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The center of your cardiovascular system is your heart. Your heart uses your body’s blood vessels to pump blood to all of the cells of your body. Your blood has oxygen that your cells require. Heart disease is a medical term that is used in reference to a group of diseases that develop when your blood vessels and heart are not working like they ought to.

Your mitral valve is also known as the left atrioventricular valve or bicuspid valve. It is a dual-flap valve that separates the upper (atrium) and lower (ventricle) chambers of the left side of your heart. Your mitral valve has the task of regulating blood flow from your left atrium into your left ventricle.

Barlow’s syndrome occurs when your mitral valve fails to close the way it ought to. This can lead to blood leaking back into your left atrium. This is a condition that is known as mitral valve regurgitation.

Barlow’s syndrome is the heart valve abnormality that develops most often. As much as 10% of the general population of the United States may be affected by some type of this syndrome.

No one knows the exact cause of Barlow’s syndrome. However, it is associated with many things. Some of these are:

• Minor chest wall deformities
• Heredity
• Medical conditions like Marfan syndrome, scoliosis, polycystic kidney disease, Graves disease, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and osteogenesis imperfects.

A vast majority of the time, Barlow’s syndrome does not cause any difficulties and does not need any treatment. However, when Barlow’s syndrome does cause signs and symptoms, it can have serious, life-threatening complications.

If you do experience signs and symptoms with Barlow’s syndrome they can vary greatly from person to person. Some of the possible signs and symptoms are:

• Dizziness or lightheadedness
• Depression, anxiety and panic attacks
• Fatigue
• Shortness of breath or having trouble breathing that often occurs when you are lying down flat or doing physical activity
• Migraine headaches
• Chest pain that is not caused by a heart attack or coronary artery disease
• An irregular or racing heartbeat (arrhythmia)
• A cough
• Heart murmur
• Low blood pressure when you are lying down.

Your aortic valve is one of your heart’s four valves. It allows oxygen-rich blood to flow from your left ventricle into the largest artery of your body, the aorta. The blood is then transported to the rest of your body.

A normal aortic valve has three leaflets (cusps). These leaflets are what control the blood flow of your heart’s left ventricle.

Bicuspid aortic valve disease (BAVD) is a group of conditions that affect your heart. People who have BAVD have only two leaflets in their aortic valve. With the passage of time, this can cause several different medical problems.

There are two kinds of bicuspid aortic valve disease that can bring about stress to your heart. The first is bicuspid aortic valve insufficiency. This is a condition in which your aortic valves do not close as tightly as they are supposed to. This lets blood backup into your heart. This is referred to as leakage or regurgitation.

The second kind of BAVD is bicuspid aortic valve stenosis. This condition is where there is a narrowing of your deformed aortic valve. This places greater stress on your heart’s left ventricle because it has to work harder to pump blood through your valve that has been narrowed.

Bicuspid aortic valve is the most common congenital (present at birth) heart defect. It is estimated that as many as 2% of the population of the United States have this heart defect. This condition is nearly twice as common in men as in women.

You may not have any signs and symptoms with bicuspid aortic valve disease. Some of the signs and symptoms that you may have are:

• Hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Aneurysms
• Endocarditis (heart valve infection)
• Kidney and liver cysts
• Nearsightedness
• Organs throughout your body may be affected
• Shortness of breath, especially during any kind of exertion
• Fainting or dizziness
• Chest pain.

You or a loved one may be suffering with bicuspid aortic valve disease. This disease and/or complications resulting from it may be the reason for your disability and why you cannot work.

You may need help if this is true. You may need financial assistance.

Do you or your loved one intend to apply for the financial help that you need from the Social Security Administration by applying for Social Security disability benefits or disability benefits because of the disability caused by bicuspid aortic valve disease and/or complications resulting from it? You or your loved one may have already taken this step and been denied by the Social Security Administration?

If you or your loved one is planning on appealing the denial by the Social Security Administration, think about this carefully. People who are represented by a disability lawyer like the one you will find at Social Security Home are approved more often than people who do not have a disability attorney on their side.

Please do not wait. Contact a disability lawyer today.

A connective tissue disease is any disease that has the connective tissues of your body as a primary target. Your connective tissues are the structural portions of your body. They essentially hold the cells of your body together. These connective tissues form a matrix, or framework, for your body.

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) is a group of inherited conditions that affect your connective tissues. Primarily, it affects your joints, blood vessel walls and skin.

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is marked by genetic defects (mutations) disrupting the production of collagen. Collagen is one of the main components of connective tissue.

Several types of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome have been identified with different signs and symptoms. However, all types of this syndrome affect your joints, and most of them affect your skin.

Classical type Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which used to be known as types I and II, affects about 1 in 10,000 to 20,000 people in the United States. Some of its signs and symptoms are:

• Muscle pain and fatigue

• Fragile skin that tears or bruises easily
• Poor and slow wound healing that results in wide scarring
• Loose joints
• Heart valve problems (aortic root dilation and mitral valve prolapse)
• Highly elastic, velvety skin
• Noncancerous fibrous growths on pressure areas of your body like your knees and elbows
• Redundant skin folds in places like your eyelids
• Fatty growths on your forearms and shins.

Hypermobility type Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which used to be known as type III, affects about 1 in 10,000 to 15,000 people in the United States. Signs and symptoms of this type include:

• Chronic degenerative joint disease
• Bruising easily
• Unstable, loose joints with many dislocations
• Advanced premature osteoarthritis that involves chronic pain
• Heart valve problems, as mentioned with classic type
• Muscle pain and fatigue.

Vascular type Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which used to be called type IV, affects about 1 in 100,000 to 200,000 people in this country. It is rare, but it is one of the most serious types of EDS. Signs and symptoms include:

• Pneumothorax (collapsed lung)
• Heart valve problems
• Fragile blood vessels and organs that are prone to rupture (tearing)
• A characteristic facial appearance that includes sunken cheeks, thin lips and nose, small chin and protruding eyes
• Thin, translucent skin that bruises easily.

There are other types of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, but they are extremely rare.

You or a loved one may have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. EDS 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 Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and/or complications resulting from it. Were you or your loved one denied?

If you or your loved one reapplies or appeals the denial, consider this. People who are represented by a disability attorney like the ones you can find at Social Security Home are approved more often than people who do not have a disability lawyer.

Your heart is the center of your cardiovascular system. Your heart pumps blood through your body’s blood vessels to all of your cells. Your blood carries oxygen that your cells need. Heart disease refers to a group of diseases that occur when your heart and blood vessels are not working like they should.

Your mitral valve is also called the bicuspid valve or left atrioventricular valve. It is a dual-flap valve that separates the lower (ventricle) and upper (atrium) chambers of the left side of your heart. Your mitral valve has the function of controlling blood flow from your left atrium into your left ventricle.

Mitral valve prolapse happens when your mitral valve fails to close the way it should. This sometimes results in blood leaking back into your left atrium. This is a condition that is referred to as mitral valve regurgitation.

Mitral valve prolapse is referred to by other names. It is also called floppy valve syndrome, ballooning mitral valve syndrome, click-murmur syndrome and Barlow’s syndrome.

Mitral valve prolapse is the most common heart valve abnormality. As much as 10% of the general population may have some form of this condition.

Most of the time mitral valve prolapse does not cause any problems and does not require treatment. However, when mitral valve prolapse does cause signs and symptoms, it is called mitral valve prolapse syndrome, and it can have serious, life-threatening complications.

As mentioned earlier, many people never have any signs or symptoms with mitral valve prolapse. If you do have signs and symptoms, they can vary greatly from person to person. Some of the signs and symptoms that you may experience are:

• Fatigue
• Shortness of breath or having trouble breathing that often occurs when you are doing physical activity or lying down flat
• Chest pain that is not caused by coronary artery disease or a heart attack
• An irregular or racing heartbeat (arrhythmia)
• Lightheadedness or dizziness
• Cough
• Anxiety, depression and panic attacks
• Migraine headaches.

You or a loved one may have mitral valve prolapse. This condition and/or complications resulting from or other conditions along with it may be why you or your loved one cannot work. It may be the cause of you or your loved one’s disability.

Have you or your loved one applied for the financial assistance that you need from the Social Security Administration by applying for Social Security disability benefits or disability benefits because of the disability caused by mitral valve prolapse and/or complications resulting from or other conditions along with it? Were you denied by the Social Security Administration?

If you or your loved one appeals the denial by the Social Security Administration, remember this important fact. People who have a disability lawyer like the one you will find at socialsecurityhome.com are approved more often than those who are not represented by a disability attorney.

Infective endocarditis, which is sometimes called bacterial endocarditis strikes somewhere between 10,000 –20,000 people in the United States each year. Although endocarditis is not a common disease, it is important because even with antimicrobial therapy it can lead to the need for open heart surgery, stroke or even death.

Endocarditis is known by some other names besides the two just mentioned. It is also called rheumatic endocarditis, acute endocarditis, valvular endocarditis and mural endocarditis.

There are also several types of endocarditis. These range all the way from acute forms that appear suddenly to subacute forms that develop gradually over a period of time.

The effects that you may experience with endocarditis vary according to the cause of the infection and the type of the disease. Some of the ways that you may be affected by endocarditis are:

• Weight loss
• Night sweats
• Fever
• Chills
• Chest or back pain
• Joint or arthritis pain
• A persistent cough
• Shortness of breath
• Tiny, purplish-red pinpoint spots of bleeding under your skin (petechiae)
• Headaches
• Painless, bumpy nodules on the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet.
• Dark red lines of bleeding under your nails (splinter hemorrhages)
• Tender spots under the skin on the pads of your fingers (Oster’s nodes).

There are other clinical effects caused by endocarditis that will have to be confirmed by your doctor. Some of these are:

• An enlarged spleen
• Stroke
• A change in the quality of an existing heart murmur or a new heart murmur
• Embolisms caused by clumps of blood cells and infectious fungi or bacteria.

Endocarditis and problems along with or resulting from it may be causing you or a loved one’s disability. This disease may be why you or your loved one cannot work and needs financial assistance.

Who can you turn to for the financial help that you need? Where will this assistance come from?

Have you or your loved one applied for financial help from the Social Security Administration by applying for Social Security disability benefits or disability benefits because of the disability caused by endocarditis and problems resulting from or along with this disease? Were you or your loved one denied?

If you or your loved one is planning on appealing the denial by the Social Security Administration, here is something that you need to remember. People who are represented and assisted by a skilled disability attorney like the one you will find at socialsecurityhome.com are approved more often than those people who do not have a lawyer.

Do not wait. Do not put this off. Contact the trustworthy disability attorney at socialsecurityhome.com, today.