Enlargement of Heart
Enlarged Heart Causes
Cardiomegaly is often termed as enlarged heart. This is the condition of the heart in which the patient may have different levels of cardiac enlargement. This can lead to congestive heart failure due to the loss of the ability of the heart to pump blood properly. There are several cause associated with an enlargement of heart which are mentioned below.
Cardiomyopathy: one of the main reasons for the enlargement of the heart is due to cardiomyaopathy. This is the condition in which heart muscles are weakened and deteriorated. In this state functioning of heart will be decreased without pumping the blood efficiently, resulting in serious heart problems like the enlargement.
High blood pressure: This is the condition in which heart has to strive hard to deliver blood to rest of the body parts, which directly puts you at an increased possibility of developing an enlarged heart.
Valvular heart disease: A heart valve allows blood to flow only in one direction through the human heart. It consists of four valves aortic, pulmonary, and mitral and tricuspid valves. When one or two valves malfunctions causing some blood to flow in wrong direction may cause the heart enlargement, or when valves may be damaged by various reasons such as infections, connective tissue disorder, rheumatic fever etc as any of these conditions may cause the heart to enlarge.
Coronary artery disease: The circulation of blood in the blood vessels of heart muscles is termed as coronary circulation. Coronary arteries are the vessels that deliver oxygenated blood to this part. When the walls of these arteries thicken as a result of the deposit of fatty materials like cholesterol or plaques, it will directly affect the ability of the arterial blood vessel. After decades of progression these fatty plaques makes it hard for the blood to flow to the heart musles, in the case heart suffers resulting in the enlarge
Abnormal heart beat: It is referred to as the arrhythmia. This is the condition of the heart in which its beating rhythm is being affected, the heart beat becoming too fast or too slow. This will develop an emergency situation which may lead to the enlargement of the heart
Congenital heart defect: When there is a defect in the structure of heart by birth, in fact these are most common birth defects, these many types of congenital heart defects may lead to enlargement of heart.
Heart attack: damage caused during a heart attack may later on lead in to the enlargement of heart
Thyroid disorders: Underactive thyroid gland which is termed as hyperthyroidism and over active thyroid gland known as hyperthyroidism can lead to the heart problems, like the enlargement of heart.
The condition of enlarged heart may not always be preventable, but it is usually treatable. Treatment for enlarged heart comprises of medication, medical procedures or surgery, mainly aimed at rectifying the underlying cause. If you are experiencing these symptoms or having these signs such as shortness of breathe, dizziness, nausea, swelling, cough, chest pain seek emergency medial care.
Congestive cardiac failure is a serious progressive condition in which the muscles of the heart are affected, at the time heart will not be able to pump adequate blood to meet the bodily requirements resulting in heart failure. The heart attacks are basically of two types one is systolic heart failure, it is the case in which it affects the contraction of the chamber to pump the blood out. On the other hand diastolic heart failure is the problem with the expansion of chambers to fill with the blood. In the same way when the two ventricles are affected it is called as left sided heart failure and right sided heart failure.
Prevention is better than cure as always like, in this case also you can prevent your chances of developing heart disease can avoided by simply remodeling and observing your life style habits. At first be aware of your blood pressure, in fact it is defined as the pressure exerted by the circulating blood on the inner walls of your blood vessels. Blood pressure is generally classified in to two, systolic blood pressure which can be defined as the blood pressure in vessels during a heart beat and diastolic blood pressure which can be defined as the pressure between heart beats. When this blood pressure becomes high it can induce serious heart problems such as heart attack, stroke etc. One can control the condition through proper lifestyle habits and also by taking proper medications if necessary.
Until recent times, heart attacks have been mainly talked in relation to men, but statistics shows that not only men but the women equally suffer the same. Before the cessation of menstrual cycle termed as menopause women are having some safety mechanism, the secretion of estrogen work’s out very well in protecting the heart. But after that, it is apparent that the risk level is equal to that of male. The symptoms of the heart attack for women is basically different from that of male, simply because of the reason that the common heart attack symptom of extreme chest pain is not seen in every single case.