Arteries are mainly responsible for carrying oxygen-rich blood throughout the body. Healthy arteries allow blood to flow through them quickly. If a blockage occurs in one of the arteries carrying oxygen to the heart, a heart attack may result.
If you are playing a game of pick-up basketball or perhaps racquetball, and suddenly your hands clutch your chest in pain, it may be a serious concern for your heart.
While sitting at your office computer, diligently going over an important business report, you suddenly experience a pain that starts in your chest but soon radiates outward to your body. You may be suffering from Angina. It is a kind of chest pain caused when your heart muscle doesn’t get enough oxygen-rich blood.
The signs of Angina can be quite dramatic in a man, whereas with women, Angina can also show up as subtler signs such as a feeling of nausea or the need to vomit, difficulty in catching your breath, or sharp pains in the stomach.
But do you have a heart blockage, or is it merely a warning sign?
In actuality, only an experienced cardiologist can tell you for sure, which is why you should consult the Best Interventional Cardiologist in your area after having an attack of Angina.
You can find the Best Interventional Cardiologist at My Heart Doctor to determine whether you have a heart blockage or are merely experiencing the pre-symptom indications of cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Kenneth Griffin is a board-certified interventional Cardiologist. It means that in the event you do have heart blockage, he is trained to perform several arterial procedures that will help open up blockages within the heart’s arteries.
In the event, I do have a heart blockage, what caused it?
Certain people were born with a predilection to narrowed blood vessels and arteries to the heart, which may worsen. The vast majority of people develop heart blockages when the cholesterol and other sticky substances in the blood develop plaque, slowly restricting the arteries and blood vessels.
Unfortunately, most people’s diet tends to cause plaque build-up in the body, and cardiologists have even noticed plaque building in most people in their 20s and 30s.
However, it’s between the ages of 40 to 50 where the acceleration of plaque is noticed. By age 45, around half of all men have noticeable deposits of plaque in their arteries.
Does this mean I’m destined to have a heart attack or stroke?
While the odds of having a heart attack or stroke are scary, over 800,000 people do have a heart attack each year, or the number of strokes is similar.
Heart disease is one of the leading killers of people in the United States per year. Millions of people lead fairly healthy lives even if they are required to take heart medicines such as statins, cholesterol-lowering medicines, or even go through more extensive procedures like interventional cardiologist snake a wire catheter through arteries to relieve a blockage.
So what should I do to find the best interventional cardiologist?
You should research board-certified interventional cardiologists who have the full training to diagnose what stages of heart disease you might have. Also, research the physician’s reputation, talking to your primary care physician, and verifying credentials, but don’t delay and call a certified cardiologist if you have recently had an angina attack. The stakes are just too high to ignore making an appointment.
