In the U.S. heart disease is the number one cause of death.  In this country, there are nearly 1,700 deaths every day from heart disease.  Even on that most adored day of love and flowers, 1,642 people will die from a broken heart according to The National Center for Health Statistics.

Many people die from a heart attack without ever realizing they had heart disease.  Risk factors for cardiac disease include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, obesity, lack of exercise or a family history of heart disease.

There are 10 symptoms of an impending heart attack which have been offered up by people who have lived through one.  These include:

  • Nausea, indigestion and stomach pain, especially in people over 60.
  • A sharp pain that comes and goes in the neck, shoulder, jaw or arm. Women often experience that pain between their shoulder blades.
  • Sexual dysfunction in men can be caused by artery disease.
  • A feeling of crushing fatigue that lasts for a few days.
  • Feeling out of breath or dizzy.
  • Leg pain and swelling.
  • Sleeplessness. Many patients remember lying in bed with racing thoughts or even a racing heart.
  • Flu-like symptoms including wheezing or a chronic cough without the fever.
  • Rapid or irregular pulse or heart rate called ventricular tachycardia.
  • A sense of feeling “out of it.” You just don’t feel like yourself.

If you have plaque building up in your coronary arteries, you have some degree of heart disease.  Plaque is the greasy layer of proteins and fats that accumulate on the inner walls of the coronary arteries.  People who live in cultures with low rates of heart disease rates, subsist mostly on plant foods while Americans subsist mostly on animal foods.

Let's make Valentine's Day a day of love and healthy hearts... not broken hearts.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm
http://health.yahoo.net/articles/heart/photos/heart-attack-symptoms-you-are-most-likely-ignore#0
Campbell, T. Colin and Thomas M., The China Study.

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© 2011-2012 Melinda Coker

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