The term "hypertonic heart" is not a metaphor; it has a definite meaning. So called a physiological change in the form of an increase in the left ventricle. It is caused by a frequent increase in blood pressure, the jumps of which become stable.
In itself, an increase in pressure in medicine is considered a normal phenomenon caused by external and internal factors. However, even a single rise in pressure causes a person discomfort. Systematic leaps lead to serious physiological consequences.
A hypertonic heart manifests itself in the form of gradually increasing sensations of pain in the left hypochondrium. The performance drops. With prolonged ignoring of symptoms, the disease develops into heart failure. This leads to disruptions in the activity of the body's internal systems and ultimately threatens death. In this regard, treatment should be started as soon as possible.
Statistics say
Cardiovascular disease is a new pandemic of the 21st century. Most of the inhabitants of the Earth die from them. Among the entire spectrum of vascular and heart diseases, the most common is hypertension. It affects up to a third of the adult population. With age, the increase in incidence reaches 65%. And its consequences are tragic - up to the failure of the heart, brain, kidneys, loss of vision, memory, mental decline, heart attack and stroke.
Recently, an increase in the manifestations of hypertension is often caused by high blood pressure. In this case, we are talking about cardiac hypertension. The cause of cardiac cramps may be a deficiency of magnesium or potassium. Moreover, a person may not even know about the onset of the disease, it clearly does not appear, since the body accumulates a supply of vitamins and minerals. But with a growing deficiency of magnesium, hypertension can develop rapidly and inexorably lead to heart failure.
Additional factors such as diabetes mellitus, overweight, sedentary work, bad habits, age, heredity or stress increase the risk of developing hypertensive heart disease. We also note that hypertension affects women more often than men.
Symptoms of pathology
The danger of the disease is that the symptomatology of a hypertonic heart manifests itself gradually and a person gets used to his condition, often turning to doctors when it is too late. At the initial stage, the disease develops completely in the absence of symptoms. This affects the timeliness of the diagnosis of the disease. A person notices a disease when he has repeated pressure surges during the day. It is characteristic that, as a rule, in the morning it rises, but decreases during sleep. Jumps are also caused by stressful situations and physical activity.
You can understand that you are facing hypertension with a heart disease, according to the following characteristic symptoms:
- The pain in the hypochondrium on the left grows gradually.
- Gives pain to the left side of the body and arm.
- Pressure surges are also characteristic symptoms.
- Sudden fatigue, drowsiness during the day, and sleep disturbance at night.
- Decreased performance.
- Lack of air.
- Dizziness.
- Sluggish state.
- An increase in anxiety and fear.
- Increased sweating, especially at night.
- Arrhythmia, palpitations.
- Sensation of pulling pain in the neck.
- Constant desire to cough.
- Decreased appetite.
- Swelling of the legs.
What are the causes of hypertension with predominant heart damage?
The causes of the disease
Doctors highlight a number of circumstances leading to cardiac hypertension:
- Atherosclerotic lesions that provoke cardiac cramps.
- The consequences of serious infections.
- Infection with bacteria that corrupts the heart, or fungal diseases.
- Heart pathologies arising from his malfunction at the age of 25-55 years.
- Cardiosclerosis disease.
- The development of hypertension.
- Myocardial inflammation or the development of malignant myocarditis.
Stages of change
Experts distinguish three stages of changes in the work of the blood-forming organ:
- Left-sided hypertrophy due to increasing muscle tension.
- The formation of diastolic dysfunction of the heart ventricle.
- Finally, it passes into systolic dysfunction of the heart.
Formation of the stages of a hypertensive heart
Against this background, doctors distinguish four stages of the development of pathology:
- At the first stage, significant violations have not yet been formed and treatment gives a positive effect.
- During the second stage, physiological changes in the left atrium occur, which leads to shortness of breath and dizziness.
- The third stage is characterized by an increase in blood pressure jumps due to an increase in the left ventricle. Doctors voice scary predictions to patients at this stage and talk about an increased risk of myocardial infarction or stroke.
- In the final fourth stage, hypertensive heart disease with heart failure occurs. Often, the severe course of the disease is supplemented by ischemia of the heart. At this stage, even strong drugs do not help the patient cope with the disease and pressure surges.
Diagnosis of hypertension
Symptoms will help determine that there are problems with health, but only a specialist can diagnose the disease. To do this, he needs to collect the whole complex of analyzes.
During palpation of the heart, the specialist should feel a shift of the push to the left and down in the upper part of the organ, as well as a shift to the left of the border of the heart muscle. Auscultation will help him identify noise and increased rhythm.
The doctor can make the main diagnosis only after analyzing urine and blood, determining the titer of AT for streptococci, ECG, echocardiography, radiography and Holter monitoring.
Methods of treating pathology
The effectiveness of treatment depends on how early the disease was diagnosed. In any case, this disease does not need to be tried to cure on its own. Here, qualified specialist assistance is needed. Only a doctor can conduct a full examination and prescribe effective treatment.
It may be limited to daily medication, or hospital treatment may be required. Not the last place in the treatment is diet. Folk remedies and home therapy can also help. But if all these methods can no longer rectify the situation, surgical treatment is prescribed for severe patients.
Drug treatment
As a rule, the doctor prescribes complex therapy, which includes various groups of drugs:
- Preparations of a group of diuretics that remove excess fluid and salts from the body: Triamteren, Furosemide, Clopamide, Chlortalidone, Torasemide, Veroshpiron.
- Inhibitors of the angiotensin converting enzyme: “Lisinopril”, “Captopril”, “Enalapril”, “Ramipril”, “Zofenopril”.
- Long-acting beta-blockers: Atenolol, Propranolol, Nebilet, Anaprilin.
- Preparations of the sartans group: Valsartan, Irbesartan.
- Antiplatelet agents: Aspirin, Clopidogrel.
- Statins: Atorvastatin, Rosuvastatin.
- Blockers of pulses of blood vessels: "Doxazosin", "Terazosin."
- Medications to reduce the risk of thrombosis: Aspicor, Aspirin Cardio, Vitamin E.
- Vasodilators: Papazol, No-Shpa.
When is an operation required?
If the disease is started, patients are prescribed surgery to improve blood supply to the heart. This is done when the myocardium loses its activity. In this case, in the area of the chest or abdomen, the patient is implanted with a pacemaker, which, with the help of electrical impulses, makes the heart muscle work properly.
Folk methods and diet
Doctors do not deny the effectiveness of non-drug methods, which patients resort to during treatment of hypertensive heart as auxiliary. It's about traditional medicine.
In particular, one of the most popular during such treatment is a mixture that increases the level of potassium and magnesium in the body. Twice a day, patients should eat a healthy mixture of honey, lemon and apricot kernel. An infusion of thistle leaves is also used as an effective remedy.
For the prevention and treatment of heart disease, one should not forget about proper nutrition. This is a rejection of salty, spicy and fatty foods, alcohol, coffee and strong tea. You should often use dairy products, vegetables, fruits and herbs, cereals, fish and steamed meat, as well as more liquid.
For prevention, you should also abandon bad habits and engage in therapeutic types of physical education.
We examined the stages, treatment, and causes of a hypertensive heart.