Can anyone tell me what ischemic heart disease is.?

my mother has been told she has it.

Don't let that comment about funerals panic you - millions of people have ischaemic heart disease and most of them will die of something else first!

Ischaemia occurs when not enough oxygen reaches the heart. Usually because of a blockage in one of the blood vessels that supplies the hear itself (the coronary vessels). There are several subtypes:

Stable angina: in this the heart gets enough oxygen most of the time but if it needs to speed up a lot (exercise, strong emotion) then it may not get enough oxygen. This is felt as a chest pain on exercise that disappears at rest.

Unstable angina: This is caused by an intermittantly blocking artery - the pain can come on at any time - even at rest.

Myocardial infarction - a heart attack: here the loss of oxygen lasts long enough to actually damage the heart.

Most ischaemic heart disease is treated by drugs such as GTN, aspirin or betablockers. A person with ischaemic heart disease can help themselves by gentle frequent exercise (as their GP recommends) and by STOPPING SMOKING. This last is the very very best thing they can do.

In terms of operations - there are several including opening up the coronary blood vessels with tiny tubes called stents and the 'bypass' mentioned by someone else where a new vessel is attached to carry the blood past the blockage - sort of like using a bypass road to avoid a traffic jam.

Remember - this is a controllable disease.
Hope your mum feels OK

Alan

the common name for this is coronary artery heart disease the main artery is being blocked ..and the usual method is" warferine" it is to make the blood thinner and flow easier..an aspirin a day will do the same ..but don't try anything until the doctor says so...

Don't know but I've had it for years - keep taking the pills, shovel them in and let life go past your door without knocking.

I have three things wrong with my heart and back in '94 I had a quad bypass but still keep forging along, My funeral is all arranged and paid for so I have no worries.

It's where your heart is not getting enough oxygen (generally because of problems with circulation.)

Go here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ischemic_he...

its a inadequate blood supply to the heart muscles

http://ischemic-heart-disease.com/