How Will Your Doctor Treat Fatigue
Your doctors recommended treatment plan will depend on whats causing your fatigue. To make a diagnosis, they will likely ask you questions about:
- the nature of your fatigue, including when it started and whether it gets better or worse at certain times
- other symptoms that youve been experiencing
- other medical conditions that you have
- your lifestyle and sources of stress
- medications that youre taking
If your doctor suspects you have an underlying medical condition thats causing your fatigue, they may order some medical tests. For example, they may order blood or urine tests.
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Traditional Understanding Of Heart Failure
Historically, heart failure was thought to be a disorder of its pumping function and the ejection fraction therefore, these became an important component and determinant of the condition. The increasing prevalence of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and the current lack of disease-modifying therapy for this group of patients raise the question again of whether we truly understand the mechanisms that drive the entire spectrum of the heart failure syndrome. How can all the different described types of heart failure be linked up to create a spectrum and a story that is easily understandable? Can we link the relationship of the core mechanism of heart failure with EF and then with the types of HF such as heart failure with reduced ejection fraction , HFPEF or even with the old classification of high-output, low-output, forward and backward failure, right and left heart failure? Unless we progress further in answering these questions, discovering treatment for the entire heart failure population will be difficult.
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How To Tell If Your Breathlessness Is Being Caused By A Heart Problem
Breathlessness is a very common symptom and may be caused by underlying heart disease. Apart from heart disease, breathlessness can be caused by several other conditions. These include being unfit, being overweight, and even just getting older. Other important causes include anemia and lung disease.
In this article, I will discuss how you can work out if the breathlessness could be caused by underlying heart problems.
Breathlessness caused by heart disease is usually worse on exertion than it is at rest. If your breathlessness is worse at rest than it is on exercise then it is highly unlikely that it is due to an underlying heart condition. Heart disease is significantly more prevalent in older patients than in younger patients unless there is a history of congenital heart disease.
Common heart conditions which can cause breathlessness include:
Heart failure or cardiomyopathy
Common causes of heart failure include previous heart attacks, a virus causing the heart to weaken and excessive alcohol intake causing heart muscle dysfunction.
Heart valve disease
Heart rhythm disturbances
I would recommend the following tests to ensure that your breathless is not being caused by an underlying heart disease.
ECG: A simple 12 lead ECG can be very useful to look for a heart rhythm disturbance or even prexisting heart disease and should be done in every patient.
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Recognized By Us News & World Report
UT Southwestern Medical Center has earned High Performing recognition for aortic valve surgery from U.S. News & World Report, placing us among the countrys leading hospitals for this procedure.
With UT Southwestern Medical Centers minimally invasive techniques to fix heart valve disease, youll recover more quickly and feel better faster.
We offer a variety of approaches to treat heart valve disorders, with a focus on minimally invasive surgery.
Four valves in the heart control blood flow. These valves make sure that blood flows in the right direction through the heart by opening and closing at the right time. When theres a problem with a valve, theres a heart valve disorder.
Heart valve disorders make the heart work harder. As a result patients may feel tired or short of breath. UT Southwesterns heart experts are focused on fixing heart valve disorders so patients feel better and have more energy.
Valve disease treatment has improved dramatically over the past 15 years, from being able to replace faulty valves with prosthetics to today, where we are now able to surgically repair the valves without cracking the chest .
Through minimally invasive surgery, we need to make only a 2-inch incision to repair or replace a valve, and the recovery time is reduced to 10 days versus six weeks for traditional open surgery. Weve performed more of these procedures than others in North Texas, and UT Southwestern is leading the advancement of additional new treatments.
Reason : Are Beta Blockers Making You Tired
The anti-adrenaline effect of beta-blockers the very quality that makes them valuable for treating heart failure can make patients feel tired.
Most patients do not experience any side effects. But if you feel fatigued after starting your medicine, its important to do two things: Keep taking your medicine, and report your symptoms to your doctor. If you stop suddenly, you may risk having rebound adverse effects.
According to Dr. Taylor, understanding why beta-blockers must be taken often makes it easier to deal with this side effect. Once patients know the drug will improve their heart function, help them stay out of the hospital and live longer, most are willing to put up with a little fatigue, he says.
You and your physician can try to figure out if the symptoms are really a side effect or due to your heart problem or even possibly due to an unrelated condition such as sleep apnea. Usually, well adjust the medication dose or switch to an alternative medication and check if the side effects go away with time.
If he is able to wean the patient down or off the drug, and fatigue remains a problem, the beta-blocker is not to blame.
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Cardiac Abnormalities Linked To Me/cfs
Chronic fatigue syndrome involves a lot more than fatigue. In addition to a few dozen possible symptoms, this disease is also linked to certain heart abnormalities. Does that mean you have to worry about developing heart disease? Not necessarily. However, you should watch out for signs of heart disease and do what you can to lower your risk.
The incident rate of heart disease is higher in people with ME/CFS than in the general population, and the association may be more than incidental.
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Dont Ignore These 5 Signs Of Heart Valve Disease
12/10/2020
Do you ever get the sense that somethings just not right? Do you chalk it up to getting older? Aging naturally causes a lot of physical changes, so its tempting to write them off as you would the occasional wrinkle or gray hair.
Some of these changes, however, are warning signs of serious heart problems clogged coronary arteries, irregular heartbeat, heart valve damage or even heart failure yet they can easily be misattributed to stress, a sedentary lifestyle or weight gain. These five red flags should never be ignored, and are all caused by the same culprit:
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Warning Signs And Symptoms Of Heart Disease
Heart disease often develops over time. You may have early signs or symptoms long before you have serious heart problems. Or, you may not realize you are developing heart disease. The warning signs of heart disease may not be obvious. Also, not every person has the same symptoms.
Certain symptoms, such as chest pain, ankle swelling, and shortness of breath may be signals that something is wrong. Learning the warning signs can help you get treatment and help prevent a heart attack or stroke.
What Causes Leaky Heart Valves
The causes of leaky heart valves vary with each heart valve.
Causes of a leaky aortic valve include:
- The congenital bicuspid aortic valve, in which there are two flaps instead of three. It is present from birth
- Rheumatic heart disease, a complication of rheumatic fever
Causes of a leaky mitral valve include:
- Rheumatic heart disease
Causes of a leaky tricuspid valve:
Many healthy adults may have a slightly leaky tricuspid valve, which usually causes no problems and often does not require treatment or follow-up. One of the main causes of tricuspid valve leak is pulmonary hypertension.
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How Do People With Heart Disease Experience Fatigue
Heart disease refers to a number of conditions that affect the cardiovascular system . The many types of heart disease include congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, arrhythmia, peripheral artery disease, and heart valve problems.
Fatigue refers to a feeling of intense physical or mental exhaustion. Unlike normal tiredness, its not caused by overexertion or lack of sleep. As one MyHeartDiseaseTeam member wrote, Feeling fatigued, low energy, weak … lack of strength. Another shared that they deal with extreme fatigue every day, becoming exhausted after any activity.
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For some people, fatigue comes and goes. Sometimes, I feel great, wrote one member. I have energy. Then I quickly find myself exhausted. Its frustrating.” Others find that fatigue is a constant, like one member who shared, Cant shake the fatigue, not feeling myself lately, but other than that, Im hanging in there.
This fatigue can interfere with life in major ways. That fatigue is no fun, wrote one member. I want to take a walk to get some fresh air and end up huffing and puffing by the time I get out the door and half a block from the house. Another explained how fatigue interferes with their work: Doing OK, except for feeling physically exhausted and fatigued all day. Still falling asleep at work even when I fight to stay awake.
Tricky Heart May Cause Chronic Fatigue
Abnormal Heart Pumping After Exercise Linked to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
April 14, 2003 — Many people with chronic fatigue syndrome may have a serious heart problem. A new finding hints that blood circulation problems may be an underlying cause of the mysterious illness.
Nobody is sure what causes chronic fatigue syndrome. As more becomes known, it’s likely that some chronic fatigue patients will turn out to have different underlying problems than others. One major symptom, however, is feeling bad after exercise for more than 24 hours.
To Arnold Peckerman, MD, that sounds a lot like a blood circulation problem seen in some heart patients. These patients have something called left ventricular dysfunction, in which the main pumping chamber of the heart is weak. When you exercise, your heart pumps out more blood. But these patients’ hearts actually pump less blood.
Peckerman’s research team at the VA Medical Center in East Orange, N.J., used a sophisticated test to measure how well the heart pumps blood. They gave the test to 16 chronic fatigue syndrome patients, both before and after they exercised. They also tested four non-athletic volunteers. All of the patients’ and volunteers’ hearts’ pumped normally during rest. After exercise, however, 13 of the 16 chronic fatigue patients’ hearts pumped less blood than they did at rest.
What’s happening to the hearts of people with chronic fatigue syndrome? It’s too soon to tell, but Peckerman has a theory.
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Warning Signs Of A Heart Attack
Not all heart attacks are alike
Did you know that you can have a heart attack without feeling any chest pain? Heart failure and heart disease dont show the same signs for everyone, especially women.
The heart is a muscle that contracts to pump blood throughout the body. A heart attack occurs when the heart muscle doesnt get enough blood. Blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the heart muscle. When there isnt enough blood flowing to your heart muscle, the affected part can get damaged or die. This is dangerous and sometimes deadly.
Heart attacks happen suddenly, but they normally result from long-standing heart disease. Typically, a waxy plaque builds up on the walls inside your blood vessels that feed the heart muscle. Sometimes a chunk of the plaque, called a blood clot, breaks off and prevents blood from passing through the vessel to your heart muscle, resulting in a heart attack.
Less commonly, something like stress, physical exertion, or cold weather causes the blood vessel to contract or spasm, which decreases the amount of blood that can get to your heart muscle.
There are many risk factors that contribute to having a heart attack, including:
A heart attack is a medical emergency. Its really important to listen to what your body is telling you if you think you might be having one. Its better to seek emergency medical treatment and be wrong than to not get help when youre having a heart attack.
Simply Get Out Of Bed
When you wake up from sleep or a nap, its easy to lay in bed and watch tv or play on an electronic device. Lying in bed can trick your body into becoming more tired. Even if you dont feel like getting out of bed or you think you are too tired, try. Naturally, dont try if you truly feel like you are at risk of falling or injuring yourself. Ask a loved one to help you up, or use something sturdy like a nightstand to assist you in standing. Personally, if I lay in bed too long, I get tired and can fall asleep even though I know I shouldnt be tired. As soon as I stand up and get moving, the feeling of fatigue begins to go away.
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Chest Discomfort Is Linked To Heart Attacks But What About Signs Of Heart Failure Valve Problems And Irregular Heartbeats
Chest pain is not always present in people with heart disease. Instead, other symptoms can be the signals that alert you to heart disease.
“Any symptom that seems to be provoked by exertion and relieved by rest could be heart-related. Particularly in people with underlying risk factors such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, tobacco use, a sedentary lifestyle, obesity, and a strong family history of heart disease, other symptoms besides chest pain may be the clue to a heart problem,” says Dr. Randall Zusman, a cardiologist with Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.
When any of the following symptoms appear with no obvious reason, pay attention and report them to your doctor.
When You’re Tired Of Being Tired
If fatigue is affecting your quality of life, its time to talk to your doctor. Tracking your daily sleep and activity levels can help you present him or her with a better overall picture of your condition, especially if your symptoms are vague. If you don’t have a fitness or smartwatch, consider downloading a phone app like Sharecare, available for iOS and Android.
Medical City Healthcare provides comprehensive emergency services across North Texas.
At Medical City Healthcare, we’re dedicated to the care and improvement of human life. So, we hope you’ll Take Care!
For more information, call our Ask a Nurse hotline 24/7 or use Find a Doctor online.
You can also get care for minor injuries or illness at one of the many DFW CareNow® Urgent Care locations, with convenient Web Check-In® so you can wait in the comfort of your home.
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Warning Signs Your Body Gives You Before A Heart Attack
Heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death in both men and women worldwide. Contrast to what you may see in a movie, the signs of a heart attack can be hard to miss. Two-thirds of women will have less-typical, non-Hollywood heart attack symptoms, says C. Noel Bairey Merz, M.D., director of the Barbra Streisand Womens Heart Center at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles.
Though symptoms like chest tightness and upper body pain are more obvious, heart attacks present a host of symptoms that can be easily mistaken for another ailment . Identifying the signs of a heart attack and seeking early intervention can be the difference between life or death. Here are the most common symptoms to look out for.
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What The Research Tells Us
Cardiac anomalies could partially explain why a small amount of exertion can wipe out someone with ME/CFS.
While the studies suggest that abnormalities of the heart and nervous system contribute to the high rates of cardiac failure in people with ME/CFS, that doesnât mean theyâre the only factors. Other factors such as weight and sedentary lifestyle may contribute as much or even more.
In the end, most of these studies are small and need far more investigation. What they should highlight, however, is the increased need to monitor the cardiac health of people living with ME/CFS. This is especially true for those with severe symptoms, as well as anyone who has risk factors for cardiac disease .
If you have ME/CFS, talk to your healthcare provider about heart health, any symptoms you have, and what you can do to lower your risk of cardiac disease.
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Why Am I So Tired All The Time Heart Disease And 4 Other Causes Of Fatigue You Shouldn’t Ignore
On any given Monday morning, most of us struggle to get out of bed as we dread the inevitable work week. We yawn, we stretch, and we drift in and out of sleep. Throughout the day, we feel exhausted both mentally and physically. The Sunday Night Blues or a lack of sleep aren’t the only things sapping our energy sleep loss could be a sign of several serious illnesses.
Our 24/7 lifestyle can lead us to feel exhausted or run down, and affect our sleeping patterns. This is because we are never turning off according to Dr. Gabrielle Francis, a naturopathic doctor at The Herbal Alchemist in New York City, N.Y. This syndrome is also known as wired and tired,'” she told Medical Daily.
Fatigue is an American epidemic that is one of the most common complaints physicians hear. It is quite prevalent in the general population, with 28 percent reporting fatigue. This could be the result of expending more energy than we can take in, but it could also be a red flag for more serious conditions.
Below are the signs of fatigue we shouldn’t ignore.
