Why should I care about restrictive cardiomyopathy?
You should care about restrictive cardiomyopathy in that sense that it is good to educate yourself about the various conditions that can damage your heart. Your heart is the engine of your body, and it is crucial to maintain it properly for a long, healthy, and happy life. Along with diet and exercise, education about the heart is a key step to not suffering unnecessarily in the future.
What is restrictive cardiomyopathy?
Restrictive cardiomyopathy is a condition that causes the walls of your heart to harden and stiffen. You need nice, flexible heart walls in order to have your blood properly pushed along proper channels. When your blood’s flowing properly, you think clearly, you have energy, you’re not tired and listless and unenthusiastic. Restrictive cardiomyopathy keeps all these good things from happening. It slows down the blood, makes it sluggish. The blood wants to move on through but it can’t. Your heart may be fine in every other respect: all its key components may be 100% healthy: but if the walls are too stiff, the pump won’t pump, the heart won’t flex, the blood won’t flow.
What are some symptoms of restrictive cardiomyopathy?
Symptoms of restrictive cardiomyopathy include those listed above: tiredness, fatigue, an unusual lack of energy, difficulty breathing, chest pain. Other symptoms of restrictive cardiomyopathy include a very uncomfortable, painful swelling of the legs. Symptoms of cardiomyopathy include an unusual buildup of fluid around the intestines and kidneys and stomach leading to severe stomach pains. Two really negative symptoms of restrictive cardiomyopathy are a total loss of appetite and bloating.
How is restrictive cardiomyopathy treated?
Unfortunately, treatments for cardiomyopathy are few. Treatments for cardiomyopathy just aren’t as effective as treatments for other heart conditions and diseases. The reason that treatments for cardiomyopathy aren’t as effective is that this particular problem severely damages the heart muscles, to the point that they can’t be healed, the negative effects can’t be turned around again. For treatment, your doctor would work with you on a program designed to lessen further damage in the future. This treatment might include medication. In really severe cases, a heart transplant may be required. The good news is that cardiomyopathy itself is rare. If you were one of the rarer sufferers, however, you could rest assured that doctors and modern medicine would do everything they could for you to bring you comfort and help you make your heart as strong as possible.
Is there any other good news?
Other good news about restrictive cardiomyopathy, aside from its being rare, is that it is often confused with another condition that can be treated. This condition is called constrictive pericardium. Constrictive pericardium, which, again, is often confused with restrictive cardiomyopathy, is a condition where the membrane that surrounds, roots, protects, and lubricates your heart becomes swollen and painful. There are effective treatments available for constrictive pericardium.
What is the cause of restrictive cardiomyopathy?
Restrictive cardiomyopathy is usually caused by other internal diseases. These diseases include amyloidosis, hemochromatosis, and sarcoidosis.Amyloidosis is caused when proteins from your blood cells build up and up to the point that the walls of your heart are thickened by them, and that thickening restricts the heart from pumping properly. Hemochromatosis has to do, on the other hand, with too much iron in the body. This condition can be inherited from your parents, grandparents, etc. Sarcoidosis is the most complicated of the three: it causes important organs such lungs and liver and eyes to swell, which effects the heart as well.