How Stress And Heart Health Are Interlinked

Everyone experiences stress in their own unique way and reacts to it in differently. Stress is natural and can be triggered by various factors. But when this stress becomes a chronic illness, it starts interfering with organs of the body, particularly the heart. How much stress you experience and how you react to it can lead to a wide variety of health problems. This is why it’s critical to know what you should do about it, then take necessary measures to cut down the risks.

Stress and Your Heart- what happens during stress?

Stress is the root cause of death for half of the population of the world. It affects behavior and factors that increase heart disease risk such as high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, smoking, physical inactivity and overeating. Some people may choose to drink too much alcohol or smoke cigarettes to manage their chronic stress, however these habits can increase blood pressure and may damage artery walls. The body's response to stress may be a headache, back strain, or stomach pains. Stress can also alter energy levels, sleep patterns and make an individual feel cranky, forgetful and out of control.

 

In the event of a stressful situation the body releases adrenaline, a hormone that temporarily causes breathing, heart rate and blood pressure to rise. These reactions are called involuntary reactions that prepares a body to deal with the fight and flight situations.

With persistent stress, the body remains in high gear off and on for days or weeks at a time. July being the Mental Health Awareness Month, many organizations prepares seminars and sessions to educate people to manage stress. If the situation is worse, doctors may recommend to use portable ECG monitor to keep a close watch on the heart functioning and activities. With exercise and medication stress can be reduced and an individual can feel creative and energetic again.

Cut Costs And Increase Accessibility With PC-based Holter Monitoring Systems

May is the ‘National High Blood Pressure and Stroke Awareness’ month and it’s the perfect time to look into the current situation and work towards a healthier future. Cardiovascular diseases have been one of the leading causes of mortality all over the world- for both men and women. in the United States, in particular, the situation is very critical. In the year 2016, around 840,768 people lost their lives to heart problems and the number is expected to rise by nearly 20% in 2019. According to the American College of Cardiology (ACC), about 1,055,000 coronary events are expected to occur in 2019, taking into consideration 720,000 new and 335,000 recurrent events. Clearly, the condition is worrisome and makes it extremely necessary for heart specialists to upgrade their facilities and use high-performance tools to diagnose/treat cardiovascular conditions. PC-based Holter monitoring ECG systems are one of those important tools.

Cardiologists and electrophysiologists need to observe patients’ heart functioning over an extended period of time in order to diagnose conditions related to irregular cardiac rhythms- atrial fibrillation, tachycardia, atrial flutter, etc. Holter monitoring EKG systems help them in executing this task easily and efficiently. The systems measure the tiny electrical signals emitted by the heart through electrodes and put them into the computer for display and analysis. You can improve accuracy and enable immediate access to patient diagnostic information by using compact, comprehensive and feature-loaded Holter monitoring systems.

Although several systems have been developed for monitoring CVDs, most are only available in medical institutions due to their high costs. PC-based ECG monitoring systems have revolutionized the healthcare sector as they allow professionals to greatly reduce their device cost and increase accessibility.

  

Why Standard ECG Systems Are Not Suited For Cardiac Arrhythmias Diagnosis

As heart rhythm disturbances occur infrequently and last only for very short periods of time, the standard ECG system is often not suited to make diagnosis when it comes to cardiac arrhythmias. Even if several ECGs taken at different times, the condition cannot be diagnosed. You require a more advanced machine that can significantly increase the odds of capturing and recording an intermittent, brief arrhythmia. This is where ambulatory ECG systems are extremely useful. These systems allow you to record a patient’s heart rhythm for much longer periods of time, which can last for days, weeks, and even years. An ambulatory ECG system can be used to:-

• Assess how effective an ablation procedure has been to treat atrial fibrillation or other arrhythmias.
• Screen potentially dangerous arrhythmias in people with conditions, which can produce cardiac  arrhythmias, for example,
• Brugada syndrome, long QT syndrome, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy.
• Identify signs of asymptomatic heart ischemia in patients with known coronary artery disease.
• Check for episodes of asymptomatic atrial fibrillation in patients who have suffered a stroke of unknown cause, such as a cryptogenic stroke.

Ambulatory ECG systems assess a patient’s heart rhythm as they live their normal life, such as during exercise, psychological stress, and sleep.
June is the ‘Family Health & Fitness Awareness’ and ‘Mens’ Health Awareness’ month and it’s the perfect time to work towards a healthier future.and equip your facility with ambulatory ECG systems to diagnose intermittent cardiac arrhythmias that occur only infrequently and unpredictably.

3 Reasons Why You Should Upgrade Your ECG Machine

Diagnosis of anomalies in the heart rate requires an optimally functioning ECG system. In a clinical setting, you should have a machine which can provide you with accurate data without compromising on time. A 12- lead electrocardiograph machine is the necessary tool, which can be used for quick and accurate detection of the ECG waves of a patient. Connecting the system with PC enables you to store information in a USB format, making the data portable.

Some of the advantages of upgrading your machine will provide you with-

Portability of Patient Data- Managing the data of various patients can be a challenging task. An upgraded machine will help you store and retrieve the patient’s data as and when you need it. Information about patients will include demographic data and the medical reports of the patients. Since the system is connected to a PC, you do not have to worry about dealing with lost data as everything can be saved to a portable device.

Connectivity with existing apparatus- Buying a new ECG or EKG system lets you upgrade to new technology without incurring heavy costs. As the system is connected with the PC, it can give you the benefit of advanced features without buying new equipment. The system is EMR compatible, which further makes it easy to manage operations.

Low Power Consumption- One of the issues that most medical professionals encounter is that the equipment consumes a lot of power. When you upgrade your ECG machine, you can save on your energy costs as the new machine will consume less power. This is one of the crucial reasons why many clinics have upgraded their ECG machines time and again. You can also look for other factors, like frequency responses and integration.

Before buying a PC based ECG system, make sure that it has all the above mentioned features. Reach out to various medical equipment stores onlineto choose the best one.