Congenital heart disease is quite different from the disease that may afflict adult men and women.
The causes of this birth defect are also distinct from heart disease.
These include the taking of some types of drugs during pregnancy, substance abuse or smoking during pregnancy, genetic or chromosomal defects in the child, diabetes in the mother during pregnancy, and viral infection of the mother during pregnancy.
It is important to differentiate congenital heart disease from the disease which is common in older men and women.
What Are the Different Kinds of Congenital Heart Disease? First of all, a congenital heart disease is an abnormality in the heart and major blood vessels, and these defects cause obstructions or unusual flow patterns in the heart.
The primary reason for deaths as a result of birth defects is this kind of heart abnormality.
This kind of disease could be classified into four basic types and these are: septal defects; cyanotic defects; hypoplasia; and obstruction defects.
Cyanotic defects are quite evident because of the bluish-gray tint of the skin of the child and this is caused by a deficiency in oxygen.
In septal defects, there is an abnormality in the tissue that divides the left portion from the right portion of the heart.
This often results in an unwanted flow of blood between the left and the right so that the efficiency of the heart is decreased.
Hypoplasia results from a right or left ventricle that failed to fully develop while an obstruction defect results from a blocked or reduced flow in the valves or major blood vessels.
What is important to note here is that many congenital defects of the heart do not need any kind of treatment and that their management is quite different from that of the heart disease that may appear later in life.
It Is Important to Be Aware of What Causes Heart Disease There are various risk factors for this disease, including stroke and other kinds of cardiovascular illnesses, and many of these could be modified to enhance the chances of preventing the disease.
Some of these causes are hypertension, obesity, hypercholesteremia or high blood cholesterol, not enough exercise, diabetes, smoking, and stress.
It is common advice to adjust our diet to minimize the possibility of hypertension, diabetes, and hypercholesteremia.
It is also often advised that we should have enough exercise, avoid too much stress, and quit smoking.
Following them requires self-discipline but it would help much in decreasing the incidence of heart disease.
In summary, we have found that the disease that often emerges later in life, especially during the ages of 40 and above , could be prevented provided we know its causes and follow the counsel of doctors and other health practitioners.
Congenital heart disease, which is a form of birth defect is different, may not even require treatment, and has different causes that are often traced to the actions of the mother during pregnancy.