Heart Disease

Coronary Heart Disease

Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death in the United States. There are many types of heart diseases that fall into this title. Two of the most popular forms of cardiovascular diseases are heart attack and stroke. The increasing amount of exposure of known risk factors for these diseases to young adults is why I feel it is necessary to promote what it takes to lead a heart healthy lifestyle in order to avoid becoming another statistic. I feel as though I did not choose this topic as much as it chose me, as 2 years ago my Father was hospitalized and underwent a Quadruple Heart By-pass surgery in order to remove the blood clots in his 4 main arteries. Knowing that this disease is partly hereditary I feel as though it is important to educate myself and others with early intervention steps that could keep you from being affected by any heart diseases. In my research I plan to introduce how heart diseases are caused and also the best prevention techniques to ensure that the number of people affected by Coronary Heart Diseases, specifically Heart Attacks, is falling each year instead of climbing. In my research I came across an article provided by the ProQuest Research Library entitled “Coronary Heart Disease: Primary and Secondary Prevention”. This article is a published study done by The College of Pharmacy and Drug Topics of the University of Florida and discusses the many “do’s” and “don’ts” in order to lead a heart healthy life. The focus of this article is to prevent your body to become a future hot spot for a heart disease. The article counters these risk factors with ways to prevent the “modifiable factors” from occurring. The article states that risk factors are classified as modifiable or non-modifiable. “Non-modifiable risk factors include age, family history, and gender. Modifiable risk factors include smoking, diet, obesity, physical inactivity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus, and metabolic syndrome” (Brenner, Michael, and Allison Butcher). Most of these factors are obvious but some may be less known. Hypertension is the occurrence of high-blood pressure in your body, while dyslipidemia is the occurrence of high cholesterol. Diabetes mellitus can increase the risk of developing a heart disease by 2 to 4 times as likely. A second article I found through ProQuest was the scholarly journal provided by The New England Journal of Medicine titles “Cardiac rehabilitation and secondary prevention of coronary heart disease”. This article provides a more detailed look into some prevention techniques used in order to stay healthy in both the physical sense, but in the long term heart health. An idea that this article brought the table was the “Prescription of Exercise”. “Preliminary data suggest that a regimen of low-intensity, prolonged, daily exercise, called “high-caloric training” because it maximizes the expenditure of calories, results in greater fat loss and greater modification of risk factors than does a regimen of more intense but briefer exercise sessions.” (Ades, Philip A) As mentioned in the statement, maximizing the length of time that you are exercising maximizes the fat/calories being burned in your work-out. This in the long run brings my research back to the facts stated in my first source, which states that improving the modifiable factors like obesity and physical inactivity can greatly reduce your risk if developing a heart disease. A third article that I found through the ProQuest Research Library was a scholarly journal published by the British Medical Journal entitled “Triggering a heart attack”. This article allowed me to shine a different light on my research as it discusses momentary impacts on your heart. This article was done in response to numerous news headlines that involved fatalities due to unexpected heart attacks and strokes during a physically and/or emotionally strenuous activity. This study focused on activities like jogging, shoveling snow, and swimming that have been commonly lead to cardiac death due to vigorous physical effort. This idea relates very similarly to that of the “Prescription of Exercise” idea stated in my other source. The relation between the two stems from the idea of the less beneficial short and strenuous activities and exercise in correlation to the recommended longer low-intensity activities and exercise. This article is proving that not only are the more strenuous and shorter periods of activity less beneficial, but they can also become fatal when asking the body to do too much. Coronary Heart Disease is the leading cause of death in The United States which is why I believe that it is crucial to educate others about the many risks that factor into such a group of fatal diseases in the heart. Thru ought my research I learned that it is often the less suspecting individual that can become a victim of a Coronary Heart Disease simply because he/she did not know what steps to take to lead a heart healthy lifestyle. In order to stop the constantly rising number of fatalities caused by heart disease, we must first become educated on how to prevent them from occurring in the first place.

Works Cited
Ades, Philip A. "Cardiac Rehabilitation and Secondary Prevention of Coronary Heart Disease." The New
England journal of medicine 345.12 (2001): 892-902. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 23 Oct.
2012.
Brenner, Michael, and Allison Butcher. "Coronary Heart Disease: Primary and Secondary Prevention." Drug Topics 153.12 (2009): 50-9. ABI/INFORM Complete; ProQuest Research Library. Web. 25 Oct. 2012.
"Know Your Facts." York Weekly Record: 14. Jun 13 2006. ProQuest Research Library.
Web. 23 Oct. 2012
Petch, M. C. "Triggering a Heart Attack." British medical journal 312.7029 (1996): 459-. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.
"Study: Treatment Reduces Risk of Heart Attack by 70 Percent." FDA consumer 2002: 7-. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 23 Oct. 2012 .

Cited: Ades, Philip A. "Cardiac Rehabilitation and Secondary Prevention of Coronary Heart Disease." The New England journal of medicine 345.12 (2001): 892-902. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 23 Oct. 2012. Brenner, Michael, and Allison Butcher. "Coronary Heart Disease: Primary and Secondary Prevention." Drug Topics 153.12 (2009): 50-9. ABI/INFORM Complete; ProQuest Research Library. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. "Know Your Facts." York Weekly Record: 14. Jun 13 2006. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 23 Oct. 2012 Petch, M. C. "Triggering a Heart Attack." British medical journal 312.7029 (1996): 459-. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 23 Oct. 2012. "Study: Treatment Reduces Risk of Heart Attack by 70 Percent." FDA consumer 2002: 7-. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 23 Oct. 2012 .