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Myocarditis
What should be avoided in the diet for myocarditis?
Myocarditis is an inflammatory disease of the myocardium. Currently, there is no specific treatment for myocarditis. Patients should avoid fatigue, rest adequately to reduce cardiac load, and pay attention to nutritional intake. It is encouraged to eat easily digestible foods that are rich in vitamins and high in protein, and to avoid spicy, greasy, and hard-to-digest foods. Additionally, it is advisable to consume more fruits and vegetables, which are rich in vitamin C.
How is myocarditis diagnosed?
The examination of myocarditis includes several aspects: First, the biochemical blood test shows that white blood cells can increase, erythrocyte sedimentation rate can accelerate, and both cardiac enzymes and troponins can rise. There may also be abnormalities in the electrocardiogram, such as arrhythmias or ST-segment changes. In addition, there are X-ray examinations, which can show an enlarged heart shadow or pulmonary congestion. Echocardiograms may not show any specific changes or can exhibit phase-dependent or regional abnormalities in ventricular wall motion. Furthermore, nuclear imaging and magnetic resonance imaging indicate the presence of fluttering and inflammatory changes. The virological examination can isolate the virus through throat swabs or stool samples, and if necessary, an endocardial or myocardial biopsy can be performed.
Is it good to soak your feet if you have myocarditis?
For myocarditis, whether soaking feet is good or bad is irrelevant because soaking feet has no effect on the treatment of myocarditis. For the treatment of myocarditis, there is general treatment and medication treatment. General treatments typically aim to reduce the cardiac load, such as resting and providing easily digestible food rich in vitamins and proteins, and soaking feet offers no benefit in these respects. Additionally, myocarditis should be treated with medications, including diuretics, vasodilators, ACE inhibitors as appropriate. If arrhythmias occur, anti-arrhythmic drugs should be provided, and if a viral infection is confirmed, specific antiviral treatment should be administered. Therefore, soaking feet is not significantly relevant. (Specific medication use should be conducted under the guidance of a doctor.)
What to eat for myocarditis?
For patients who already have myocarditis, what should we feed them? This is a question that confuses many people. In fact, patients with myocarditis should eat high-protein foods, high-vitamin foods, and those that are low in calories or easy to digest, such as a low-salt diet. It is recommended to eat small meals frequently and avoid foods that are spicy, heavily flavored, or irritating. For high-vitamin foods, the main choices include fruits, some vegetables, bean sprouts, kelp, seaweed, and black fungus, all of which are very good options. Low-calorie foods such as cucumbers, tomatoes, celery, job's tears, and papaya are also good choices. High-protein foods include soybeans, peanuts, seaweed, mushrooms, nuts, milk, lean meats, eggs, fish, shrimp, and more. We also recommend easily digestible foods, like millet porridge and noodles, as well as a low-salt diet, recommending a daily salt intake of no more than 3 grams for patients with myocarditis.
Early manifestations of myocarditis
What are the early symptoms of myocarditis? In fact, most patients with myocarditis typically exhibit acute onset of symptoms, which generally occur 1 to 3 weeks after cardiac involvement, or they may simultaneously exhibit various degrees of viral infection symptoms such as fever, sore throat, cough, general malaise, muscle pain, skin rash, or nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. These are its prodromal symptoms. Additionally, some patients exhibit systemic viral infection symptoms when the disease occurs, such as rubella, measles, epidemic mumps, viral hepatitis, and other diseases. Since the recovery rate of myocarditis in the acute and recovery phases is significantly higher than in the lingering or chronic phases, it is evident that treatment for myocarditis should be initiated as early as possible to increase the recovery rate.
The dangers of myocarditis
Myocarditis is an inflammatory disease of the myocardium. Most cases of myocarditis are self-limiting, but if not treated promptly, it can progress to dilated cardiomyopathy. Dilated cardiomyopathy often begins insidiously. Once symptoms appear and the patient enters the stage of heart failure, the condition becomes very serious. Additionally, a minority of patients experience a fulminant onset, leading to acute decompensation or sudden death. Fulminant myocarditis and severe myocarditis progress quickly and have a high mortality rate, thus highlighting the dangers of myocarditis.
Causes of Myocarditis
Myocarditis is also an inflammatory disease of the myocardium. Common causes are viral infections, such as Coxsackievirus B, Parvovirus B19, Human Herpesvirus 6, and Poliovirus, with Coxsackievirus B being the most common cause, accounting for about 30%-50%. Bacteria, fungi, spirochetes, rickettsiae, and protozoa can also cause myocarditis, but they are relatively rare. Non-infectious causes of myocarditis include drugs, radiation, connective tissue diseases, vasculitis, giant cell myocarditis, among others. These are all causes of myocarditis.
Is myocarditis serious?
Is myocarditis serious? In fact, myocarditis is an inflammatory disease of the myocardium. Patients with myocarditis may experience symptoms such as fatigue, palpitations, shortness of breath, discomfort or pain in the precordial area, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, etc. During examinations, we often see slight enlargement of the heart, arrhythmias, gallop rhythm, and other manifestations of heart dysfunction. In severe cases, myocarditis can lead to fulminant myocarditis, such as severe heart failure or cardiogenic shock, often accompanied by arrhythmias. Even with timely and standard treatment, death may occur due to the severity of the condition. Even if patients with myocarditis recover, they may still have some sequelae on the electrocardiogram, such as atrioventricular block, bundle branch block, premature beats, or junctional rhythm.
How is myocarditis treated?
Let's talk about how myocarditis is treated. Myocarditis is actually considered a self-limiting disease with no specific cure. However, treatment generally revolves around symptomatic treatment, combining conventional care and symptom management. For general treatment, bed rest is highly recommended for patients suffering from acute viral myocarditis to reduce the strain on the heart. Patients suffering from severe arrhythmias or heart failure are advised to rest in bed for at least one month and are not allowed to participate in strenuous physical labor for six months. For those without cardiac morphological or functional changes, rest for half a month is recommended, followed by avoiding heavy physical activity for three months. Additional antiviral treatments, such as interferon-alpha and Astragalus membranaceus, may be used; protective cardiac therapies or immunotherapies may also be administered. Symptomatic treatment mainly targets patients with severe heart failure or severe arrhythmias, following conventional treatment protocols for these conditions. For patients with complete atrioventricular block, temporary pacemakers may be used, and permanent pacemakers can be installed depending on the situation if the block cannot be resolved. Depending on the type of arrhythmia, antiarrhythmic medications like beta-blockers, amiodarone, and others may also be used. As each patient's cause of illness, severity, and physical constitution vary, it is essential to undergo personalized treatment under the guidance of a doctor.
Does myocarditis cause a fever?
Myocarditis is an inflammatory heart disease, commonly caused by viral infections, with the Coxsackievirus being the most common. Other infections, such as bacterial, fungal, and Rickettsia, can also cause myocarditis. These infectious myocarditis cases generally show preliminary symptoms of infection, such as fever, in the 1 to 3 weeks before the onset of the disease. Fever indicates a high body temperature, which means the same as having a fever. However, there are also non-infectious forms of myocarditis, such as those caused by drugs, radiation, or connective tissue diseases, and these non-infectious types of myocarditis do not always involve a fever.