Dr. Shivakumara Swamy T S

High blood pressure is a condition which occurs when the pressure of the blood flow through the arteries increases, resulting in intense pressure. Hypertension occurs when the systolic pressure (pressure at which the heart pumps blood) and the diastolic pressure (pressure at which the heart relaxes) is more than 140 and 90 respectively.

Symptoms of high blood pressure are: 

1. Shortness of breath: If you have high blood pressure, then you may experience regular shortness of breath.
2. Headaches: You may experience headaches on a regular basis.
3. Weakness of the heart muscles: Hypertension results in a weak heart which may not be able to pump blood properly.
4. Narrowing of blood vessels: Narrowing of blood vessels may lead to other complications such as failure of the kidneys, heart and brain.
5. Vision problems: It may lead to vision problems as blood vessels in the eye may be affected.

The various causes of blood pressure are: 

1. Tobacco: If you smoke on a regular basis, you put yourself at an increased risk of getting affected by blood pressure.
2. Lifestyle: Not exercising regularly, eating a sodium rich diet are all factors which can increase the chances of hypertension.
3. Age: The chances of getting affected by hypertension increase as you age.
4. Weight: Being excessively obese also increases your risk of getting affected by hypertension.
5. Diabetes: Being diabetic makes you more prone to getting affected by diabetes.
6. Hyperthyroidism: If you have an overactive thyroid gland, then it may result in hypertension.

Hypertension may result in various health complications in the body such as:

1. Aneurysm: This is a disorder of the blood vessels which causes the blood vessels to bulge and weaken.
2. Heart attack: High blood pressure causes the arteries to harden and thicken which may lead to a heart attack.
3. Metabolic syndrome: This syndrome refers to a group of complications such as high and bad cholesterol levels and insulin levels in the body.
4. Impaired brain functioning: It may also impair your ability to learn and impact your cognitive skills. If you wish to discuss any specific problem, you can consult a general physician.

Heart disease doesn't affect all women in the same way and neither does it have the same warning signs as heart diseases in men. For women, heart disease is a bigger threat than breast cancer. Cardiovascular diseases also kill more women than men as the disease progresses differently in men and women. Here are a few things you should know about heart diseases.

Women have more atypical symptoms of heart attacks: The classic symptoms of heart attacks are pain in the left arm, chest pain and heart palpitations. Though women may exhibit these symptoms, they are more likely to have atypical symptoms. These include nausea, stomach aches, pain in the shoulders and upper back and extreme fatigue.

Preeclampsia and gestational diabetes can increase risks of heart disease: Even though your blood pressure may go back to normal and conditions like preeclampsia or gestational diabetes may go away post pregnancy, their effects linger on. The risk of heart disease for a woman who suffered from preeclampsia doubles while gestational diabetes can cause glucose intolerance leading to obesity or other such conditions which are risk factors for heart diseases.

Hot flashes could be a sign of heart problems: Hot flashes are usually associated with menopause but may also be a symptom of underlying heart problems. Hot flashes that occur after a exerting a strenuous effort on something can be a sign of angina in women.

Men and women do not face equal risks: Traditional risks to heart diseases such as cholesterol, obesity and high blood pressure affect both men and women but some factors such as diabetes, stress, depression and smoking affect women more than they affect men. Since women tend to lead a more sedentary lifestyle than men, a lack of exercise also affects them more than it affects men. In addition, a low level of estrogen can also increase the risk of cardiovascular conditions. This is usually seen after menopause.

Metabolic syndrome increase your risk of getting a stroke:

There are five metabolic risk factors for heart disease. If you have 3 or more of them, it is termed as metabolic syndrome. These risk factors are:

1. A waist circumference of more than 35". This is also called abdominal obesity
2. A triglyceride level higher than 150 mg/dL
3. A low level of good cholesterol i.e. HDL cholesterol that is less than 50mg/dL
4. High blood pressure
5. High blood sugar. This could also be a sign of diabetes.

While some factors like genetics are out of our control, most of these factors can be controlled by conscious lifestyle changes. Your doctor may also prescribe medication for the same. Heart disease can occur at any time so do not take your heart for granted. In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!

I am Dr. Kewal Krishan. I am a cardiac surgeon at max hospital, Saket. I am director of the program of heart transplant. And we have separate vertical of a heart transplant advert and echmo. I was trained in US in MIO clinic as well as mount stannic New York for five years and then came back to this country to start heart transplant, ventriculus device and echmo program.

So we have started this heart transplant program for those patients who are in end stage heart failure those who have already burned out, ejection fraction is less than 25% and they have problems of breathlessness or the problem of walking. When these patients go to other physicians they are they told them, give medications and there is no treatment left after this. So these patients we offer them heart transplant. Heart transplant is basically you take out the diseased heart and put a new heart which require a diseased brain death donor which is allocated by NOTO, National organ Tissue and transplant organization. So another thing is ventricular assist device which is an artificial pump which we, which we put in the heart and that takes blood from the heart and puts that blood into the aorta so it works as a left ventricle or right ventricle and or by ventricular so the patient life’s becomes normal, because before that the blood pumping was 2 litters and once we put the device or we put a new heart the pumping become 5 litters which is a normal and patient start to get blood to all organs and they become normal and their life becomes normal with that. So those patients who are with end stage heart failure, they are told by their physicians that there is no other treatment left for these, these patients. They can come to us and they can go to my website kewelkrishan.com and visit and what are the options left over for such kind of patients. So I am doing these surgeries for many years, almost 11 years I am doing this and results are really good. 90, more than 90% a 1 year survival, I am talking of those patients who otherwise die in 1 year so we, first the patient comes to us, we work up the patient, weather patient qualifies the heart transplant ventricle assist device or heart lung transplant and then we offer them accordingly and we put the patient, if the patient is ready to go to ventricular assist device which the cost is close to 19 lac and for the heart transplant the cost is close to 18 lac to 22 lac depending upon the age and other factors. So these patients they get benefit, they can speak to our previous patients also, how their life has transformed from a diseased patient to a normal person and they live a good quality of life and quality of life with either transplant or ventricular assist device it’s close to 15 to 20 so it’s not less. So it’s like a normal life so, and they live a normal life. People even can’t make they are going through this procedure.

So for future if you have any problem you can go to Lybrate to find my contact and contact me.

We will treat your patients and make them happy.