Cardiovascular disease
Cardiovascular disease is one of the commonest chronic diseases globally. It tend to affect either of the cardiac arteries such as the coronary vessels, it could also affect the valves and then the musculature. This disease poses a major challenge to the physician managing the conditions because of the diverse nature of the non-modifiable risk factors and the location of the organ in the body. It is one of the leading and major cause of death in the united states with almost 700, 000 people dying of the condition annually. Diseases or conditions affecting the flow of blood and other functions are those that could be attributed as some of the sole problems leading to cardiovascular disease.
The major types of cardiovascular disease can be grouped into heart attacks, congestive heart failure, strokes, and intermittent claudication. These highlighted disease entity remain the most important ones. Although there are others diseases that tend to affect the heart but they are not as strong as the highlighted ones because of the nature and their etiologies. There are several forms of cardiovascular diseases. Each is characterized by its peculiar sign and symptoms. There is no specific sign and symptoms for all the disease. There are commons signs and symptoms that are commonest when we discuss cardiovascular diseases. These include; high blood pressure, tachycardia, chest pain, headache, pedal edema, intermittent claudication, cyanosis, murmur, orthopnea, palpitations, and fatigue.
Important aspect of cardiovascular disease is that there are contributory or predisposing factors to the occurrence of the disease in individuals. Some are modifiable while some are not modifiable. Those risk factors that are not modifiable are: age, male gender and family history. The implication of this is that being a male predisposes an individual to cardiovascular disease compared to female. The modifiable risks factors are: diet, alcohol, smoking, increased blood pressure and obesity. The preventive education usually focuses more on those modifiable factors. This is because when an individual is out of those risks, the chances of being affected will be lowered than those with both modifiable and non-modifiable risks factors.
Management is usually achieved with some of those medications that help to prevent the precipitation of the condition or worsening of the on-going destruction. Such medications include: aspirin which has been found to be able to reduce the risk for stroke, statin which helps lowers cholesterol and beta blockers which are responsible for protective mechanisms against heart attacks and helps in blood pressure control.
References
Zelman, M., Tompary, E., Raymond, J., Holdaway, P.,& Mulvihill, M., (2010). Human Diseases: A systemic Approach. Seventh Edition. Pearson Education, Inc.
