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Fatty Heart

Categories: Uncategorized
Sources: Disturbances Of The Heart

The cause of deposits of fat around the heart or in between its

chambers is the same as the cause of general obesity. These patients

are likely to be obese, or at least to have large abdomens with

large deposits of fat around the abdomen. This fat in itself will

interfere somewhat with abdominal respiration. This tends to cause

dyspnea, and the heart tends to be disturbed from these causes, if

much fat is not really in
the pericardium. The symptoms are those of

imperfect heart action; the patient is dyspneic on exertion or in

leaning over, the heart acts rapidly on such exertion, the patient

puffs, perspires easily, and becomes leg weary, sedentary in his

habits, and more or less incapacitated for work. He may not be a

large eater; if he is, and his eating habit is corrected, the

prognosis is better than if he is putting on weight in spite of

eating sparingly.



The general treatment is that for obesity, and if the heart muscle

is intact, various depletion methods may be inaugurated. More and

more exercise, sweatings from Turkish baths, electric-light baths,

body baking, vigorous massage and more or less purging are all

valuable. Anything which reduces the general weight will help the

heart. The prognosis is often good.



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