PROBLEM OF HYPERTENSION AND HEART FAILURE AMONG THE ELDERLY
The older adult is an African American woman who is seventy-eight years old. The said woman has a history of hypertension and heart failure. She also has high blood pressure problem. The lady is obese due to accumulation of fats in her body. She has normal systolic function, increased left ventricular mass index with concentric left ventricular hypertrophy and diastolic dysfunction.Problems and IssuesThe older adult faces a number of problems.
According to the history provided she faces two major problems hypertension and heart failure. Hypertension also known as high blood pressure is a condition in which blood flows through blood vessels at a higher speed than normal pressure (Fotoula & Assimina, 2010). If one suffers high blood pressure the heart will be forced to work harder and harder to pump blood to all parts of the body, to manage this effort it is forced to thicken and become stiffer, which makes it less efficient to perform its normal body functions. This inability of the heart to perform its duty well is termed as heart failure. As we learned from her historical background the older adult has been experiencing heart failures making it one of her main problems.
These problems have resulted in making the old lady face a lot of issues (Mosterd & Hoes, 2007).Age is an issue that puts this lady at a high risk of what she’s suffering from. Being in her late 70s old age makes her inactive hence she is unable to wake up run around and do enough exercises as it should be in order to reduce the accumulation of fats in her body. Additional fat tissue in the body means that oxygen and nutrients must be supplied for it to live. This is an increased workload for the heart because it has to work tirelessly to supply blood to the tissue. More circulating blood also means more pressure on the artery walls. If pressure increases on these walls blood pressure will also increase.
Persistent high blood pressure will lead to heart failure (Mosterd & Hoes, 2007).Her diet is another issue that might have increased her chances of facing hypertension and heart failure. Her obese status indicates that she does not consider her diet intake. She could be taking food with a lot of fats which builds up in the body and puts her at risk of facing these heart problems (Fotoula & Assimina, 2010).
Furthermore, the weight comes as another issue that puts her at high risks. Her overweight nature makes her unable to do enough practises and feel fit. Her overweight status puts her at high risk of suffering these diseases even more.Strengths and WeaknessesAlthough she suffers this much due to her condition, the old lady has some strengths.
She can still handle light chores in her homestead such as cooking, washing utensils and more. She also has an opportunity to spend time with her grandchildren …
