Despite our increasingly health-conscious society, cardiovascular disease is still the number one cause of death in the United States, with almost 700,000 people succumbing every year. That’s about 29 percent of all U.S. deaths. Worldwide, coronary heart disease kills more than 7 million people a year.
And it doesn’t discriminate by age, race, nationality or sex. Cardiovascular disease, which includes heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, heart failure and other conditions like arrhythmias, atrial fibrillation, cardiomyopathy, and peripheral arterial disease, is either the first or second leading cause of death for all adults.
The ultimate culmination of any type of heart disease is a heart attack, or a myocardial infarction, in scientific terms. According to the American Heart Association, a heart attack occurs when the blood supply to part of the heart muscle is severely reduced or stopped due to a blockage in one or more of the arteries supplying blood to the heart.
We hear about heart attacks all the time, and most of us associate it with the stereotypical vision of someone clutching his or her chest with sudden pain. However, many heart attacks develop slowly and with milder symptoms, and a major goal of the American Heart Association is to educate the public to recognize those symptoms and get help more quickly.
The most common heart attack symptom is chest pain, crushing pressure, or discomfort in the chest. Pain or discomfort in the neck, one or both arms, shoulders or the jaw may also signal a heart attack. The pain may last for a few minutes, then go away and return.
Other warning signs may include shortness of breath, dizziness, chills, nausea, sweating, clamminess, unusual fatigue or weakness, abdominal pain or indigestion.
Interestingly, although the most common heart attack symptom for both genders is chest pain, women tend to experience some of the other symptoms more often than men – particularly shortness of breath, nausea and vomiting, and back, neck, or jaw pain. Perhaps because they do not experience the classic symptoms, women are less likely to believe they are having a heart attack and are more likely to delay seeking medical treatment.
Although cardiovascular disease can be a hereditary condition, there are numerous lifestyle choices we can make to reduce our risk. Conditions such as high cholesterol and blood pressure, as well as diabetes, elevate the chances of developing heart disease. Tobacco use, excessive alcohol consumption, poor diet, physical inactivity and obesity all raise the risk for cardiovascular problems.
There is hope, however. The American Heart Association’s statistics for 2009 show that death rates from heart disease have begun to decline. In fact, from 1995 to 2005, death rates from cardiovascular disease declined 26.4 percent.
There is still a long way to go. Don’t take your heart health for granted! Talk with your doctor about ways to reduce your risk for cardiovascular disease. And if you think you might be experiencing heart attack symptoms, don’t wait. Call 911 immediately.
