Your mitral valve is a little valve placed between the upper and lower lefthand chambers of your heart. Your mitral valve is composed of two pieces of tissue that open and close like doors to allow the blood to flow out, which is then pumped to the rest of your body.
Properly flowing blood is crucial to feeling healthy and happy. When your blood is being pumped like it should, you experience energy and your head is clear. On the other hand, if your blood isn’t pumping like it should, you can become listless, tired, and depressed.
Mitral valve prolapse occurs when your mitral valve isn’t working like it should. If it’s working like it should, it opens and closes and lets the blood out. If it doesn’t open and close healthily, it allows a little blood to creep back in, so that your heart is suddenly dealing with more blood than it’s used to.
Mitral valve prolapse isn’t always serious. In many cases, you can have it yet still have your heart functioning pretty much like it should. The only result will be what is called a heart murmur, which is the sound of the excess blood in your heart. Your doctor can hear it when he puts his stethoscope to your chest.
And there’s more good news – mitral valve prolapse is not usually a condition that deteriorates as time goes on. With other heart conditions, the condition can grow worse and worse, you can be getting sicker and sicker and not know it.
Mitral valve prolapse is the most common type of heart problem, affecting women more often than it does men. It’s symptoms don’t usually show up until you are in your teens. Adults can suffer from mitral valve prolapse at any age. Mitral valve prolapse tends to be inherited, that is, you can get it from your parents and grandparents.
The symptoms of mitral valve prolapse are many. Your heart will race, it’ll feel like its skipping beats, skipping right over them. Your chest feels all fluttery inside. You might feel unusually anxious or panicky. It may become difficult to breathe, you might grow dizzy or experience chest pain. Each of these symptoms individually, or all of them taken together, are more than enough reason to schedule an appointment with your doctor, who can then take a close look at you and tell you what the problem is. The doctor will take a specific type of photograph of your heart, which shows the blood operations and if there’s anything wrong with them.
Lost of people who suffer form mitral prolapse won’t require any therapy or recovery program. They can simply go on with their lives as if nothing was wrong. In severer cases, surgery may be needed to fix the problem, and from then on you might not be able to participate in sports as often or as enthusiastically as you once did.
There are also medications that your doctor can prescribe to easy some of the more irritating symptoms, such as chest pain, of mitral valve prolapse. These medications will help to regulate blood flow so that your heart is beating more smoothly, evenly, and efficiently.
The way to a healthy heart is through proper diet (lots of natural, fresh foods and liquids), proper exercise, and education. The more you learn about your heart, the better you can take care of it. Be sure to schedule regular appointments with your doctor to find out how your heart is doing in also how you can better take care of it.