Heart disease is one of the leading death cause in the United States. According to mayo clinic “Heart Disease describes range of conditions that affect your heart” It could be from things such as blood vessels disease, coronary artery disease, shortness of breath, Atrial Fibrillation, palpitations and etc. Heart disease can occur when your arteries aren’t supplying oxygen and blood to the heart, muscles or other systems such as your nervous system, skeletal system, respiratory system and circulatory system.
Basically, the other organs became clogged with a fatty material called plaque and this process is also known as atherosclerosis. To explain a little bit more about atherosclerosis it is occurring when the inner part of the lining of the artery walls becoming furred with thick atheroma which consists of cells was and deposits of cholesterol. Raised patches on the artery also known as plaque will narrow the blood flow in the arteries becoming more likely prone to the clotting. The plaque that is growing may or may not cause the blockage to the pathway that is delivering nutrients to the walls eventually causing the walls to lose their elasticity which may cause tachycardia increasing the risks of CAD (coronary artery disease).
Narrowed blood and oxygen supply causes the heart muscle to be restricted and when the individual exerts themselves it causes the heart muscle to increase This process can happen gradually that happens with age. Women tend to be at a higher risk for the heart disease, but estrogen contributes to elasticity and health of arteries which causes reduction of blood pressure causing some protection against the heart disease. Other facts that I would like to briefly talk about factors that can lead to heart disease are such as unhealthy eating, lack of physical activity, high cholesterol, smoking, DM, obesity, depression, lack of social support, high blood pressure and menopause can lead to the heart disease. if we take a look at other systems such as brain, lungs or kidneys if an individual has heart disease the individual’s heart would not be the same as a healthy heart. It would not be able to deliver the nutrients that other parts of the body need. I feel like the lack of physical activity, DM, obesity, high blood pressure and etc. go hand in hand with a heart disease.
Whenever I think about heart disease all these topics make their way into my head, but menopause is not something that you think about. When you talk about menopause an individual usually knows is as period that is stopping permanently, but no one has ever considered heart disease as a factor in link with the menopause before. “Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, and it cause one out of three deaths every year.” (Pg. 542) That is a lot a lot of people and that includes woman in menopause. Normally we don’t even step back and consider that menopause could have any correlation with having a heart disease.
During the time of menopause which happens around the ages of 50-54 the levels of estrogen that is being produce decreases significantly. Let’s take a step back and take a moment to talk about Heart disease. What is heart disease? According to Mayo Clinic “Heart Disease describes range of conditions that affect your heart” It could be from things such as blood vessels disease, CAD, SOB, A Fib, palpitations and etc. but how does having heart disease effect woman who are in menopause.
Let’s talk about menopause, it’s no surprise that every woman goes through menopause at some point in their life and it is one of the or the most striking event during a women’s health due to the complications that it comes with. Menopause is basically when a woman’s function of the ovaries ceases over time. Menopause is considered to be a maker of aging and health increasing life expectance and postmenopausal.
The female gonad is one of a pair of reproductive glands which are located in the pelvis each side of your uterus they are about the size of almonds. Each month an egg is released from an ovary and travels down to the fallopian tube. The main source of these hormones is what’s controls the characteristics of body such as body shape, body, breasts and terminal hair and also regulate the pregnancy and menstrual period.
This process of menopause accures in a gradual process called perimenopause transitional period and it varies from women to women. What we know is that estrogen might have something to do with menopause and generally if you are eating healthy food. The blood pressure seems to go elevate and bad cholesterol seems to increase as well.
The difference between the female patient that has been diagnosed for 25 years that I feel are obvious has figured out how to “deal” with the disease that she’s had. She has more likely figured out how much to eat, and how to have a proper meal without it being too oily, she’s probably figured out her regimen about how she likes to exercise whether it’s dancing or cardio, and thoroughly researched her the risk factors. I feel like a person who is recently diagnosed would more likely be carefree and may not take it may not taking their health seriously or she cares a lot and want to improve it as soon as she can.
I am thinking that the person who has lived with this disease with so long is eating healthy, and exercising because if they weren’t they would probably not have stayed alive and living with the heart disease for 25 years. With the newly diagnosed I feel like it really just depends on the individual on one side they could look at it something that they need to improve on health wise or they could just give up and say I can’t do this anymore.
I feel like it really is about the attitude in this case where the patient has the heart disease. I don’t really feel like the amount of years the individual has been diagnosis matters because if the individual themselves does not care even their doctor or specialist can’t help them. If they look at the situation in a positive way and improve their diet and exercise and do everything in their power to not look down at themselves and fight. It’s more likely that they are going to be live longer.
This reminds of the story that my mom tells me about her mom, my grandma I like to call her nani had a heart disease, but she also had heart attacks about twice or three times before she passed away. My nani was such a brave little woman, she wasn’t one of those ladies that would give up. Her attitude towards her heart condition was so astonishing because I didn’t even know about her condition until I was in my teen years what I mean by that is that her attitude was so positive that I could not have sensed that she has a heart disease at all. Anyways my nani would be so positive if you talked to her you would not know that she has been living with heart disease and she wasn’t careless, she took her medication on time, her diet was good and she exercised as much as her body allowed her to. Since she was an elderly lady she did her best to move around and get some type of cardio whether it was just walking inside her house for a bit or doing some exercised such as stretching. Now that I look back at the situation I learned that how keeping a positive attitude and doing your best values more in the long run, then not caring enough about your heart disease.
Like I talked about before attitude is everything just like how there are two sides to every coin. There’s those who want to change their habits and become a better them or they don’t want to change themselves and basically don’t really care at all about what happens to them. Like my Nani her disease was pretty well-controlled. Then there are some ladies that don’t really care, or sometimes they are too stubborn so they may not like the advice that you might have to offer. The person that is in control of their disease is going to well behaved they aren’t going to throw a tantrum, they are going to listen to what the doctor has to day, how to improve their condition. It theirs is something wrong such as shortness of breath or chest pain they know exactly what to do versus someone who doesn’t care they are going to be confused and won’t know what to do. I work as a scribe so there is patient who come in and ask for immediate attention and when asked if they have been taking medication that they have been prescribed they don’t bother to re-fill it and come back for a follow up because now they are fine.
I would say in conclusion but I feel like this topic could definitely needs to be looked at more because it is so fascinating. I don’t think I was ever aware of how menopause actually affect a women’s body. I feel like no one talks about these things making it hard to attain this knowledge. I feel like this topic should be talked about more because 50% of this world is women.
