The chances of having cardiovascular disease, such as high blood pressure or heart failure, are higher with aging, being more common after age 60, which occurs not only because of the body’s natural aging, which results in decreased heart muscle strength and increased blood vessel resistance, but also due to the presence of other problems such as diabetes or high cholesterol.
For example, it is advisable to visit your cardiologist every year and, if necessary, have heart tests, starting at age 45, to detect early changes that can be treated before a more serious problem develops.See when the cardiovascular checkup — should be ready.
- High blood pressure is the most common cardiovascular disease in the elderly.
- And is diagnosed when blood pressure is above 140 x 90 mmHg in 3 consecutive evaluations.
- Understand how you can tell if you have high blood pressure.
In most cases, this problem is due to excessive salt consumption in the diet associated with a sedentary lifestyle and family history, and people with a well-balanced diet can develop the disease due to aging vessels, which increases pressure on the heart and hinders heart contractility.
Although it rarely causes symptoms, high blood pressure should be monitored as it can lead to the development of other more serious problems, such as heart failure, aortic aneurysm, aortic dissection, stroke, for example.
The development of heart failure is often linked to the presence of uncontrolled high blood pressure or other untreated heart disease, which weakens the heart muscle and hinders heart function, causing difficulty pumping blood.
Heart disease usually causes symptoms such as progressive fatigue, swelling of the legs and feet, shortness of breath at bedtime, and a dry cough that often causes the person to wake up at night.Although there is no cure, heart failure should be treated to relieve symptoms and improve quality of life.See how the treatment is performed.
Ischemic heart disease occurs when the arteries that carry blood to the heart become clogged and do not provide enough oxygen to the heart muscle; In this way, the walls of the heart can have their contraction in whole or in part, leading to difficulty pumping heart.
Heart disease is generally more common when you have high cholesterol, but people with diabetes or hypothyroidism are also more likely to have the disease that causes symptoms such as constant chest pain, palpitations and excessive fatigue after walking or climbing stairs.
This disease should always be treated by a cardiologist, avoiding the development of more serious complications, such as decompensated heart failure, arrhythmias or even cardiac arrest.
As men over the age of 65 and women over the age of 75 accumulate calcium in the heart valves that control the passage of blood through the body and vessels of the body, when this happens, the valves become thicker and hardened, opening more difficultly and hindering this passage of blood.
In these cases, symptoms may take a while to appear, with the difficulty of blood circulation accumulating, causing a dilation of the heart walls and, consequently, a loss of strength of the heart muscle, which eventually leads to heart failure.
For example, people over the age of 60, even if they don’t have heart problems or symptoms, should have regular appointments with the cardiologist to evaluate heart function to detect quiet or not yet very advanced problems.
Arrhythmia can occur at any age, however, it is more common in the elderly due to the reduction of specific cells and the degeneration of cells that cause nerve impulses that cause the heart to contract, so the heart can begin to contract irregularly.or beating less often, for example.
Arrhythmia does not normally cause symptoms and can only be identified after an EKG examination, for example, however, in more severe cases, symptoms such as constant fatigue, a lump in the throat, or chest pain, for example . cases, it is recommended to take the treatment to alleviate symptoms.
Understand how heart arrhythmias are treated.