Global Courant
We hear a lot about heart disease and other problems of the cardiovascular system. It has been a problem that scientists and health professionals have faced for decades. We can be forgiven for thinking that with all the attention it has received and all the money spent seeking treatments and cures, the problem would have been solved and the number of people dying from cardiovascular system problems would have been solved. have dropped. This turns out not to be the case. I find the following information alarming.
Piscatella and Franklin (2003) estimate that 100 million Americans (about half the population) suffer from cardiovascular disease. In the United States, one person dies of cardiovascular disease every 34 seconds. This means that at 7 a.m. on any given day of the week, 741 have already died of cardiovascular disease, by noon the number has risen to 1,271, and by the end of the day, 2,488 have died. Let’s put it another way. The American chance of 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 male problem. However, there are nearly as many women with heart problems as men and it is the leading cause of death among American women. Each year, more than 250,000 women die from heart disease, more than the next 14 causes of death combined. Every year, more women than men die from cardiovascular disease. 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 myocardial infarction (MI) or coronary occlusion (coronary) – occurs when the blood supply to part of the heart muscle is blocked. It is caused by a blockage of the coronary artery, or more commonly one of its subbranches. This is usually due to the movement of unstable plaque on the artery wall, a blood clot, or a spasm that occludes the artery. The part of the heart muscle that has no blood supply eventually dies, causing permanent damage to the heart muscle tissue, which makes up the bulk 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 that it feels like a vice is squeezing their chest or an elephant is sitting on their chest. Women usually experience milder pain. The pain or sensation may (or may not) also be in the shoulders, neck, jaw, back, arms, or abdomen. Men often have sharper pain than women and also often in their arms and shoulders. Dizziness, sweating, nausea, and shortness of breath may also occur.
If you’ve ever run really hard without proper training, you’ve felt the pain in your muscles caused by lack of oxygen during the time you’ve been forcing them to work. Well, your heart muscle always has to work to live, so if part of it is suddenly deprived of oxygen, the pain can be extreme, resulting in loss of consciousness.
When are heart attacks most common?
Men may first experience the signs of heart disease between the ages of 35 and 40. The condition usually only affects women between the ages of 45 and 64.
There are differences in the time of day and time of week when heart attacks are most likely. Between 6 a.m. and noon is the riskiest time of day — possibly because of the increase in hormone levels and blood pressure and stiffness of the arteries in the morning. More heart attacks happen on Mondays than on any other day of the week – also known as “Blue Monday”. It is believed that the stress of the work environment – especially after a period of relaxation – may be the cause.
What is angina pectoris?
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 or angina pectoris – “chest pain”. The heart muscle itself is not getting enough oxygen for its current workload, just like the legs of the untrained runner mentioned above.
Angina is a sharp, sudden pain — a feeling of tightness, heaviness, squeezing, 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 exercise, after eating a heavy meal, in the cold or heat, or in response to emotional stress. Sufferers are usually forced to stop what they are doing (reducing the workload on the heat so that it has enough oxygen).
- Another form of angina causes pain at less predictable times — even when you’re asleep. This form is often a symptom of an impending heart attack.
- Angina pectoris is an indicator of coronary artery blockage – it affects more than 5 million Americans.
What is Cardiac Arrest?
In cardiac arrest, the heart stops functioning – the normal process of pumping blood around the body stops. This is an emergency because the body, especially the brain, needs oxygen supplied through the bloodstream. Without this oxygen, death occurs quickly. Most cases of cardiac arrest are related to the heart’s electrical conduction system malfunctioning and the heart beating irregularly, such as in ventricular fibrillation where the heartbeat is chaotic and ineffective. Sometimes a heart attack can lead to these heart rate problems.
There are ways to cope with and overcome heart disease.
All of the above information paints a very bleak picture. However, you and your family don’t have to be a part of this heart disease tragedy. All the changes your body makes in one direction (for example, to cardiovascular disease), it can also make in the opposite direction (for example, to a healthy cardiovascular system). You will need to take action to make this happen. Some of the actions you need to take are:
- quit smoking, if you smoke, the Growerz.com quit smoking program will help you.
- balance your diet,
- make exercise a health habit, and
- manage your stress levels.
In addition, you need to rid your body of toxins – this includes the toxins that have accumulated in your blood vessels and the rest of your internal tissues. These actions (how to take them, things to keep in mind, and more) will be included in future articles on heart disease.
Part of the tragedy of heart disease is that, as devastating as the disease is, it is preventable and treatable. Far too many people are drawn to the myths promoted by Western medicine that suggest that little can be done to effectively tackle the disease. Your typical doctor has accepted judgment befitting the pharmaceutical industry and treats you entirely within their “market”. They’ve largely lost the knowledge and skills to deal with heart disease in a different way and now just run tests, prescribe drugs with side effects, and expect you to die soon enough, after separating you from a bunch of money. Their approach is hugely expensive (think the tests, drugs, special paramedics, coronary care units and lost productivity, not to mention the human suffering), clearly doesn’t work (just look at the statistics) and simply cannot be trusted.
Heart disease is largely a lifestyle-related problem. There is a genetic component, but that is overemphasized by most medical professionals who want to excuse their failure. With some guidance and a commitment to making some changes, you can prevent or recover from heart disease, or at the very least dramatically improve your quality of life if you already have advanced pathology.
References
Davies, S. and A. Stewart., 1997, Nutritional Medicine. Pan.
Holden, S., Hudson, K., Tilman, J. & D. Wolf, 2003, The Ultimate Guide to Health from Nature. Asrolog Publication.
Pistcatella, JC and Frankin, BA 2003, Take a load off your heart. Workman.
Saxelby, C. 2001, Nutrition for the healthy heart. Hardy Grant.
The tragedy of heart disease
World News,Next Big Thing in Public Knowledg
#tragedy #heart #disease
