We hear a lot about heart disease and other problems of the cardiovascular system. It has been a problem faced by scientists and health professionals for many decades. We can be forgiven for thinking that with all the attention it has received and all the money spent trying to find treatments and cures, the problem would have been solved and the number of people dying from cardiovascular system problems would have decreased. This does not seem to be the case. I find the following information alarming.
Piscatella and Franklin (2003) estimate that cardiovascular disease affects 100 million Americans (about half the population). One person in the United States dies of cardiovascular disease every 34 seconds. This means that at 7 in the morning of any day of the week, 741 have already died from cardiovascular diseases, at noon the figure has risen to 1,271 and at the end of the day 2,488 have died. Let’s put it another way. The chance of Americans contracting AIDS is 1 in 1,000,000. The chance of being killed is 1 in 10,000. However, the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease is 1 in 2.
It has often been thought that this is a man’s problem. However, there are almost as many women with heart problems as men, and it is the leading cause of death among American women. More than 250,000 women die of heart disease each year, more than the next 14 leading causes of death combined. More women than men die from heart disease each year. Every year twice as many women die from cardiovascular disease than from all forms of cancer combined.
Answers to questions about heart disease.
what is a heart attack?
A heart attack, also called a myocardial infarction (MI) or coronary (coronary) occlusion, occurs when blood flow to part of the heart muscle is blocked. It is caused by a blockage of the coronary artery, or more commonly one of its sub-branches. This usually results from the movement of an unstable plaque in the artery wall, a blood clot, or a spasm that seals the artery. The section of heart muscle that has no blood supply eventually dies, causing permanent damage to the heart muscle tissue, which includes most of the organ.
What does a heart attack feel like?
The most common symptom is pain or pressure or a feeling of fullness in the chest that lasts for two or more minutes. Men sometimes say it feels like having a vice squeezing his chest or an elephant sitting on his chest. Women often experience softer bread. The pain or sensation may (or may not) also be in the shoulders, neck, jaw, back, arms, or abdomen. Men tend to have sharper pain than women, often in the arms and shoulders as well. Dizziness, sweating, nausea, and shortness of breath may also occur.
If you have ever run very hard without proper training, you will have felt the pain in your muscles caused by the lack of oxygen during the time you forced them to work. Well, your heart muscle always has to work to keep you alive, so when part of it is suddenly deprived of oxygen, the pain can be extreme and lead to unconsciousness.
When are heart attacks most likely to occur?
Men may have the first signs of heart disease between the ages of 35 and 40. The condition does not usually affect women until between the ages of 45 and 64.
There are differences in the time of day and time of week that a heart attack is most likely to occur. Between 6 am and 12 noon is the riskiest time of the day, possibly due to increases in hormone levels, blood pressure, and stiffness of the arteries in the morning. More heart attacks occur on Mondays than any other day of the week, sometimes called “Blue Monday.” It is believed that the cause may be the stress of the work environment, especially after a period of relaxation.
What is angina?
There are often no warning symptoms in the early stages of heart disease. However, as the arteries that carry blood and oxygen to the heart muscle (the coronary arteries) gradually narrow, many people experience angina pectoris, or angina pectoris, “chest pain.” The heart muscle itself is receiving insufficient oxygen for its current level of workload, as are the legs of the previously mentioned untrained runner.
Angina is sudden sharp pain: a feeling of tightness, heaviness, tightness, numbness, burning, or pressure. It can move to the arms (often the left arm), neck, jaw, back, and shoulder.
Angina is a symptom, not a disease. It is progressive: the pain can become more frequent, more intense of both.
Not all angina is the same.
- Some occur during or shortly after physical exertion, eating a heavy meal, being hot or cold, or as a reaction to emotional stress. Victims are usually forced to stop what they are doing (reducing the workload in the heat so you have enough oxygen).
- Another form of angina causes pain at less predictable times, including when you are sleeping. This form is often a symptom of an impending heart attack.
- Angina is an indicator of coronary artery blockage: it affects more than 5 million Americans.
What is a cardiac arrest?
Cardiac arrest is when the heart stops working: its normal process of pumping blood throughout the body stops. This is an emergency situation as the body, and in particular the brain, needs to be supplied with oxygen through the bloodstream. Without this oxygen, death occurs quickly. Most cases of cardiac arrest are related to the heart’s electrical conduction system not working properly and the heart beating irregularly, such as in ventricular fibrillation, where the heartbeat is chaotic and ineffective. Sometimes a heart attack can cause these heartbeat problems.
There are ways to treat and overcome heart disease.
All the information provided above paints a very bleak picture. However, you and your family need not be a part of this heart disease tragedy. Any change your body makes in one direction (for example, toward cardiovascular disease) can make it in the opposite direction (for example, toward a healthy cardiovascular system). You will need to take steps to make this happen. Some of the actions you should take include:
- quit smoking, if you are a smoker, the Growerz.com quit smoking program will help you.
- balance your diet,
- make exercise a health habit, and
- Manage your stress levels.
In addition to these, you need to cleanse your body of toxins; this includes the toxins that have built up in your arteries, as well as the rest of your internal tissues. These actions—how to take them, things to consider, and more—will be included in future heart disease articles.
Part of the tragedy of heart disease is that, as devastating as it is, it is preventable and treatable. Too many people are drawn to the myths promoted by Western medicine that suggest little can be done to effectively treat the disease. Your typical doctor has accepted the verdict that suits the pharmaceutical industry and treats you entirely within their “market.” They have largely lost the knowledge and skills to treat heart disease in any other way and now simply run tests, prescribe drugs laden with side effects, and hope you die soon enough, having parted with a good deal of money. Their approach is enormously expensive (consider the tests, the drugs, the special paramedics, the coronary care units, and the loss of work productivity, not to mention the human suffering), it clearly doesn’t work (just look at the statistics), and they simply cannot be trusted.
Heart disease is largely a lifestyle related problem. There is a genetic component, but most of the medical profession overemphasizes it and wants to excuse its failure. With a little guidance and a commitment to making some changes, you can avoid or recover from heart disease, or at least dramatically improve your quality of life if you already have advanced disease.
References
Davies, S. and A. Stewart., 1997, Nutritional Medicine. Pop.
Holden, S., Hudson, K., Tilman, J. & D. Wolf, 2003, Nature’s Definitive Guide to Health. Astrology publication.
Pistcatella, JC and Frankin, BA 2003, Take a load off your heart. Worker.
Saxelby, C. 2001, Nutrition for a healthy heart. Hardy Grant.