Not all heart problems come with clear warning signs. And it’s not always easy to tell what’s going on.
Heart disease is an illness that affects the heart and/or the blood vessels. Smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, a poor diet, inactivity, and obesity can all raise one’s chances of developing heart disease.
Chest pain, heart attacks, and strokes are all possible outcomes of coronary artery disease, the most common type of heart disease.
Different types of heart disease
Heart disease refers to a variety of cardiovascular issues. Heart illness can be classified into the following:
- Arrhythmia – A heart rhythm abnormality
- Atherosclerosis – Hardening of the arteries
- Cardiomyopathy – Causes the heart’s muscles to stiffen or weaken
- Congenital heart defects – Heart abnormalities that occur at birth
- Coronary artery disease – Hardening of the arteries in the heart
- Heart infections – Caused by viruses, bacterias, or parasites
How to determine if you have heart disease
Heart disease frequently develops over time. Long before you have major cardiac problems, you may have early signs or symptoms.
Alternatively, you may be unaware that you are getting heart disease, as the symptoms of cardiac disease may not be visible or may be attributed to other causes.
Furthermore, not everyone exhibits the same symptoms.
Below are 4 common heart disease symptoms:
1. Chest Pain
When the heart isn’t getting enough blood or oxygen, it can cause pain in the chest.
Chest pain is the most typical sign that there’s a problem with blood flow to the heart. Angina is the medical term for this kind of chest pain.
Symptoms of chest pain include aches and pains that radiate from the neck to the upper belly.
Each person’s experience of pain is unique, as is the intensity and type it takes. The severity of a situation is not always correlated with the degree of the suffering.
2. Shortness of Breath, Coughing or Wheezing
If you are experiencing shortness of breath, it could be a sign of heart failure. When shortness of breath is tied to heart failure, it is caused by fluid back up in the lungs.
This fluid back up occurs when the heart is unable to pump blood effectively, resulting in the veins carrying blood from the lungs to the heart getting clogged.
Another indicator of fluid buildup in the lungs is persistent coughing or wheezing sometimes presenting with pink or crimson mucus being coughed up.
3. Swelling of the Legs, Ankles, or Feet
Another indicator of a cardiac disease is swelling, or edema, in your lower legs.
Blood flow in your legs slows and sometimes becomes backed up when your heart isn’t working as well as it should. As a result, your tissues begin to swell with fluid.
You may also notice some weight gain or stomach bloating.
4. Fatigue
Tiredness is caused by a lot of things. Sometimes it’s just a matter of needing more sleep. Running low on energy isn’t always a sign of a more serious issue.
However, if you feel extremely tired to the point that you cannot do your normal activities without having severe, sudden fatigue concurrent with weakness, it could be a sign that you have a heart problem.
If you experience one or more of these symptoms, contact your doctor immediately.
How to save money on your heart medications
In many cases, your doctor may prescribe you medicine to improve your heart health.
Regardless of if you’re insured or uninsured, the cost to buy heart medications to improve your heart health can be pricey. Heart medications can cost anywhere from $29.95 to $500 or more, out of pocket!
To help you save money on heart medication, NSUR offers a prescription discount card called NSURx.
Prescription costs can be significantly reduced – in some cases up to 80% of a discount – by using NSURx at more than 35,000 pharmacies across the US, including Walgreens, CVS, and Walmart.
As a thank you for participating in our community, you will receive NSUR Coin tokens when you use NSURx!
