Cardiovascular Diseases

Cardiovascular Diseases
Cardiovascular diseases are a group of disorders of the heart or blood vessels,
and include mainly hypertensive heart disease, ischemic heart disease, rheumatic
heart disease and strokes.
What are the risk factors for cardiovascular diseases?
Tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and harmful use of alcohol increase
the risk of heart attacks and strokes. These behavioral risk factors in turn lead
to metabolic risk factors such as overweight and obesity, high blood pressure,
high blood sugar (diabetes) and high blood cholesterol. Genetic factors are also
associated with cardiovascular diseases.
Hypertension (High Blood Pressure)
What is high blood pressure or hypertension?
Blood pressure is the force of blood against the artery walls as it circulates through
the body. High blood pressure or hypertension is a condition where blood pumps
through the blood vessels with excessive force.
Blood pressure is written as two numbers. The first (systolic) number represents
the pressure in blood vessels when the heart beats. The second (diastolic) number
represents the pressure in the vessels when the heart rests between beats. For
normal blood pressure, the first number (systolic) should be less than 120 and the
lower figure (diastolic), less than 90.
What are the symptoms of hypertension?
Hypertension occurs usually without any symptoms, but could give rise to earlymorning
headache, nose bleed, irregular heartbeats and buzzing in the ears.
Severe hypertension includes tiredness, nausea, vomiting, confusion, anxiety,
chest pain and muscle tremors. The only way to detect high blood pressure is to
have it measured by a doctor or a health professional.
What are the adverse health effects of hypertension?
High blood pressure can cause serious damage to health. It can harden the
arteries, decreasing the flow of blood and oxygen to the heart. This reduced flow
can cause -
1.Chest pain.
2.Heart failure.
3.Heart attack.
4.High blood pressure can burst or block arteries that supply blood and oxygen
to the brain, causing stroke.
Ischemic Heart Disease
This is a disease, which affects the blood vessels supplying blood to the heart
muscle. When these blood vessels get blocked (either fully or partly), the supply
of oxygen containing blood to parts of the heart muscle is reduced or cut off and
results in:
1.Pain in the chest, especially during exercise.
2. Heart attack.
3. Sudden death.
based on WHO