- Many diseases affect the blood vessels and the heart.
- These include hypertensive heart diseases, coronary heart diseases, rheumatic heart diseases, heart block and stroke.
- A notable feature these days is that the younger people are increasingly being affected by such diseases.
- Hypertensive heart diseases: It includes the following types:
- Arteriosclerosis (Greek; arteria=artery, sclerosis hardness):
- The arteries and the arterioles become hard and thick and eventually lose their elasticity.
- It causes hypertension or high blood pressure.
- In this disease, calcium salts precipitate with the cholesterol of the formed or forming plaque (a sticky deposit).
- This deposition ultimately makes the wall of arteries stiff and rigid which lose the property of distension and may rupture.
- The blood from such ruptured vessels may clot and block the blood flow.
- Such a clot in a coronary artery may lead to a heart attack or even death.
- Atheroma (Greek; athere= deposit of pasty material, oma=tumor):
- In Atheroma or atherosclerosis the arteries and arterioles get narrower due to the deposition of fats, including cholesterol on their inner lining, i.e in the tunica interna and the smooth muscles.
- These deposition or plaques grow gradually leading to the decrease in the lumen of the artery.
- Since same amount of blood is being pushed through narrow tubes, it leads to high blood pressure.
- The formation of plaques in coronary arteries may result in heart attack due to complete blockage.
- High blood plasma concentration of LDL (low density lipoproteins) may lead to atherosclerosis.
- This makes the inner surface of the arteries irregular that may cause clot formation, or
- Hypertension:
- Nervous tension and emotional stress (fear, worry, anxiety, anger, excitement, physical stress, and excessive joy) cause contraction of the arteries.
- Frequent tension or stress results in persistent high blood pressure which is more than 120/80 mm of Hg called hypertension.
- High blood pressure is a silent killer as there is no any initial symptom of it and slowly damages the cardiovascular system of the body.
- It damages the arteries in the kidneys, causing a serious disease called chronic nephritis.
- It may rupture arteries in the eye, causing blindness; or in the brain, causing temporary or permanent paralysis called stroke.
- To some extent, the tendency to develop hypertension is inherited.
- Coronary heart diseases:
- Coronary arteries supply oxygen and nutrients to the heart muscle.
- Unhealthy coronary arteries cause heart diseases which include the following types:Angina pectoris and heart attack.
Angina Pectoris:
- Angina pectoris literally means “Pain in the chest” which results from arteriosclerosis in coronary arteries that supply to the heart muscle itself.
- These arteries are unable to carry extra blood to the heart muscle at the time of stress when the heart is beating more vigorously.
- Deprived of oxygen, the heart muscle experiences constricting pain which passes off quickly if medicines are taken.
- However, pain due to angina pectoris is a warning of heart attack.
Heart attack:
- Formation of a clot or thrombus in a narrowed coronary artery stops blood supply to the part of the heart muscle beyond the clot.
- The cells die due to lack of oxygen and glucose which leads to heart attack (coronary thrombosis or myocardial infarction (MI)).
- It may prove fatal if no electrical impulse is conducted through cardiac muscle and the heart stops beating.
- The heart attack is characterized by severe pain in the heart, breathlessness, restlessness, nausea and vomiting.
- The transported clot which is taken elsewhere from the place of formation by blood stream that will obstruct the blood flow is called embolus.
- Rheumatic heart disease:
- Rheumatic heart diseases are common in children under 20 years of age.
- This results from repeated attacks of rheumatic fever in childhood which is caused by the infection of the throat with the bacterium Streptococcus.
- Bacterial infection may reach the heart and the bacterial toxins affect the auriculo-ventricular valves.
- The valves develop two defects:
- failure to close completely
- narrowing of the openings they surround
- This makes the function of the valves irregular and lowers the blood pressure.
- Damage to the heart valves is detectable by a modified heart sound called a murmur and the heart is said to be rheumatic.
- A serious damage to the valves greatly increases the chance of congestive heart failure in which the blood is forced back into the auricles when the ventricles contract.
- A person with rheumatic heart is advised adequate rest.
- Rheumatic heart disease nowadays is said to be caused by a Coxsackie virus and Streptococcus acts as a conditioning agent.
Causes of heart diseases:
- High blood pressure of hypertension
- Increased serum(blood) cholesterol
- Infection of respiratory tract
- Sedentary habit
- Heavy smoking and alcoholism
- Malfunctioning of thyroid gland
- Congenital defects in the heart
Preventive measures of heart diseases:
- Avoid tension and stress by trying to keep cool in all circumstances
- Avoid saturated fats, especially after 35 years of age, to keep cholesterol level of blood low
- Avoid becoming overweight and obese
- Avoid sedentary habit and take light exercise daily
- Quit smoking, drinking and use of drugs
- Take preventive measures against infections of respiratory tract
- Consult a doctor in case of any chest pain