Putting Together Pieces Of The Heart Disease Puzzle
Despite many advances in heart disease, it continues to be a large public health threat in the United States. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women. More than half of the deaths due to heart disease in 2015 were in men.
More than 70 million Americans have heart disease. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for people of most racial/ethnic groups in the United States, including African Americans, Hispanics, and whites. For Asian Americans or Pacific Islanders and American Indians or Alaska Natives, heart disease is second only to cancer.
One American dies from heart disease every 40 seconds. About 630,000 Americans die from heart disease each year—that’s 1 in every 4 deaths. Nearly half of the population will suffer a heart attack or stroke in his or her lifetime.
As the American population ages, the number of people with heart disease will likely increase. Heart disease costs the United States about $200 billion each year. This total includes the cost of health care services, medications, and lost productivity
But, there is good news despite all of these numbers. The way doctors treat heart disease is starting to change. For example, we now know that heart disease most often occurs because of a number of risk factors.
High blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol, and smoking are key heart disease risk factors for heart disease. About half of Americans (49%) have at least one of these three risk factors.
Several other medical conditions and lifestyle choices can also put people at a higher risk for heart disease, including, diabetes, overweight and obesity, poor diet, physical inactivity and excessive alcohol use.
By living a healthy lifestyle, you can help keep your blood pressure, cholesterol, and sugar normal and lower your risk for heart disease and heart attack.
A healthy lifestyle includes the following:
Eating a healthy diet
Maintaining a healthy weight
Getting enough physical activity
Not smoking or using other forms of tobacco
Limiting alcohol use
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funds State Public Health Actions. This is a national program that provides funding to states and the District of Columbia, to focus on underlying strategies that address all of these diseases.
https://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/programs/spha/index.htm
Doctors are starting to look at the cardiovascular system as a whole, in an effort to prevent heart disease, rather than treating one risk factor at a time.
And patients can play a big role, too. You have to ask the right questions, provide the correct information and work with your health care professional to make sure that you understand what the information means to you personally.
Think of risk factors as pieces of a puzzle. When put together, the pieces can help show you your chance of suffering a heart attack or stroke in the future. Each person’s risk factor puzzle fits together differently.
In addition to the factors related to family history and behavior, recent research suggests there may be other risk factors to consider, such as C-reactive protein (CRP). CRP, a protein made by the liver, is a marker of inflammation in the body. Though the role of CRP in heart disease is still unclear, recent data suggest levels of CRP may predict risk for heart attack.
If you have several risk factors for heart disease, your doctor may recommend a test to check your CRP level.
It’s important to keep track of your risk factors and know what they might mean for you. The more risk factors you have, the greater your chance of having a heart attack or stroke.
For more information on how to control your risk factors, please visit the following websites:
https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/index.html
https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/index.html
https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/index.htm
Take control of your own unique health puzzle. Ask your doctor what you can do to reduce your risk, making lifestyle changes and taking medication if needed-particularly if you have one or more risk factors. You may be able to prevent heart disease before it strikes.