A Realistic Look Into What Causes Heart Disease

The first thing to understand is coronary heart disease is not one singular disease, but rather a combination of factors that results in a possibly deadly condition that can result in cardiac arrest.   While diet and exercise do play a huge role in the disease, this role may not be nearly as prominent as doctors and scientists over the last 30 years or so have lead us to believe.

One of the leading and most dangerous causes is damage to the heart muscle or a congenital defect.  Damage can be caused by a viral, bacterial, fungal, rickettsial or parasitic disease.  This dangerous disease can cause a serious weakening of the heart muscle which eventually leads to heart disease.  Each of these high risk factors for heart disease are caused by situations not related to exercise or diet.  That is not to say that diet and exercise are not important to cardiac health, but blaming all causes on those factors alone is grossly incorrect.

There are literally dozens of risk factors for heart disease.  The most commonly cited ones are high blood cholesterol, smoking, lack of exercise, stress, and being overweight.  Of these the strongest link between to a direct cause is smoking.  The other causes of heart disease do have significant bearing, but none as strong as smoking.  While many may say that most smokers will exhibit the other qualities in addition to smoking, if you look at the raw data and factor out the additional causes smoking still carries the strongest correlation to heart disease.

Another huge factor in heart disease is stress.  Doctors have noted that heart attacks strike in the months after severe emotion trauma.  Highlighted condition include death, bankruptcy, layoff, and relationship failure.  In each of these situations the risk of cardiac arrest is significantly increased.

While diet is important there are other factors that will effect the likelihood of developing heart disease.  It is best to try eliminate or mitigate as many of the factors as you can to avoid being a high risk candidate for a heart attack.

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You exercise, eat well and keep a close eye on your cholesterol. You may think you’re doing everything you should do to avoid the effects of this leading cause of death in the United States, but are you overlooking preparations for the full scope of the impact of heart disease?

Heart disease is not only the leading cause of death, claiming 700,000 American lives in 2007, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s also a leading cause of disability. The vast majority of Americans with heart disease – a whopping 24 million people – need ongoing treatments, surgeries and medications that cost our economy $1.3 trillion per year, according to a recent report by the Milken Institute.

The indirect costs associated with heart disease are even more staggering for patients and their families. Surgeries and recovery times can cause patients to be out of work for extended periods of time, drastically lowering or even eliminating their paycheck at a time when their health care bills are skyrocketing. Medication costs also imperil patient’s financial health.

“Considering that two of every three families are living paycheck-to-paycheck it is important that families are prepared for the financial impact of heart disease or any other chronic condition,” says Robert Taylor, the president of the Council for Disability Awareness, a nonprofit group focused on helping the American workforce become aware of the growing likelihood of disability and its financial consequences.

Because of the financial impact of conditions such as heart disease, the Council for Disability Awareness (CDA), urges people to get an understanding of not only the likelihood of disability, but the financial hardship that soaring medical costs combined with being out of work could cause especially in today’s weak economy. By doing so, families will be better able to cope with these unexpected expenses.

“A little bit of planning can go a long way,” Taylor adds. The CDA encourages that people assess their current financial situation and determine where their income will come from should they become disabled. “Even if you don’t have the resources to start building a savings, it is just as important to have a plan in place – while your income may be on hold, your rent, utilities and other bills will continue to mount during a disability, ” Taylor explains.

Planning tips and other resources are available on the Council’s Web site, www.disabilitycanhappen.org. The Web site includes tools to help families financially prepare for disabilities such as heart disease and offers wellness tips on how to help prevent disability before it happens.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

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