Types of Heart Disease

Types of heart disease

Your heart needs care for life. A healthy heart is about enjoying a healthy lifestyle and making this a part of your every day life. It is also about taking positive steps to improve or remove risk factors.
Everyone can do something to help prevent heart disease, including people who already have heart
disease or who have had a heart event.
The good news is that if you lead a healthy lifestyle you can reduce your risk of developing heart
disease.

Heart Disease

The biggest risk to your heart is a gradual clogging of the arteries that supply blood to the heart. This clogging process is called ‘atherosclerosis’. It is the main cause of most cardiovascular disease. It can also occur in arteries that supply blood to the brain and other vital organs.
The clogging process begins early in life and continues over the years. Fatty deposits called ‘plaque’ slowly build up on the inner wall of the arteries causing them to become narrow.
Clogging of the coronary arteries (the arteries that supply the heart with oxygen) is known as
‘coronary heart disease’. Coronary heart disease can lead to angina or heart attack.

Heart Attack

A heart attack is an emergency. Getting to hospital quickly can reduce the damage to the heart and increase the chance of survival. A heart attack occurs when there is a sudden, complete blockage of an artery that supplies an area of the heart. As a result, a portion of the heart muscle begins to die. Without early medical treatment, this damage can be permanent.

Know the warning signs of heart attack. These warning signs vary and usually last for at least 10
minutes. You may experience more than one of these:
• Tightness, fullness, pressure, squeezing, heaviness or pain in your chest, shoulders, neck,
arms, back, jaw or throat.
• You may also have difficulty breathing, nausea or vomiting, a cold sweat, a feeling of being
dizzy or light-headed. If you experience these heart attack warning signs, immediately stop what you are doing and rest. If you are with someone, tell them what you are experiencing. If your symptoms are severe, get worse quickly or last for 10 minutes (even if they are mild), this is an emergency. Get help fast. Call triple zero (000) and ask for an ambulance. Don’t hang up. The operator will give you advice before the ambulance arrives. (If calling 000 does not work on your mobile phone, try 112).

Angina

Angina is temporary chest pain or discomfort. It happens because part of the heart is temporarily unable to get enough blood and oxygen to meet its needs, due to a narrowed artery in the heart. Pain or discomfort develops in the chest and can spread into the shoulder, arm or neck. Angina may come on during exercise, but usually goes away with rest, although medication is often required. Angina does not damage the heart muscle so it is not the same as a heart attack. People with angina are more at risk of a heart attack.

Stroke

A stroke occurs when an artery supplying blood to a part of the brain becomes blocked or bursts. This means that part of the brain is damaged because it is suddenly deprived of its blood supply. This blood supply normally carries oxygen and sugar to the brain so that it can function.
Different parts of the brain control different functions of the body, such as movement, speech and sight. Damage to the brain will lead to a loss of the functions that part of the brain controls. Just like a heart attack, a stroke can be mild or severe.

Risk factors

‘Risk factors’ for heart disease are characteristics that increase your chance of developing heart
disease.
These include:
• Smoking;
• A high blood cholesterol;
• Physical inactivity;
• Diabetes;
• High blood pressure;
• Being overweight.

Being male, increasing age and having a family history of early death from heart disease are also risk factors for developing heart disease, but are much more difficult to control or change!
The best ways to reduce the risk of developing heart disease and to help prevent it getting worse if it already exists, are to improve or remove the risk factors over which we have some control, and take all medications as prescribed by the doctor.