Atherosclerosis

The factors playing a major role in deciding the rate of risk of suffering from a cardiovascular or heart disease are age, gender, diet, physical activity, alcohol and tobacco consumption, genetic factors, pre-existing diseases and geographical location. Most heart diseases affects older adults. In fact with every decade, the chances of getting a heart disease increases threefold. Gender wise, men are more prone to develop a cardiovascular or heart disease than women. Of all the deaths caused by…

Although anorexia nervosa wreaks havoc on most major organ systems of the body, the most life-threatening injury is done to the heart. Cardiovascular complications start with the loss of heart muscle, leading to abnormal heart rhythms and low blood pressure. As the emaciated body loses muscle, the heart muscle loses mass and complications such as bradycardia and hypotension arise. Brown and Mehler (2015) have observed, “bradycardia (pulse <60) and hypotension are among the most common…

Why do we need to be aware of heart disease in women? Heart disease is normally thought of as a “men’s disease”; however, statistically women are affected as much as men are. Signs and symptoms in women are not necessarily the classic symptoms of chest pain. Many women experience no signs or symptoms until they have heart failure, irregular heartbeat, or a heart attack (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute [NIH], 2014a). Heart disease is the leading cause of death in women, affecting…

Acute coronary syndromes is an umbrella term that includes several cardiac ischemic events.1 The broad term of ACS entails ST segment elevation-ACS (STE-ACS) and non-ST segment elevation ACS (NSTE-ACS) based on the initial electrocardio- gram(ECG) finding.4 ACS usually occurs as a sudden reduction in blood flow to the coronary arteries due to rupture of the atherosclerotic plaque, which subsequently leads to myocardial ischemia or/and infarction.1, 2, 3 The American Heart Association (AHA)…

Program Goals and Related Objectives The goal of this program is to aid in reducing the incidence and risks of heart disease within the African-American population of Jefferson Parish. The goal corresponds with the Healthy People 2020 goal for heart disease and stroke which is to “improve cardiovascular health and quality of life through prevention, detection, and treatment of risk factors for heart disease and stroke; early identification and treatment of heart attacks and strokes;…

Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) represents an escalating public health issue, worldwide. Statistics indicate that cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide. It accounts for a near 17.5 million deaths every year.1 Moreover, CVD is responsible for significant and alarming morbidity, disability and loss of work.In 2010, a study indicated that the cost of CVD in the United States of America was around $444 billion. It may also be pertinent to mention that the…

Hypertension Vicki is a 42-year-old African American woman who was diagnosed with Hypertension a month ago. She has been married to her high school sweetheart for the past 20 years. She is self-employed and runs a successful insurance agency. Her work requires frequent travel and Vicki often has to eat at fast food restaurants for most of her meals. A poor diet that is high in salt and fat and low in nutrients for the body is a contributing factor of Vicki’s diagnoses of hypertension. This paper…

The current study was a longitudinal study that assessed data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). I chose the HRS data because it includes participants that are over the age of 50 and their health status. Age is generally important to the current study because strokes typically occur in older age (Dries & Hussein, 2015). The HRS study began in 1992 and consisted of 12,652 participants that were eligible for interviews and had a response rate of 81.6% (Health and Retirement Study, 2015).…

There are many risks that arise with catheter ablation and cardioversion. Stroke and death are the main problems with these surgeries. What happens if these procedures don’t work? Is there another option for the patients to receive any treatment? If the heart is shocked three or four times in one cardioversion setting, how will the heart handle this treatment the next time the heart needs to be shocked? Is there a definite cure out there? Since antiarrhythmic drugs are potentially dangerous, is…

Did you know that High Blood Pressure was the number one factor for a stroke and major risk factor for heart disease? High blood pressure also known as hypertension is an often-silent cardiovascular condition that may lead to heart attack, stroke and major organ failure. Today, I would like to discuss what high blood pressure is and some of the signs and symptoms, what causes high blood pressure, and I would like to share some information in how to prevent hypertension. The first thing I would…