World Heart Day celebrated today

With 29 September being World Heart Day, ER24 is urging people to live a healthier lifestyle to reduce their chances of developing heart disease.

Heart disease refers to any disease or condition that affects the heart and limits its ability to function properly.

Speaking about how the heart functions and the possible conditions that people could develop, Dr. Vernon Wessels, from ER24, said the heart functions as a pump that circulates the blood through the lungs to receive oxygen, the oxygenated blood is then pumped to the rest of the body.

“This oxygen enriched blood is pumped to the rest of the body. The heart muscle itself receives blood through the coronary arteries.

“One condition that most people are aware of is narrowing of the coronary arteries that supply the heart muscle with oxygen-rich blood.

Should this narrowing completely close off, the patient will suffer a heart attack (myocardial infarction),” said Wessels.

A patient suffering a heart attack often goes into cardiac arrest which requires Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) to be performed to keep the person alive until hospital treatment can be provided.

There are, however, a multitude of other diseases that affect the heart.

Most of them will eventually lead to the heart becoming ineffective and the patient suffering heart failure.”

He added that some of these conditions are present at birth and may be due to an abnormality in the development of the foetus, however, the majority of conditions that eventually lead to heart failure are often unnoticeable to the patient.

“Many of these conditions can be prevented or limited,” said Wessels.

An example of this is hypertension which is a condition where the blood pressure is constantly raised above the normal limits.

“Most people will not have any symptoms until the organs that are exposed to this high-pressure start to fail,” said Wessels.

The heart is one such organ and continuous pumping against a high-pressure gradient causes the heart muscle to thicken and it eventually starts to fail.

“Other conditions that can cause heart disease are infections that affect the internal lining of the heart (endocarditis) and often the valves, for example with rheumatic fever, as well as the outer lining of the heart (pericarditis),” said Wessels.

What signs to look out for:

Wessels said that depending on the underlying cause, heart disease will often present with tiredness, shortness of breath (especially when climbing stairs or participating in other exercises), and chest pain (which may be absent).

“There are also other signs that develop with heart failure that may not be attributed to the heart by the patient.

“These include swelling of the ankles and tenderness of the liver due to congestion,” said Wessels.

The public is urged to get tested for heart disease to avoid major complications.