferer may remain silent for years
- Fatigue
- Regular Weakness
- Shortness of Breath
- Chest Discomfort
- Swwlling in Lower Limbs
Factors Resulting in Hypertensive
The major factor that results in this disease is long-term, uncontrolled high blood pressure. Blood pressure is are major factor in terms of hypertension and related issues.
Treatment and Tests Required
Doctors check for heart problems by looking at blood pressure, doing an ECG, an echocardiogram, and a cardiac MRI. To treat it, they focus on keeping blood pressure under control with medicines like ACE inhibitors, beta-blockers, and diuretics. They also suggest modifying lifestyle habits, such as reducing salt intake, exercising regularly, maintaining a healthy weight, and abstaining from tobacco and alcohol. Along with that, they work on treating any other health issues that come with it.
Valvular Heart Disease
Valvular heart disease happens when one or more of the heart’s four valves, the mitral, aortic, tricuspid, or pulmonary, don’t work right. They either don’t open fully or don’t close tightly, which messes up how blood flows through the heart.
It affects under three cases:
- Stenosis, where the valve doesn’t open fully, results in reduced blood flow.
- Regurgitation occurs when a valve doesn’t close tightly, causing blood to leak backwards.
- Prolapse, where valve flaps bulge backwards.
What are the symptoms of Valvular Heart Disease?
- Fast Heartbeat
- Fatigue
- Shortness of breath
- Swollen legs, ankles, and feet
- Chest pain
Factors Resulting in Vavular
- Birth defects
- Getting older causes calcium buildup
- Heart inflammation from infections
- Illnesses that damage heart valves
- Wear and tear on the heart over time
Treatment and Tests Required
Valvular disease is found using tests like echocardiography, ECG, or cardiac MRI. The way it is treated depends on how severe it is. It may involve keeping track of the condition regularly, taking medicines to ease symptoms such as diuretics and beta-blockers, and having surgery to fix or replace the damaged valves if the damage is serious.
Congenital Heart Disease
Congenital heart disease means there is a problem with the heart or large blood vessels that is present when a baby is born. These issues can be simple, like a small opening between parts of the heart, or more serious, like major birth defects.
It affects under these cases:
- Septal Defects, in which there is a hole in the atrial or ventricular walls.
- Valve abnormalities, in which valves may be malformed, too narrow, or become leaky.
- Atresia, absence of normal openings or connections.
- Major Structural Issues, where heart chambers are missing or have some abnormal connections.
What are the symptoms of Congenital Heart Disease?
- Fast breathing
- Poor Weight gain in infants
- Fatigue
- Skin becomes blue
- Heart murmur
- Factors Resulting
Changes in genes or environmental factors that occur during a babyis growth, such as contracting rubella, consuming alcohol, or being exposed to certain medications, can impact the baby’s development.
Treatment and Tests Required
Doctors use tests like echocardiography, pulse oximetry, and special imaging to diagnose heart problems. The way they treat these issues depends on how serious they are. For small problems, they might just keep an eye on things. But for bigger ones, they might give medicine or do surgery. New medical advances help many people with heart birth defects live longer, healthier lives.
Heart Failure
The most common heart disease, sometimes called congestive heart failure, is a situation where the heart doesn’t pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs. Heart failure generally is the last stage of many heart diseases mentioned above.
What are the symptoms of Heart Failure?
- Breathing becomes hard, especially when you’re active or lying flat.
- Feeling very tired and lacking strength.
- Swelling occurs in the feet, ankles, legs, or belly area.
- A cough that keeps coming back, producing white or pinkish blood-tinged mucus.
- Heart beats quickly or in a strange, uneven way.
Factors Resulting in Heart Failure
- Ischemic heart disease, also called CAD
- Chronic high blood pressure
- Heart attack, also known as myocardial infarction
- Heart muscle disease, irregular heartbeats, and valve problems
Treatment and Tests Required
Doctors check for heart problems by doing a physical exam, running blood tests like the BNP test, using an ECG, an echocardiogram, and sometimes an MRI. To treat heart failure, they often suggest changing lifestyle habits, taking medicines such as ACE inhibitors, beta-blockers, diuretics, and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists. In more serious cases, they might use advanced treatments like pacemakers, LVADs, or even a heart transplant. It’s also very important to take care of any other health issues that might be causing or worsening the heart problem.
Arrhythmia
Arrhythmia refers to problems with the heart’s electrical system, which can make the heartbeat irregular, too slow, or too fast. These conditions can be harmless but also very serious, life-threatening diseases.
It affects under these cases:
- Tachycardia, when the heartbeat is very fast.
- Bradycardia, when the heartbeat is very slow.
- Atrial Fibrillation causes an irregular heartbeat.
- Premature Contractions mean ‘skipped’ or extra beats.
What are the symptoms of Heart Failure?
- Dizziness or Fainting
- Chest Discomfort
- Fluttering, Racing, Pounding Heart
- Shortness of Breath
*Sometimes, some arrhythmias may have no symptoms, but carry a very high risk of stroke or sudden death.
Factors Resulting in Arrhythmia
- Heart problems like blocked arteries, faulty heart valves, or weak heart muscles.
- Low or high levels of minerals in the blood.
- Drinking too much alcohol, drinking a lot of coffee, or smoking.
- Effects of medications on the body.
Treatment and Tests Required
Treatment is typically performed using an ECG, Holter monitor, or electrophysiology study. There are several treatment options, including monitoring the condition and waiting if the risk is low, taking medications such as antiarrhythmics, beta-blockers, or anticoagulants for atrial fibrillation, using a pacemaker, undergoing an ablation procedure, or receiving an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) if there’s a risk of life-threatening heart rhythm problems.
Conclusion
Heart diseases, such as coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, rheumatic heart disease, high blood pressure, valvular issues, congenital heart defects, heart failure, and irregular heartbeats, have different symptoms but often share similar risks, like high blood pressure, diabetes, being overweight, and family history. It’s important to understand each condition’s specific signs to detect them early and manage them properly.
Living a healthy life with good nutrition, regular physical activity, and not smoking is key to preventing these diseases. While there are new treatment options available, getting help from a doctor quickly and following a personalized care plan can greatly improve results. Please note that this information is provided for educational purposes only, and you should consult a healthcare provider for a proper diagnosis and treatment. Stay educated and take charge of your heart health.
Disclaimer
This blog is for general information only. We tried our best to make sure the information is correct by using reliable sources, but heart conditions can be complicated and vary from person to person. You should always talk to a trained doctor or healthcare provider for advice, diagnosis, and treatment that’s right for you. Don’t begin or stop any medicine or treatment just based on what you read here. If you have any heart issues or health worries, you should get direct medical help from a professional.
