According to the American Heart Association, every year about 36,000 children are born with heart disease in the United States. These conditions, which are referred to as "congenital" defects, meaning present at birth, usually involve the...
Aconite is a perennial plant that can be used as a medication and as a poison, notes Drugs.com. The extract from this plant has been used to treat a variety of diseases, including fever, pneumonia, asthma, high blood pressure, headaches and...
Caffeine is ubiquitous in American society and in the global culture, being the most widely used drug worldwide. Its effects vary from a pleasant increase in alertness to less pleasurable nervousness, insomnia or headache. Caffeine is relatively...
Ferritin is a protein that iron binds to in the body. High ferritin is a sign of high levels of iron. As such, the protein itself is not toxic. However, high levels of iron are toxic, and the diseases associated with high levels of iron also cause...
Variations in heart rate indicate changes within the body, the environment or the heart itself. Doctors use heart rate as one of the vital signs to determine health problems. The heart rate can help to show health and fitness levels and body...
Rheumatic fever is a condition that may develop from an illness such as strep throat. Rheumatic fever can lead to permanent damage to the heart. When this occurs, the condition is called rheumatic heart disease. The first step in diagnosing the...
Complications after a heart attack may be temporary or may become chronic problems. The type and severity of complications depend on which part of the heart is affected by the heart attack, as well as how extensive the damage is. The presence of...
While popular perception often holds that men are more likely to experience heart disease than women, in fact women are susceptible to heart disease as well. Further, women's heart problem symptoms can be much more subtle than those of men, making...
A stress echocardiogram is a test that is used to help detect how well the heart is working. It can also tell a physician if some type of heart disease is causing the symptoms being experienced. It is a non-invasive test that uses ultrasound and...
Possible signs of a mild heart attack can be quite vague. A person may only feel tired and somewhat anxious without knowing why. The symptoms experienced during a mild heart attack can be similar to those experienced during a major heart attack....
High cholesterol is a serious, and sometimes life-threatening condition, you shouldn't take lightly. It has no symptoms, yet can damage your heart, resulting in heart disease, heart attack and stroke. You have the power to prevent, and even...
The World Health Organization reports that more people die from cardiovascular diseases than any other cause with about 17 million deaths in 2004. The projected total of deaths worldwide by 2030 is more than 23 million. Diseases and afflictions of...
A heart attack, or myocardial infarction, can happen to both men and women. According to American Heart Association (AHA), 565,000 men in 2006 had heart attacks that resulted in 76,100 deaths. It is important for men to know and recognize the...
According to MayoClinic.com, heart disease is the No. 1 killer of men and women in the world. Forty percent of all deaths in the United States is attributed to heart disease. Heart disease is a broad term that covers many diseases of the heart....
Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. A heart attack occurs when tissues that make up the heart muscle die. If arteries become narrowed due to cardiovascular disease the blood and oxygen supply to the heart is...
The human heart functions to pump oxygen-rich blood through the body. The heart is divided into four chambers, the two upper chambers called the atria and two lower chambers called the ventricles. The heart muscle continually pumps, propelling...
The heart is a critical part of the cardiovascular system. It is needed to pump blood to the lungs, where it becomes filled with oxygen, as well as pump oxygenated blood throughout the rest of the body. Heart disease, often known as cardiac...
The heart is a muscular pump. When a person experiences a heart attack, a portion of the heart muscle is damaged, causing symptoms such as shortness of breath, chest pain that can radiate, nausea, vomiting, dizziness and sweating. One way of...
Electrolytes are charged minerals. Some important electrolytes for the body include sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and phosphate. They exist in solution, meaning they are suspended in liquid, where they help the body to carry out many...
Each of the heart’s four valves--aortic, pulmonary, mitral and tricuspid--is susceptible to developing problems. Sometimes, the pathway through the valve may narrow, resulting in a condition called stenosis. Alternatively, the valve may fail...
According the American Heart Association, there are nearly 1.5 million heart attacks each year leading to more than 400,000 deaths. A heart attack, or myocardial infarction, occurs when one of the coronary arteries that feed the heart muscle...
Rheumatic heart disease results from rheumatic fever that can occur when a strep throat or other Streptococcus bacterial infections worsens and is left untreated or not treated effectively. This disease is most common in children, and can lead to...
The Mayo Clinic defines congestive heart failure as a condition in which the heart isn't pumping enough blood through the body to meet the body's need for oxygen and nutrition. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that...
A heart attack can occur without typical symptoms. Silent heart attack is also referred to medically as silent ischemia (lack of oxygen) to the heart muscle. Symptoms can be so mild that the heart attack goes unrecognized. There may be no symptoms...
Anxiety attack symptoms that directly relate to the heart include chest pain or discomfort, as well as heart palpitations. While these symptoms cannot cause damage to your heart, evidence suggests that if left untreated anxiety can lead to...
If you have high blood pressure or if you are at risk of developing it, your doctor may recommend that you follow the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, or the DASH diet. Hypertension, or high blood pressure, usually has no symptoms, but can...
Typical symptoms after a heart attack depend on the severity of heart damage. Some symptoms are associated with medications prescribed that might require some adjustments. To understand what symptoms to expect after a heart attack, it is important...
Dizziness and light-headedness both describe feeling faint, feeling unbalanced, vertigo or the sensation of being unsteady. Although dizziness and light-headedness usually occur due to non-serious conditions such as standing up too quickly, flu,...
Heart transplants occur when the heart can no longer effectively pump blood through the body. This is known as heart failure. Heart failure occurs when there has been severe damage to the heart muscle.The symptoms of heart failure include...
