What is ischemic heart disease?
Ischemic heart disease is chronic and is usually caused by clogged arteries. It’s very common and there are around 3 million people per year who have it. When you have this, there are many dangerous things that can happen. You could get a stroke or a heart attack, you could have a hole in your intestine, or you could have built up plaque in your legs, which could lead to amputation.
What are the symptoms?
You don’t always have symptoms, sometimes it could be a silent ischemia in either the heart or brain. But if it isn’t silent ischemia then the symptoms vary on where you have it. The top four places are the heart, brain, intestine, and legs. If you have it in the heart, then you could experience heart pains, faster heartbeat, upset stomach, or being very tired. If you have it in your brain, then you would have problems with moving, understanding others, and passing out. If you have it in your intestine, then would experience bloating, blood in your poop, diarrhea and severe stomach pain. If you have it in your legs, then you would experience coldness or weakness in your legs, pain in your feet, and sores that won’t heal.
How do you treat it?
There are many ways to treat it, but here are a couple of them. An ICD is a small device placed by your heart so when the heartbeat speeds up, it zaps it a little to slow it down. CABG surgery is where they take a vessel from another part of your body to create another path around the clogged artery. Some might recommend to change your lifestyle, to lessen alcohol and smoke intake, get more sleep, lose weight, lower stress, etc. There may be many treatments, but since ischemia is a chronic disease, there is no way to get rid of it completely, yet.
How do you prevent it?
You can lower your chances of getting ischemia by making healthy choices. Some examples are exercising more often, lowering stress levels and eating more fruits and vegetables. It’s also good to see your doctor regularly. This way they can check for problems like diabetes, high cholesterol or high blood pressure. You can also catch some problems earlier, before the symptoms start appearing.
Related Articles:
https://medicine.iu.edu/research-centers/cardiovascular/research/ischemic-heart-disease
https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/what-is-ischemia
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