Heart disease is the leading killer of men and women in the United States. According to the American Heart Association, there were at least 445,687 deaths in 2005 due to heart disease. Over 16 million experienced angina, a heart attack or some other form of coronary artery disease. The good news is that more than 90 percent of people who have a heart attack go on to live a normal, productive life if they seek immediate medical care. The secret is getting help quickly.
Causes of Cornary Heart Disease
Coronary heart disease (also called coronary artery disease) is caused by a partial or complete blockage of the arteries that supply blood to the heart. Beginning in their early 20s, most adults begin to accumulate cholesterol inside their arteries that can eventually turn into calcified plaque. When plaque builds inside the coronary arteries, it reduces the blood flow to the heart, causing angina. Angina can go away on its own or return with the same symptoms. When the blockage completely occludes the blood supply to the heart, a heart attack ensues.
While some people may be at risk for coronary heart disease as a result of family history, the overwhelming majority exacerbate it through poor dietary choices and a sedentary lifestyle. Years of eating foods high in saturated fat, trans fats and cholesterol eventually leads to the buildup of plaque in the coronary arteries. When this happens, it's necessary to make changes in diet and add exercise in order to recover.
Changing Your Diet
One of the first things a heart disease patient must do to recover is have a good look at her diet and learn ways to lower her intake of cholesterol and fat. A good place to start is the American Heart Association's recommendations for a heart healthy diet. The recommendations include limiting your saturated fat intake to 8 to 10 percent of your total calories. Total fat intake should be no more than 30 percent. Reduce your daily cholesterol intake to 300 mg or less. Lower your sodium intake to under 2,400 mg and reduce your caloric intake to just enough to maintain your health, cutting out extra calories in desserts and snacks---usually between 1,800 to 2,400 calories a day.
Adding Exercise to Your Life
Adding 20 to 30 minutes of aerobic exercise to your day will help to increase high density lipoproteins and decrease low density lipoproteins and triglycerides, optimizing your blood lipid profile. Regular exercise will also help you to lose weight and reduce your blood pressure---risk factors for coronary heart disease. After you've built a solid base of aerobic exercise, it's a good idea to begin adding moderate weight training to your workout schedule. Building muscle is a good way to take stress off your body and replace metabolically inactive fat tissue with active muscle tissue.
Medications and Other Considerations
If you smoke cigarettes, quit. Quitting smoking is the single most-effective way to lower your risk for another cardiac event. Follow your doctor's recommendations for managing your blood pressure and get screened for diabetes. Your doctor may also suggest taking a small dose of aspirin every day to improve blood flow. Aspirin can reduce your risk for a heart attack and reduce its severity if another one occurs. If you drink alcohol, limit your intake to one to two glasses of wine per day. Your doctor may also prescribe medications for you like nitroglycerin, calcium channel blockers or statins to lower your blood cholesterol. In more-serious cases, surgery may be indicated to clear the blockage of blood to your heart. Common procedures include coronary angioplasty, atherectomy to remove plaque from arteries, brachytherapy, which uses radiation to help the heart's blood flow, or coronary artery bypass surgery.
