Rheumatic heart disease, also called rheumatic fever, occurs when an untreated strep throat infection migrates to the joints and heart, causing fever, muscle aches, and possible permanent heart valve damage. Just as “rheumatism” refers to joint pain, “rheumatic” fever gets its name because one of its main symptoms is actually pain in the joints rather than the heart.

The National Institute of Health estimate that rheumatic heart disease develops in about 3% of untreated strep throat infections in the United States. Because mainly young people get strep, accordingly rheumatic heart disease mostly strikes people aged between six and fifteen years old.

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Most people in the west who get strep will never develop rheumatic heart disease, because the strep throat infection is treated effectively with antibiotics. However, if fever, irregular heart beat, nodes under the skin, and other symptoms appear after a strep infection, a doctor will perform lab tests to diagnose rheumatic fever.

Penicillin treats rheumatic heart disease symptoms, including the contraction of the heart, which may damage heart valves; however, there is no cure for the disease, and patients must continue with penicillin injections. Some doctors argue this treatment should continue for the rest of the patient’s life. Left untreated, besides the symptoms of physical pain, rheumatic heart disease can cause permanent heart valve damage. Without surgery, heart valve damage can lead to fatal heart failure.

Cases And Treatment Worldwide

Doctors working with the Australian National Heart Foundation are working on a vaccine to prevent rheumatic fever. After an unexplained jump in the number of cases among the Aboriginal population of Australia from 2004 to 2006, doctors launched the world’s most advanced investigation of rheumatic heart disease.

In New Zealand as well, rheumatic fever is a problem among some populations, and the treatment there is penicillin shots every month for ten years. One famous rugby player, a childhood victim of rheumatic heart disease, admits to “getting lazy” about having his shots, and the symptoms of the disease returned to him as an adult. Luckily, he knew his problem and how to get help. Some people, especially those with little access to health care, simply suffer through fever attacks, and fall victim to heart valve failure.

In fact, the World Heart Federation in Geneva, Switzerland calls rheumatic fever a disease born of poverty. Though it is easily prevented by a good strep throat treatment, many young people of the world do not have access to the healthcare that would keep their heart valves healthy and extend their lives.

If your mother and your father had heart disease, and their parents before them, you may feel doomed to heart failure. While it is true that heredity is a cause of heart disease, it is only a factor among many others. One recent study even says heredity accounts for less than 10% of a person’s risk of developing heart disease.

So, What is the Other 90%?

Doctors do not agree on the number one cause of heart disease, but smoking, obesity, and high cholesterol are the frontrunners in any study.

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The chemicals in cigarettes damage artery walls, making it easier for cholesterol deposits to build an unhealthy, blood-blocking home in the body. Smoking also makes platelets, the component of blood that causes clotting, to be more active, and hence the risk of a killer clot rises.

A body needs cholesterol and can actually produce all it needs, so when we ingest foods high in cholesterols, like dairy and meat products, our bodies get a lot more cholesterol than they need. The body saves cholesterol instead of excreting it, and that cholesterol gets stored along the walls of the arteries. Too many cholesterol deposits lead to artery blockage and clots.

High blood pressure is also a major cause of heart disease. Imagine this, your arteries are narrowed because of all that cholesterol stored in there, yet your body is the same size and needs the same amount of blood; so your heart is trying to pump a lot of blood through a passage that is getting too small. Just as the motor of an air conditioner can get worn out trying to push air through a filter that no one has cleaned, your heart can overtax itself trying to force blood through blocked passages.

Obesity, not just because of all the health problems that come with it, is another cause of heart disease. Often obesity comes with high cholesterol and blood pressure, which we know increase the risk of heart disease, but new studies are also showing a correlation between abdominal fat and heart disease in a way that is not yet fully understood. Either way, as the circumference of stomach increases, the risk of heart disease seems to increase more.

Also, stress causes an overall decline in health and is particularly associated with heart disease. So, unless your parents are stressing you out enough to cause a heart attack, they are not the cause of heart disease.

Coronary heart disease (CHD), also known as coronary artery disease (CAD) and atherosclerotic heart disease, is the result of accumulation of atheromatous plaques (an abnormal inflammatory accumulation of the macrophage white blood cells) within the walls of the arteries.

The symptoms and signs of coronary heart disease can only be noted in the advanced state of the disease. Most individuals who suffer from coronary heart disease can have no evidence of its existence for long periods of time before they have a stroke.

Causes of Coronary Heart Disease

• Family history of coronary heart disease
• Males are more prone to this particular disease
• Being 65-years-old or greater
• Smoking
• High blood pressure
• Diabetes
• Lack of physical activities
• Menopause in women
• Infection that causes inflammation of the artery wall

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Symptoms leading to coronary heart disease may not always be easily readable, as many live with clogged arteries for years before they realize they have a problem. Usually people suffering from coronary heart disease walk in the emergency room with a heart attack on their hands.

Here are some of the symptoms that may help you recognize this disease:

• Chest pain
• Shortness of breath

As prevention is always better then treatment, one should try and have regular check ups and follow the doctor’s advice. Knowing in time that you are likely to have a heart problem may save you from being faced with an emergency situation, which can sometimes turn to be fatal.

Preventing Coronary Heart Disease

Coronary heart disease is the most common of heart diseases in the western world. Here are some ways to prevent ever suffering from it in the near future:

• Decrease your cholesterol level.
• Maintain your ideal body weight – obesity is one of the main factors of coronary heart disease.
• If you are a smoker, this is yet another reason you should stop smoking.
• Have a healthy diet and exercise – some doctors strongly recommend diets rich in omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin C.

Proper diet and exercise have always have always been the key to maintaining one’s health, and for centuries man has practiced this as being the best natural medicine.

Health is our most valuable possession, which often cannot be bought back once lost. One should try to make an effort to maintain what we naturally have – good health; as an old saying goes ‘health is wealth’ after all, treasure it while you still have it.

Cigarette smoking is a major cause of heart diseases, such as heart attack, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease.

Some Heart Disease Facts Due to Smoking:

• Tobacco contains more then 4,000 chemicals, many are known to be poisonous.
• Nicotine increases blood pressure, because the carbon monoxide makes the heart beat faster and takes the place of oxygen in the blood.
• Tar in tobacco causes cancer, which can be a fatal disease.
• Smoking for long periods of time will cause artery clogging, which in turn leads to heart attacks from overworking the heart by reducing its oxygen supply. It also makes clots more likely to form in the blood vessels increasing the risk of potentially fatal changes in the heart beat.
• Those who are regular, long-time smokers have a 70% greater risk of death from coronary heart disease than non-smokers.
• 80% of new smokers are children and adolescents who are trying to copy a parent or other hero figure.

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Passive smoking can cause heart disease, and those who do not smoke directly but inhale smoke from others are at direct risk, as well.

• Living with an active smoker increases one’s risk of heart disease by 30%.
• Inhaling smoke is especially dangerous for children and unborn babies (pregnant women) and can lead to low birth weight babies, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma, and middle ear infection.

Stop Smoking to Improve Your Health and Increase Your Life Span

Many choose smoking to cope with stress, loose weight, because of poor self-esteem, or simply to fit in the friend’s circle by looking ‘cool.’ Most of the first time smokers get their first cigarette from someone else or find it readily available in the house from a smoking parent.

Here are some great reasons to stop smoking now:

• Smoking causes heart disease, which can lead to a heart attack.
• Your smoking can cause the same bad effects on your family and friends around you who don’t smoke.
• Save money from not buying cigarettes – if you do the math, depending on how much you smoke, you are looking at couple of thousand dollars a year.

Getting Help

If you think you cannot do it with just plain will power and/or if you are a heavy smoker, get help before you start so you can successfully quit the habit.

• Check with your doctor first and see what course of action he/she recommends.
• Nicotine patch/pills/chewing gums are a great substitute.
• Try to quit along with a friend or a group.

Cigarette smoking can cause you to die early and those who live close to you to inhale the smoke – that in itself should be reason enough to quit. Enjoy a healthy life and offer clean air to your family and friends – quit smoking today.

To understand the seriousness of heart disease in women, we need to first look at the facts. According to recent studies, it’s found that more than 8 million American women are currently living with some form of heart disease. In fact, heart disease is the leading cause of death of American women and more women than men die of heart disease each year.

Heart disease in women can be diagnosed and treated but the key to staying healthy is prevention. Once a woman finds out that she has heart disease, it may already be too late. Chances are, that woman has engaged in several risk factors throughout her lifetime that contributed to her contracting the disease. Such risk factors that increase the risk of heart disease in women include cigarette smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, not being active, diabetes and obesity.

Women need to understand that these risk factors need to be avoided as much as possible because they are so susceptible to the disease. Heart disease in women doesn’t need to be as much of an epidemic it has become. With just a few lifestyle changes, all women can once more live long and healthy lives without the risk for heart disease.

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Of course, there are other risk factors that increase the risk for heart disease in women that can’t be helped. These risk factors include age, heredity, the effects of menopause, etc. By knowing this, women should arm themselves with as much information as they can so that they can know just what they are dealing with.

Heart disease in women doesn’t need to have such a high morality rate.

By adopting a few lifestyle changes such as getting more exercise, eating right, quitting smoking and reducing stress levels, women can drastically reduce the propensity for heart disease. This is important not only for heart disease but for other diseases as well.

Heart disease in women does claim many lives each and every year but the disease can be manageable and preventable. Women need to study and learn as much as they can. They need to be educated. Not many women know that they have such a high probability of getting the disease. All women need to know that they have a greater risk of getting the disease than men. By understanding and knowing this, women will have a step up on this horrible disease and, maybe one day, heart disease in women will be a thing of the past.