Cardiomyopathy::Heart Muscle Disease

Cardiomyopathy means a disease of the heart muscle rather than the blood supply or the innovator.

There is a lot no palpable cause for it, although coronary heart disease and high blood pressure, viral infections, excessive alcohol intake and thyroid disease can all be triggers. There are four major types:

• hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (MCM), where the heart muscle thickens (high blood pressure can cause this)
• dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), when the heart muscle dilates (becomes large) and weakens
• restrictive cardiomyopathy (RCM), when chambers in the heart harden and restrict blood flow through the heart

Heart valve problems

The heart is consist four chambers, recognized as the right and left atrium and the right and left ventricles.

Each of these chambers has valves that avoid blood flowing backwards into the chamber it has just come from. These valves regularly make sure blood moves forward through the heart.

Diseased heart valves that are damaged and do not open and close correctly can allow blood to leak backwards (regurgitation or valve incompetence) or block the flow of blood (valve stenosis).

Whatever the type of valve problem, the heart is put below extra strain, increasing the likelihood of heart failure.

Symptoms of Coronary Artery Disease

When discussion regarding heart conditions, doctors use the terms coronary heart disease (CHD) and the broader cardiovascular disease (CVD).

• CHD is used for any condition that affects heart function.
• CVD refers to both coronary heart disease and diseases of the passage, such as stroke, when a clot blocks blood provide to the brain. Stroke is the country's third biggest killer, claiming 70,000 lives each year.

Most doctors now favor to use the term CVD because it's the main cause of early death in the UK, causing around 32 per cent of premature deaths in men and 28 per cent in women.

One person in Britain dies from heart disease every three minutes – making us one of the world’s bad countries for this problem.

Diabetes and High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure (hypertension) is an important risk factor for the development and worsening of many complications of diabetes, including diabetic eye disease and kidney disease. It affects up to 60% of people with diabetes.

Having diabetes increases your risk of developing high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems, because diabetes adversely affects the arteries, predisposing them to atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). Atherosclerosis can cause high blood pressure, which if not treated, can lead to blood vessel damage, stroke, heart failure, heart attack, or kidney failure.

Recommended Related to DiabetesCentral (Neurogenic) Diabetes Insipidus

Central diabetes insipidus or central DI has several other names it's known by -- "pituitary DI," "hypothalamic DI," "neurohypophyseal DI," or "neurogenic DI." The disease is completely unrelated to diabetes mellitus even though both display the common symptoms of increased urination and thirst. Central DI is less common than diabetes mellitus, and treatments for the two diseases are completely different. The major characteristic of central diabetes insipidus is extreme thirst and excessive urination...

Read the Central (Neurogenic) Diabetes Insipidus article > >

Compared to people with normal blood pressure readings, men and women with hypertension have an increased risk of:

Coronary artery disease (heart disease)
Strokes
Peripheral vascular disease (hardening of the arteries in the legs and feet)
Heart failure
Even high yet normal blood pressure or pre-hypertension (defined as 120-139/ 80-89) impacts your health. Studies show that people with normal yet high range blood pressure readings, over a 10 year period of follow up time, had a two to three fold increased risk of heart disease.
What Should Blood Pressure Be if You Have Diabetes?
Blood pressure readings vary, but in general your blood pressure should not go above 130/80. The first number is the "systolic pressure" or the pressure in the arteries when your heart beats and fills the arteries with blood. The second number is the "diastolic pressure" or the pressure in the arteries when your heart rests between beats, filling itself with blood for the next contraction.

Having a normal blood pressure is as important to managing diabetes as having good control of your blood sugars when it comes to preventing diabetes complications.

Using Home Remedies to Control Cholesterol

1. Take at least 400 international units of Vitamin E everyday to keep the good cholesterol under control and to keep the bad cholesterol from building up. Taking Vitamin E will keep cholesterol from forming into plaque that can clog arteries and cause a heart attack. Take Vitamin E every day along with your prescribed cholesterol medication.
2. Stock up on Vitamin C and take it regularly. People who have high levels of Vitamin C in their diet tend to have high HDL numbers.

3. Eat about seven cloves of garlic every day or take an odorless garlic capsule every day to keep LDL cholesterol low and HDL cholesterol high. Most people find taking a garlic capsule every day is easier than eating 7 cloves of garlic every day.
4. Eat a few grapes every day or drink some grape juice. The skin of grapes can help keep cholesterol under control.
5. Eat at least 1½ grapefruit sections every day to lower your bad cholesterol. People who eat grapefruit every day can lower their cholesterol by 7 percent in just two months. Grapefruit is just one of many different fruits that include cholesterol-lowering pectin.
6. Add beans to your diet as often as you can. Kidney beans, lima beans, navy beans, soybeans and other legumes can help keep your cholesterol under control. Just by eating 1½ cups of beans everyday you can lower your bad cholesterol by 22 percent. You don’t have to eat that much, but the more beans you eat as often as you can will help keep your cholesterol under control. Beans are another food that contain cholesterol-lowering pectin