Learn to love your heart
What is the medical definition of an unhealthy heart?
The most common heart disease is coronary artery disease – the furring up of the heart arteries – that leads to heart attacks and angina. There are other diseases of the heart muscle, which are called cardiomyopathies – they are less common but they can cause big problems. And there are electrical problems with the heart that can cause palpitations or faints or blackouts.
What are the symptoms of an unhealthy heart?
Trouble when you exercise, such as breathlessness, chest pain or chest tightness that occurs when you walk or exercise. Other symptoms are palpitations, a sensation of the heart racing – as if you’re exercising when you’re not – blackouts and dizziness.
How do you maintain a healthy heart?
The most important thing is to not smoke. The next thing would be controlling any risk factors such as diabetes or high blood pressure – if you have those conditions they need to be got under control by a GP, with medication.
Regular exercise helps – it needn’t be frantic, even fast walking or gardening is good. Food-wise, the Mediterranean diet is best: lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, fish, and relatively little animal fat.
Are women more at risk than men?
Not really. Before the menopause, women get fewer problems than men, so there’s a ‘catch-up’ thereafter – it is thought that the oestrogen protects against heart disease. Because of this, sometimes symptoms can be missed. People don’t think that fit-looking 40-year-old women could have a heart problem, so they don’t get referred, and don’t get the necessary treatment.
There have been a variety of campaigns around women’s heart disease – conducted by the British Cardiovascular Society, for instance. It’s about getting women to recognise the symptoms and not think ‘No, it can’t possibly be happening to me, I’m a fit young woman’.
I’m very healthy but I have a family history of heart problems. Am I still at risk?
Yes: those with a family history of heart trouble, particularly if people in the family have had a heart attack or heart trouble before they’re 65, should pay more attention, such as having their cholesterol checked. It’s possible for someone with no risk factors to have a heart attack, and it’s possible for someone with all the risk factors not to, but there will be many more people with all the risk factors who will have one.
How does having a healthy or unhealthy heart affect the way that the rest of your body functions?
It depends what you call an unhealthy heart. With angina, the heart still works perfectly well, but it has been put under strain by blocked arteries. In people with heart failure, however, the heart is damaged. They will get breathless, and may retain fluid, resulting in swollen ankles and that sort of thing.
What are the long-term implications of an unhealthy heart or heart damage?
If you have furred arteries, angina, generally speaking you’ll do well; it won’t dramatically shorten your life. You’ll need to be on long-term medication to stop it getting worse, and that normally means taking drugs such as aspirin or statins. If you have damage to the heart muscle, that’s more of a problem, because once it’s damaged it tends to stay damaged, and that does reduce your life expectancy.
What are electrical heart problems?
The heart has specialised cells within it that drive the natural pacemaker of the heart, and allow it to speed up when you exercise, and slow down when you stop. So if there is faulty wiring, the heart may beat too slowly, which can cause blackouts, or the heart may beat very quickly.
There’s been controversy surrounding statins. What’s your opinion?
There’s controversy about statins, but there’s none about their use with people who have an identified problem. There’s very good evidence that they’ll improve your outlook if you’re on them. A lot of the side effects are ‘talked up’.
Dr Charles Knight is a Consultant Cardiologist at Barts Health NHS Trust.
The most common heart disease is coronary artery disease – the furring up of the heart arteries – that leads to heart attacks and angina. There are other diseases of the heart muscle, which are called cardiomyopathies – they are less common but they can cause big problems. And there are electrical problems with the heart that can cause palpitations or faints or blackouts.
What are the symptoms of an unhealthy heart?
Trouble when you exercise, such as breathlessness, chest pain or chest tightness that occurs when you walk or exercise. Other symptoms are palpitations, a sensation of the heart racing – as if you’re exercising when you’re not – blackouts and dizziness.
How do you maintain a healthy heart?
The most important thing is to not smoke. The next thing would be controlling any risk factors such as diabetes or high blood pressure – if you have those conditions they need to be got under control by a GP, with medication.
Regular exercise helps – it needn’t be frantic, even fast walking or gardening is good. Food-wise, the Mediterranean diet is best: lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, fish, and relatively little animal fat.
Are women more at risk than men?
Not really. Before the menopause, women get fewer problems than men, so there’s a ‘catch-up’ thereafter – it is thought that the oestrogen protects against heart disease. Because of this, sometimes symptoms can be missed. People don’t think that fit-looking 40-year-old women could have a heart problem, so they don’t get referred, and don’t get the necessary treatment.
There have been a variety of campaigns around women’s heart disease – conducted by the British Cardiovascular Society, for instance. It’s about getting women to recognise the symptoms and not think ‘No, it can’t possibly be happening to me, I’m a fit young woman’.
I’m very healthy but I have a family history of heart problems. Am I still at risk?
Yes: those with a family history of heart trouble, particularly if people in the family have had a heart attack or heart trouble before they’re 65, should pay more attention, such as having their cholesterol checked. It’s possible for someone with no risk factors to have a heart attack, and it’s possible for someone with all the risk factors not to, but there will be many more people with all the risk factors who will have one.
How does having a healthy or unhealthy heart affect the way that the rest of your body functions?
It depends what you call an unhealthy heart. With angina, the heart still works perfectly well, but it has been put under strain by blocked arteries. In people with heart failure, however, the heart is damaged. They will get breathless, and may retain fluid, resulting in swollen ankles and that sort of thing.
What are the long-term implications of an unhealthy heart or heart damage?
If you have furred arteries, angina, generally speaking you’ll do well; it won’t dramatically shorten your life. You’ll need to be on long-term medication to stop it getting worse, and that normally means taking drugs such as aspirin or statins. If you have damage to the heart muscle, that’s more of a problem, because once it’s damaged it tends to stay damaged, and that does reduce your life expectancy.
What are electrical heart problems?
The heart has specialised cells within it that drive the natural pacemaker of the heart, and allow it to speed up when you exercise, and slow down when you stop. So if there is faulty wiring, the heart may beat too slowly, which can cause blackouts, or the heart may beat very quickly.
There’s been controversy surrounding statins. What’s your opinion?
There’s controversy about statins, but there’s none about their use with people who have an identified problem. There’s very good evidence that they’ll improve your outlook if you’re on them. A lot of the side effects are ‘talked up’.
Dr Charles Knight is a Consultant Cardiologist at Barts Health NHS Trust.