Tag: cardiologist

Medical How It Works Saving the Heart

There is no cure for congestive heart failure, but there are things that you can do to help prolong your life and protect your heart from farther damage. Treatment is a matter of changing your lifestyle and drug therapy, which will change your quality of life. The medical field improvement over the past twenty years has grown in leaps and bounds. Lifestyle changes are the same quit smoking, losing excess weight, drinking less alcohol, and eating healthy low saturated fat and low salt foods. Then do not forget to exercise which is helpful for most patients. This is good advice that is a key to preventing heart failure but the most important is the medical. This is where your physician is very important do not attempt to try to prescribe your own medicines. The physician is well equipped to provide you with the proper medical treatment.

The heart like other parts of our bodies can malfunction in different ways. That is why we should trust the cardiologist a specialist in the medical field. One of the most common medicines prescribed for patients is a beta-blocker. The beta-blocker reduces the heart rate and output of blood by counteracting a hormone called noradrenalin. While this drug can prevent heart failure, it is not recommended for anyone with severe heart failure.

Patients who suffer from fluid retention and/or high blood pressure the medical field suggests that a diuretic will help compensate but some of the side effects is loss of potassium, weakness, muscle cramps, and joint pains. Let your doctor know right away if you feel any ill effects from the diuretic.

This is just an example of some drugs used by the medical field that can help prevent heart failure. There are other treatments that the medical field uses are just as valuable.
Congestive heart failure can become quiet extreme that is why the medical field has been experimenting with heart transplants and mechanical pumps, which are attached to the heart. There is another experimental procedure for severe heart failure, which is available at a few U.S. medical centers. This procedure, called cardiomyoplasty, involves detaching one end of a muscle in the back, wrapping it around the heart, and then suturing the muscle to the heart. An implanted electric stimulator causes the back muscle to contract and pump blood from the heart.

The medical field has also another surgical procedure called mitral valve repair may help extend and improve the lives of people with congestive heart failure. This procedure aims to correct leaky valves resulting from cardiomyopathy, or heart muscle disease, by surgically inserting a flexible annuloplasty ring at the mitral valve opening.

The medical field has made great strides in medicines and in surgical procedures that greatly increase the quality of life, we have. The medical field has experimented with such things as healthy heart diets and specialized exercises that can only help to improve quality of life. Now it is up to you it is your heart!

Living With Heart Failure-How Congestive Heart Failure Impacts Your Life

Living With Heart Failure-How Congestive Heart Failure Impacts Your Life

Heart failure, as well as all the risks that accompany it, can be a terrifying prospect for any man, woman or child. The impact of a heart, the body’s central tool for survival, no longer functioning may seem like the beginning of the end. The good news is, by establishing an effective treatment plan with your cardiologist the prognosis, and the chances for you to lead a normal life, increase exponentially.

Heart failure occurs when the heart can no longer efficiently pump blood throughout the body. The blood pools, and while organs are deprived of vital, life giving oxygen and nutrients the excess sodium that would normally be excreted in the urine builds up in the tissues, resulting in fluid retention that leads to organ stress and the dyspnea that is so common in cases of congestive heart failure. Left untreated, the oxygen deprived organs will eventually cease to function and the patient will die.

Fortunately, there are now many ways to combat the mortality factor associated with heart failure. Doctors can prescribe medications to facilitate the flow of blood through the body and take some of the pressure off the heart; blood thinners can decrease the chances of clots forming in the veins. Aside from medicinal means, there are many factors that may be altered in your lifestyle to impact the prognosis of your disease.

It is essential that the body be given sufficient time to rest in a day. While at rest the heart can more easily pump blood throughout the body; just as you would rest an injured leg when it began to pain you, you should rest your heart as well. On the flip side, it is important to establish a daily exercise routine. It doesn’t have to be three hours of aerobics; a half hour walk every day would have a greater impact on your physical being than nothing. Consult with your physician to find the plan that works best for your individual circumstances.

Along with an exercise plan you should work with your doctor to find the best diet plan for you. In most cases a low sodium diet is recommended to help reduce fluid retention. Diuretics can greatly affect the levels of potassium in the body causing hypokalemia, which can lead to muscle weakness, paralysis and a fatal cardiac arrhythmia; therefore, very often if you have been given a diuretic to take daily a potassium supplement will also be prescribed.

Nicotine can create a serious problem for patients with heart failure. It increases the heart rate and blood pressure while having a negative impact on the oxygen level in the blood. All of these things cause the heart to work harder. It is strongly recommended that if you have been diagnosed with heart failure you quit smoking completely.

Hand in hand with smoking are the inherent dangers associated with contracting a case of pneumonia or flu. If you are able you should receive an annual flu shot, as well as the one time dose of pneumococcal vaccine. This will provide some level of protection against pneumococci bacteria, the major cause of bacterial pneumonia. Pneumonia is a problem for the same reasons as smoking; the decreased oxygen levels in the blood cause the heart to work harder in an attempt to compensate and get oxygen to the organs and tissues. If possible, avoid crowded areas during cold and flu season, and stay away from people you know are sick.

Amazingly, something as simple as the clothes you wear can impact your condition if you have suffered heart failure. Tight clothing can cause blood clots and restrict blood flow to the extremities. In addition, in cases of extreme temperature your clothes should be weather appropriate; if the body has to work to maintain its temperature the heart will have to work that much harder.

Sexual relations can usually be continued as before; however, they should occur in as peaceful an environment as possible to prevent undue stress. If your condition is severe it is important that you discuss this with your physician; it may be necessary to forego sexual relations for a time in favor of other, less stressful shows of affection.

Each of these steps will help you continue to live much as you did before being diagnosed. Heart failure will inevitably impact your life; it is entirely up to you how much.

Heart Failure

Whenever cardiac conditions develop these conditions, weaken or damage your heart, which leads to heart failure. In a weakened condition, the heart over time can no longer keep up with even the normal demands placed on it. The ventricles may become stiff and not fill properly between beats. The heart ventricles stretch (dilate) to the point that the heart cannot pump blood efficiently throughout your body. The failing pump causes blood and fluid to back up throughout your circulatory system. The circulatory system consists of your lungs, legs, feet and ankles. The kidneys retain excess water and sodium. All this builds up is the congestive part of your heart failure. The lung congestion occurs only with left-sided heart failure with fluid backing up into the lungs. The most common cause of right sided heart failure is left sided heart failure.

When the fluid fills up the left side of the heart the pressure in the lungs passes to the right side of the heart, which then fails. The fluid then collects in the abdomen and lower extremities which all leads up to heart failure. Heart Failure develops quickly after a heart attack. The heart failure can also develop after years of high blood pressure or coronary artery disease. A defective valve may cause heart failure. A heart valve replacement in this case will prevent heart failure. A specialist normally does the surgical part, which is a cardiologist.

Many times people think that such things cause heart failure as smoking, being overweight or eating foods high in cholesterol and fat but there is a condition known as idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy were the heart weakens without explanation. This condition will also cause you congestive heart failure if not properly taken seriously.

You might be suffering from if you have heart failure several conditions. These conditions can weaken your heart over time and be present without you being aware that you have the problem. The follow is a brief description of some conditions that affect the heart:

– The most common cause of heart failure is Coronary artery disease. A process called atherosclerosis, which is a build up of fatty deposits in the arteries. This fatty build up causes the blood to narrow a process called plaque, which leaves chronically deprived of oxygen-rich blood pump less vigorously. A heart attack occurs if an unstable plaque not function well it will cause a blood clot in turn completely blocks the blood flow to an area of the heart muscle. This is one of the most common causes of heart failure.

– There are several other reasons that might cause heart failure but we shall discuss the next highest reason for now. High Blood Pressure (hypertension) is the force of blood pumped by your heart through your arteries. When your blood pressure is high then your heart has to work harder causing failure.

Take your cardiologists advice watch your weight and exercise your on the way to a heart healthy way of life.

Continuing Medical Education for Cardiac Professionals

In a field that is constantly shifting and changing, where researchers are finding new information almost daily and new diseases and symptoms are discovered with each patient it is very important for doctors and nurses to stay abreast of changes in the field. They do this through a variety of means, one of which is continuing education.

A cardiologist can spend twelve years or more in school prior to receiving their degree between undergrad school, medical school, residency, then additional coursework and residency to specialize. It may seem ludicrous to have to return to school after that period of time; after all, after ten years wouldn’t they know all there is to know? The answer is no. The medical field is constantly open to new opportunities and knowledge; a cardiologist who graduated medical school thirty years would not have learned many of the new treatment and surgical options that are available today. They simply did not have the resources or technology then that they do now. Enter the field of continuing education.

Every clinician is required to complete a set number of continuing education credits on a regular basis, and to update these credits regularly. These credits do not have to be done by returning to an academic setting; most physicians would not have time to treat their patients and still take classes. Every year hundreds of symposiums, conferences and workshops are held throughout the world on a variety of topics. These each provide an established number of continuing education credits, and most clinicians will have to attend several of these to fulfill their continuing education requirement. Here cardiac professionals can learn about new techniques to treat a variety of diseases, such as the ongoing interest in using stem cells to strengthen the heart of patients with congestive heart failure, or the benefits of the newly released angiotensin II receptor blocker drugs. In this manner they are able to follow all of the advances in the field without having to abandon their practice and return to school.

The internet has also opened up a wonderful opportunity for health care professionals to complete their continuing education credits from the comfort of their homes. Many organizations offer online continuing education to healthcare professionals. They may complete coursework, watch online conferences, and virtually attend lectures. This is often the method of choice for physicians in rural areas who find it difficult to attend conferences due to their distance and the lack of other physicians to see their patients in their absence.

These continuing education credits may be available at no cost, or a reduced cost per credit hour, to physicians and group members. Continuing education is very important to healthcare professionals. A lack of continuing education will result in a clinician not being kept abreast of changes in the field, both positive and negative, and being unaware of which treatments have now been ruled ineffective or even hazardous. This will lead to being unable to properly treat their patients, and possibly endangering their lives in the process.