Cardiovascular disease is a term used to designate disorders of the heart and blood vessels.
Atherosclerosis is the progressing blocking of the artery. If that artery leads to your heart, you have a HEART ATTACK. If it leads to your brain, you have a STROKE. Either event can kill you or leave you paralysed.
Did you know that it is the leading cause of death in the Western world, with more than 45 percent of all heart attacks occurring in people under sixty-five years of age.
What does that mean? Imagine that every day three jumbo jets crashed in the United States, each one packed with 450 passengers, and there was never a single survivor. That's the incredible toll this one disease takes in the United States day after day after day, says biochemist and medical writer: Stephen Cherniske, M.S.
Did you know that bypass surgery (in which a blocked coronary artery is replaced by a clean artery obtained from the thigh) is one of the biggest growth industries in this country? Would it surprise you to learn that this procedure brings in more money to metropolitan hospitals than does any other type of care? In many cases bypass surgery accounts for 30 to 40 percent of a hospital's total income.
The medical establishment refers to bypass surgery as "preventive care" even though studies show that bypass surgery does not extend overall life expectancy. (That's because the newly grafted artery usually starts clogging right away.)
Then there are the drugs used to lower blood pressure and cholesterol - another growth industry. These drugs are also called "preventive care" even though there are studies showing that individuals treated with them have increasedoverall mortality and even though an entire class of blood pressure medications has been shown to increase the risk for heart attack.
The jets keep crashing because nothing is being done to prevent it. Let's admit that this is hard to ignore.
There's an astronomical amount of money being made on treatments that provide very little benefit,while the really effective therapies are largely ignored.
For a Healthy Heart: Take Vitamin E
You see, there are ways to prevent cardiovascular disease, but they are simple and inexpensive. In 1993 two remarkable studies were published in the New England Journal of Medicine showing that vitamin E can decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease by 26 to 46 percent. These conclusive studies followed more than a decade of similar research.
Heart Attack Symptoms : Heart Attacks vs. Cardiac Arrest
A cardiac arrest differs from a heart attack because the person stops breathing. Learn more about cardiac arrest and heart attacks with expert tips from a certified emergency medical technician (EMT) in this free video on heart disease. Expert: Michael Herbert Bio: Michael Herbert is a certified emergency medical technician (EMT) with New Hanover County in Wilmington, NC. Filmmaker: Reggie Hayes
Disease and Conditions Index Search Tool
This widget allows the user to search through over 150 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Diseases and Conditions index. This Web-based health index gives you a quick and
easy way to get complete and dependable information about heart, lung, and blood diseases and sleep disorders.
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Did you know that it is the leading cause of death in the Western world, with more than 45 percent of all heart attacks occurring in people under sixty-five years of age.
