Ramadan fasting is safe for patients with stable chronic conditions, cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide About 17.5 million people died of cardiovascular disease in 2012, representing 31 percent of all deaths in the world in the same year. Of the total, 7.4 million deaths occurred due to coronary heart disease and 6.7 million resulted from strokes.
Risk factors
Among the most important risk factors for heart disease: fatty foods, high blood pressure, nervous and psychological stress, and a modern lifestyle characterized by laziness and inactivity. According to a recent study published by the American Health Care website, by researchers from Spain, watching TV for 3 hours or more during the day theoretically raises the chances of dying from heart disease and the risk of premature death by twice as much compared to watching TV for less time. And these results confirm another study supervised by researchers from Harvard University and published in 2011, that every two hours watching TV raises the chances of heart disease by 15 percent, and the chances of developing diabetes by 20 percent. Accordingly, the study team was advised not to sit for long in front of television screens, and when necessary, you should move and walk every quarter of an hour.
Fortunately, most of the risk factors for heart disease (except for age, gender and genetics) can be prevented and the chances of developing them reduced, by:
Eat a healthy diet rich in vegetables and fruits.
Good control of high blood pressure.
Not to be subjected to stress and psychological crises.
Resist obesity and overweight.
Quit smoking and alcohol.
Control of high cholesterol and blood sugar.
Maintain physical fitness and exercise regularly.
Types of heart disease
"Your Health" met Dr. Mamdouh Subhi, a consultant cardiologist at King Fahd Hospital in Jeddah, who explained that heart diseases are many and varied, and include coronary heart disease, the most important of which are fatty deposits and cholesterol in the inner wall of arteries, which results in narrowing of the arterial lumen with damage to the inner cells lining the arteries. It results in the formation of blood clots and thrombosis, and thus a decrease in the flow of blood and oxygen to the heart muscle, which causes stable and unstable angina, myocardial infarction or myocardial thrombosis.
Heart diseases also include inflammation of the pericardial membrane covering the heart or leakage and regurgitation of fluid in the pericardial membrane, as well as diseases of the right or left heart muscle or together or cardiomyopathy, which leads to a failure in the efficiency of the heart muscle and this may cause heart failure systolic or diastolic or together. Also, heart disease includes inflammation of the endocardium or the inner lining of the heart muscle with the formation of a clot or bacterial blood clot inflamed in the heart valves, which may lead to damage to these valves accompanied by severe regurgitation of the valves and also include rheumatic fever in the heart valves, which results in narrowing or regurgitation in Heart valves become damaged and damaged.
Heart and fast
Dr. Mamdouh Subhi assured that fasting has great benefits on the heart muscle and increases its efficiency and activity for patients who are able to fast. It has been clinically proven that fasting relaxes, strengthens and activates the heart muscle due to reducing pressure on it, relaxing it and reducing the amount of its need for oxygen during the day (the time of fasting) due to the burning of existing fats. Under the skin and lining of the body''s organs, burning sugars and starches stored in the liver, resulting in weight loss during the fasting month. The health and safety of the heart is directly related to the volume and quality of food in the stomach. The more healthy and useful food is decreased, the more efficient and active the heart muscle.
Fasting for heart patients
As for fasting for heart patients, Dr. explained. Mamdouh Subhi said that they can be divided medically during Ramadan into three categories:
The first section: Patients who can fast without any reservations. They are patients whose heart condition is stable without taking medical treatment, and that is at the beginning of the disease without the presence of specific symptoms or a clinical examination indicating the diagnosis of the disease with the stability of their vital signs. This section can fast in Ramadan normally without any medical complications mentioned, for example patients with chronic rheumatic heart valve infections accompanied by narrowing or minor valve regressions, as well as simple high pressure patients who are treated only with diet food and reduce salt intake with regular exercise and decrease the weight.
The second section: Patients who can fast with taking some measures and reservations. They are those whose medical condition is stable only when taking medical treatment, which determines this in the case of natives to giving long-term native drugs that are taken once or twice a day at the maximum in the absence of symptoms in the patient and the absence of clinical evidence of instability of the situation. Examples of this category include other heart diseases, for example, patients with chronic stable angina pectoris, patients with myocardial infarction, strokes, or open heart operations after 4 to 6 weeks after heart attacks, patients with chronic, medically stable rheumatic heart valve infections with treatment, and also patients who suffer from dysrhythmias. Chronic heart disease stabilized their condition with treatment.
Forbidden and fasting
Third Section: Patients who cannot fast at all. They are patients whose medical condition is unstable even with medical treatment and their vital signs are also unstable, especially in the case of a decrease in pressure with an acceleration in the rate of the heartbeat with symptoms of low pressure such as cold extremities due to a decrease in the amount of blood nourishing the skin and extremities and a decrease in the amount Urination due to severe failure in kidney function due to a decrease in the amount of blood and oxygen flowing to the kidneys and the presence of constant dizziness due to a in the blood circulation supplying the brain, and this is due to the presence of systolic heart failure with a failure in the performance and efficiency of the heart muscle with severe pulmonary congestion with the leakage of fluids and their accumulation in The lungs due to the presence of diastolic heart failure, which may lead to an increase in pulmonary artery pressure, accompanied by failure and deficiency in the performance of the right heart muscle with regression of the tricuspid valve, causing swelling of the feet and limbs, congestion of the liver with a rise in liver enzymes and ascites due to fluid accumulation in the abdominal cavity and also infiltration Crystalline fluid collects in the lumen of the pericardial membrane.
Examples of this category include unstable angina, patients with myocardial infarction or acute heart attacks, and new patients after open heart surgery due to coronary arterial graft or change or repair of heart valves and also includes endocarditis due to the need to take antibiotics frequently and regularly for a period of weeks which They are mostly given with medical solutions, which may break the fast of fasting patients and also include acute rheumatic heart valve infections with indications of the activity of these infections, and also include patients with cardiomyopathy associated with systolic or diastolic failure or both and its complications, and it also includes imbalances in the heart rhythm and electrocardiography. He needs to take medical drugs frequently and regularly, and they also include acute pericarditis and the need to take painkillers frequently, as well as patients with cardiomyopathy with insufficient efficacy and who need to take cardiomyopathy that is placed in intravenous solutions.
