Cardiomyopathy Disease – Causes And Symptoms
Cardiomyopathy Causes
Cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart muscle. This cardiovascular disease enlarges the heart, making it thick. As the cardiovascular disease becomes worse it can lead to heart failure or arrhythmia.
An arrhythmia is an irregular heartbeat. Some things that can cause cardiomyopathy are possesing long-term high blood pressure, heart valve problems, heart tissue damage from a heart attack, chronic rapid heart rate, pregnancy, some chemotherapy drugs, some viral infections, and iron build up in your heart muscle.
There are three types of cardiomyopathy. The first one being dilated cardiomyopathy, which is when the left ventricle of the heart becomes enlarged. The second type is called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is an abnormal growth of the whole heart muscle.
The third type of cardiomyopathy is called restrictive cardiomyopathy, which is when the heart becomes less elastic, which makes it extremely difficult on the heart to pump blood for the rest of the body.
Cardiomyopathy Symptoms
Some people that have this cardiovascular disease show no signs of cardiomyopathy symptoms at the beginning, but as the disease advances, signs and symptoms usually appear. A few cardiomyopathy symptoms are breathlessness when exercising or at rest, swelling of the legs, ankles, or feet, bloating in the abdomen due to fluid buildup, irregular heartbeats that feel rapid, fluttering of the heart, dizziness, lightheadedness, and even fainting. The longer that these cardiomyopathy symptoms go unnoticed the more severe the cardiovascular disease gets.
Some people experience symptoms very quickly when obtaining the disease, but for others, unfortunately, the disease can take a long time show. Depending on the what type of cardiomyopathy a person has, the treatments a doctor may prescribe or suggest are different. Some doctors will simply give their patient some medicine.
Other doctors will perform surgery to fix the cardiomyopathy disease. One other suggestion is often to place a pacemaker on the heart. The pacemaker keeps a constant electric pulse between the right and left ventricles in the heart. In severe cases of cardiomyopathy, a surgeon will even preform a heart transplant. It is important to go to the doctors on a regular bases. This helps prevent disease such as this going unnoticed.
Especially as one gets older, it is important to get a check up on a regular basis. If a person feels like they have a rapid heart beat or swelling of the legs, ankles, or feet, it is important to make an appointment with the doctor. This cardiovascular disease can show up in either children, teenagers or adults. It’s always a good idea to keep an eye out for strange things when it involves your heart.
Cardiomyopathy can be a extremely life threatening disease if the cardiomyopathy symptoms are not caught in time. The different types of cardiomyopathy have different signs and symptoms. This disease mainly occurs in adults aging from 20 to 60.
Men are more likely then women to get this cardiovascular disease. Cardiomyopathy is not genetic. The best way to prevent this disease is to either catch the signs and symptoms toward the beginning of the disease, or schedule a consistent check up with the doctors.