February is American Heart Month, a good time to assess your cardiovascular health and make an appointment with a doctor to ensure all the moving parts are working correctly.
Attention to heart health is particularly important for seniors, as the heart and its associated blood vessels can change over time.
Primary Care Walk-In Medical Clinic has four locations in Arizona: Gilbert, Fountain Hills, Mesa, and Scottsdale. Our providers, Dr. Pankaj Chopra and Dr. Neha Maheshwari, provide geriatric services and chronic disease management to ensure you stay as healthy as possible in your golden years.
We’re open seven days a week, so you can get the care you need when you need it.
If you know you have a heart problem or haven’t had an exam in a while, there’s no time like the present to come in and make sure everything’s okay.
The heart has two sides. The right side pumps blood to the lungs to absorb oxygen and eliminate carbon dioxide waste, while the left side pumps oxygen-rich blood to the body.
Blood flows out of the heart through the aorta and then into the arteries. These arteries branch out and become smaller in diameter as they reach the tissues, where they’re known as capillaries.
It’s from these capillaries that the blood releases oxygen and nutrients into the tissues, and they receive carbon dioxide and other waste products back. On the return voyage to the heart, the vessels begin to collect together, becoming larger veins.
Aging causes changes in the heart and related blood vessels. Here are some of the changes:
As you age, your heart can’t beat as fast while you’re exercising or during times of stress as it did when you were younger. However, the resting heart rate — the number of heartbeats per minute while at rest — doesn’t change significantly.
You may experience a fluttering in your chest or feel your heart skipping a beat or beating too hard. Extra or skipped heartbeats tend to occur more often with increased age, but they’re not dangerous.
However, if you experience more frequent and/or persistent feelings like these, they may stem from a heart rhythm abnormality (arrhythmia), which may require treatment.
Over time, the size of the heart’s chambers can increase. The heart wall thickens, decreasing the amount of blood each chamber can hold despite the increased overall heart size. The increased thickness can also increase the risk of atrial fibrillation, a common arrhythmia in seniors that can increase the risk of a stroke.
The valves that control blood flow between the heart’s chambers can also become thicker and stiffer. Stiffer valves may limit blood flow from the heart or cause it to leak, leading to fluid build-up in the lungs, legs, feet, and abdomen.
Age-related changes in the heart and blood vessels may increase your risk of heart disease, a leading cause of disability in seniors that limits their activity and erodes their quality of life.
Heart disease is an umbrella term that includes a variety of conditions affecting the heart’s structure and how the heart works. Heart disease includes:
Colloquially termed “hardening of the arteries,” this refers to increased stiffness of the large arteries that can lead to high blood pressure (hypertension). The condition becomes more common with age.
Atherosclerosis is the slow buildup of fatty deposits, or plaques, on the coronary artery walls. While common, it’s not a normal part of aging. The buildup can also occur in the arteries of the brain and legs, increasing the risk of stroke in the former and muscles not getting enough blood in the latter.
This painful or uncomfortable sensation usually occurs in the chest, but you may also feel it in the neck or left arm. Angina stems from decreased blood flow to the heart due to plaque build-up or a plaque that breaks off and blocks blood flow in a coronary artery.
A heart attack occurs when blood flow to the heart is blocked, and the heart muscle doesn’t receive enough oxygen and nutrients. It can be life-threatening.
If you’re a senior and haven’t had a heart check-up in a while, it’s time to come into Primary Care Walk-In Clinic for an evaluation so you can reduce your risks for serious events. You can walk in, call us at any of our locations, or book an appointment online.
