Cardiovascular Disease

Lakisha Bush

HCS/245

Maureen Richard

01/11/2016

Cardiovascular Disease (Hypertensive Heart Disease)

In this paper I am going to focus on the disease Hypertensive heart disease for specifically the African American population and the effect it has on society along with some resources. On this disease I will give information on the disease itself, the many affects it may have on the body, symptoms, where free exams are given, and possibly some things to do to avoid or lessen your risk of developing the disease.

I would like to start by stating that cardiovascular disease is a class of diseases that involves the heart or blood vessels. Some of the diseases are genetic and others are because of the lifestyle the person chose to live. Heart attack or stroke may be warning of a disease. Some of the diseases are hypertensive heart disease, heart attack, coronary artery disease, heart muscle disease, and much more. You can find more listings and information on cardiovascular disease and the underlying causes along with frequent asked questions and more at www.webmd.com, www.cdc.gov and www.who.int are just a few of the websites that I trust the most.

Hypertensive heart disease is a heart condition that is brought on because of high blood pressure. According to Medline Plus these problems can include Coronary artery disease and angina Heart failure Thickening of the heart muscle (called hypertrophy). High blood pressure is the rise of pressure inside the blood vessels called arteries making the heart work harder and over time this can cause the heart muscle to thicken. When the muscle thickens this can also lead to angina or in layman’s term chest pain from the lack of oxygen. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and Restrictive cardiomyopathy are two types of abnormal thicken of the heart; Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy particularly affect the main muscles of the heart known as the left ventricle (pumping chamber) making it harder for the heart to pump blood while the Restrictive cardiomyopathy makes the heart muscle in people become rigid and less elastic. This means that the heart will have a hard time properly expanding and filling with blood between heartbeats. Restrictive cardiomyopathy has no age limit for occurring although the people mostly affected by it is the older population while hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is commonly known to affect people on a more genetic side of those having family history of the disease.

Signs and symptoms may vary depending on the person and their health status. People who has had one or more symptoms of early stage cardiomyopathy should consider making an appointment with their doctor to take the appropriate steps to avoid the condition from becoming worse or to lessen a condition that has already become. Signs and symptoms of cardiomyopathy can include:

1. Chest pain, fatigue, light headedness and fainting
2. Bloating of the abdomen due to fluid buildup in the body, swelling of the legs ankle and feet.
3. Irregular heartbeats that feels rapid pounding, and fluttering
4. Breathlessness with exertion or even at rest, cough while lying down

According to American Heart Association blacks are at greater risk  because the obesity and diabetes rates is higher in blacks, being much more salt sensitive (meaning how your blood pressure handles salt intake), family history and so on. It is stated that blacks have a higher prevalence to the disease than whites or those living in Africa because of genetic traits. The difference in this disease between whites, and blacks is the different style of eating, socioeconomic status physical activity level, stress, health behavior and more.  To get more information go to www.heart.org and go under the link high blood pressure risk factors for African – Americans.