Congenital Heart Disease

Congenital Heart Disease

Congenital heart disease is one of the types of heart disease. Congenital heart disease can be developed in a patient since birth that is why it is termed as congenital disease. It can be seen in children and adults. The improper formation of valves and heart muscle give rise to this type of heart disease. The other complications included in this type of disease is the holes in the heart and narrowing of the section of aorta. In most of the cases this disease is detected at the time of the birth while in other cases it comes to know in the later life. According to a research it is found that 1% of the infants are born with some heart problems. Doctors have found many conditions under which the baby is born with a congenital heart disease. Some of the conditions are consumption of alcohol during pregnancy, Congenital heart disease in the baby's mother or father, consumption of cocaine during pregnancy, diabetes in mother, etc. Sometimes the babies are born with heart defects without these conditions. One of the main reasons of heart problems is the improper diet and lack of exercise. In most of the cases the disease is detected in by the doctor at the time of the birth.

Children suffering from congenital heart disease must be given special care must continue with the medications prescribed by the doctor. Taking antibiotics is good which will protect the children from infective endocarditis. In many cases doctor suggest surgery to avoid further complications. There are many types of congenital heart diseases like Persistent truncus arteriosus, Patent ductus arteriosus, Ebstein's anomaly, Ventricular septal defect (VSD), Total anomalous pulmonary venous connection, Tetralogy of Fallot, Atrial septal defect (ASD), Pulmonary atresia, Pulmonary Stenosis, Hypoplastic left heart syndrome, Atrioventricular canal defect, Tricuspid atresia, Aortic Stenosis, Transposition of the great arteries and Coarctation of the aorta. According to a research it is found that eight in every thousand babies are born with heart problems. If the heart problem remains undetected in the early life it can give rise to many risk in future. These days doctors can even detect the heart problem in child before the baby is born. Here are some of the examples of congenital heart disease like abnormal connections between the vessels and chambers of the heart, narrowing of the artery of the body, failure caused by a blood channel, blockages in the pathways between the lung and heart, openings in the internal wall of the heart, narrowing of the heart valves, etc.

In congenital heart disease the blood is obstructed in the vessels of the heart problem sometime leading to heart attack. When the flow of blood is obstructed it puts strain on the patients heart. Sometimes the abnormal blood flow also happens when there is a hole in heart walls. An early diagnose is to be done if the baby is showing the symptoms of congenital heart disease. Diet should be improved to reduce the risk and complications.

Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy

Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy

Large number of people are falling victim to heart disease. One of the main reasons of the increase in the number of heart patient is the changing lifestyle. Various types of heart disease are effecting people in large number. The symptoms of each type of heart disease is different. One of the most common types of heart disease is Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy. It is a disease of the heart muscle. This is caused when the heart muscle becomes weak. Cardiomyopathy or heart muscle disease is a major public health problem. There are 3 million people in United States currently living with cardiomyopathy. Almost 400,000 people are diagnosed with heart disease each year. This disease has become a prime factor in contributing quarter million deaths in the world. In the past few years the incidence of cardiomyopathy is increasing like anything. Many complications of the disease can be overcome if the patient understand their disease. The patient suffering from Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy must take active participation in treating the disease. The heart muscle become very weak in most cases of alcoholic cardiomyopathy.

There are many disorders which cause numerous types of cardiomyopathy. But whatever may be the type ultimately the same thing happen which is the inefficiency of the heart muscle. It reduces the capacity of the heart to meet the needs of the body. The heart failure happens when the heart can no longer pump enough blood. The cases of Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy is increasing day by day. The main cause of cardiomyopathy is the coronary artery disease. The damage to the heart can be on the region of the heart muscles. One must get themselves diagnosed properly. Go for a proper diet and god exercise which can help the patient to avoid certain complications. As alcoholic cardiomyopathy is caused by excessive consumption of alcohol for long time. It is caused by the direct toxic effects of alcohol. In that case the heart become inefficient and the heart become unable to pump the blood. Not only heart is effected by the Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy but other body parts can also be effected by this. The symptoms of alcoholic cardiomyopathy are decreased alertness or concentration, Shortness of breath, decreased urine output, loss of appetite; ankle, feet, and leg swelling; cough containing mucus, irregular or rapid pulse, breathing difficulty while lying down, overall swelling, weakness, fatigue, faintness, etc. The moment patient is experiencing these symptoms it become necessary to take him to the hospital.

One of the most important treatment for alcoholic cardiomyopathy is to improve the lifestyle and take care of the diet. Stop consuming alcohol. The commonly used medications must be used daily like beta blockers, diuretics and ACE inhibitors. The patient who are suffering from congestive heart failure must o for a surgical insertion. The patients of alcoholic cardiomyopathy must frequently consult the doctor and must continue with the medications. With latest drugs and technology coming up now one can easily diagonise the alcoholic cardiomyopathy.

What is cardiovascular disease?

We read very often about cardiovascular disease, about heart failure, heart attack, stroke and many other disorders, but we don’t know for sure what is cardiovascular disease, why and how it occurs and what changes occur in our body. Next, we will try to explain what is cardiovascular disease in the society of nowadays and how much did medicine advanced in this research field.

What is cardiovascular disease

A question that scientists succeeded to answer but failed to cure.

Nowadays, when more and more people are suffering from heart disease we may wonder what is cardiovascular disease and why is it the first cause of death in most of the countries. We invest millions of dollars on research, looking and testing a lot of drugs, we even found out what is causing AIDS (and we succeeded to transform it in a „chronic” disease) and many other disease with strange names. But all the time there is a new disease, a new virus or bacteria that gives us trouble to treat and sometimes it feels that the more drugs we discover, the more diseases occur. Even so, the most frequent cause of death are
cardiovascular disease, a group of diseases that seem to be entirely understood, with lots of article and medical research, that could make some wonder what else is left to discover. The truth it is far from being so, as with the medical treatment we have at this moment we can only slow down these disease and not cure. Even the prophylaxis of cardiovascular disease is not very promising as we live in the century of unhealthy foods, McDonald’s food, alcohol consumption, smoking, stress, sedentariness and we spend all out time watching TV and working on computer.
After we established how important these diseases are, now let’s finally find out what is cardiovascular disease.

What is cardiovascular disease? A group of disorders that affect heart, brain and blood vessels.

The most frequent cardiovascular diseases:

• hypertension: high blood pressure affects both brain and heart as it can determine bleeding (stroke) or small infarcts in the brain and also determine or worsen heart failure. Beside heart and brain, hypertension also affects eyes and kidneys.
• heart valve disease: valves fail to close or open properly and in time they can cause heart failure,
• irregular heart beats can cause fainting, shortness of breath, chest pain, fatigue or even heart failure,
• other heart tissues disorders: infection, metabolic disorders that affect heart (different disorders that can determine deposits of some substances in heart tissues like iron, copper etc)
• strokes: a blood cloth can block one of the brain blood vessels and make a variable brain area to die or a blood vessel may break and let blood flow into the brain (this usually occurs in patients with hypertension or with blood vessel malformations).
• atherosclerosis: fat deposits in the blood vessels wall that in time can determine strokes, heart attack, chest pain, arterial disorder with legs pain during walking and even during rest, in advanced cases, neurologic symptoms: dizziness, fatigue, fainting, drowsiness, memory and concentration dysfunction etc.

Now that we found out what is cardiovascular disease, let’s see how is treated. As we’ve seen, it is easy to answer what is cardiovascular disease, but is difficult to treat it. Treatment has two parts and two partners: the patient and the doctor. The patient should respect a healthy diet, with no salt, fats and sweets, attend regular exercise (jogging, running or any kind of sport), no smoking or alcohol consumption, keep a normal weight, control blood pressure and blood sugar. Doctors have a large number of drugs they can use, the purpose of this treatment is to slow down the disease and treat other disorders that may worsen cardiovascular diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, high level of fats in the blood, infections, irregular heart beats etc. It is also important to prevent other cardiovascular events from happening, that’s why antiplatelet medication like aspirin is prescribed in patients that are suffering from cardiovascular disease.
We hope this article can offer a brief answer to the question what is cardiovascular disease and why this medical problem is so important in nowadays society.

Heart palpitations at night

Why do we have heart palpitations at night?

Before we discuss the matter of heart palpitations at night, we have to clarify the meaning of the word “palpitation” in general. Palpitations refer to irregular heart beats, usually the heart beats to fast, or with pauses from time to time and gives us an abnormal sensation, sometimes associated with dizziness, light-headed sensation, shortness of breath, chest pain etc.
We all had palpitation at least once in our life, and this doesn’t mean we have a heart disease, because these symptoms occur in healthy people during exercise or associated to stress, smoking, coffee. Even so, if the palpitation persist or are associated with shortness of breath, chest pain, fainting, dizziness, a doctor should be consulted as soon as possible.
Some patients complain they have heart palpitations at night, which prevent them from falling asleep or wake them up in the middle of the night.

Heart palpitations at night -causes:

Normal heart rate for an adult is 60-90 beats/minute. If the heart rate is higher the 90 beats per minute, then the condition is called tachycardia and can provoke palpitation. Not only rapid heart rate can cause palpitation but also irregular heart beats, known as arrhythmia, which is the main cause behind palpitation. Why some patients experience heart palpitations at night, during rest, when heart labor is smaller?
Heart palpitations at night can be determined by one of the following cause:

• too much stress and anxiety gathered during the daytime. It is a habit now that every time we go to sleep, we think again at the daily problems and try to find a solution, as it is said night is a good adviser. If your mind is concerned about certain problems happening in your life, you may be lying down and think about it over and over again, but the emotions and the psychical tension can generate palpitation.
• excessive consumption of caffeine before sleeping can generate insomnia and palpitation, if you drink a lot of coffee, especially before sleeping, you may consider giving up.
• smoking
• alcohol consumption
• medication-some drugs used to treat different diseases (like asthma, heart diseases, high blood pressure, cold) can determine palpitation: pseudoephedrine used in cold medication, theophylline for asthma etc.
• pregnancy
• fever-it is well known that body temperature elevation is associated with rapid heart beats and sometimes with palpitations
• vigorous exercise before sleeping
• breathing problems determined by lung diseases determine a low level of oxygen in the body, which can lead to heart palpitations at night
• heart problem-patients with heart failure may develop paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea (shortness of breath that occurs suddenly during night in patient with left heart failure) and palpitations, forcing them to wake up and search for an open window to get fresh air
• hyperthyroidism (a higher level of thyroid hormones can determine irregular or rapid heart beats)
• elevated blood pressure

If I have heart palpitations at night-how can my doctor discover if there is something wrong in my body?
Yes it is possible. For patients that have these symptoms only during night it is difficult to  diagnose them during a simple medical visit, but if a special device called holter ecg is used, then this is no longer a problem. Holter ECG is a portable medical device that the patient “wears” for 24 hours and it records heart activity during this period of time.
Heart palpitations at night-treatment
Heart palpitations at night can be treated only after proper tests are made in order to establish the correct diagnosis. In many cases, palpitations have no serious cause and a short time treatment associated with a life style change can be the “cure”.
Special precaution in patients with heart palpitations at night:

• avoid consumption of alcohol, coffee, drugs (marijuana, cocaine) or smoking
• avoid stress and anxiety-there are many types of techniques used against anxiety (psychotherapy, sports, taking vacation, travelling etc.)
• sometimes medication is needed in order to control anxiety
• respect your hours of sleep
• avoid if possible the intake of medication that stimulate palpitations

Heart palpitations at night can be very uncomfortable, but sometimes a simple change in the  daily habits can make them disappear.