Awareness of Lifestyle Changes

Question: Discuss about the Awareness of Lifestyle Changes. Answer: Introduction: Miss Bell was recognised as a patient who had high pulse rate and was also seen to suffer from mild tachycardia. From the lifestyle, that she leads, one can easily understand the main causes that had contributed to the occurrences of the bouts of breathlessness. Tachycardia usually occurs when the heart beats too rapidly. The higher than normal heartbeat as is evident from the high pulse rate is mainly because the heart pumps less efficiently and flow of blood to different parts of the body is reduced along with that of the heart. From the case history, the main contributing factors that are found to be the reason of tachycardia is the consumption of processed and higher fact containing foods. Heavy meals forming of fast foods and processed foods are high in sodium and saturated fat. In presence of less consumption of water, the blood becomes thicker and it therefore compels the heart to work harder. Cholesterol levels may also shoot higher after such meals due to overworking of heart. Consuming too much of alcohol is also found to the contributing factors of tachycardia. Often alcohol is found to disturb the pacemaker system in such a way that the heart starts beating rapidly and irregularly. Age is often a contributing factor for increasing blood pressure leading to hypertension. Arteries become stiffer and narrower to plaque build-up. Besides, lifestyle factors such as physical inactivity, salt rich diet with processed fatty foods and alcohol use are also the causes. All these are observed in the patient and therefore one can understand the main factors responsible for such condition. Secondary prevention mainly refers to the reduction of the impact of a diseases or disorder. It involves detection and treatment of the diseases encouraging personal strategies to prevent recurrence. Secondary prevention of the patient should be patient cantered approach that will deal with the specific symptoms that miss Bell is facing rather than providing conventional treatment to her. Hypertension of the patient should be treated by thiazide diuretics acting on kidneys to help body eliminate the sodium and water reducing blood volume. The best medication that can be given to her include beta blockers that reduce workload on the heart and open blood vessels helping to beat heart slowly and with less force (van der Werf Lieve, 2016). Calcium channel blockers can also be used to make the muscles of the blood vessels relax and also slows down heart rate. Alcohol specially wines should be strictly avoided as it is believed that grapefruit juice often interacts with calcium channel bl ockers as they tend to increase the blood levels of the medication. This puts the patient at a higher risk for side effects. Besides medication, she should immediately alter and modify her lifestyle so that the symptoms do not arise in her in the future. She should maintain a healthy diet containing more of organic products and home cooked food in order to decrease the amount of saturated fats in her diet. She should have a daily schedule of eating, sleeping and exercising at the same fixed times (Ozdag, Didem Suna Yavuz, 2015). Although she remains quite busy, lifestyle changes would help her from these occurrences. Alcohol consumption everyday should be inhibited and can be only taken occasionally. Regular exercise would help her to get well. Maintaining a healthy weight and limiting the amount of alcohol would help her to get better. Tertiary prevention would be started when the blood pressure reaches 140/90. Engaging herself in different community based programs of yoga, meditations, diet maintenance classes and others will help her to understand how she will tackle the symptoms herself. She can undertake regular morning walks in the parks nearby her house whenever she is present in hometown and help her life towards betterment. Carrying home cooked food to offices will be a refreshing change to her health. Reflection: On the day of the visit of Miss Bell, I was going to the doctors ward when being summoned by the doctor. In the corridor, I all of a sudden saw, miss Bell holding the walls and trying to sit on the chairs provided. I immediately rushed to her understanding that she was having abnormality. From my evidence based research practise, I applied my knowledge of first checking the pulse rate. After measuring it, I understood that it was irregular and I immediately took her to the patient ward. I was highly praised by my fellow mates for my quick action and measuring the pulse rate which is a very crucial signal for the symptoms. However, I was not sure what medication to provide her particularly at that time for I could not ask the patient of her history at the critical moment. I was very confused. Therefore, I asked my mentor about the course of work that I should follow. She instructed me to provide her with oxygen supply immediately. As she was on lower risk, she also instructed me to provide beta blocker after she recovers. However, herein was my weakness as my capability to identify the correct intervention with the minimum symptoms available is very poor. However I need to go through more evidence based studies and reflective journals to improve my on spot capability of identification and delivery of proper interventions. Reference: Ozdag, Y., Didem Suna, Y., Yavuz, B. (2015). An assessment of the awareness of lifestyle changes in patients with hypertension.Fam Med Med Sci Res,4(178), 2. van der Werf, C., Lieve, K. V. (2016). Beta-blockers in the treatment of catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia.Heart Rhythm,13(2), 441-442.