Now knowing the anatomy and physiology of the heart let’s now understand more about cardiac disease in how they develop and in how it effects the engine of the body, being the heart and other areas of the body. If eating unhealthy or living unhealthy habits or even overweight to obese these are the problems that can arise regarding the cardiac system alone:
- High Blood Pressure is the primary cause of death among Americans older than 25. About 75 million people suffer from high B/P or hypertension, which is a major risk factor for heart disease and more. Did you know that from the National Health Survey in 1981 their statistics indicated that hypertension afflicts at least 17 to 22 million American adults during that time, in the book of “Principles of Anatomy and Physiology” by authors Tortora and Anagnostakos? Look at today, yes our population has increased but the debate with that is we now know better and have for awhile. We as responsible people for ourselves, families (children in particular) and as a country should be living healthier but still too many EAT and PRACTICE unhealthy habits based on statistics, if we weren’t disease would be less in percentage throughout America.
AMERICA wake up or else we will just continue increasing high in the following problems we already have at home and make life, especially for many, unbearable.
Uncontrolled high blood pressure is of considerable concern because of what harm it can do to the HEART, BRAIN, and KIDNEYS if it remains uncontrolled.
1- Heart=Angina to Heart Attack (infarction)
2-Brain=Transient Ischemia Attack (TIA) to a stroke
3- Kidneys=Reducing blood suppy to kidneys causing the kidneys to secrete RENIN into the blood. This enzyme breaks down angiotensin from the plasma protein (a powerful blood constrictor in the blood ) making the blood pressure higher. It stimulates aldosterone release in our blood stream that promotes sodium and water retention in the blood ,= increases your B/P more due to how it works.
These 3 organs with conditions are all due to obstruction of blood flow to the organs and due to the effect of High blood pressure climbs, and the heart must work or pump harder=things that happen to our engine: One, the heart muscle tissue eventually thickens and the heart becomes ENLARGED causing it not to do its job properly causing it to go in time into failure. Two, is stress to the heart = lack of oxygen = chest pain or myocardial infarction (heart attack). When we stress the heart out=overworked, lack of oxygen to the heart tissue happens = pain as a symptom (we call it Angina that can be reversed) and if it continues it can lead to a heart attack = scarring to the heart = damage done to the heart that’s not reversible. Also with constant HTN which can cause constriction of vessels in the brain this can cause the same stress but with different symptoms, the brain with uncontrolled HTN can cause lack of oxygen to the brain = headache which if not resolved can lead to a TIA (reversible) or stroke (scarring to the brain, not reversible). All of these responses are made worse by low potassium intake and high sodium intake orally (in a lot of cases these conditions could have been controlled via diet, exercise with balancing it with rest and check up with a doctor (cardiac especially). Check out Monday Part 3 covering more about areas of the human body that heart disease affects.