The Heart and Heart Disease

The heart is an elegant organ that performs a life-sustaining function of pumping blood filled with oxygen and nutrients to the rest of the body and eliminating the ''used'' blood from the body.

The heart is a muscular organ with four separate compartments, each with their own function. The two upper chambers are called atria, and the two lower chambers are called ventricles. Inside the heart are four special valves, which open and close to ensure proper blood flow.

The heart is suspended in the chest by two muscular tubes called arteries. One of them, the pulmonary artery, carries blood to the lungs from the right-sided chamber of the heart, and the other, the aorta distributes the freshly oxygenated blood to the rest of the body from the left side of the chest.

The following are the risk factors of a person who is more likely to develop arteriosclerosis and subsequent heart disease, circulatory problems or stroke.

• Over age fifty (heart attack is uncommon in women under age fifty)
• High blood pressure (hypertension)
• Smoking
• Elevated serum (blood) cholesterol
• Diabetes
• Taking oral contraceptives (particularly if the woman also smokes)
• A family history of coronary artery disease
• Hysterectomy before age forty-five
• Certain personality factors and stress

How to prevent Cardiovascular Disease

• Stop Smoking. The more you smoke the more likely you are to have a heart attack.
• Improve Your Diet. In the prevention of heart disease a well balanced diet is necessary to reduce ''bad cholesterol'' low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) and increase ''good cholesterol'' high-density lipoproteins (HDLs).
• Monitor Your Blood Pressure. Preventing or treating high blood pressure will reduce the risk of both heart attack and stroke.
• Exercise. Regular exercise is believed to reduce the risk of heart attack and definitely lower blood pressure.
• Lose Weight. Excess weight may not directly affect the heart however, it may increase blood pressure, choloesterol and blood sugar levels which will increase the risk of heart disease and stroke.
• Take Oral Contraceptives with Care. Women over the age of forty who are using oral contraceptives have five times the risk of heart attack and seven times the risk of stroke.
• Reduce Stress. It is theorized that the multiple role demands on a woman may play a role in heart disease however, this has not been researched adequately.
• Schedule Regular medical examinations. Yearly medical examinations that include electrocardiogram to detect silent heart attacks. Over one-third of heart attacks go unreported each year.