What is Heart Disease?
Heart disease is a general term that includes several conditions that affect the structure and function of the heart. Some are conditions you may be born with, known as congenital heart disease, and others are acquired during lifetime including coronary heart disease, abnormalities in the rate or rhythm of the heartbeat and diseases of the heart muscle or heart valves.
In the U.S., heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women. Put in numbers, approximately, one in every five deaths in the U.S. is caused by heart disease.
What Are the Symptoms of Heart Disease?
Symptoms of heart disease include:
- Pain, tightness, pressure or discomfort in the chest
- Shortness of breath at rest or during activity
- Fluttering in the chest, racing or slow heartbeat
- Lightheadedness, dizziness or fainting
- Swollen legs, ankles or feet
If you experience any of the above symptoms or if you have any concerns regarding your heart health, be sure to speak to a health care provider or call 911 in case of an emergency. However, it is important to understand that absence of these symptoms does not necessarily mean that you are free from heart disease.
Since development of symptoms may take time, it is possible that you may have heart disease and not know it. The good news is that understanding your risk for developing heart disease can greatly help you take the appropriate measures to protect your heart from this serious disease.
What Are the Risk Factors for Developing Heart Disease?
Several health conditions and lifestyle habits can increase your chance of developing coronary heart disease. Thankfully, with the aid of routine tests, medications and lifestyle changes your health care professional recommends, most of the risk factors for heart disease can be identified, controlled or prevented. Below are the risk factors you can change:
- High blood pressure: High blood pressure is a major risk factor not only for heart disease but also for stroke and kidney failure. In the majority of cases, high blood pressure does not have any symptoms; thus, the only way to know if your blood pressure is high is by measuring it yourself or having it measured at a health care facility. Either way, a diagnosis of high blood pressure should be confirmed by a health care professional.
- High blood cholesterol: High cholesterol levels in the blood can build up in the walls of heart arteries leading to narrowing of the arteries and decreasing blood flow to heart muscles, a condition known as coronary heart disease. Your health care professional will test your blood to measure your cholesterol levels and determine if your level is in the unhealthy range.
- Diabetes: Diabetes greatly increases your risk of developing heart disease. The risks are even greater if your blood sugar level is uncontrolled. Your health care professional can test your blood to determine if you have diabetes. If you have diabetes, your health care professional can test your blood to determine if your blood glucose has been well controlled or not.
- Being overweight or obese: Having too much body fat, especially at the waist, increases your risk of heart disease. Obesity is also linked to the major risk factors for heart disease listed above, including high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and diabetes.
- Tobacco Use: Tobacco use is a major risk factor for heart disease and various serious medical conditions, including stroke, chronic lung disease and several types of cancers.
- Alcohol consumption: Drinking too much alcohol can raise your blood pressure, cause irregular heartbeat, and increase a type of fat called triglyceride to an unhealthy level. In addition, alcohol could damage your heart muscle and increase your risk of heart failure.
In contrast to the above modifiable risk factors, some other risk factors for heart disease are beyond your control. These include your age, gender and family history.
- Age: Although heart disease can affect all age groups, the risk of developing heart disease increases with age.
- Gender: While women become more susceptible to heart disease after menopause, men tend to have heart disease at an earlier age.
- Family history and genetics: If your parents or siblings have heart disease, you are more likely to develop heart disease than an individual with no family history of heart disease. High blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and diabetes could also run in families. It is important to talk to your provider about your family history.
Given the long list of risk factors as discussed above, it can be hard to understand your overall risk for developing heart disease. Fortunately, there are tools available to you that can help you calculate your risk of developing heart disease in the next 10 years or over a lifetime. One such tool is the ASCVD Risk Estimator.
Discussing your estimated risk with your health care provider will help you and your provider come up with a practical plan to reduce your risk.
How Can UofL Health Help Me Reduce My Risk of Heart Disease?
At UofL Health, we provide comprehensive, patient-centered cardiovascular medical care to patients across the region. To schedule an appointment with UofL Physicians – Primary Care to determine your level of risk, call 502-588-4343. For cardiology services, click here to see our heart care locations.
