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Cardiovascular disease refers to all diseases that involve the heart and/or blood vessels, arteries, and veins. These problems are most commonly due to consequences of arterial disease, atherosclerosis, atheroma, but also can be related to infection, valvular, and clotting problems.
Over 50 million Americans have heart and cardiovascular-related problems. Cardiovascular disease is the number 1 cause of death and disability in the United States. By the time that cardiovascular heart problems are detected, the disease is usually quite advanced (having progressed for decades), often too advanced to allow successful prevention of major permanent disbility or death.
Forms of cardiovascular disease
Major forms of cardiovascular disease include:
Specific illness features (sequelae) may include: arterial enlargements, arterial narrowings, high blood pressure, angina, irregular heart rates, inappropriate rapid heart rate, inappropriate slow heart rate, heart attack, heart enlargement, heart muscle weakness, inflammation of the heart muscle, overall heart pumping weakness, heart valve leaks, heart valve stenosis (failure-to-open fully), infection of the heart valve leaflets and heart stoppage.
Risk Factors
Major risk factors of cardiovascular disease include:
- Pre-existing cardiovascular disease (usually not recognized by people or their physicians until very advanced)
- Diabetes mellitus
- Less than excellent lipoprotein particle profile
- Smoking
- Higher fibrinogen blood concentrations
- Upper half of normal and especially elevated homocysteine
- Aging and being male (women have more problems after menopause, but hormone replacement therapy worsens rather than improves the risk)
- Hypertension
- Above optimal weight, especially increased intra-abdominal fat (even in people who appear thin)
- Genetic factors (most humans are genetically prone)
- Physically inactive
- Male sex (although cardiovascular disease is also the number health problem for women)
- Positive family history
Prevention
Some steps an individual can take to reduce the risk of cardivascular disease include:
- Not smoking
- Maintaining a healthy body mass index
- Maintaining a diet conducive to cardovascular health, for example the polymeal
- Getting regular cardiovascular exercise
Diet
a low energy diet
Exercise
aerobic exercise, which will increase the strength of the heart
Treatment
Treatment of cardiovascular disease depends on the specific form of the disease in each patient, but effective treatment always includes lifestyle changes consistent with prevention. Medications, such as blood-pressure-reducing medications, aspirin, and other treatments, may be involved. In some circumstances, surgery may be warranted to repair or replace damaged blood vessels or heart tissue.
Research
The causes, prevention, and treatment of all forms of cardiovascular disease are active fields of biomedical research.
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