"You have coronary heart disease." When your physician says those words to you or to someone you love, it's frightening and confusing. You probably have dozens of questions: What is coronary heart disease? Do I need to convert my lifestyle?
Coronary heart disease (Chd), also called coronary artery disease (Cad) or ischemic heart disease, is a form of heart disease that's caused by narrowing of the coronary arteries that feed the heart. If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with Chd, it may help to know that you are not alone. In fact, Chd is the most common form of heart disease, affecting at least 12 million Americans. It is the particular largest killer of both men and women in the United States, responsible for nearly a half million deaths each year, or about 1 out of every 5 deaths. Chd causes nearly all heart attacks (myocardial infarctions). Every 29 seconds, an American suffers a coronary event (a heart strike or fatal Chd), and every itsybitsy one of us will die from one. The american Heart connection estimates that this year alone, more than a million Americans will suffer from a new or recurrent coronary event, and nearly 40 percent of those will die from it.
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Coronary heart disease isn't just an American problem. Chd is very common in other Westernized countries, too, such as many in Europe. Diseases of the heart and circulation such as heart attacks and stroke (a "brain attack") kill more population worldwide than any other cause. The World condition assosication estimates that as many as 30 percent of all deaths are caused by heart and circulation diseases like Chd.
The good news is that you don't have to become someone else Chd statistic. There is a lot you can do to cut your risk of having a heart strike or dying from Chd. Sometimes just changing your lifestyle - following a heart-healthy diet, exercising regularly, and reducing the stress in your life-can prevent a heart strike or even reverse the narrowing in your arteries. There are a number of medications-and new ones being developed every day-that can help lower your heart strike risk. Surgical procedures such as angioplasty and stenting or bypass surgical operation can help compensate for blockages in your arteries and help keep your heart supplied with the blood it needs. By educating yourself about your treatment options, and working intimately with your physician you and your physician can choose the best treatments that will enable you to live a long and healthy life.
The Circulatory System
The first step in taking payment of your Chd is to learn all you can about the disease. To understand what Chd is and how it affects your heart, you need to understand a itsybitsy about your heart and how it works.
Your circulatory system, also called your cardiovascular system, is made up of the heart, the lungs, and blood vessels called arteries and veins. This principles carries blood, food, and oxygen to every cell in the body. It also carries waste products away from the cells and out of the body. (A cell is a construction block of every tissue and organ in the body.) Think of your circulatory principles as a busy highway principles composed of gigantic freeways and large streets that feed into smaller and smaller streets, and ultimately into tiny lanes and alleyways. This principles is made up entirely of one-way streets. In our imaginary highway system, cars, or in this case, blood, can flow in only one direction. The one-way streets called arteries and arterioles (small arteries) carry blood enriched with oxygen and nutrients away from the heart to the cells in the body. The one-way road called veins and venules (small veins) carry blood loaded with waste products from the cells back to the heart.
Between these two one-way road systems are tiny blood vessels called capillaries. Practically too tiny to see and often thinner than a shore of hair, capillaries associate the smallest arteries with the smallest veins. They are the brides that associate our two systems of one-way streets. The walls of these tiny capillaries are so thin that food and oxygen in the blood pass through them into the surrounding cells. These thin walls also allow waste products from the cells to pass into the capillaries. This enables the blood to carry waste from the cell to be removed by the kidneys, liver, and lungs.
If you can imagine a particular drop of blood flowing through this system, it might look something like this. The blood droplet, full of oxygen and nutrients, (fuel), is pumped out of the left side of the heart into the largest arteries. There is flows into progressively smaller arteries and ultimately into the capillaries, where it delivers its load of oxygen and food for the cells. At the same time, the blood picks up waste products from the cells and flows into tiny veins, then into larger and larger veins. Finally, the blood droplet arrives back at the right side of the heart, where it's pumped into the lungs and unload carbon dioxide, pick up a fresh furnish of oxygen, and begin its circular journey again.
The Heart: An phenomenal Pump
The heart is the pump that keeps the blood flowing nearby and nearby in an endless circle throughout the body. Think of it as the traffic cop that coordinates the flow of traffic throughout our highway system. The heart is a hollow muscle that weighs less than a pound and is about the size of a man's fist. Despite its small size, this phenomenal organ an average of 100,000 times a day, pumping about 2,000 gallons of blood every day. If you live to be 70, your heart will beat more than 2.5 billion times.
Located in the town of the chest and protected by the breastbone and rib cage, the heart is nothing else but a double pump thats divided into four chambers, two upper ones and two lower ones. A thin wall of muscle separates the left and right sides of the heart. The top accommodation (atriums or atria) and lower chambers (ventricles) are associated by valves that act like one-way doors. These valves make sure blood flows only in one direction. In the heart, the blood is pumped from the left and right atriums to the left and right ventricles. The right side of the heart sends blood to the lungs. The left side of the heart pumps blood out to the cells in the body.
Coronary Arteries
Just like other muscles in the body, the heart needs its own furnish of blood and oxygen to work properly. Even though the heart pumps blood through its chambers, the heart itself receives no vital cusine from this blood. There is a cut off set of arteries that branch off the aorta (the main artery that receives blood from the left ventricle) that furnish the heart's blood supply. These are called coronary arteries. The coronary arteries encircle the top and sides of the heart bringing plenty of oxygen-rich blood to the heart. The two major coronary arteries are the left coronary artery and the right coronary artery. These vessels divide into many smaller coronary arteries that feed the heart.
What Is Coronary Heart Disease?
Healthy coronary arteries have smooth, flexible walls that furnish plenty of blood to the heart. However, over many years, these flexible walls can become progressively irritated and damaged by such substance as fats, cholesterol, calcium, cellular debris, and platelets (tiny cells responsible for blood clotting). When the walls of the arteries are damaged, these substances are able to "stick" to them. Coronary heart disease (Chd) occurs when these coronary arteries become narrowed and clogged.
This buildup inside the artery walls is a process called atherosclerosis, which produces a substance known as plaque. As it builds, plaque is a lot like the dirt, fat, and minerals that build up inside your home's plumbing. As the buildup becomes thicker, the flow through the pipes becomes less and less and may even thoroughly stop. Similarly, when your heart doesn't get enough oxygen due to narrowed arteries, you may feel chest pressure or pain called angina. If the blood furnish to part of the heart is thoroughly cut off, the supervene is often a heart attack.
Everyone has a inescapable number of atherosclerosis as they age. For many of us, atherosclerosis begins in childhood. Some population have a rapid growth in the buildup of atherosclerotic plaque after age 30. For others, plaque buildup does not become a problem until we're in our 50s or 60s.
What Causes Chd
We don't know for sure why atherosclerosis occurs or even how it begins, but there are some theories. Some medical experts believe the atherosclerotic buildup in the inner layer of the arteries may be caused by some conditions, including:*Elevated levels of Ldl cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein) and triglycerides in the blood*Low levels of Hdl Cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein)*High blood pressure*Tobacco smoke*High blood sugar levels (diabetes mellitus)*Inflammation.
It's likely that more than one process is complicated in the buildup of plaque. Many researchers believe that when excess fat merge with oxygen, they become trapped in the arterial wall. This attracts white blood cells which help prevent infection when tissue is damaged. Then substances call prostaglandins, which are complicated in blood clotting and altering tone (firmness) within arteries, become active. Any injury to the artery wall, such as damage caused by smoking, can originate prostaglandins. The activated prostaglandins stimulate more plaque growth and narrow arteries and/or cause blood clots to form.
Regardless of how plaque forms, developed plaque is made up mostly of living cells. In fact, about 85 percent of developed plaque consists of cell debris, calcium, flat muscle cells, connective tissue, and foam cells (white blood cells that have digested fat). About 15 percent of developed plaque is made up fatty deposits.
Once the plaque develops, plaque containing cells can be nothing else but damaged. This can lead to blood clots forming on the outside of the plaque. Small clots can additional damage other layers of the blood vessel wall and stimulate more plaque growth. Larger blood clots can partially or totally block the artery.
In increasing to interfering with or totally blocking blood flow, plaque can hinder the arteries potential to dilate and contract. In order to sass to the bodies ever-changing need for blood, the arteries need to be strong and elastic. For instance, when you exercise, your body needs more blood. The heart responds by pumping faster, and the arteries sass by increasing to accommodate the increased volume of blood increasing to accommodate the increased volume of blood arrival from the heart. As the artery becomes narrowed and hard, that elasticity is lost. Arteries that have atherosclerotic plaque are more apt to spasm (temporarily narrow), causing even less blood to flow to the heart and potential causing chest pain or heart attack.
What Is Coronary Heart Disease
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