The More You Know

CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE

"Crunch the numbers: blood pressure, cholesterol and BMI. It's not hard. And they're all important in keeping cardiovascular disease in check. So do your body a favor. Check yourself out." - Sendhil Ramamurthy, Heroes

The Importance of a Healthy Heart

The normal heart is a strong, hard-working pump made of muscle tissue. It's about the size of a person's fist. Throughout life, the heart needs to be maintained and kept healthy in order to function. If you take care of your heart, by following a balanced diet, exercising and avoiding smoking and alcohol, your heart should take care of you for the rest of your life.

Cardiovascular Disease

Like any other muscle in the body, the heart is not perfect and is prone to disease. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is an abnormal function of the heart or blood vessels. It can cause an increase in risk for heart attack, heart failure, sudden death, stroke and cardiac rhythm problems, thus resulting in decreased quality of life and decreased life expectancy.

Cardiovascular disease includes high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, heart failure and stroke. Heart disease and stroke are the most common cardiovascular diseases. One in three American adults has some form of CVD.

How to Prevent CVD

The causes of cardiovascular disease range from structural defects, to infection, inflammation, environment and genetics. To help prevent cardiovascular disease, adopt a healthy lifestyle and avoid smoking, fattening foods and stress. CVD risk factors that can be prevented or treated include:

• high blood pressure
• high cholesterol
• excess weight
• poor eating habits
• physical inactivity
• smoking
• diabetes
• excessive alcohol consumption
• stress

Unpreventable risks include:

• previous heart attack
• family member with heart disease
• increasing age
• gender
• race

What do you know about a healthy heart? Click here to take the American Heart Association's quizzes.

Heart Attacks: Know the Signs

This year, an estimated 1.26 million Americans will have a new or recurrent coronary attack. Deaths from heart attacks can be prevented if the signs are caught early and help is called immediately.

Most heart attacks start slowly, with mild pain or discomfort. Often people affected aren't sure what's wrong and wait too long before getting help. Here are signs that can mean a heart attack is happening:

• chest discomfort: an uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness, or pain in the center of the chest, usually lasting more than a few minutes or may go away and come back
• upper body discomfort: pain or discomfort in one or both arms, shoulder blade, back, neck, jaw or stomach
• shortness of breath
• dizziness
• cold sweats
• nausea

To Know More...

American Heart Association
http://www.americanheart.org/