Heart Disease Symptoms and Age
Age can sometimes play a vital role in the health of our bodies. As you age, your body's systems become progressively less hardy, and so your risk of the various forms of heart disease increases, even as your ability to recover from their more severe symptoms decreases. For the most part, the heart can adapt to changes in arterial flow that occur as we age, but these adaptations may often be trade-offs that leave the heart more vulnerable to other problems. Even if someone thinks it best to leave the body to heal itself, it's always prudent and highly recommended to get it checked out before it becomes dangerous.
One example of this in action is the heart's response to the buildup of fat in the arteries, called atherosclerosis. As these plaques or fat deposits build up, they leave progressively less room for blood to flow through the veins, even though the same amount of blood still needs to circulate to the extremities. The only solution is for the heart to pump harder, which means that blood is rushing with greater velocity with less space. Add to that the fact that the arteries tend to become stiffer the older you get, and it becomes easy to see why blood pressure rises with age.
Furthermore, methods often used to combat heart disease don't work as well. Your capacity for exercise diminishes because, for reasons not clearly understood, your heart becomes less responsive to signals from the brain and nervous system the more you age. The result is shortness of breath, which is actually caused by a confusion of signals in the body - the heart can't pump blood fast enough to get where it needs to go, so the brain assumes that there is not enough oxygen being absorbed through the lungs, and magnifies the usual sensations that tell you to inhale. As you can see, there are many different ways that your body can react when it is trying to work around dealing with health problem. Our bodies try their best to function, to protect us, and keep us alive and well.
The heart also has fewer cells than a younger heart, cells which may be excessively strained as they are forced to grow in size to stay connected. The way that you choose to live, the things that you put in your body (including the countless toxins that are in the air, in our environment), stress (emotional and mental health), and so much more that many don't really know too much about. Increasing your knowledge on heart disease and knowing about what you are going up against can do nothing but help you in your quest to fight heart disease and possibly even to help and teach others who may happen to be in a similar situation as you as well. All that these facts add up to is that the need for a healthy lifestyle in old age is exponential greater with each passing year, as each step towards improving health has less of an effect.
Age can sometimes play a vital role in the health of our bodies. As you age, your body's systems become progressively less hardy, and so your risk of the various forms of heart disease increases, even as your ability to recover from their more severe symptoms decreases. For the most part, the heart can adapt to changes in arterial flow that occur as we age, but these adaptations may often be trade-offs that leave the heart more vulnerable to other problems. Even if someone thinks it best to leave the body to heal itself, it's always prudent and highly recommended to get it checked out before it becomes dangerous.
One example of this in action is the heart's response to the buildup of fat in the arteries, called atherosclerosis. As these plaques or fat deposits build up, they leave progressively less room for blood to flow through the veins, even though the same amount of blood still needs to circulate to the extremities. The only solution is for the heart to pump harder, which means that blood is rushing with greater velocity with less space. Add to that the fact that the arteries tend to become stiffer the older you get, and it becomes easy to see why blood pressure rises with age.
Furthermore, methods often used to combat heart disease don't work as well. Your capacity for exercise diminishes because, for reasons not clearly understood, your heart becomes less responsive to signals from the brain and nervous system the more you age. The result is shortness of breath, which is actually caused by a confusion of signals in the body - the heart can't pump blood fast enough to get where it needs to go, so the brain assumes that there is not enough oxygen being absorbed through the lungs, and magnifies the usual sensations that tell you to inhale. As you can see, there are many different ways that your body can react when it is trying to work around dealing with health problem. Our bodies try their best to function, to protect us, and keep us alive and well.
The heart also has fewer cells than a younger heart, cells which may be excessively strained as they are forced to grow in size to stay connected. The way that you choose to live, the things that you put in your body (including the countless toxins that are in the air, in our environment), stress (emotional and mental health), and so much more that many don't really know too much about. Increasing your knowledge on heart disease and knowing about what you are going up against can do nothing but help you in your quest to fight heart disease and possibly even to help and teach others who may happen to be in a similar situation as you as well. All that these facts add up to is that the need for a healthy lifestyle in old age is exponential greater with each passing year, as each step towards improving health has less of an effect.