Risk Factors For Heart Disease.
We Can Avoid Them

Cardiac Risk Factors

Reading the American Heart Associations, Heart disease and stroke statistics- 2005 update, is scary, the numbers don't look good.

We must start educating ourselves that there are possibilities that these numbers don't have to increase, that the predictions don't have to occur.

We must know what our risk factors are, understand them, and know what preemptive measures we can take to avoid them.

This is a brief overview; to get a more detailed report you can download the full report here Heart disease and stroke Statistics- update 2005

Risks Factors and statistics of cardiovascular diseases

Cardiovascular diseases

• 70,100,000 Americans have one or more types of cardiovascular disease.
• 65,000,000 Americans have high blood pressure
• 13,500,000 Americans have coronary heart disease
• 7,100,000 Americans have had a Myocardial infarction- heart attack
• 6,400,000 Americans have Angina pectoris -
• 4,900,000 Americans have had Congestive- heart failure
• 5,400,000 American have had a stroke.
• 1,000,000 American have congenital cardiovascular defects

The numbers don't add up since many overlap.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) was listed on 1,400,000 death certificates out of a total of 2,400,000 deaths in 2002, over 150,000 of those deaths were people under 65

Coronary heart disease

Coronary heart disease is the single largest killer in the US. About every 26 seconds an American will suffer a coronary event, and about every minute some one will die from one. Around 41% of those who experience a coronary event will die from it within a year of the event.

According to the WHO (World Health Organization) 1n 2002, 7.22 million people worldwide died from coronary heart disease.

The odds of contracting AIDS are one in a million, the odds of being murdered are one in 10,000, and the odds of dying from coronary heart disease are one in two.

The risk factors

Smoking

From 1995 to 1999 an average of 442,398 American died each year of smoking related illnesses 33.5% of them were cardiovascular related.

The CDC has a more detailed report on the affects of cigarette smoking on heart disease in it's The Health Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General.

The basic statistics and facts you can find here Coronary heart disease and smoking.

High Blood pressure

65,000,000 million Americans have high high blood pressure , which is defined as having a

Systolic pressure above 140 mm/hg And Diastolic pressure above 90mm/hg

High blood pressure or Hypertension was listed as the primary cause of death in about 261,000 of over 2,400,000 deaths in 2002.

High blood cholesterol

Total cholesterol -200 mg/dl or higher 106,900,000 50.7% of the population

95,000,000 have High LDL - 130 mg/dl or higher that's 45.8% of the population

54,700,000 have Low HDL- less than 40 mg/dl 26.4% of the population

A 10% decrease in total cholesterol levels may result in an estimated 30% reduction in coronary heart disease.

Sedentary lifestyle-physical inactivity

38% of the population reports that they don't have any leisure activities and don't exercise.

The risks associated with physical inactivity ranges from 1.5 to 2.4 a risk factor comparable to high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or cigarettes smoking.

Obesity- overweight

63,100,000 Americans are overweight that is 30.4% of the population

Overweight begins when you have a BMI a Body Mass Index above 25

Obesity begins when you have a BMI of 30 or higher

BMI is measured by weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared.

Each year 300,000 US adults die of causes related to obesity

Diabetes

Heart disease is the leading cause of diabetes related death. Adults with diabetes have heart disease heart rates 2 to 4 times higher than adults without diabetes

• Metabolic syndrome
• Waist circumference greater then 40 inches
• Triglyceride levels greater than 150mg/dl
• HDL cholesterol less than 40 mg/dl
• Blood pressure of 130/85 mm hg or higher
• Fasting glucose level of 110 mg/dl or higher

Anyone with Metabolic syndrome has an increased risk of developing diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, as well as an increased mortality rate from Coronary Vascular disease and all causes of death

An estimated 47 million US residents have Metabolic syndrome.

Nutrition and diet

The greatest risk and cause of all the above risk factors is an improper diet.

These are the major risk factors that the American Heart Association discuss in their article Heart disease and stroke Statistics- update 2005, In addition to these there are other known risk factors that are proven to increase the risk of heart disease.

These Risk factors are controllable we can avoid them There is more then enough scientific evidence that proves that all of these risk factors are avoidable. These statistical numbers can go down instead of up. All we must do is understand our cardiac risks and learn how to avoid them through living a healthy lifestyle,to reduce the risk factors through quitting smoking, eating properly, and taking care of our heart health now.

Why take the chance? Why risk it? Believe me it isn't worthwhile. I smoked I didn't watch my diet and I had a heart attack when I was Thirty seven. Now I don't smoke, now I watch my diet, it helps, but the heart damage was done. It doesn't have to happen to you. Begin living healthy now.