Aortic Aneurysm: Precautions to Take and Prevention
Aneurysms can strike terror even in the healthiest person due to their notorious reputation of rupture and fatality. An aortic aneurysm is the swelling of the walls of the artery. This disease more often takes place in an adult of over 40 years of age.
Aneurysms usually stay undetected due to the absence of symptoms. The symptoms only start occurring in an advanced stage, when the bulge of the aneurysm has inflated and starts imparting pressure on the surrounding organs. But there are specific measures that you can still take to prevent Aortic Aneurysm.
What Is an Aorta?
To know more about an aortic aneurysm, you need to know what an aorta is. Aorta is the prime artery of the body and arises from the left ventricle of the heart. It carries oxygen-rich blood or oxyhemoglobin all across the body. The blood from the heart is pumped into the aorta through the aortic valve, a tricuspid valve. This means that it has three leaflets which in turn prevents the backflow of blood and pushes it all across the body. It is almost about a foot long, and its diameter is nearly an inch wide, being the core blood circulation tube.
Sometimes due to certain causes, there is an aberration or the enlargement of the aorta. But now you may be thinking, what is an Enlarged Aorta? So to explain this, you need to know what an aortic aneurysm is.
What Is an Aortic Aneurysm?
So the question comes to what is heart aneurysm or Aortic aneurysm? An aortic aneurysm can be defined as dilation or enlargement of the aorta. It can be considered as an aneurysm when it is more than 1.5 times the regular size. The main fear of aortic aneurysm is the rupture because it mostly stays undetected before the rupture. Aortic aneurysms weaken the aorta’s wall, which in turn causes rupture, which leads to internal bleeding. If the breach is not treated fast, it can be fatal. This can be diagnosed with the help of USG, CT scan or X-ray.
At What Size Does an Aortic Aneurysm Rupture?
We already spoke about the fear of rupture of the aortic aneurysm, but at what size does the aortic aneurysm rupture? It is believed that the bigger the size of an aneurysm the more is the chance of it to get ruptured. Still, it is figuratively taken into consideration that the optimum size for the rupture is 5 cm for women and 5.5 cm for men.
Though the figures may vary from person to person, it is taken into consideration that if the size of the aneurysm is more than 5 cm than the chance of its rupture increases at a pace of 10% per year. There is also another fact which tells that the aneurysm grows at a rapid rate that is 1 cm per year. So unless there is any medical condition, surgery should be performed as soon as possible.
Don’t be afraid yet because there is still some hope, some methods to prevent yourself from having an aortic aneurysm. So let us look into what are the best preventive practices for Aneurysm.
What Are the Precautions and Preventions for Aortic Aneurysm?
Healthy Diet – Diets rich in calories, Trans, and saturated fats and lots of sodium can lead to high cholesterol, blood pressure, atherosclerosis, and obesity which may in turn cause Aortic Aneurysm. So, some of the food habits that you may more likely to follow are stated below:
- Choose fresh food over packaged and preserved foods
- Limit fatty food
- Opt for fat-free or low-fat dairy products
- Lower intake of sugar and sugar-based beverages
- Use oil that is healthy for your heart like olive oil, coconut oil, etc.Â
Blood pressure level should be kept in check – A study found that blood pressure is one of the most effective causes of Aortic Aneurysm so you should try to keep your blood pressure under check by monitoring it at home every day. And try to keep it in control by altering your lifestyles like Stress control and meditation
- Lowering of High Cholesterol– You need to keep a check on your blood pressure level and concentrate on lowering your cholesterol level. Do so by limiting cholesterol, fat, and oil-rich foods.
- Exercise every day- Make exercise a part of your life. This won’t only keep you away from Aortic Aneurysm but also will help you to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
- Obstructive Sleep Apnea should be treated – If you snore while you sleep or if you wake up tired then you may be facing Sleep Apnea, and you should consult a doctor immediately because this is one of the biggest risks for aortic aneurysms
- Quit Smoking – There is nothing much to say about this as quitting smoking can decrease the chances of an Aortic Aneurysm at an exponential rate.
Treatment
Those patients who are symptomatic and size is more than 6 cm, those patients need treatment. Good thing is that these patients can be treated with a technique which is non-surgical like Angioplasty. Angioplasty of the Aortic Aneurysm is known as Endovascular aortic aneurysm repair, by using Trans catheter endovascular stent-graft.
If you still have any symptoms of Aortic Aneurysm or any history in your family, get yourself checked by a doctor. And get diagnosed as it is always better to prevent than to cure.
Dr. Mohd Maqbool Sohil | Consultant – Cardiology Adult | Narayana Multispeciality Hospital, Ahmedabad