Diseases of the heart and the vascular system associated with it have now become a huge problem in modern human civilization. Moreover, the more prosperous society is in terms of living standards, the more serious is the situation in the number of people suffering from coronary heart diseases.
What is coronary heart disease?
The human heart is a very complex, finely tuned and sensitive mechanism, the purpose of which can be reduced to one function - the delivery of substances necessary for proper vital activity to each cell of the body.
In addition to the heart itself, blood vessels also participate in this activity, the system of which penetrates the human body, which fully ensures uninterrupted delivery of everything necessary to the cells of the organs most distant from the heart.
Crownartery and its role in the human life support system
The heart muscle provides the full-fledged work of the system, the rhythm and completeness of contractions of which also depend on the normal supply of blood - the carrier of everything necessary for the normal functioning of the human body. Blood flows to the heart muscle through vessels called the coronary.
Hence the names: coronary vessel, coronary artery, etc. And if the required blood flow in the coronary arteries is reduced, the heart muscle loses its nutrition, which leads to coronary diseases such as heart failure, pathological heart rhythms and heart attacks. The reason for this is coronary atherosclerosis.
What is coronary arteriosclerosis, and what is it terrible?
Over time and under the influence of many factors, which will be discussed later, fats and lipids settle on the walls of arteries, forming constantly growing sticky plaques that create obstacles to the normal blood flow.
Thus, the lumen of the artery gradually decreases, and oxygen for the heart comes less and less, which leads to the appearance of pain in the sternum region - angina pectoris. At first, these pains can bother a person only with heavy loads, but they gradually become a response even to small efforts, and subsequently they can arise at rest.
Complications and concomitant diseases of atherosclerosis
Atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries inevitably leads to a disease such as coronary heart disease. It is worth noting that the so-called heart disease takes away incomparably more lives than cancer or infectious diseases - and it is precisely in the most developed states.
Damage to the coronary arteries naturally has a negative effect on the heart muscle, which, in turn, causes angina pectoris, heart attacks, heart attacks, heart rhythm disturbances, heart failure and the worst - heart death.
Symptoms of coronary heart disease
The human body has an individual anatomical structure. And the anatomy of the heart, the arteries that nourish it, each have their own characteristics. The heart feeds on two coronary arteries - the right and left. And it is the left coronary artery that supplies the heart muscle with oxygen in the quantity required for its normal functioning.
With a decrease in blood flow, chest pains occur - symptoms of angina pectoris, and their appearance is often not associated with special stresses. A person can experience them while at rest, for example in a dream, and while walking, especially over rough terrain or stairs. Such pain can be triggered by weather conditions: in winter, in cold and windy weather, they can bother more often than in summer.
What you need to know about angina pectoris
First of all, this disease is the result of acute heart failure, provoked by insufficient blood supply to the heart muscle due to the fact that the coronary artery - the left - is affected. Another name for the disease, known to many of Russian classical literature, is angina pectoris.
A characteristic manifestation of this disease is pain, as previously described. But also possible (most often in the initial stages) sensations are not pain as such, but chest pressure, burning sensation. Moreover, the amplitude of pain has a fairly wide range: from almost insignificant to unbearably acute. Its distribution area is mainly on the left side of the body and rarely on the right. Pain can appear in the arms and shoulders. Affect the neck and lower jaw.
Pain is not constant, but paroxysmal, and their duration is generally from 10 to 15 minutes. Although there are up to half an hour - in this case a heart attack of the heart muscle is possible. Attacks can be repeated with an interval from 30 times a day to once a month, or even years.
Factors contributing to the development of coronary heart disease
As mentioned earlier, coronary heart disease is the result of damage to the coronary arteries. There are several generally recognized factors in which the coronary artery that feeds the heart muscle becomes unusable.
The first of them can rightfully be called an excessively high level of cholesterol in the blood of a person, which due to its viscosity is the root cause of the formation of plaques on the walls of the artery.
The next risk factor contributing to the development of heart disease, namely a heart attack, is hypertension - excessive blood pressure.
The coronary arteries of the heart get huge harm from smoking. The risk of damage to the walls of the arteries is greatly increased due to the harmful effects of the chemical compounds that make up tobacco smoke.
The next risk factor that increases the likelihood of coronary artery disease is a disease such as diabetes. With this disease, the entire vascular system of a person undergoes atherosclerosis, and the likelihood of heart disease at an earlier age increases significantly.
Heredity can also be attributed to risk factors that affect the appearance of heart disease. Especially if the fathers of potential patients had heart attacks, or died as a result of coronary diseases under the age of 55 years, and in mothers - up to 65 years.
Prevention and treatment of coronary heart disease
You can avoid or reduce the risk of getting coronary heart disease if you follow, moreover, rigorously and continuously, a few simple recommendations, which include a healthy lifestyle, giving up bad habits, reasonable physical exertion, and passing annual preventive examinations.
The treatment of coronary heart disease involves several options: drug therapy and cardiac surgery. The most common is coronary artery bypass grafting, in which blood is sent to the heart muscle along a detour: along a section of a healthy vessel, taken from the patient himself, sewn along a parallel to the affected aortic section. The operation is complex, and after it the patient needs a long rehabilitation period.
Another type of treatment is laser angioplasty of the coronary artery. This option is more gentle and does not require dissection of large segments of the body. To the affected area of the coronary artery, they reach through the vessels of the shoulder, thigh or forearm.
Unfortunately, no matter what operations are performed, even the most successful of them do not relieve atherosclerosis. Therefore, in the future, it is necessary to comply with all medical prescriptions, this applies not only to medications, but also to the recommended diet.