Cardiovascular Disease
Cardiovascular disease refers to a group of conditions that affect the heart or vascular (blood vessel) system. The most common conditions are heart disease and stroke.
Heart diseases include:
- Coronary artery disease
- Heart failure
- Heart valve disease
Vascular diseases include:
- Arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)
- Atherosclerosis (clogging of the arteries)
- Hypertension (high blood pressure)
- Peripheral vascular disease
- Stroke
What Causes Cardiovascular Disease?
Lifestyle choices such as smoking, eating fatty food, and being sedentary can all contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease.
In addition, when you have diabetes, the disease itself can harm your arteries, especially if your blood sugar levels consistently run high. This in turn can increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
How Do You Know If You Have Cardiovascular Disease?
Symptoms of cardiovascular disease depend greatly on where, and to what organ, the normal flow of blood has been interrupted. With a severe interruption, you might experience some – or even all – of the symptoms below. Keep in mind that heart attack symptoms in women often differ from those in men.
Heart Attack Symptoms (men):
– An oppressive, squeezing pain in the central chest that lasts for a few minutes – the pain can spread to the neck, shoulders, or arms
– A feeling of light-headedness, sweating, faintness, nausea or having difficulty breathing
Heart Attack Symptoms (women):
- Shortness of breath, often without any chest pain
- A flu-like feeling including nausea, clamminess or cold sweats
- Extreme tiredness, feeling of dizziness or weakness
- Discomfort and feeling of anxiety stroke symptoms
A stroke occurs when a blocked or bleeding blood vessel suddenly disrupts blood flow to the brain. Some of the more common symptoms include:
- Sudden, sharp headache
- Weakness in one or both legs
- Loss of feeling in the face or body
- Sudden loss or decrease in vision, especially in one eye
- Difficulty forming words
- Inability to walk steadily
- Dizziness
How Can You Treat Cardiovascular Disease?
The first step to treat cardiovascular diseases starts with lifestyle changes, including eating a balanced, healthful, low-fat diet, quitting smoking, and exercising.
Other treatments include drug therapy and/or surgery, depending on your specific condition or disease.
How Can You Prevent Cardiovascular Disease?
Keep your blood sugar levels under control. Remember, for each one percent reduction in your A1C level (the measure of your average blood sugar level for several weeks), you significantly reduce your risk of heart or vascular disease.
Keep your blood pressure under control. Even a 10 mmHg reduction in your systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) makes a significant difference.
Keep your blood cholesterol levels within the normal range. This can reduce your risk for cardiovascular disease by as much as 50 percent.
