Angina Heart Disease

Angina heart disease is often termed as one of the deadliest forms of heart diseases and is known as Angina pectoris in medical terms. This disease is the result of myocardial ischemia, which is basically caused by an imbalance between myocardial blood supply and oxygen demand. It has been seen in most cases that lack of blood supply is caused due to narrowing of the coronary arteries. This often results in arteriosclerosis and the pain caused by the same is known as angina. This pain is most likely to occur during exertion, especially when you are walking or climbing stairs.

The person suffering from the same is involved with various kinds of risks and needs to exercise caution and care to recover from the same. Also the person who has been suffering from these heart diseases requires the muscle to consume more blood and oxygen as it works harder and the most common pain in this disease is suffered when the person is under exertion or severe emotional stress or after a heavy meal. It has been seen that during these periods, the heart muscle demands more blood oxygen as compare to what the narrowed coronary arteries can deliver.

This form of pain is relatively common and Angina has been known to affect about 1 in 50 people. It has been estimated that there are about 1.2 million people suffering with angina in the UK alone. This form of disease has been very common in men than women and the probability of it occurring increases with age or growing older. It should be remembered that Angina can occur in people with valvular heart diseases also along with those suffering from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is an enlarged heart due to disease, or uncontrolled high blood pressure or hypertension.

Basically the Angina results in uncomfortable pressure, fullness and even squeezing pain in the center of the chest but not all these chest discomforts are related to Angina. There are various kinds of Acid reflux or heartburn and lung infection or inflammation that also cause the same. Some of the most common causes of this disease are heart failure, reduction or narrowing of the aortic heart valve, abnormal heart rhythms, anemia, diseases of the heart muscle, coronary artery spasm, etc.

The most common symptoms of this disease include the shortness of breath, perspiration, nausea, feeling of indigestion, cramping and burning pain, loss or numbness in the arms and hands of the body, etc. The treatment of this disease involves elimination of the risk factors of coronary artery disease through treatment of high blood pressure, lowering high cholesterol levels, exercising and weight loss and also quitting smoking. The medical treatments include drug therapies like nitrates, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, etc.

The two common types of Angina are the stable and the unstable forms. In stable angina describes oxygen is carried to the heart despite very narrow arteries created by hardened plaque but in unstable Angina the soft plaque breaks away from the arterial walls and creates blood clots that block the artery and hence can lead to various kinds of serious complications.

• Juliana Breckinridge
• 03/01/2009, 10:59 PM
• 0 Comments