Category Archives: Heart Diseases

Causes Of Ankle And Leg Edema 8 Medical Reasons

Posted on by

In this article we’re going to discuss some medical problems that cause ankle and leg edema. The first thing we need to understand is what an ankle and leg edema is. Ankle and leg edema is an unusual build-up of fluid (retention) in the body tissues that leads to swelling in the lower extremities. There’re many factors that can lead to fluid retention in the legs such as an inflammation of the joint or malfunctioning of liver, lungs, kidneys, heart, legs vein or other vital organs.

While there are no certain ways to pinpoint exactly what causes the fluid built-up without the help of healthcare provider, there’re several possibilities that may trigger it. The following are 8 medical reasons that might just be the causes of your ankle and leg edema:

1. Cancer of the urinary bladder

Cancer of the urinary bladder is tumor of the urinary bladder that growth due to exposure to chemical materials, tobacco inhalation, infections and small pelvis irradiation. This type of cancer causes bladder tenesmus (a feeling of incomplete defecation), blood in urine, pain in pelvis, urination difficulty as well as leg edema.

2. Chronic liver disease

Chronic liver disease is a condition where the liver is scarred and injured thus fails to function normally. As the liver malfunctioning and unable to secrete enough protein albumins, the body will try to compensate it by retaining fluid. This retention leads to abdominal edema as well as ankle and leg edema.

3. Deep vein thrombosis (DVT)

Deep vein thrombosis is a blood clot in the deep veins of the legs or pelvic area. The symptoms associated with the disorder might vary from patient to patient but the most common are warm skin, pain, color changes in the legs, fullness of the veins underneath the skin and swelling in one leg either right leg swelling or left leg swelling.

4. Emphysema

Emphysema is condition where air sacks in the lung get inflamed causing the lungs fail to shrink thoroughly upon exhalation and breathe in sufficiently upon inhalation. This will cause problem as the lungs will not be able to replace waste oxygen with fresh oxygen adequately. Breathing difficulty, shortness of breath, sleeping disturbance, extreme tiredness, ankle and leg edema, wheezing and excess mucus production are some of the symptoms associated with emphysema. The symptoms usually progress over many years.

5. Heart disease

Heart disease is a disorder of the heart, a condition where the heart can not deliver enough blood to the body. As the condition continues, many symptoms will occur, the patient may feel tired or weak and the body might retain fluid causing ankle and leg swelling.

6. Kidney disorders

This disorder will cause swelling in the face, eyes, ankles, legs and feet.

7. Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis is a form of arthritis disease where the joint is inflamed and injured due to malfunctioning of the body’s autoimmune system. It can occur in the joint bones and other body parts. The hands, wrists and feet are usually attacked first and continue to the shoulders, elbows and hips.

As the joint get inflamed, several symptoms such as swelling in the joint and a little fever as well as extreme tiredness, harshness and pain might occur although may not obvious. Rheumatoid Arthritis normally attacks both the joint of the left and right sides of the body.

If the synovial lining of the joint and arteries get inflamed too, swelling of the calves and feet might occur.

8. Venous Insufficiency

Venous insufficiency may cause bilateral swelling (swelling of the both legs) as well as unilateral swelling (swelling of one leg).

Ankle and leg edema is not a disease contrary it’s more to a way of your body try to alert you about the existence of certain medical reason. The above list is just some of the causes of ankle and leg edema, there’re still many other conditions that may cause swelling in the lower extremities. If you’re suffering a chronic swelling that doesn’t go away even after a long rest, you should seek medical advice as soon as possible.

Losing Weight Can Be Connected To Heart Disease

Posted on by

Folks are never too old to begin an effective healthy weight loss diet program for weight loss. Also, folks losing pounds leads to lowering the chance of heart disease. People will discover a couple of options an individual may perform to reduce pounds and decrease their risk for heart disease.

Numerous people believe cigarette smoking assists in removing unwanted pounds. That belief happens to be extremely destructive to a person’s physical condition. Smoking is enemy number one regarding high blood pressure. Even just a couple of cigarettes a day could be harmful. Current studies have discovered smoking only a single cigarette daily will harden blood arteries by a whopping 25%.

Whenever a person quits smoking tobacco typically pounds are gained because foods are a substitute for the cigarette while bored. An individual will need to come across a not food related substitute which will keep the hands occupied. A magnificent replacement tends to be an activity for instance gaining experience in Arabic, crocheting or perhaps participating in basketball.

Consider this situation. Cigarette smoking will stiffen arteries that results in limited blood flow. Nutrients as well as contaminants are transferred by a person’s blood. When blood flow is limited a human body has a difficult time moving necessary nutrients throughout all of the body. Additionally, the body will have difficulty eliminating pollutants. Both these scenarios can make getting rid of unwanted pounds hard.

Moderate quantities of red wine may have a significant effect regarding a person’s heart. Practical means one drink every day or about six ounces. But, quite a few individuals drink way over this quantity. Excessive drinking may raise cholesterol and increase blood pressure which will make decreasing unwanted pounds difficult.

Plus, excess alcoholic beverage intake possibly will bring about obesity on account of all those empty calories. Those calories are monosaccharide or simple carbs that a body absorbs rapidly. After drinking alcoholic beverages, people will still be experiencing hunger pangs relatively soon after. Hence, more alcohol is ingested.

When people consume alcohol, particularly beer or hard liquor, often unhealthy processed food items are eaten. For instance, pizza, fried chicken wings and French fries generally are related to ingesting beer. Folks generally will not consume an orange together with the beer. A healthy weight loss diet system suggests consuming a lot of fruits and vegetables every day instead of consuming simple carbohydrates.

Quitting smoking as well as reducing alcohol intake might temporarily result in extra fat. Though, an individual might discover dropping body weight easier long term. Incorporating a better way of life as well as sticking to a healthy weight loss diet plan results in dropping body fat and decreasing an individual’s risk for hypertension.

What Causes Heart Disease the Cholesterol Myth.

Posted on by

What Causes Heart Disease? How Atherosclerosis Begins
Cardiovascular disease begins when the walls of your arteries and the cholesterol in your blood are damaged by free radicals and oxidative stress. Damaged cholesterol molecules stick to the walls of your arteries, and each other, eventually clogging the artery and causing a heart attack. It doesn’t matter how much, or how little, cholesterol there is in your blood. Once the cholesterol becomes oxidized, your body will send more cholesterol to the damaged area in an attempt to repair the damage, and plaque deposits begin. As these plaque deposits grow, the artery becomes narrower and stiffer, diminishing the flow of blood to the heart. If the artery becomes so clogged that it becomes completely blocked, you have a heart attack. Cholesterol-reducing drugs may lower the amount of cholesterol in your bloodstream, but they will not protect it from oxidation.

What Causes Heart Disease? Atherosclerosis Starts Early in Life
Atherosclerosis probably started to form in your body when you were still young. The entire process is slow and insidious, and often doesn’t have symptoms. Some people with blocked coronary arteries develop angina. When they exert themselves, their stiff, narrowed arteries can’t expand enough to increase the flow of blood to the heart. The result is severe, sometimes disabling, chest pain.
Atherosclerosis can also affect other parts of your body, as well. If an artery in your brain is blocked, you could have a stroke. If the arteries leading to any of your organs are blocked, that organ could fail. If the blockage is in the arteries in your legs, that could lead to muscle cramps or artery diseases such as phlebitis.

What Causes Heart Disease? Oxidative Stress.
Rather than worry about your cholesterol levels, you really need to work at lowering inflammation and oxidative stress.
Sources of oxidative stress, and the free radical reaction that causes it, fall into the following general categories:
environmental toxins and pollution
pesticides and herbicides
emotional stress
strenuous exercise
chronic illnesses
processed foods and food additives
chronic inflammation
smoking
ultraviolet radiation from the sun
electromagnetic radiation in your environment

Prevention of Heart Disease
The best way to lower your risk of heart disease is by eating a healthy diet rich in antioxidants. Antioxidants give your body the defense it needs against free radical attacks to your arteries.
With an abundant supply of antioxidants, the free radicals are neutralized quickly enough so that your artery walls will remain intact and your cholesterol will not form plaque.

Understanding The Symptoms Of Hardening Arteries And Slowing The Heart Aging Process

Posted on by

The symptoms of hardening arteries occur when the smooth lining inside the arteries become damaged and inflamed leading to a chain reaction of events that ultimately will lead to artery hardening, narrowing, and the reduction of blood flow to one or more of a number of areas of the body. Additionally, the likelihood of blood clots increases with arterial hardening which can result in a myocardial infarction. You are probably saying that is interesting but how does all this apply to the symptoms of heart disease and heart aging. We are just a few sentences away so stay with me.

The heart is surrounded by arteries which are not surprisingly known as coronary arteries. Their responsibility is to supply the heart blood, and when this fails to occur a heart attack results. But long before blood flow is completely cut off chances are hardening of the arteries has been getting worse for years and bit by bit slowly reducing the amount of blood your heart has to work with. As the blood flow decreases the heart has to work ever harder to provide the body with the oxygen it needs to survive. As the hearts workload increases symptoms of hardening arteries of the heart known as angina start to appear. Amongst these symptoms are chest pain, tightness in the chest, and a heavy oppressive sensation in the middle of the chest. Additional symptoms of hardening arteries around the heart include profuse sweating, an irregular heartbeat, discoloration of the skin, shortness of breath, fatigue, weakness, and swelling the extremities known as edema.

When the symptoms of hardening arteries start to be noticed arterial blockage is generally around 70 percent. In other words your heart is telling you it is reaching the breaking point and can no longer provide your body with the oxygen it needs to run efficiently. At this point all bets are off and anything can happen including a heart attack or stroke.

As far as the heart aging part of the equation goes your heart beats about 100,000 times a day sending 1,800 gallons of blood through more than 60,000 miles of blood vessels. As the symptoms of hardening arteries start to be noticed your heart is forced to work harder in an attempt to pump all that blood through narrower tubes. This excess pressure causes the heart to wear out, aging disproportionately with each passing day. Add this to the fact that your heart loses 50 percent of its pumping capacity during vigorous exercise naturally, and slightly less than half of its resting capacity naturally and something eventually has to give.

The choices are pretty simple either take steps to reopen tubes (arteries) thus taking pressure off of the heart or join the 40 percent of people ages 40 through 74 who lose their battle with heart and artery disease.

To stay young at heart there are nine simple steps to consider: First, exercise under the supervision of your doctor; second control blood pressure levels; third keep the consumption of artery clogging cholesterol and saturated fat to a minimum; fourth consider eating baked fish twice a week; fifth increase consumption of high fiber foods such as fruits and vegetables; sixth dont smoke and avoid second hand smoke as well; seventh maintain a healthy weight; eighth take a vitamin B complex supplement daily to neutralize artery damaging homocysteine levels; and finally consider a prescription cholesterol medication or natural cholesterol reduction supplement to send artery clogging high cholesterol and triglycerides packing once and for all.

The Low-down On The Diagnosis And Therapy Of Coronary Heart Disease In Women

Posted on by

It is not easy to diagnose CHD in women who develop chest pain more often than men. The chances for these chest pains to progress to heart attack are rare. In one study, half of the women undergoing coronary angiography did not have significant heart artery blockage. But, women with classical angina symptoms had a 71 percent probability of having diseased coronary arteries. Nearly 90 percent of women suffering from heart attack had chest pains as the initial clinical presentation. This is similar to what men have experienced. Nevertheless, females are more likely to exhibit symptoms such as breathlessness, fatigue, nausea, or upper abdominal pain.

Diagnosis of CHD among women has often been a challenging task for doctors. Resting electrocardiogram (ECG) frequently shows non-specific abnormalities in women, regardless of whether there is underlying CHD. The conventional treadmill stress test also does not help much as a diagnosing tool for women. Non-invasive tests such as myocardial perfusion stress imaging and stress echocardiography may improve the sensitivity and specificity over the treadmill stress tests in the female population.

Several reports have documented that women with CHD have a worse outcome than their male counterparts. Compared to males, females have higher chance of complications after heart attack. This could be explained by:

– Older age of female CHD patients, usually 10 years older than male CHD patients.

– Increased likelihood of co-morbid conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart failure.

– Differences in the size of the coronary arteries between men and women.

– A greater likelihood of urgent surgical or interventional procedures in women.

– Less aggressive approach generally adopted by doctors.

– Lower likelihood of referral for cardiac rehabilitation after a cardiac event

Pharmacological therapy using ACE inhibitors, aspirin, beta-blockers, nitrates and cholesterol-lowering drugs has been effective in both men and women.

A 1987 study showed that men were 6.3 times more likely than women to be referred to coronary angiography when their non-invasive tests were abnormal. Heart procedures such as PTCA (Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angiography) and bypass surgery were 15 to 27 percent more commonly carried out in men than in women with the diagnosis of CHD.

Complications during PTCA were higher for female patients. A slightly worse operative mortality was also associated with surgical treatment for women. After the heart bypass surgery, women have a lower likelihood of being free of angina than men do. Female CHD patients also experience greater disability and less return to work than the male patients. The rate of long-term survival and re-operation, however, are similar.

America’s Most Trusted Doctor Reveals … How to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease – Without Drugs or Surgery. Read more about his confession at: https://www.howtopreventheartdisease.com/heart-disease-prevention-dr-robert-article.html