20 Symptoms of Endocarditis to Look Out For

7. Nausea

An individual affected by a form of endocarditis called subacute endocarditis may experience nausea, a sensation where an individual feels they need to vomit. Vomit is the forceful movement of food from the stomach to the outside of the mouth. Vomiting is a mechanism in the body that attempts to remove the source of toxicity when the levels of toxins in the blood become too high. Endocarditis can cause patients to develop clots of debris in their circulation. These emboli that float around in the bloodstream of an individual with endocarditis eventually make it to the kidneys where impurities are filtered out of the blood. The emboli become lodged in the blood vessels of an affected individual's kidneys, stopping the flow of blood to the kidney tissues. This obstruction of oxygen-rich blood to the kidney tissues causes areas of infarction or cells that shut down due to oxygen deprivation. This causes the kidneys to work poorly and allows toxins to build up in the blood, which is what produces nausea.

8. Unintentional Weight Loss

Weight loss occurs when an individual's energy balance ratio becomes negative instead of neutral or positive. An individual's energy balance is the number of calories they take in comparison to the number of calories their body burns. An individual will gain weight when they are taking in more calories than they are burning off (positive energy balance). An individual will lose weight when they are consuming fewer calories than their body is burning off (negative energy balance). Cells around the body use calories by converting them into usable cellular energy. A healthy individual's body will be able to maintain a neutral energy balance on a healthy diet, but an individual affected by any form of infection is going to burn more calories than someone who does not have an infection in their body. This negative energy balance occurs in endocarditis because the bacteria causing the heart infection need calories and glucose to carry out their functions the same way healthy cells in the body do.