So far we know that there are two types of heart murmurs, the innocent heart murmur and the abnormal heart murmur. Other health conditions can also contribute to heart murmurs.

Benign Heart Murmurs

Is also referred to as innocent or harmless heart murmur and occur due to blood flow through valves of a healthy heart common with infants. For adults, an innocent heart murmur is found in pregnant women because during pregnancy, extra blood is made in women’s body for the unborn child.

 The Abnormal Heart Murmur

This results from a heart defects or heart diseases which are present from child birth. In other cases it occurs due to aging process. The following are types of heart valve diseases that can cause a heart murmur. Continue reading →

Most heart murmurs are harmless and as a pre-existing condition at child birth. Having a heart murmur does not necessarily mean that there is anything wrong. An innocent murmur can be as a result of high fever or hyper- activity in children, causing the blood to flow faster through the heart. In case of the opposite where there is so little activity, the murmur quiets or even disappears. The reason why it is easy to detect murmur in children is because they have less muscle, fat and bone. The older they get the harder it becomes for it to be heard with the use of a stethoscope.

Though most murmurs are harmless, one should not ignore because some murmurs can result from heart problems. It is important therefore to have yourself examined by a pediatric cardiologist if you suspect that your heart murmur could be due to a heart problem, just to be on the safe side.

There are various factors one needs to consider in order to determine whether or not a heart murmur can lead to death. Continue reading →