Heart Disease as a Group of Disorders That Constitute the Leading Cause of Death in the United States
As we age our body becomes worn out from all the different activities it performs. The heart in particular is an extensively active organ, beating as much as 100,000 times each day! If you do the math, the number of beats. In a lifetime reaches the billions, eventually making this amazing organ prone to imbalance in its homeostasis. Thus, heart disease is described as a group of disorders that together constitute the leading cause of death in the United States. Coronary heart diseases such as thrombosis, embolism, and atherosclerosis. And heart failure are among the most common disorders.
The lining of the heart is composed of muscle (cardiac muscle). Which allows it to pump numerous gallons of blood throughout the body, approximately 2,000 gallons per day! As any other type of muscle, it requires oxygen and nutrients to function. So our body is equipped with a systematic process called the coronary circulation which is in charge of supplying all the goodies. However, as one grows older, lipids set down. And build up on walls of coronary arteries.
A disease called atherosclerosis (-sclerosis: hardening). Which prevents nutrients and oxygen from reaching cardiac muscle cells causing substantial damage. And necrosis (tissue death); when this occurs, the person experiences angina pectoris. Or severe chest pain, as a warning that there is not enough blood or oxygen supply to the heart muscle (cite). Furthermore, the forming of blood clots is a possibility if the wall of an artery ruptures due to excessive plaque. Having the same outcome as atherosclerosis and both resulting in an acute myocardial infarction or what we commonly call "heart attack". People who experience heart attacks describe the feeling as a "sudden onset of severe chest pain that may radiate to the neck, arm or jaw' (cite) along with other symptoms such as "sweating, shortness of breath, nausea and vomiting or even pass our (cite).
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Treatment for this type of heart disease in elderly patients is much more delicate seeing that people around this age group are prone to hemorrhage and other factors which isolate their type of treatment from younger generations. Coronary bypass surgery, coronary angioplasty, and thrombolytic (clot- busting) medication are some of the treatments available today. In bypass surgery, veins are removed from other areas of the body and placed as a detour around blocked arteries. Nevertheless, this surgery is performed only on patients who have severely restricted coronary artery blood flow.
Angioplasty is a procedure in which a deflated balloon attached to a long tube, a catheter, is inserted in a partially blocked artery and then inflated to push the plaque outward leaving space for blood flow (cite). Many elderly patients seek therapy in order to reduce lipid percentage, "Cholesterol and Recurrent Events (CARE)... conducted (a trial] in patients whose total cholesterol was 240 mg/dL [and] demonstrated that statin (lipid-lowering drugs that reduce serum cholesterol levels) therapy in the elderly was equally effective when applied to older patients with known CHD (Coronary heart disease) whose total cholesterol was not above 240 mg/dL." (cite)
Given that coronary artery diseases are caused by lipid build up in the arteries, healthy eating and exercise makes up a substantial part of its prevention; especially in elderly persons since fatty tissue builds up through the years. Moreover, research has shown that psychosocial problems such as depression greatly affect CHD elderly patients, thus a way to avoid including this factor in the causes of CHD would be to "[Assess] desires for physical functioning, including helping individuals continue to remain sexually active" given that "Elderly individuals, especially those 75 years of age, suffer significant personal, financial, and other types of losses... [which] may lead to depression, isolation, and other problems" (cite).
Necrosis or tissue death caused by coronary heart disease may also lead to heart failure, depending on the severity of it. Congestive heart failure and arrhythmia are two of the many types. Congestive heart failure is the inability of the left ventricle to pump blood effectively to the systemic circulation, which can then lead to pulmonary edema, the congestion of blood in the pulmonary circulation. This chain of disorders could continue until death, however if treatment is sought soon, it could be prevented. Today's medical advances have made a great step toward the future with the creation of hearts made of biologically inert synthetic material. With these new heart implants (called Jarvik-7), the problem with the immune system rejecting foreign hearts from dead donors is practically solved. Nevertheless, the implants are only temporally solutions since they are still not efficient enough to serve as a long term solution; and, they require many external pumps and other devices that limit the patient's mobility severely.
Generally, when an elderly patient suffers from heart disease, it involves other family members for various reasons. Treatment costs are slowly rising, and some elderly patients are unable to buy medication because of low income or lack of insurance. On the other hand, psychosocial support from family members could greatly decrease the patient's chance to develop CHD or increase the chance of recovery. Additionally, if the elderly person is unable to keep a healthy diet on his/her own, it is very important someone assists him/her, because as mentioned before, this one of the most important ways to prevent heart disease. Finally, having heart disease includes managing stress which is not very easy for some older age groups seeing the amount of pressure laid on them financially and personally, then topping it with the struggle to stay healthy.
Concisely, elderly patients have a higher risk of developing heart problems due to the body's inability to maintain homeostasis after a certain period of time when it becomes worn out from activities. Although there are many treatments and procedures, heart diseases such as coronary artery disease can lead to many different heart failures and eventually death if nothing is done to prevent it. Hence, it is best to start taking care of your heart now, by eating healthy, exercising regularly, and taking other actions towards a healthy heart before an elderly age is reached and it is too late to go back.
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Heart Disease as a Group of Disorders That Constitute the Leading Cause of Death in the United States. (2023, May 25). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/heart-disease-as-a-group-of-disorders-that-constitute-the-leading-cause-of-death-in-the-united-states/
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