2009-07-07T05:05:00.000-07:00

Our heart matters!

Have you ever wondered what would happen to us if our heart stopped pumping?
What would happen if the artery leading to the heart is clogged?
What would happen if toxic substances were to enter our heart?
What if the heart's muscles starts dying off?
Will a viral infection cause heart attack?

Here I'm going to talk about Heart Related Diseases, it's causes and the cures.

Quick Facts

Did you know that...

Our heart is made up of muscles?
Our heart never stops beating until the day we die!
Your system of blood vessels - arteries, veins and capillaries - is over 60,000 miles long. That's long enough to go around the world more than twice!
The adult heart pumps about 5 quarts of blood each minute - approximately 2,000 gallons of blood each day - throughout the body.
Actually, your heart is located in the center of your chest between your lungs. The bottom of the heart is tipped to the left, so you feel more of your heart on your left side of your chest.
The heart beats about 100,000 times each day.
In a 70-year lifetime, the average human heart beats more than 2.5 billion times!
An adult woman's heart weighs about 0.226796185 kilograms, a man's about 0.283495231 kilograms.
A child's heart is about the size of a clenched fist; an adult's heart is about the size of two fists.
Blood is about 78 percent water.
Blood takes about 20 seconds to circulate throughout the entire vascular system.

Some of the common heart diseases/problems includes,

Cardiac arrest
Pericarditis
Coronary heart disease
Myocardial Infarction (Heart Attack)
Cardiomyopathy
Cardiovascular disease
Ischaemic heart disease
Heart failure
Hypertensive heart disease
Inflammatory heart disease
Valvular heart disease
Aortic Dissection
Cardiac Arrhythmia
Congenital Heart Diseases
Dilated Cardiomyopathy
Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
Aortic Regurgitation
Aortic Stenosis
Mitral Regurgitation
Mitral Stenosis
Ellis-van Creveld Syndrome
Familial Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
Holt-Orams Syndrome
Marfan Syndrome
Ward-Romano Syndrome

As you can see, there are many types of heart diseases, but we're only focusing on the ones in red.

All right, before we carry on, let's get to know more about our circulatory system & our heart.

Oxygenated blood (oxygen-rich blood) from the lungs first enters the left atrium through the pulmonary vein.
The muscles of the heart relax & the blood flows into the left ventricle.
The heart contracts, ejecting highly-pressurized blood through the aorta & to the rest of the body.

Oxygenated rich blood travels in the artery, where it consists of thick walls. The thick walls are to withstand the highly pressurized blood, pumped from the heart.
After the blood circulates through the body, it becomes deoxygenated and returns to the heart through the superior vena cava & into the right atrium.

Our body needs oxygen to survive!

Blood transports...

digested food substances from blood capillaries in the small intestine to all parts of the body,Excretory products from the tissues to the respective excretory organs for removal, such as nitrogenous wasste materials & carbon dioxide from cells.
Hormones from the glands which produce them to parts of the body which require to see them.
Heat produced in the respiring body tissues, especially the muscles and liver. Blood distributes heat throughout the body, thereby maintaining a uniform body temperature.
Oxygen, combined with haemoglobin in the red blood cells, from the lungs to all parts of the body.

Okay, now lets move on to the types of diseases.

Coronary heart diseases

If you don't like to read texts, you could watch a video on CHD.

Coronary heart disease (CHD), or also known as Coronary artery disease (CAD), is a narrowing of the small blood vessels that supply blood and oxygen to the heart. CHD is also called coronary artery disease. It occurs when fatty material and a substance called plaque build up on the walls of the arteries. This causes them to get narrow. As the coronary arteries narrow, blood flow to the heart can slow down or stop. It is a major cause of heart-related problems around the world.

Some factors may increase your chance of getting CHD, or basically the causes are,

Men in their 40s have a higher risk of CHD than women. But as women get older (especially after they reach menopause), their risk increases to almost equal that of a man's risk.
Bad genes (heredity).
Diabetes is a strong risk factor for heart disease.
High blood pressure increases your risk of coronary artery disease and heart failure.
Abnormal cholesterol levels,
High triglyceride levels,
Excess body fat around the waist,
Increased insulin levels.
Smokers have a much higher risk of heart disease than nonsmokers.
Chronic kidney disease can increase your risk.
Already having atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries in another part of your body (examples are stroke and abdominal aortic aneurysm) increases your risk of having coronary heart disease.
Alcohol abuse,
Not getting enough exercise,
Excessive amounts of stress.

People who suffer from CHD usually experience symptoms such as,

Chest pain or discomfort (angina)
Shortness of breath
Fatigue with activity (exertion)

CHD may lead to other heart-related disease which are life threatening.

CHD can be cured, but it may not guarantee success. Usually, drugs are prescribed by doctors to treat blood pressure, diabetes, or high cholesterol levels. Depending on the individual's conditions, doctors may prescribe different drugs.

Cardiac Arrest

For Video, please click here.

Cardiac Arrest refers to a sudden cease in normal circulation of the blood due to failure of the heart to contract effectively during systole (the contraction of heart chambers, driving blood out of the chambers).
A cardiac arrest is different from a heart attack or myocardial infarction, where blood flow to the still-beating heart is interrupted.

This could be caused by a variety of reasons such as...

Heart disease,
Heart attack (Myocardial Infarction),
Respiratory arrest,
Electrocution,
Drowning,
Choking,
Trauma.
Drugs abuse
It can also occur without any known cause.

When someone is suffering from cardiac arrest, he/she can't act appropriately. So if you're with someone who suffers cardiac arrest, please lookout for these warning signs,

losing consciousness,
stops normal breathing
loses pulse and blood pressure.

The symptoms of Cardiac Arrest are vague. In a matter of a few minutes, the victim may die. So it's important to recieve immediate medical treatment.

Call the emergency medical system if you see any of the warning signs.
Give cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to help keep the cardiac arrest victim alive until emergency help arrives.
Early detection; early treatment
Implanting a Cardioverter Defibrillator

Myocardial Infarction

Myocardial infarction (MI or AMI for acute myocardial infarction), is also known as a heart attack, occurs when the heart does not get enough blood, part of the heart eventually stops working.

The interuption is caused when a collection of liqids (cholestrol & white blood cells) builds up in the coronary artery leading into the heart. Over time, the blood blow to the heart is reduced and eventually blocked off.

The heart attack is caused by a variety of reasons such as,

too much physical stress
too much physical exertion
over stress
Diabetes
smoking
Hypercholesterolemia (more accurately hyperlipoproteinemia)
High blood pressure
Family history of ischaemic heart disease (IHD)
Obesity
Old age (over age 65)
Hyperhomocysteinemia
Gender (Males are more at risk than females)

The symptoms of Heart Attack is quite similar to other heart-related diseases and these symptoms are,

Chest Pain (Angina)
Cold sweat
Discomfort in the arms, neck, back, jaw or stomach
vomitting
light headedness (dizzy/giddy)
Shortness of breath
Loss of consciousness
fatigue
sleep disturbance

Some of the treatment includes,

Automatic external defibrillation
Reperfusion
Thrombolytic therapy
Percutaneous coronary intervention
Coronary artery bypass surgery
Angioplasty
Nitroglycerin

Heart Attack is the #1 cause of death around the world. If you experience any of the symptoms, please consult a certified medical officer.

Recently, a very famous pop star died. He is none other than the king of pop, Michael Jackson. Doctors found that the cause of death for him was Cardiac Arrest. However, the cause is still unknown, but they do speculate that it was caused by an overdose of strong painkillers such as Demerol and Oxycontin.

How does overdose of painkillers trigger a Cardiac Arrest?

Cardiac arrest occurs when the heart stops circulating blood. 80 percent of cases, the cause is heart diseases, but narcotic painkillers like Demerol can cause cardiac arrest.
Dr. Daniel Simon, chief of cardiology at University Hospitals Case Medical Centre in Cleveland, said if Jackson had been injected with too much Demerol, it might have caused him to stop breathing, a condition called respiratory arrest.
“The most likely scenario with Demerol would be that it caused a respiratory arrest because it takes away the drive to ventilate (breathe),” Simon said in a telephone interview.
He said low blood oxygen can trigger a deadly heart rhythm known as ventricular fibrillation in which the heart quivers, but does not circulate blood.
“Without CPR and a defibrillator, you have no chance,” Simon said.

I don't want this blog to be entirely about heart-related diseases. When there are opportunities to learn, we must make use of it. Since we're at the topic of the main causes of heart-related diseases, lets go in depth as to the causes of the cause of heart-related diseases & even more in-depth in to the iceberg. What we've discussed above is only the tip of the iceberg.

All right, now. Based on the facts above, you can see that the common cause of heart-related diseases are smoking, over-stress & the things we eat.

Firstly, I would like to stress that stress is the ultimate cause of heart-related diseases. You'll realise why as we progress along.

Let's talk about smoking first. Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 different chemicals! At least 43 are known carcinogens (cancer-causing substance) and most of the remaining chemicals are known to be toxic!

Some of the chemicals in the cigarette smoke are tar, ammonia, Formaldehyde, benzene, acetone, nicotine, carbon monoxide, methane, arsenic etc...

Formaldehyde is used to preserve dead bodies, benzene is used as a solvent in fuel & chemical manufacture (Carcinogenic), acetone is used as nail polish, nicotine is used as insecticide, carbon monoxide is released the exhaust of your car, tar is used to make roads, methane comes from animal faeces & arsenic is used as rat poison.

So imagine that! With every puff a person takes, he is increasing his chances of getting cancer or other health-related problems such as myocardial infarction, coronary heart disease etc..

Not only that, imagine the people around the smoker, his/her family & friends. It is said that secondhand smoke has a higher rate of causing people to get cancer or other health related problems.

Now let's move on to diet - the things we eat. Let's make a comparison. Let's say a person living in the USA is eating off fast foods - burgers, fries, coke etc... with a person living in Japan, eating fish, vegetables, meat etc...

It is highly likely that the person living in USA eating off burgers, fries & coke would die sooner or is at a higher risk of getting health-related problems, as compared to the person living in Japan. Diet matters a lot as fast foods are usually fried, frozen or preserved foods. These foods normally contain chemicals & unhealthy substances such as cholesterol, myristic, palmitic and stearic acid in them, in which over time, they would build up & cause problems for the body. Some studies have suggested that diets high in saturated fat increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.

However, sometimes a healthy person is eating healthily, but may resort to eating foods high in saturated fats, due to a variety of reasons, one of which is stress.

Yes, stress is the ultimate cause of heart-related diseases! Now, this type of stress has more or less got to do with the human psychology, so the factors are endless!

Basically, what is stress? It basically means a biological term which refers to the consequences of the failure of a human to respond appropriately to emotional or physical threats, be it actual or imagined.

Stress is basically caused by problems which people have difficulty to solve or are unsure of.

Now stress is divided into two categories - Positive stress & Negative stress.

Positive Stress is good stress. In a way, it urges people to meet with deadlines, complete assignements, jobs or tasks given. However, too much of a good thing is bad. Similarly, if there is too much stress, people would start having troubles coping with the stress they have. This would turn into Negative stress. Hence, they would resort to methods to cope with stress, but it doesn't help solve the problem. Instead, it adds harm to the body. For eg. When a person is stressed, he/she may resort to smoking, drinking or changing the diet to an unhealthy one. This is why I say stress is the ultimate cause of heart-related diseases.

Let's take the stress of a student sitting for a national exams. He is very nervous & is afraid that he can't do well and get to a good school thereafter. Anxiety is a form of stress. Stress itself is already a risk factor in heart-related diseases as too much stress as the autonomic nervous system provides the rapid response to stress, engaging the sympathetic nervous system and withdrawing the parasympathetic nervous system, thereby enacting cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, renal, and endocrine changes.

In a way to cope with his stress, he may use the wrong methods to cope with it, such as changing his diet. Let's say he doesn't want to waste time & instead, wants to use it productively to "squeeze" some extra information into her head, he may eat instant noodles, which are fast & easy to cook. Or he could even skip meals, or eat at a fast food restaurant; as fast food restaurants are popular study places for students.

As I've mentioned earlier, too much cholesterol or saturated fats, increases your chances of getting coronary heart disease or other types of heart-related diseases. As for instant noodles, it contains preservatives and it may lack the essential nutrients the body needs to carry out normal activities.

Now, stress not only leads to heart-related diseases, but also many other health problems, related to stress.

Have you ever wondered what would happen to us if our heart stopped pumping?

No blood will be pumped to the rest of the body, including the brain - you will go unconscious.
Your body would start dying
Ultimately, death.

What would happen if the artery leading to the heart is clogged?

Pressure of the blood flow to the heart would increase; volume of blood into the heart lessens.
Over time, blood flow to the heart may be blocked;
Heart muscles starts dying off; body does not receive oxygen,
Ultimately, death.

What would happen if toxic substances were to enter our heart?

There are many different types of toxic substance in the world. Different types of toxins have different effect on the human heart, however, we're going to use the venom of a spider as an example.

The spider venom has 2 different types. Neurotoxic venom & Necrotic venom. They have different effects on animal cells & tissues.

Neurotoxin is a toxin that acts specifically on nerve cells (neurons), usually by interacting with membrane proteins such as ion channels.

We will not go into details as to how the toxins does it as it is a whole chunk of stuff.

Necrotic venom causes premature death of cells and living tissue in the body. This can be very serious as it causes a chain-reaction amongst the cells & tissues to die. In worst case scenerios, it could cause Myocardial Infarction or Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation. I'm sure you know what's myocardial infarction. Its mentioned above.

Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) is is a pathological activation of coagulation (blood clotting) mechanisms. Basically, it forms small blood clots in the artery & disrupts blood blow to organs. This could cause multiple heart failures due to clotting of the artery leading to the heart.

Will a viral infection cause heart attack?

Depending on the type of virus, yes. Similar to toxins, different virus have different effects on the heart.

Let's talk about inflammation of the myocardium (muscular part of the heart). Virtually, any virus can cause the inflammation. One of the most common virus is the influenza virus.

Even though it is not immediately life threatening, over time as the inflammation gets more severe, it could lead to other health problems such as myocardial infarction (heart attack).

We have come to the end of the entire chapter on heart-related diseases and we even went into the problems that caused it. If you do have any feedback regarding this site, please feel free to e-mail it to yeastyfeast@gmail.com

There is a purpose in having a song for this blog.

It is known that songs can be used to de-stress and usually, when someone sees a whole chunk of words, he/she may get stressed. Hence, the light music is there to liven up the atmosphere a bit.

Interesting fact: Notice how your heartbeat changes with the tempo of the music? eg. Fast tempo = heart beat faster. Slow tempo = heart beat slower.

Hope you enjoyed and learnt something from here!

CREDITS

Hearts Matters