Coronary Heart Disease: Causes, Symptoms, Risk Factors, and Prevention Strategies

Coronary heart disease is a condition that narrows blood vessels, hindering normal blood flow and causing high blood pressure. It is caused by injuries to blood vessel walls and fatty deposits that accumulate. Symptoms include heart attack, dyspnea, and angina. Risk factors include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, advanced age, obesity, lack of physical activity, smoking, and stress. Strategies for promoting health and wellness include primary and secondary prevention, such as lifestyle modification, health education, medication, and exercise. Electronic resources like the My Heart My Life booklet, Living Well with Chronic Heart Failure booklet, and My Heart My Life mobile app provide helpful information and emergency contacts for patients and caregivers.

CORONARY HEART DISEASE
This is a condition that makes the blood vessel to narrow hence
hindering the normal blood flow [8].
Mostly caused by fatty deposits that accumulate in the blood vessels
walls and resisting to the normal flow of blood. This in the end
creates a high blood pressure.
The increased plaques formed can also hinder or block the blood flow
to the muscles of the heart.

Causes of coronary heart disease
 It is majorly caused by the injuries that happen to be in the walls of the
blood vessels [3].
 fatty deposits accumulate.
 This is as a result of platelets repair which clumps on that particular
side hence blocking the vessel.

Symptoms of coronary heart
disease
 Heart attack
 Dyspnea
 Angina

Heart attack
 Occurs when there is partial or incomplete flow of blood to the heart
muscles. When the clot happens in the coronary it may completely
block the blood flow hence depriving the heart oxygen and other
essential nutrients for its functions

Symptoms of heart attack Nausea and sometimes vomiting Tiredness Chest pain and general discomforts Anxiety Coughing Dizziness
 Heart attack can be very dangerous and can lead to death if not responded on tine[4].
 It can also to complete damage of the heart muscles so that it may not function again
[5].

Angina
 This is when the person has a sense or feels like he or she is being
suffocated and accompanied by chest pains resulting from the ischemia
of the heart.
 Symptoms of ischemia Chest problems that spreads to the neighbouring parts of the body e.g.
shoulders, throat etc. the pain is sometimes squeezing and burning like
with lots of pressure [6]. Other symptoms like heartburn, tiredness muscle crumps and problems
with short/ breath

Dyspnea
 Shortness of breath happens due to inefficient supply of oxygen to
other parts of the body e.g. the heart and other organs, panting may
result to the person in question.

Risk factors of coronary heart disease High blood pressure; overweight individuals have relatively high blood pressure which is
the most contributing factor to this condition.it develops hypertension which leads to high
blood pressure and hence coronary diseases [2]. High cholesterol in blood; fats in blood are the ones that build up to the walls of the vessels
narrowing them further and hence making it difficult for blood to flow freely to other parts
of the body[7]. Advanced age; people who have reached menopause have lower risk of getting coronary
diseases than those who are young especially women. This is brought by decline in
oestrogen during menopause. Obesity/overweight; they have excessive fats that contributes to the fat deposits in the
vessels. Others are lack of physical activity, smoking and stress.

Protective factors Perform lots of physical exercise to reduce or maintain lean body mass Reduce the consumption of cholesterol foods e.g. fatty meats and
substitute with lean or white meat. Check your blood pressure regularly and maintain the required one as
advised by your physician.[10]

Strategies for promoting health and wellness in people with coronary heart disease
 Coronary infections are rampant and killing many people in both
developing and developed countries and there must be strategies to
promote health. Three strategies are used to prevent or reduce ill-health
among the population[1].

Primary prevention
 They are;
1.Modification of lifestyle; this recommends exercise among others like diet as the most effective
way of preventing CVDs. exercise reduces cholesterol fats in the body and maintains the lean body mass. Diet in the other hand is key as it helps you to reduce consumption of fatty and junky foods that
could result in you being obese or overweight. Doing intense and endurance exercise at least 2 times a day can protect you in a big deal. Diet should be a minimum of red meat, reduce saturated fats, increase consumption of vegetable
and fruits, increase fibre food and drink lots of water. Medication and drugs should be limited to the doctor’s prescription and other recreation drugs
avoided.

Primary prevention cont.
Health education; Health education is very important to impact knowledge to
both people who are at risk of getting CVDs,
those who are healthy and those ones who are living with CVDs.
Those with coronary problem get the therapeutic education such as diet
modification, exercise, change in lifestyle and use of prescribed drugs.
Those at risk get knowledge on their risk factors and how to avert the
conditions e.g. obesity.
Those with high blood pressure are advised on how to reduce their pressure
and getting their health checked every now and then.

Secondary prevention
 This applies to people who already have the problem of this condition and might
be at a risk of even death.
 like the primary prevention but more specific to the conditions they have.
 focuses more on management and people who are affected are motivated to
follow those advises.
 They are;
 Drugs; drugs will benefit the individual as diagnosed, it lowers the risk and
manages conditions such as lowering blood pressure, and other related
conditions.[9]
 Diet modification is also key in targeting those affected as it reduces their risk of
worsening.
 Exercise; this helps to reduce the progression of the condition to alarming stages.
 Daily exercise help reduce body weight and bring lean body mass.

Electronic resources
 My heart My life MHML book (Barrey, 2015)
(Supporting Acute Coronary syndrome patients)
[e-mail]
 Living well with chronic heart failure LWHF
booklet (Barrey, 2015)
([e-mail])
 My heart my life free mobile phone application
(Barrey, 2015)
Accessed from [e-mail]

My heart My life MHML book (Barrey, 2015) (Supporting Acute
Coronary syndrome patients
 This booklet is designed for people who have just been
diagnosed with CHD and its made in five steps to help
patient understand how to deal with CHD in a simple
way.it explains how the heart carries its work, tests
procedures and medication in hospital, taking drugs,
lifestyle management and care when in recovery,
emergency contacts for help and finally actions to take
for recovery and setting goals.

Users
 Used by people who have been diagnosed with coronary
heart diseases
 Also used by health workers whenever they want
consultations about the heart.
 Can be accessed via the specially developed www.my
heartmy life e-learning system
 Has different order forms for hospital and patient on
email [e-mail]

Critique
 It is cheaper and easy to obtain
 It applies to all patients diagnosed with coronary heart
disease
 Easier to read and doesn’t use strong medical jargons
 Its limited to those who are able to read

Living well with chronic heart failure LWHF booklet (Barrey,
2015)
 . It is helpful and designed for both the patients, family
caregiver and the health worker for simple steps in
managing chronic heart failure, improve the quality of
living, answers FAQ and emergency numbers of doctors
and nurses

Users
 Both the patient and the family
 Care givers and healthcare givers
 Patients with chronic heart disease
 Accessed through a developed [my heart my life e-
learning]
 Has different order forms for hospital and patient on
email [e-mail]

Critique

 Specific to those with chronic heart failure
 Specific to individual given
 Provides easier education on management
 Has emergency numbers for doctors and nurses.
 Cheaper to obtain and can also be donated

My heart my life free mobile phone application (Barrey, 2015)
 This is an android version mobile and tablet which is
designed for people suffering from heart failures in
Australia for free of charge. This application records and
manages drugs and medication on behalf of the
doctor/nurse
 Looks after the patients other related issues like heart
blood pressure, obesity and cholesterol levels
 Provides the signs of heart attack to the patient so
he/she knows and take action
 Provides healthy nutritional recipes to patients

Users
 All people who are at risk of developing heart disease
 Those with chronic and acute heart failure
 All general public
 Accessed from “www.my heart my life” on my heart
foundation website for pictures and videos

Critique
 Provides other services apart from heart diseases e.g.
diet
 Provides early warning and signs of heart failures to
patients
 It is free and anybody in Australia can get it
 Only does on android version phones

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