“An enlarged heart (cardiomegaly) isn’t a disease, but rather a sign of another condition. Certain conditions may cause the heart muscle to become thicker or cause one of the chambers of the heart to dilate, making the heart larger. Depending on the condition, an enlarged heart may be temporary or permanent.

An enlarged heart may be treatable by correcting the cause. Treatment for an enlarged heart can include medications, medical procedures or surgery.”

MAYO CLINIC

Left Ventricle Enlarged

  Normal Heart Size & Lt.Ventricle

Heart Enlarged

Think of a healthy heart like a firm biceps muscle. An enlarged heart is just the opposite.

When your heart is enlarged, it’s like a soft biceps — it’s weak and out of shape. What happens is the heart muscle enlarges because the heart is trying so hard to do its function, PUMP, but it gets too difficult and the muscle of the heart enlarges/thickens causing the organ not to work properly.  So this causes back up with circulatory blood, think like a plumber–your pipes are backing up.  So what does this ends up causing?  Your body starts to retain fluid, your lungs get congested with fluid and your heart begins to beat irregularly.  If the heart is effected in working so will the lungs in time and visa versa.   Think like the car if the engine (the heart) is effected working properly the transmission (the lungs) will be also in time.

“In general the term ‘enlarged heart’ refers to heart failure,” said Clyde Yancy, M.D., past president of the American Heart Association and chief of the Division of Cardiology and the Magerstadt Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “This is a common condition that’s more likely to occur in older patients. It’s most strongly related to a history of high blood pressure or a previous heart attack.”

About one in five adults over age 40 is affected, with African-Americans facing a greater risk due to the dieting and heridity.  Take high blood pressure as a major risk factor since

Cardiosmart American College of Cardiology say in 2018 “Black adults are up to two times more likely to develop high blood pressure by age 55 compared to whites, with many of these racial differences developing before age 30, concludes a study recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.”.

“There are other reasons for an enlarged heart or heart muscle disorders (like cardiomyopathies, which are diseases of the heart muscle) and not everyone with heart failure has an enlarged heart,” Dr. Yancy said. “But when we speak of an enlarged heart we are typically referring to heart failure.”

What to Look For
Shortness of breath, fluid retention (edema) and having a harder time exercising are among the key symptoms of an enlarged heart or heart failure. Irregular heartbeats (arrhythmias) — potentially even serious irregular heart rhythms and strokes — are likely as well, Dr. Yancy said.

The symptoms of an enlarged heart can affect the quality and length of your life, Dr. Yancy said.

“This is why treatment is so important and why we are so encouraged that good treatments are available today,” he said.

How to Prevent and Treat It
“Despite all of the great advances in treatment, the best treatment is to never have an enlarged heart,” Dr. Yancy said. “Prevention should be the true thrust. The simple stuff works — managing your weight, getting plenty of physical activity, controlling your diet, reducing your cholesterol and avoiding diabetes.”

But there’s good news for those who have been diagnosed with an enlarged heart.

“Whereas this condition was a dreadful diagnosis 20–25 years ago and resulted in death shortly afterward, the outlook for those with heart failure is now so much better,” Dr. Yancy said. “More and more patients are living longer, healthier lives with heart failure due to breakthrough medical and device treatments.”

If you or a loved one has heart failure, seek a care provider who has experience treating enlarged hearts.

“This condition is no longer about ‘failure,’” Dr. Yancy said. “On the correct drugs and with support from the correct devices, you can be successful in overcoming heart failure.” Dr. Yancy said there’s a nationwide “small army” of expert nurses focusing on heart failure.

”When a heart failure nurse is involved, you can expect to get better — a lot better,” he said.

Drugs and devices can strengthen the heart, and pacemakers and implantable defibrillators (ICDs) also offer hope. Surgery may be another option for patients who also have heart vessel disease and /or heart valve disease. “For those with very advanced disease, we now have very effective mechanical heart devices and we do heart transplantation very well,” he said.

And the future may hold more promise for enlarged hearts, Dr.  Yancy said.

“We expect to have cell-based therapies that will help us repair damaged hearts; easier surgeries that will halt the progression of heart disease and even more insight into preventing heart disease,” he said.

“Teen Dating Violence is defined as the physical, sexual, psychological, or emotional aggression within a dating relationship, including stalking.”

CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Unhealthy relationships can start early and last a lifetime.  Teens often think some behaviors, like teasing and name calling, are a “normal” part of a relationship. However, these behaviors can become abusive and develop into more serious forms of violence.

Teen Dating Violence is defined as the physical, sexual, psychological, or emotional violence within a dating relationship, including stalking. It can occur in person or electronically and might occur between a current or former dating partner. Several different words are used to describe teen dating violence. Below are just a few.

• Relationship abuse
• Intimate partner violence
• Relationship violence
• Dating abuse
• Domestic abuse
• Domestic violenceA 2013 Survey found approximately 10% of high school students reported physical victimization and 10% reported sexual victimization from a dating partner in the 12 months before they were surveyed.Read on to know the negative effects of teenage dating: Most teenagers lack the proper understanding of balancing friendship and dating causing even best friends to grow apart. This also implies increasing isolation with their new found boyfriends or girlfriends making them further unavailable and unexposed to potential friends in their immediate circle.The most visible negative impact of teenage dating is the school grades. Teenagers lose interest in studies and this is emblematic of their shifting priorities in life. This involves a double failure when teenagers lose their marks in class followed by problems in a relationship on the personal front.
• Teenage dating deals more with exploring their new-found youthfulness than exploring the extent of love. This makes them reduce a relationship to the concept of possessing a boyfriend or a girlfriend making them lose sight of what is important. This is why we have more cases of teenage dating than cases of everlasting friendship.
• The biggest threat about teenage dating is their inability to maintain a relationship. Teenagers mostly, do not understand the necessity of sustaining a relationship over a period of time. Therefore, frequent break ups and fights lead to attempts of suicide, teenage pregnancy or mental instability in extreme cases. This happens due to lack of experience and a broader understanding of what relationships are.
• Teenage dating has been possible in the modern times due to modernisation and free flowing communication. As a result, it also comes with a set of negative implications.
• Dating violence is widespread with serious long-term and short-term effects. Many teens do not report it because they are afraid to tell friends and family. A 2011 CDC nationwide survey found that 23% of females and 14% of males who ever experienced rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner, first experienced some form of partner violence between 11 and 17 years of age.

Consequences of Dating Violence

Dating violence can have serious consequences. While the immediate impact might be humiliation and/or physical pain, young people who experience abuse are more likely to be in physical fights or bring weapons to school. They might exhibit higher rates of drug and alcohol abuse as well as high-risk sexual behaviors. Targets of abuse are also more likely to contemplate or attempt suicide.

Here are some consequences the target may experience:

Lose confidence in oneself

Become afraid to express feelings of anger

Suffer serious injury, even death

Begin to doubt their own abilities, feelings, and decision-making ability

Feel isolation from family and friends

Feel shame and guilt

Feel lonely

Face inability to maintain long-lasting or fulfilling relationships

Get a sexually transmitted infection

Experience an unwanted pregnancy

Build up large doctor or lawyer expenses

Abandon dreams and goals

Become depressed, anxious, fearful, or suicidal

Begin having problems at work, school, and other activities

Experience damage to personal property

Here are some consequences the perpetrator may experience:

Get arrested

Unable to attend college due to criminal record

Spend time in jail

Experience feelings of shame and guilt

Feel isolation from family and friends

Face inability to maintain long-lasting or fulfilling relationships

Contract a sexually transmitted infection

Experience an unwanted pregnancy

Build up large doctor or lawyer expenses

Abandon dreams and goals

Become depressed, anxious, fearful, or suicidal

Begin having problems at work, school, and other activities

Lose dating partner’s love and respect

Have conflict with parents or other caregivers

Dating partner could end relationship

Dating has many positive benefits for teens, even if they easily get carried away with romantic feelings. Appropriate teen relationships lead to maturity in teenagers and a better understanding of adult relationships. Getting this practice in early allows teens to discover what they want and need out of romantic relationships. Through dating, teens gain essential tools in navigating the world and are better able to develop meaningful intimate relationships as adults.

The way to stop teen dating violence is through prevention.   For a good recommendation of suggestions go to the Compiled by the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence www.wcadv.org Adapted from Hope House of South Central Wisconsin. Remember you don’t want to have to treat it but instead take the action in preventing it.

“Schnitzler syndrome is an autoinflammatory disease characterized by chronic, nonpruritic urticaria in association with recurrent fever, bone pain, arthralgia or arthritis, and a monoclonal gammopathy, most often of the immunoglobulin M (IgM) subtype. Approximately 10-15% of patients eventually develop a lymphoproliferative disorder, such as lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma, Waldenström macroglobulinemia, or IgM myeloma.”.

MedScape (https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1050761)

“Goodpasture syndrome is a life-threatening autoimmune disorder. It causes the immune system to attack tissues in the lungs and kidneys. Symptoms include coughing up blood and trouble breathing. Untreated, the syndrome leads to lung damage, kidney failure and death. Treatments include medications and plasmapheresis, a type of blood transfusion.  Goodpasture syndrome causes life-threatening bleeding in the lungs. Without treatment, this bleeding is fatal. It can also lead to kidney failure. With an early diagnosis, treatments are effective.”.

Cleveland Clinic (https://my.clevelandclinic.org)

• Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States, killing 299,578 women in 2017—or about 1 in every 5 female deaths.²
• Heart disease is the leading cause of death for African American and white women in the United States. Among American Indian and Alaska Native women, heart disease and cancer cause roughly the same number of deaths each year. For Hispanic and Asian or Pacific Islander women, heart disease is second only to cancer as a cause of death.³

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC.gov)

“Albinism is an inherited disorder that’s present at birth. Children have a chance of being born with albinism if both of their parents have albinism or both of their parents carry the gene for albinism.  For most types of albinism, both parents must carry the gene in order for their child to develop the condition. Most people with albinism have parents who are only carriers of the gene an”d don’t have symptoms of the condition. Other types of albinism, including one that only affects the eyes, mostly occur when a birthing parent passes the gene for albinism on to a child assigned male at birth.”

healthline.com

Genetics of Albinism

The genes for OCA are located on “autosomal” chromosomes. Autosomes are the chromosomes that contain genes for our general body characteristics, contrasted to the sex chromosomes. We normally have two copies of these chromosomes and the genes on them – one inherited from our father, the other inherited from our mother. Neither of these gene copies is functional in people with albinism. However, albinism is a “recessive trait”, so even if only one of the two copies of the OCA gene is functional, a person can make pigment, but will carry the albinism trait. Both parents must carry a defective OCA gene to have a child with albinism. When both parents carry the defective gene (and neither parent has albinism) there is a one in four chance at each pregnancy that the baby will be born with albinism. This type of inheritance is called “autosomal recessive” inheritance.

Ocular albinism (OA1) is caused by a genetic defect of the GPR143 gene that plays a signaling role that is especially important to pigmentation in the eye. OA1 follows a simpler pattern of inheritance because the gene for OA1 is on the X chromosome. Females have two copies of the X chromosome while males have only one copy (and a Y chromosome that makes them male). To have ocular albinism, a male only needs to inherit one defective copy of the gene for ocular albinism from his carrier mother. Therefore almost all of the people with OA1 are males. Indeed, parents should be suspicious if a female child is said to have ocular albinism.

For couples who have not had a child with albinism, there is no simple test to determine whether a person carries a defective gene for albinism. Researchers have analyzed the DNA of many people with albinism and found the changes that cause albinism, but these changes are not always in exactly the same place, even for a given type of albinism. Moreover, many of the tests do not find all possible changes. Therefore, the tests for the defective gene may be inconclusive.

If parents have had a child with albinism previously, and if that affected child has had a confirmed diagnosis by DNA analysis, there is a way to test in subsequent pregnancies to see if the fetus has albinism. The test uses either amniocentesis (placing a needle into the uterus to draw off fluid) or chorionic villous sampling (CVS). Cells in the fluid are examined to see if they have an albinism gene from each parent.

For specific information and genetic testing, seek the advice of a qualified geneticist or genetic counselor. The American College of Medical Genetics and the National Society of Genetic Counselors maintain a referral list. Those considering prenatal testing should be made aware that people with albinism usually adapt quite well to their disabilities and lead very fulfilling lives.

Eye problems in albinism result from abnormal development of the eye because of lack of pigment and often include:

• Nystagmus: regular horizontal back and forth movement of the eyes
• Strabismus: muscle imbalance of the eyes, “crossed eyes” (esotropia), “lazy eye” or an eye that deviates out (exotropia)
• Photophobia: sensitivity to bright light and glare
• People with albinism may be either far-sighted or near-sighted and usually have astigmatism
• Foveal hypoplasia: the retina, the surface inside the eye that receives light, does not develop normally before birth and in infancy
• Optic nerve misrouting: the nerve signals from the retina to the brain do not follow the usual nerve routes
• The iris, the colored area in the center of the eye, has little to no pigment to screen out stray light coming into the eye. (Light normally enters the eye only through the pupil, the dark opening in the center of the iris, but in albinism light can pass through the iris as well.)People with albinism are sensitive to glare, but they do not prefer to be in the dark, and they need light to see just like anyone else. Sunglasses or tinted contact lenses help outdoors. Indoors, it is important to place lights for reading or close work over a shoulder rather than in front.Some people with albinism use bioptics, glasses which have small telescopes mounted on, in, or behind their regular lenses, so that one can look through either the regular lens or the telescope. Newer designs of bioptics use smaller light-weight lenses. Some states allow the use of bioptic telescopes for driving.
• In tropical countries, those who do not use skin protection may develop life-threatening skin cancers. If they use appropriate skin protection, such as sunscreen lotions rated 20 SPF or higher and opaque clothing, people with albinism can enjoy outdoor activities even in summer.Funding for the development and original printing of this information Bulletin was provided by the Innovating Worthy Projects Foundation of Somers Point, New Jersey. NOAH gratefully acknowledges their assistance. Revised 2007 by Rick Thompson, O.D., F.A.A.O. NOAH Board of Scientific Advisors, Kelsey Thompson, M.S., C.R.C., Chair, NOAH Editorial Committee.Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome NetworkPositive ExposureAmerican Foundation for the Blind (AFB)Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB)National Society of Genetic Counselors
• Maintains a referral list of genetic counselors Phone: 610-872-7608 Web: www.nsgc.org
• 1929 Bayview Avenue Toronto, ON M4G 3E8 Phone: 800-563-2642 Web: www.cnib.ca
• Provides information about programs and clinics for people with impaired vision throughout the United States 11 Penn Plaza, Suite 300 New York, NY 10001 Phone: 800-AFB-LIND Web:www.afb.org
• A nonprofit organization offering innovative photographic exhibits, challenging the stigma associated with difference and celebrating the richness of genetic variation. 43 E. 20th St., 6th Floor New York, NY 10003 Phone: 212-420-1931 Web: www.positiveexposure.org
• A NOAH affiliate providing information and support to individuals and families with HPS One South Road Oyster Bay, NY 11771-1905 Phone: 800-789-9HPS Web: www.hpsnetwork.org
• People with albinism are at risk of isolation because the condition is often misunderstood. Social stigmatization can occur, especially within communities of color, where the race or paternity of a person with albinism may be questioned. Families and schools must make an effort not to exclude children with albinism from group activities. Contact with others with albinism or who have albinism in their families or communities is most helpful. NOAH can provide the names of contacts in many regions of the country.
• In the United States, most people with albinism live normal life spans and have the same types of general medical problems as the rest of the population. The lives of people with Hermansky-Pudlak Syndrome can be shortened by lung disease or other problems. Other conditions include Chediak-Higashi and Griscelli Syndrome.
• Optometrists or ophthalmologists who are experienced in working with low vision patients can recommend various optical aids. Clinics should provide aids on trial loan and provide instruction in their use. The American Foundation for the Blind maintains a directory of low vision clinics. In Canada, support is available from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.
• Various optical aids are helpful to people with albinism and the choice of an optical aid depends on how a person uses his or her eyes in jobs, hobbies, or other usual activities. Some people do well using bifocals which have a strong reading lens, prescription reading glasses, or contact lenses. Others use hand-held magnifiers or special small telescopes and some prefer to use screen magnification products on computers.
• For the most part, treatment of the eye conditions consists of visual rehabilitation. Surgery to correct strabismus may improve the appearance of the eyes. However, since surgery will not correct the misrouting of nerves from the eyes to the brain, surgery will not improve eyesight or fine binocular vision. In the case of esotropia or “crossed eyes,” surgery may help vision by expanding the visual field (the area that the eyes can see while looking at one point).

“Albinism is a group of inherited disorders that results in little or no production of the pigment melanin, which determines the color of the skin, hair and eyes. Melanin also plays a role in the development of certain optical nerves, so all forms of albinism cause problems with the development and function of the eyes.”

National for Advancing Translational Sciences – NIH