The next next entry will be shorter, I promise!

Hi Richland,

So after a little bit of thought, I figured I should probably explain what exactly I’m talking about when I say “cardiovascular disease”. Part of my goal here is to avoid crowding you with tons of scary science terms and numbers that really nobody understands. So here goes…bear with me.

Cardiovascular disease refers to any disease that involves the heart of blood vessels.

Cardio= heart

Vascular= vessels

The term “heart disease” is often used interchangeable with cardiovascular disease, which can be misleading- it makes you think that these diseases strictly affect the heart. While most of these diseases directly effect the heart, there are several that involve the blood vessels in and around your body and in your brain.

So let’s do a quick run-down of what’s included in “cardiovascular disease”. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but these are the most common.

Heart muscle problems:

Cardiomyopathy: A general term for diseases that cause the heart muscle to become unusually think or rigid, and sometimes replaced with scar tissue. If you’ve got any big scars, reach down and run your finger over the scar. You can feel that the scar is hard and a lot less pliable than your regular skin. Now imagine that in your heart muscle- the hard muscle means that the heart can’t pump blood through the body very well. This causes other heart problems.

Congestive heart failure (CHF): This is the condition that my dad has. This is a condition where the heart just can’t pump as well as it should. Sometimes the issue is that the heart can’t fill with enough blood, and sometimes it’s that the heart can’t send blood around to the rest of the body very well. This doesn’t means that the heart as stopped- it means that the pumping ability of the heart has grown weaker over time. Many times this is caused by damage to the heart by other cardiovascular diseases. 

Heart valve problems: You probably know that your blood flows from the heart around to the rest of the body, right? And then it would only make sense if blood flowed in one direction- basically in a big loop around your body, through your heart. In order for blood to only flow in one direction, the vessels and heart have valves- basically gates- that make sure of this. Lots of problems can occur wih valves- they can grow thick, fail to close tightly, or not function at all. This can be congenital (meaning you’re born with it) or can develop over time. 

Coronary heart disease (CAD): These are diseases of the arteries in the heart- called the coronary arteries- that occur because plaque builds in the arteries. Plaque is a thick, hard substance that sticks to the walls of the arteries and block blood passage. Imagine when oatmeal hardens and you can’t get it out of the bowl. Now imagine if hardened oatmeal was stuck on the inside of your drain pipes. Water wouldn’t flow through, right? It seems like a silly analogy, but this is exactly what happens in CAD. (More about what exactly this plaque stuff is in a later blog).

 Atherosclerosis: This is the actual term that describes when that plaque stuff builds in your arteries and gets stuck.
Myocardial infarction: Huh?  This is actually the fancy medical term for a heart attack. A heart attack occurs when a blood clot forms over the plaque in your arteries. A blood clot is basically a scab inside your vessels- the reason any cut or scratch on your skin stops bleeding is because a blood clot forms and blood stops leaking out. The same thing happens in your artery when pieces of plaque break off. The actual heart attack episode happens when the plaque+blood clot block the passage of blood through the artery. Without blood flow, the heart tissue starts to die.

Heart rhythm problems: Think about your favorite song. It’s got a constant beat right, the type you can tap your foot to? Your heart has the same type of constant beat. Sometimes the beat gets mixed up, and blood doesn’t flow just right. One of the most important results of this may be cardiac arrest- where the heart stops beating all together and then blood doesn’t flow to any part of the body. This can cause death if EMT’s, paramedics or first responders don’t restart your heart right away. (More on this in a later blog too)

Others:

Stroke: A stroke is like a brain attack- in the same way that a heart attack happens when blood flow to the heart is blocked, a stroke happens when blood flow to the brain is blocked. This means that blood can’t get to the brain (or really, part of the brain) and that means oxygen can’t be delivered, so that part of the brain may start to die.

Okay, so that was your biology lesson for today- anyone else overwhelmed? I’ll leave you with this for today. But be prepped for tomorrow- there’s another one in store. What? I can’t tell you how to PREVENT a disease without telling you how you GET the disease.

If you’re looking for more information about any of these diseases, or information on anything I didn’t mention, visit WomenHeart, a fantastic resource for women (but this information pertains to men and women), where I pulled all of this information.

 I promise promise promise the next entry will be shorter! But don't you feel heart smart right now!

From my heart to yours,
Red in Richland County