There is some truth to the perception that an aging heart may be slightly less capable to tolerate increased heart workloads, such as:
Illness: makes it important for your elderly parent to get flu and pneumonia vaccines. Another risk factor, as a result of serious illness, may be surgical procedures. Dr. John Crawford, a general practitioner physician in Charlotte, NC, says that surgery can be particularly hard on an aging heart.
Infection: can result from a number of causes, from post-surgery trauma to a wound that won't heal due to diabetes. Infection of the heart could result from valve malfunction and other heart timing issues or a viral or bacterial attack.
Emotional Stress: irregular heartbeat, increased pumping action, increased resting heat rate, and other issues all contribute to the heart's decreased ability to handle sudden or traumatic stress, and can cause pain (angina) or fainting in the older person.
Injuries: broken bones, cuts, bruises, etc. can lead to surgery and slow healing, which may put an aging heart on overload.
Extreme Physical Exertion: during strenuous exercise, the older heart cannot squeeze down to the small size achieved by the younger heart at the end of the heartbeat. This may cause shortness of breath and angina. When angina occurs, according to Crawford, it is a sign that an area of the heart muscle is screaming for more blood supply. That blood supply could be blocked due to lifestyle choices we'll discuss later in this article.
Certain Medications: The management of prescription drugs is complicated by the fact that your aging parent may be receiving prescriptions from their family doctor, a cardiologist, an orthopedist or any variety of physicians who are treating any variety of ailments at one time. Some medications prescribed for heart disease and high blood pressure may cause fatigue, headache, low libido and other side effects.
Major Risk Factors for Heart Disease in the Elderly
Of the five major risk factors for heart disease as parent age, family history is the only one that cannot be controlled. An at-risk family history means that one's mother or father has suffered a heart attack before age 55.
However, by paying special attention to the other four factors that can be controlled, risk can be minimized even when family history factors in. Other risk factors for heart disease and heart attack are:
- Smoking
- High cholesterol caused by poor diet
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Type II diabetes onset
- High blood pressure
- Weight gain and obesity