Dr. Vivek Baliga B

Do you suffer from a runny nose all the time? Have you been suffering from a viral illness and are worried that you might spread it to your children?

Viral infections spread rapidly, but the good news is that you can prevent that from happening with some simple and easy steps.

Here are the simple ways to stop viral infections from spreading between individuals.

1. Cover your mouth when you cough

When you cough, you release thousands of tiny droplets of your saliva into the air. These droplets are not visible to the naked eye. However, they are packed with the virus that is causing the infection. Covering your mouth with your hand or a tissue can help prevent the spread of this infection to others.

2. Use a tissue, not a handkerchief

A tissue can be disposed of immediately after it's used. It is unlikely you will do the same with a handkerchief. If you repeatedly use the same kerchief to sneeze, cough or blow your nose into, you risk getting re-exposed to the virus. 

3. Use a hand sanitizer

Every time you cough or sneeze and keep your mouth covered with your hands, use a hand sanitizer. These are readily available in most supermarkets and pharmacies these days. There are even sprays and tiny pocket sanitizer tubes available, so there is no excuse not to use them. 

4. Get vaccinated

These days, the flu vaccine is available that can help protect you from picking up and getting infected by these viruses. While there might be some difficulty procuring these, most hospital pharmacies will have them. Ask your doctor about getting the flu vaccine once a year to keep you protected. 

5. Catch it, bin it and kill it.

This is a popular dictum in the UK to prevent the spread of the flu virus. Catch the virus using a clean tissue, bin the tissue and then kill the virus by washing your hands with soap and water. 

Closing Remarks

These simple steps should help you reduce the risk of contracting or spreading viral illnesses.

Suffering from diabetes does not only mean that you need to be careful about what you eat. Diabetes is a condition that involves lots of risks. You may have to revamp the lifestyle, apart from diet restrictions. Regular exercises, stress-free attitude, and quitting smoking and drinking are mandatory. Your complete system can be affected by diabetes, and most importantly, your heart can be at risk. Yes, your chances of getting affected by heart diseases are higher when you are a diabetic. But, this does not mean you will suffer from cardiovascular diseases for sure. You have ways to keep your heart healthy. You need to keep the blood sugar levels, blood pressure levels, and the cholesterol levels under control for a healthy heart.

What is the link?

Blood vessels and the nerves in the body are affected when you are diabetic. There are blood vessels and nerves that control the heart, and they too are damaged. Obviously, you end up with cardiovascular diseases in such cases. Even in young adults who are diabetic, the risk of developing heart diseases is higher. People with diabetes have 2 times the risk of developing heart diseases, compared with people who are not a diabetic. However, you can always rely on certain methods to keep the risks down. For this, getting to know the factors that can add to the risk level is essential.

Factors that can double the risk: Smoking narrows the blood vessels and can increase the risk of heart diseases. If you smoke and if you are diabetic, you increase the risks at an alarming rate. It can also lead to amputation, as smoking can affect the blood vessels in the legs. If you are diabetic and do not keep the blood pressure levels under control, your heart works a lot to pump the blood. A heart attack can be on the cards when the heart muscles are overworked or stressed. LDL cholesterol, when not kept under the tab, can lead to heart diseases. Coupled with diabetics, your chances of being affected by heart diseases are doubled in such cases. Obesity is related to a range of diseases that includes cardiovascular diseases. When you are obese, you also develop diabetes faster.

How to stay healthy: When you want to stay healthy and maintain your heart functioning with ease, there are certain things you should never forget. Keep a track on your A1C number. This is not for the single test you take, but monitor the A1C levels for 3 months, and check if the resulting number is healthy.

• Ensure your blood pressure level is lower than 140/90 mm/Hg.
• Quit smoking.
• Eat healthy foods.
• Processed, fatty, oily and junk foods should never find a place on your plate.
• Physical activities should be spread over the day. For instance, take a morning walk, and try cycling in the noon.
• Climb the stairs.
• Avoid sitting for long hours.
• Get adequate sleep.

It is essential to get treatment for diabetes and heart diseases. Stick to the instructions of your healthcare team. Simply bringing in healthy habits can’t help. Take tests advised by your doctor and never skip the appointments.

A left ventricular assist device is an electromechanical device used in cases of advanced heart failure. In later stages of heart failure when the heart is weakened and no longer able to pump the necessary amount of blood, a left ventricular assist device can be surgically implanted to assist the heart’s functions.

A left ventricular assist device is often used as a short term solution and is different from a pacemaker, which is a long term cardiac assist device. The cases in which a left ventricular assist device is often used are:

• As a temporary solution while a cardiac failure patient is on a transplant list or otherwise waiting for a heart transplant.
• During recovery from cardiac surgery when the heart is not strong enough to function on its own. The device would soon be removed as the patient recovers.
• During recovery from heart attacks

Having a left ventricular assist device implanted gives the heart time to rest and recover, leading you to the point where your heart can go back to functioning on its own. However, there are cases where a left ventricular assist device can be implanted as a long term solution. This treatment is called Destination Therapy and requires implanting a left ventricular assist device for several months or several years.

How a Left Ventricular Assist Device works?
A Left Ventricular Assist Device can only be surgically implanted. It has both internal and external components with a pump attached to your heart and a controller on the outside of the body. The pump is attached to the heart with a tube that directs blood into the aorta. The pump and the controller are connected through a cable called the driveline. Since the Left Ventricular Assist Device is powered by electricity or batteries, a power source is also worn outside the body and is attached to the controller, powering both the controller and the pump.

How a Left Ventricular Assist Device can affect your lifestyle?
Many people around the world have Left Ventricular Assist Devices implanted on both a temporary and permanent basis. While a person should be resting while recovering from a heart attack or cardiac surgery, it is possible to go about your normal daily life whilst having a Left Ventricular Assist Device implanted. While certain exercises and stress should be avoided when having a heart condition or when implanted with a Left Ventricular Assist Device, with carrying cases for power sources and controller that can operate from various different power sources, it is easy to live a normal productive life.

Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) is a traditional and well established surgical procedure for treating diseases in the coronary artery. The process is carried out by using blood vessels alternately (vein or artery). Initially, CABG was performed by using the left internal mammary artery and saphenous vein. It was observed that the chance of occlusion in the vein grafts was much higher than the arterial grafts. In the last decade, total arterial grafting, which uses all the arterial conduits, is being practiced as CABG for better results.

Types of Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting

1. Traditional Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting: In this type of CABG, the surgeon will initially open up the chest bone to gain access to the heart. The heart is stopped using medications and the body is connected to a heart-lung bypass machine to circulate oxygen and blood throughout the body.
2. Minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass grafting: In this surgery, small incisions are made on the left portion of the chest to gain access to the heart. This surgery is used to bypass the blood vessels present in the front portion of the heart.
3. Off-pump Coronary artery bypass grafting: In this procedure, the chest bone is opened up to access the heart. Here, however, the heart is not stopped during the surgery.

Patients, who have been suffering since a long time and have been operated on the vein grafts, have a chance of re-developing certain artery diseases such as a heart attack. To counter this possibility, surgeons have started using the method of Total Artery CABG. In this procedure, the left and right internal mammary arteries are used from the chest and the radial artery, from the fore arm for the surgery.

The main advantages of this procedure are:

1. The survival rate is higher in total artery CABG as compared to the traditional CABG.
2. It comes with long term benefits
3. The procedure is safe as well as feasible

Surviving a heart attack may not be easy and if you’ve had one, it’s not unusual for you to feel worried and overwhelmed at the same time. Quite understandably, you would want to return home to your near and dear ones, and indulge in your usual activities as soon as possible. But in order to make sure you’re in the best of health and spirit, you would need to follow certain guidelines after a heart attack. Although you might start feeling better in a couple of weeks, you should not rush into things or push yourself too soon. Here’s a list post-treatment guidelines on how to maintain a healthy risk-free life so that you don’t have a relapse.

1. Quit smoking- Smoking tobacco damages the walls of your blood vessels, preventing blood and oxygen from reaching your heart and other organs. It can lead to clotting of blood in your system and thereby increase the chances of another heart attack. So if you’re a smoker, it’s time you quit smoking and even restrain from passive smoking. If you find it difficult to cope with the problem, consult your doctor as he may be able to help you by providing alternatives to tobacco like nicotine gum.
2. Control the risk factors- High blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes- these are some of the most common and probable risk factors for a heart attack. In order to manage these conditions, you will need to change your diet. The food you eat affects the flow of blood in your system, so include food items that are low in saturated fat and cholesterol. Cut down on processed and fried food, sodium and salt. Consume less high-fat dairy products and red meat, and switch to green veggies and fruits, and fish.
3. Exercising can help- Although it may sound hectic after a major surgery, but engaging in some sort of exercise actually helps your heart pump blood and delivers oxygen to your body effectively. Since being obese or overweight increases the chances for a heart attack, you must keep your body weight in check. Any sort of exercise such as jogging, walking, running or swimming can help you lose weight, and lower the risk. However, before you start exercising you should consult a doctor so that they can monitor your condition and keep a track of your heart.

Recovering from a heart attack does not end with you surviving one. Heart attacks can be very stressful and upsetting. You will need to fight stress and depression even after the recovery. Go for some therapy or join a cardiac rehab that will arrange for programs run by medical professionals and doctors. Along with lifestyle changes, these programs help control your stress levels.

Tachycardia is the medical term of a fast heart rate. When a person’s heart beats for more than 100 times per minute, he/she is said to be suffering from tachycardia. Atria and Ventricles (both left and right) are the four major parts of the heart. They contract and expand so that blood can be pumped out of the heart and oxygen reaches all the organs of the body. Now, this pumping occurs at a stable pace, owing to electrical impulses that activate the pumping in the first place. When an underlying medical condition or a defect in the heart disrupts these electrical impulses a person is confronted with tachycardia.

Symptoms
In many people, no symptoms are observed until and unless it is detected by a blood pressure device or a tool that checks the pulse rate. But if the heart rate is significantly high a person might feel dizzy, fatigued. He/she can also suffer from shortness of breath, palpitation as well as chest pain.

When the heart beats faster than usual the oxygen in the body gets depleted, which can result in the death of myocardial cells, leading to heart attack.

Causes
Heart diseases like coronary artery disease, heart valve disease, heart muscle disease, tumors or infection can lead to increased rate of heart beat. Apart from that, other conditions that might lead to tachycardia are: stress, hormonal disorders, especially in case one is suffering from hyperthyroidism, blood loss etc.

Treatment

Medications
If there is an underlying medical defect that is causing the increased heart rate in the first place, it needs to be treated. For example, if a person is suffering from hyperthyroidism then medicines are prescribed to regulate the function of the thyroid glands.

If tachycardia develops as a result of weakened heart muscle then medicines are given to strengthen the heart. Beta blockers are given to check the defective electrical impulse in the heart, if that is the cause of tachycardia. Depending on the condition of the patient anti-arrhythmic medicines might also be given. People who stand at a risk of receiving a stroke as a result of this condition are prescribed warfarin.

Surgery and Implantation

Implantable cardioverter defibrillator
This procedure involves the insertion of an artificial device in the heart that controls the heart rate. It is equipped to send an electrical shock whenever it detects defective electrical impulse in the heart. In other words, it is designed to mechanically deflect the erroneous impulse.

Surgery
If medications fail to rectify the disorder, a surgery has to be performed. In this case a section of the heart tissue is removed through operation. The scar that is left by the operation controls defective electrical impulse as a scar tissue is affirmed to be a bad conductor of electricity.  In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!