All You Should Know About Hypertensive Heart Disease!

What is Hypertensive Heart Disease?

Hypertensive Heart Disease is a condition that develops in people struggling with long-term high blood pressure issues. When you ignore the increasing blood pressure rate, it causes severe pressure and damage to your heart. Hypertensive heart disease could be the reason for coronary artery disease, stiffening of the muscles in the heart, heart failure and other heart-related complications. This disease could be considered the primary reason for death caused by high blood pressure. 

Types of hypertensive heart disease 

Generally, most heart disease that is caused by high blood pressure damages the muscles and arteries of your heart. Let us analyse the two types of hypertensive heart disease. 

1. Coronary Heart Disease 

Coronary arteries are a vital part of your body that transports blood to the muscles of your heart. The walls of blood vessels become thinner and narrow, because of the high blood pressure. This condition can slow down heart functioning or sometimes even stop the flawless blood flow causing coronary heart disease. 

Coronary artery disease (another name for CHD) hinders the proper functioning of your heart and interrupts the supply of oxidised blood to the rest of the body parts. It can form blood clots within the narrowed blood vessels, which terminates the perfect flow of blood to the heart. 

2. Left Ventricular Hypertrophy 

Left ventricular hypertrophy is a health condition where your heart experiences enlargement and stiffness. When the blood pressure increases to an abnormal rate, your heart finds it difficult to pump blood. As we know, the body muscles grow and thicken with heavy exercises and physical activities.  Similarly, when the heart muscles harden it can cause serious damage to the proper functioning of your heart. This enlargement occurs chiefly in the main heart chamber, the left ventricle and this condition is known as left ventricular hypertrophy. Enlargement of the heart leads to compression in the coronary arteries. 

Complications of hypertensive heart disease 

Both coronary heart disease and left ventricular hypertrophy will lead to the following complications that need to be prevented.

• Arrhythmia: Arrhythmia is a condition where your heart starts beating abnormally. 
• Heart failure: Heart failure is a chronic condition that happens when the heart is not able to function and send enough blood to the organs of your body. 
• Ischemic heart disease: Hypertensive heart disease can cause serious health issues known as ischemic heart disease, where your heart is suffocating due to a lack of oxygen supply. 
• Heart attack: The interruption will be seen in the normal flow of blood to your heart and oxygen lack will cause muscle death in your heart. 
• Stroke: Sudden death and stroke might occur due to hypertensive heart disease. 
• Cardiac arrest: Cardiac arrest is a life-threatening sickness that causes your heart to suddenly terminate its functioning, you feel fatigued and become unconscious and stop breathing. 

Who are the highly Risky people with hypertensive heart disease?

People with the following issues will be affected by chronic hypertensive heart disease conditions:

• Lack of exercises 
• Obesity
• Smoking
• Consuming plenty of unhealthy sugary, salty, oily and fatty foods. 
• Genetic conditions can also cause the heart disease 
• Men and women in postmenopausal stages are at high risk of hypertensive heart disease. 
• The risk of Hypertensive heart disease increases with age. 

Symptoms of hypertensive heart disease 

Every person has different symptoms that depend on their health conditions and the severity of the disease. In some cases, the patients might not experience any symptoms at all and in others, they have any of the following symptoms. 

• Deep pressure or tightness will be experienced in the chest.
• Chronic pain in the chest.
• Problems and difficulties while breathing. 
• Pain in the shoulder, arms, back or neck. 
• Fatigue. 
• Persistent Cough. 
• Swelling in the ankle and leg.

When to seek medical assistance?

It is very important that you immediately seek the guidance of your cardiologist if you experience rapid increases or fluctuations in the heart rate. Similarly, never ignore if you feel fatigued and severe pain in the chest area. Health is wealth, so make it a priority to perform regular health check-ups to eradicate any heart disease in the early stages. If you are a person in the high-risk category then 

Tests and diagnosis

Your doctor will ask a few questions regarding your medical history and recommend blood tests, urine tests and other physical examinations to evaluate the blood count, potassium, and sodium levels. In chronic conditions, your heart health will be diagnosed with Electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, coronary Angiography, nuclear stress test and exercise stress tests etc. 

Treatment for hypertensive heart disease 

Your Cardiologist will decide on the treatment process according to your medical history, age and severance of the heart disease. 

• Medicines will be prescribed in the early stages for preventing blood clotting, lower bad cholesterol levels and boosting blood flow. 
• Surgery will be recommended by your Doctors in extreme circumstances to remove blocks and improve blood flow. 
• A pacemaker is implanted in your heart to perfectly regulate your heartbeat. 
• Coronary artery bypass graft surgery is performed to treat Coronary artery blockages. 

Tips to prevent hypertensive heart disease 

Monitoring blood pressure levels regularly and keeping it under control is considered one of the vital ways to avoid heart disease. You should Maintain blood pressure and cholesterol levels by leading a stress-free healthy lifestyle, These are the factors that can help in eliminating symptoms and successfully overcoming hypertensive heart disorders.