Four valves in your heart keep blood flowing in the correct direction. If a valve becomes obstructed, you develop stenosis. If a valve doesn’t close properly and leaks, you develop regurgitation. Either problem requires a fix from doctors who are specially trained in heart valve repair in order to restore proper blood flood to your heart, and to the rest of your body.
A common heart-related condition in adults is aortic stenosis. This occurs when the aortic valve opening is narrowed. This narrowing prevents the valve from opening fully, which obstructs blood flow from your heart into your aorta and the rest of your body. (If the opposite problem occurs, the aortic valve doesn’t close properly, causing blood to flow backward into the left ventricle, or aortic regurgitation.)
Aortic stenosis can cause chest pain, fainting, fatigue, leg swelling and shortness of breath. It may also lead to heart failure. To correct the problem, doctors traditionally performed open heart surgery to replace the valve. More recently, interventional cardiologists, working in concert with cardiothoracic surgeons, access the heart via a blood vessel in the leg or in the arm. A thin catheter is threaded through the body until it reaches the heart and a new valve is placed in the correct spot.
The catheter procedure is known as transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), and it’s an option for people for whom open heart surgery would be too risky. About one in eight people aged 75 and older develop moderate to severe aortic stenosis.
If you were not born with narrowing of the aortic valve (congenital defect), there are things you can do to help prevent narrowing of your aortic valve and other types of heart disease:
- Address your risk for coronary artery disease. High blood pressure, obesity and high cholesterol levels are areas in which you can move the needle in your favor by changing the way you eat and exercise. [LINK to Dr. Adeyemo’s article.] It’s always a good idea to keep your weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels under control.
- Take care of your teeth and gums.There may be a link between infected gums (gingivitis) and infected heart tissue (endocarditis). Inflammation of heart tissue caused by infection can narrow arteries and aggravate aortic valve stenosis.
- Adopt a Mediterranean style of eating that includes more lean meats, more plant-based foods and more unsaturated (good) oils and fats. [LINK to Dr. Shah’s article.]
Learn more about ways to prevent aortic stenosis and other heart issues with the help of HeartWise, northeast Florida’s premier heart disease prevention program. Free classes meet at the Y Healthy Living Centers in Mandarin and Ponte Vedra.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/heartwise-prevention-series-tickets-20581157797
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/heartwise-prevention-series-tickets-20564542099
Meet Dr. Satpathy at the Y Healthy Living Centers for a free Talk With A Doc on February 15 and 16. [LINKS]
BIO: Dr. Ruby Satpathy is an interventional cardiologist with Baptist Heart Specialists. Prior to joining Baptist, she was director of the valve clinic and of the structural heart program at Alegent Creighton Heart and Vascular Institute in Omaha, Nebraska, performing some of the first heart valve repairs in the region. She specializes in using the latest technology to replace valves and restore normal blood flow to patients with heart disease.
The post Taking your health to heart appeared first on Good For You.