Don’t Let Heart Disease Kill YOU!

Heart Disease Awareness

Heart disease is something we all need to be more aware of. With more and more people dying from these diseases it is in our best interests to learn what we can and do our best to prevent this type of condition from striking us.

The Many Faces Of Heart Disease

There are actually many different kinds of heart disease. Some of the most common are:

  • Coronary Artery Disease - When the arteries that lead to your heart of narrowed or blocked due to buildup.
  • Arrhythmia - Irregular heartbeat, could speed up or slow down.
  • Valve Disease - Valves do not perform as they used to, could be any of the following mitral valve prolapse, aortic stenosis and mitral valve insufficiency.
  • Heart Failure - When the heart fails to operate as it should, often not beating as strongly as it used to.
  • Congenital Heart Disease - This is something that one is born with. The heart does not develop properly in the womb leading to trouble after birth. Some people go their entire lives without knowing that they suffer from this kind of disease.
  • Cardiomyopathy - An enlarged, thickened or stiffened heart muscle, results in weak pumping of the heart.
  • Marfan Syndrome - Connective tissue disorder that can lead to dangerous tearing of the aortic wall.

Heart Disease Statistics And Risks

Coronary artery disease is the most well known kind of heart disease. This accounts for over one million heart attacks each and every year and almost half of those people will die. And if that was not bad enough, 335,000 of those people will die before they even get to the emergency room! Heart disease is more common than you think and you too might be at risk.

Some of the risk factors involved in heart disease cannot be managed and others can. For example men are more likely to suffer from a heart attack in their lifetime, as are older people. Of course you cannot help it if you are a man, and aging is something we all do. On the other hand high bad cholesterol and smoking are both causes of heart disease that we can all control.

If you smoke you are more than doubling your risk of developing this life threatening disease. It is vital that you quit smoking as soon as possible. By simply watching your weight and your cholesterol levels and meeting with your doctor regularly you can significantly cit down your chances of developing this type of disease. Other controllable risk factors include high blood pressure, obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, and diabetes (uncontrolled). Your doctor will be able to give you some more ideas on how to keep your heart healthy for many years to come.

Heart Disease Library’s Mission

My mission with this web site is to educate readers on the different types of heart related diseases and what can be done to prevent and treat them in plain English. I will be updating this site on a monthly basis and within a year or so, I believe this web site will be a very complete resource for heart diseases. Please subscribe to my RSS feed via email or directly to your feed reader to get my latest updates.

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