Disability Claim Representation
The center of your cardiovascular system is your heart. Your heart pumps blood through your body’s blood vessels to all of your cells. Your blood delivers oxygen that your cells have to have.
Cardiomyopathy literally means “heart muscle disease”. Cardiomyopathy is the deterioration of the function of your actual heart muscle (myocardium). This medical condition impairs your heart’s ability to pump blood.
Dilated cardiomyopathy is the most common form of this disease. It occurs when your heart’s main pumping chamber becomes dilated (enlarged), and its pumping ability becomes impaired.
Anyone at any age can be affected by dilated cardiomyopathy. This includes children and infants. However, it is most common in middle age.
Dilated cardiomyopathy is caused by the failure of your left ventricle, which is your heart’s main pumping chamber, to pump blood like a healthy heart does. What causes this to happen is not known in many cases. On the other hand, there are several things that can cause dilated cardiomyopathy. Some of these are:
- Cocaine or alcohol abuse
- A family history of cardiomyopathy
- Autoimmune illnesses that affect your heart like rheumatoid arthritis
- Coronary artery disease
- Certain medications
- Trace elements like arsenic, mercury or lead
- Inherited disorders like muscular dystrophy
- Hypertension (high blood pressure) that is not controlled
- Infections that affect your heart muscle, such as Lyme disease or Chagas disease
- Heart rhythm difficulties like tachycardia or atrial fibrillation.
At first, you may not experience any signs or symptoms with dilated cardiomyopathy. Eventually, when this disease causes cardiac arrhythmias or heart failure you will probably have signs and symptoms. These may include:
- Ascites (swelling of your abdomen)
- Nausea and lack of appetite
- Palpitations (the sensation of fluttering, pounding or rapid heartbeats)
- Weakness and fatigue
- Wheezing or coughing that is ongoing
- Decrease in alertness or problems with concentration
- Dyspnea (shortness of breath) when you are lying down or active
- Sudden weight gain from retaining fluid
- Edema (swelling) in your feet, ankles and legs
- Dizziness, fainting or lightheadedness
- A reduction in your ability to exercise
- A failure to thrive in children
- Nocturia (increase in urination at night).
You or a loved one may have dilated cardiomyopathy. This disease and/or complications resulting from it may be why you are disabled and in need of financial help.
You or your loved one may have applied for financial assistance from the Social Security Administration by applying for Social Security disability benefits or disability benefits because of the disability caused by dilated cardiomyopathy and/or complications resulting from it. Were you denied?
If you or your loved one appeals the denial by the Social Security Administration, consider this carefully. People represented by a disability attorney like the one you will find at socialsecurityhome.com are approved more often than people who are without a disability lawyer.
Tags: cardiomyopathy, Cardiovascular Disorders, Conditions and Diseases, Health, heart disease, Heart failure, Hypertension, social security administration