Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death of men and women in the United States. Cancer, the second most common killer, accounts for the deaths of only half as many people. Heart and blood vessel dis- ease takes many forms: high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, valvular heart disease, congestive heart failure, atherosclerosis, and stroke. Because of the enormous toll that the burden of these diseases has taken on the nation’s health, extensive research has focused on preventing these problems. Over a period of decades, numerous studies involving hundreds of thousands of people have identi?ed the major risk factors that indicate an individual’s chances of developing cardiovascu- lar disease. Understanding these risk factors and how you can control them gives you a good chance to prevent or modify heart disease in your own body. Even though cardiovascular disease is still a major threat, the death rates today are substantially lower than they were because so many people have been able to make effective changes in their lifestyle that prevent the development or the worsening of the disease.
These preventive changes—including how we eat, how physically active we are, and how we approach risky habits like smoking or drinking—make common sense in part because of the nature of heart disease and its treatment. Cardiovascular disease develops slowly and often without symptoms. Factors such as cholesterol buildup or rising blood pressure can start in childhood but may not become apparent as disease for decades, so prevention is the best answer.
About half the deaths from heart disease are sudden—an unexpected fatal occurrence that leaves little opportunity for intervention. Many treatments—for instance, the coronary artery bypass procedures that have become so common—can have side effects and are inappropriate to perform on every person at risk. Other technologies, such as balloon angioplasty or drugs, can treat a problem, but they cannot stop the underlying disease process.
Most positively, the picture that emerges from decades of research is that the healthy lifestyle choices that prevent heart disease also reduce the risk of other major diseases such as cancer and diabetes.