Good health is a valuable asset. In some Western countries cardiovascular disease is the cause of nearly forty percent of deaths. Some known risk factors: obesity, physical inactivity, smoking, hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol

Some of these risk factors can be done by some change in habits. To learn more about the (possible) risk factors for heart disease is medical research neccessary. So if you can help: do it!

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Your heart is your engine. It pumps blood around your body, day in, day out. The blood flows through a network of blood vessels to all parts of your body and then back to the heart, and so on.

Everywhere on the road the blood gives nutrients and oxygen. And cites the waste. The heart, the blood and the blood vessels together provide the circulation.

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Most heart disease caused by clogged blood vessels. This reduces the blood flow through the blood vessels behind the closure may be hampered by lack of oxygen and tissue damage

Clogging of the coronary artery, the artery that causes the heart itself (so the heart muscle) by blood, causing heart problems and stroke. The terms heartinfarction and heartstroke means in vernacular the same, but the silting up of the coronary artery is officially the infarction.

Then the heart do not get sufficient blood and cause a heart attack.

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Cardiovascular diseases have a leading cause of death in 2005 in Western countries.
Men have three to four times more the risk of heart attack than women. As we get older, the chance of a heart attack increased.

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• Gender and age (older men have more problems than younger women);
  
  
• Cardiovascular disease in the family (genetic predisposition);
  
  
• Smoking;
  
  
• Hypertension;
  
  
• Diet rich in cholesterol;
  
  
• Diabetes (diabetes mellitus);
  
  
• Lack of exercise;
  
  
• Overweight;
  
  
• Stress;
  
  
• To much homocysteine.

Also the disease atherosclerosis, which narrows the arteries, is a known cause of heart attacks.
The heart muscle receives insufficient oxygen because a clogged coronary artery.

If this situation continues for too long, the muscle dies off and turns into muscle tissue. It misses the power to contract, so the heart loses its ability to pump.

The place where the artery is closed, largely determines how serious the consequences will be.

In general:

• higher in the artery blockage is located, the more muscle will die.
  
• left: the left ventricle, the powerful muscle that causes the blood is pumped throughout the body

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Diseases of the coronary arteries, such as angina and heart attacks are almost always due to narrowing or blockage of the coronary artery (s). It starts with a little damage to the smooth inner wall of the vessel.

The body tries to repair it, then platelets clump together at the damaged site and leukocytes penetrate the inner wall. These white blood cells take cholesterol, resulting in a pulpy mass indicates where later lime deposit. This causes the coronary arteries and ever closer to the oxygen-rich blood reaching the heart muscle harder.

We call this the arteries or atherosclerosis, more about ..

More about arteries and preventive healthcare

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