Heart disease kills one person every second in USA alone

Modern medicine is still unable to predict heart attacks. In spite of the heart that heart disease is considered to be one of the biggest killers in many countries of the globe, it is still unknown what leads to the development of a sudden cardiac arrest.

Photo: Heart disease kills one person every second in USA alone

The recent death of NBC TV host Tim Russert has raised triggered a public concern over the disease, which gave medics an opportunity to educate people about how to prevent the heart from failing.

Healthy lifestyle seems to be the key to the healthy heart, specialists say. Low-fat diet, physical exercises, regular checkups, medications (when necessary), knowledge of early warning signs seems to be all a person can do in an attempt to avoid the heart disease. However, the disease may strike without any warning signs at all.

Heart disease kills one person every second in the USA alone. Over 451,000 Americans die of coronary heart disease every year. In the United Kingdom, 101,000 deaths annually are due to coronary heart disease.

Coronary artery disease is a disease of the artery caused by the accumulation of atheromatous plaques within the walls of the arteries that supply the myocardium. Angina pectoris (chest pain) and myocardial infarction (heart attack) are symptoms of and conditions caused by coronary heart disease.

Diet is a major contributing factor to the presence (or lack thereof) of heart disease. For example, a diet high in cholesterol may lead to coronary heart disease, a condition in which a buildup of plaque occurs in the arteries near the heart. A diet of less than 300mg of cholesterol is recommended by the American Heart Association. This reduced level of cholesterol means less buildup of plaque in the arteries near the heart, thus greatly reducing the likelihood of coronary heart disease.