Hypertension affects an estimated 50 million Americans – more than one in three American adults. It is the lit fuse of a bomb waiting to go off. Hypertension triples your risk of dying from a heart attack and increases your risk of stroke sevenfold over someone with normal blood pressure. Yet hypertension is largely symptom-free – until it’s too late. Hypertension is classified as a cardiovascular disease (CVD), a disorder afflicting the heart or blood vessels. According to 1999 American Heart Association (AHA) statistics, 58.8 million Americans suffer one or more of the cardiovascular diseases, making CVD an epidemic of unbelievable proportions. CVD mortality rates actually outrank our country’s next seven leading causes of death combined (including cancer). Every year 959,227 Americans die of CVD. That’s 2,600 per day, or 1 every 33 seconds, which accounts for 41.4 percent of the total deaths in the United States. Imagine, nearly half of all Americans will die from cardiovascular disease – and hypertension is a primary contributor to many of these deaths. If you don’t take control of and effectively manage your blood pressure, it will take control of you.
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Causes of Angina Pectoris. Angina is the symptom that results from myocardial ischemia—insufficient blood and oxygen reaching the heart muscle because of blockage in the coronary arteries. The degree of coronary narrowing can vary, ranging from partial blockage in one vessel to extensive clogging of many vessels.
How Serious Is Angina Pectoris? If angina occurs only after unusual physical exertion, no dramatic change in life-style is required to prevent the pain. However, some people experience frequent bouts of angina during routine daily activities. They may change their daily routine so they do not have to do any strenuous exercise. Interestingly, the severity of symptoms does not relate directly to how many coronary arteries have blockages. A tight blockage in a small branch of a coronary artery can cause more discomfort in one person than severe narrowing of all three major coronary artery trunks in another-person.
Some people with ischemia do not have typical anginal chest pain. Instead, they experience shortness of breath or, less commonly, fatigue or weakness as the only or main symptom of cardiac ischemia. Nevertheless, whatever the resulting symptoms, coronary artery disease represents ischemia in the heart muscle and should be monitored by your doctor.
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CORONARY BLOCKAGES AND HEART ATTACK : CORONARY ARTERY DISEASESYMPTOMS CAUSED BY CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE – CAUSES OF ANGINA PECTORIS & HOW SERIOUS IS ANGINA PECTORIS?Causes of Angina Pectoris. Angina is the symptom that results from myocardial ischemia—insufficient blood and oxygen reaching the heart muscle because of blockage in the coronary arteries. The degree of coronary narrowing can vary, ranging from partial blockage in one vessel to extensive clogging of many vessels.How Serious Is Angina Pectoris? If angina occurs only after unusual physical exertion, no dramatic change in life-style is required to prevent the pain. However, some people experience frequent bouts of angina during routine daily activities. They may change their daily routine so they do not have to do any strenuous exercise. Interestingly, the severity of symptoms does not relate directly to how many coronary arteries have blockages. A tight blockage in a small branch of a coronary artery can cause more discomfort in one person than severe narrowing of all three major coronary artery trunks in another-person.Some people with ischemia do not have typical anginal chest pain. Instead, they experience shortness of breath or, less commonly, fatigue or weakness as the only or main symptom of cardiac ischemia. Nevertheless, whatever the resulting symptoms, coronary artery disease represents ischemia in the heart muscle and should be monitored by your doctor.*149\252\8*