Heart Disease, equally often called Coronary Artery Disease, is the number 1 killer in the United States. The process takes place as atherosclerosis in the coronary arteries that feed the heart. On this process, cholesterol deposits are formed in the middle layer of the arteries. These are known as plaques. High blood levels of cholesterol contribute to deposition in the artery wall. The plaques can also form where the artery has been irritated or damaged by cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes, or in certain genetic abnormalities such as homocystinemia.
As time passes the plaques increase, decreasing the diameter of the blood vessels. This reduces the amount of blood that can flow through the arteries, especially during exertion. This reduced blood flow causes pain in the heart muscle, known as angina.
In the most situations, the plaque can rupture, exposing the blood to the inside of the plaque. This can cause the blood to clot at that site. Blood flow to the heart is swiftly stopped, main to a heart attack.
Prevention is the key element to heart disease, since in several cases, irreversible or fatal damage can occur during a heart attack. Lowering one’s intake of fat and cholesterol helps to reduce blood levels. Smoking cessation is absolutely critical. Control of diabetes and high blood pressure are also significant aspects of prevention. Typical physical exercise not only lowers cholesterol, but also improves cardiopulmonary conditioning, lowers blood pressure, and in diabetics, lowers blood glucose levels.
Women may not experience the classical symptoms of a heart attack such as the heavy, squeezing, crushing mid sternal chest pain. The symptoms of a heart attack may present itself as neck pain, jaw pain, pain in the wrist or elbow or nausea, vomiting and a sudden onset of excessive fatigue.
These warning symptoms should prompt the female patient to immediately ingest an aspirin product providing they are not allergic to aspirin and seek immediate emergency room care.
