Rheumatic Heart Disease Causes, Symptoms and Treatments

Rheumatic Fever

Rheumatic fever is uncommon in the US, except in children who have had strep infections that were untreated or inadequately treated. Children ages 5 to 15, particularly if they experience frequent strep throat infections, are most at risk for developing rheumatic fever. The infection often causes heart damage, particularly scarring of the heart valves, forcing the heart to work harder to pump blood. The damage may resolve on its own, or it may be permanent, eventually causing congestive heart failure (a condition in which the heart cannot pump out all of the blood that enters it, which leads to an accumulation of blood in the vessels leading to the heart and fluid in the body tissues).

Rheumatic Heart Disease Symptoms

The symptoms is usually start about one to five weeks after your child has been infected with Streptococcus bacteria. The following are the most common symptoms of rheumatic fever. However, each child may experience symptoms differently. Symptoms may include:

- Joint inflammation - including swelling, tenderness, and redness over multiple joints. The joints affected are usually the larger joints in the knees or ankles. The inflammation "moves" from one joint to another over several days.
- Small nodules or hard, round bumps under the skin.
- A change in your child's neuromuscular movements (this is usually noted by a change in your child's handwriting and may also include jerky movements).
- Rash (a pink rash with odd edges that is usually seen on the trunk of the body or arms and legs).
- Fever.
- Weight loss.
- Fatigue.
- Stomach pains.

The symptoms may resemble other conditions or medical problems. Always consult your child's physician for a diagnosis.

Treatment for rheumatic heart disease:

Specific treatment for rheumatic heart disease will be determined by your child's physician based on:

Your child's overall health and medical history.

- Extent of the disease.
- Your child's tolerance for specific medications, procedures, or therapies.
- Expectations for the course of the disease.
- Your opinion or preference.

The best treatment for rheumatic heart disease is prevention. Antibiotics can usually treat strep throat (a Streptococcus bacterial infection) and stop acute from developing. Antibiotic therapy has sharply reduced the incidence and mortality rate of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease.

Children who have previously contracted are often given continuous (daily or monthly) antibiotic treatments to prevent future attacks of rheumatic fever and lower the risk of heart damage.

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What Is Carotid Intima Media Thickness (IMT)

Millions of people end up with heart attacks and stroke. Many people are fortunate to survive, many are not. Why do people leave it up to chance? Heart disease is frightening and it can happen to anyone. This is why it is important to get your heart tested to avoid a heart attack or stroke. The best heart attack is the one that never happens. This is where a Carotid Intima Media Thickness (IMT) will be helpful.

Over 50% of heart attacks occur with people with normal cholesterol profiles. There is now a test to detect your risk of a heart attack or stroke. It is safe, painless, accurate, non invasive and free of any radiation. Carotid Intima Media Thickness (IMT) is an ultrasound test of the arteries in the neck. It is close to the surface of the skin so it is easy to evaluate these arteries.

Many people will see their family doctor and get a clean bill of health. They may do an Electrocardiogram. This is a one-time snap shot of your heart rhythm. This will not help screen for coronary artery disease. Well they may send you on to a stress exercise treadmill test. This test is relatively safe, non-invasive and will determine advanced states of disease. From here they may send you off to myocardial perfusion scan. This is where there is radiation.

A great stepping stone to a treadmill test is a Carotid Intima Media Thickness (IMT). It is a safe test looking at the carotid arteries. Many people will pass an exercise treadmill stress test yet they are still at risk. This is where this test will determine really what your arterial health is doing.

In Canada there is no billing code to get this test done so it can be done privately. Carotid Intima Media Thickness (IMT) has been researched extensively and is currently being used in many end points for drug trials and studies. It would be nice to have this test in every office so that patients can truly understand your risk of heart disease and stroke.

If you want to be a success and stay away from heart disease then you have to take control of your own heart health. Neglect is responsible for thousands of heart attacks a day. If people knew their risk they can reverse their risk. Unfortunately, doctors most time lack the time and attention they are able to give to patients. Many doctors are practicing sick care vs. health care. Take a look at all your risk factors to heart disease and make sure you are in control.

Diamond Fernandes, expert author on heart disease. Diamond Fernandes is the founder and director of the Heart Fit Clinic. He has well over a decade of experience in cardiac rehabilitation, maintenance and heart attack and stroke prevention. Heart Fit Clinic is the leaders in heart health and cardiac wellness. They see people who have heart disease or at risk of developing heart disease and help them live happier, healthier and longer.

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Prevention of Women's Heart Disease

In this article you will be directed to look 'way back into your childhood to contemplate what is truly meant by prevention of women's heart disease. Consider how you moved, how you looked, how you received others' lives, what you were doing. Is your picture of your body as a little girl many times more beautiful and capable than it is now? Was your skin clear, your teeth clean, white and cavity free, your movements smooth and precise, your voice clear and sweet?

This is how you were prior to your smoking days and before you learned to inhabit fast food pantries and reject an apple to eat chips and high fat cheddar. After the first few years of your life, you may have been placed in a permanent niche in front of the TV where you may have quickly attained a blubber tire around your waist and promptly forgot what you were supposed to look like. And, you forgot how to move except in the direction of the dinner table.

The picture presented in the second paragraph is what you should want to eliminate from your life, and from the pattern of your children's lives. It is easier not to have attained a debilitated state than to get rid of it later. This is prevention. Do not even let it happen. If your children do not ever eat potato chips and high fat cheese, they will never realize that anything is missing.

Try the DASH Diet Eating Plan that may help you focus on your diet. This book claims you can lower your blood pressure in 14 days by following its diet.

Your daughters will be free of the terrible death risk statistics of women. The future generation will not have to experience a "no chest pain" heart attack and die in the hospital. These are the women who tend not to take care of themselves by getting to the hospital immediately and their treatment comes too late and contributes to their deaths. Sixteen percent of women who are under 65 and had "no chest pain heart attacks", died in the hospital, while only twelve and a half percent of men with no chest pain and of the same age, died.

The absence of chest pain does not let you off the hook: if you have the other symptoms of shortness of breath, debilitating fatigue, heart palpitations and nausea, please get your symptoms checked out by a doctor as soon as you can.

It is legitimate to call 911 even if you do not have chest pain. Remember, the death risk can be turned around. Do not wait too long to deal with those symptoms. Dr. Malissa J. Wood, Co-director of the Massachusetts General Hospital women's heart health program stated, "Time equals muscle", meaning that heart muscle dies or is injured due to a lack of oxygen in the arterial supply. When heart muscle dies it is called an infarction; the heart tissue dies and becomes useless to pump blood.

Your girls are the women of the future and no doubt you are expecting great progress from them. Then help them while they are babies to have nutritious food now and throughout their childhood. Do not give them too much to eat when they are babies or choose foods that are improper for good nutrition. Do not allow them to overeat when they are teenagers. If you have built a trusting relationship with them as the years go by, they will love and respect you, acknowledge your good example, and they will want to be like you.. This is your great opportunity, Mothers, to help your daughters out of the stigma of expecting to be taken by a silent heart attack.

Margaret Heaps is a native born Californian who sees life as not long enough to fit everything in. She has grass roots in Petaluma, California and Nicasio, California, where her great grandfather bought land from gold that he mined in the Gold Rush of 1848 and created a high yield dairy farm. With this background legacy, she married and raised six boys, went back to school and became a registered nurse; this was her profession for many years. Now that she has retired, her energy level still high, she has undertaken to build and market a new website:
http://bloodcirculationhealth.com/

Shop all day and all night on the internet. No hurry! We can serve you. Make the above URL work for you, and we will introduce you to a variety of physical fitness equipment at a reasonable price. See our exercise bicycles, wobble boards, punching bags for kids and adults, weight lifting iron, jumping ropes, Pilates, charts showing the muscles of the body, home gyms and much more.

Original article