James M. Rippe

Even thinking about heart disease is no fun, but preventing it from happening in the first place (or managing heart disease if you do develop it) is often a matter of controlling your risk factors, eating right, exercising, and generally living a heart-healthy life. Lowering your stress levels comes into play as does knowing the warning signs of heart attack — just in case.

It's no surprise that myths about heart disease often prevail. After all, the heart is a truly mythic organ — the fount of all life. Throughout the world's cultures, heroes and heroines of mythology and legend usually are persons of great heart. The same can be said of persons of great cunning. Their hearts are the embodiment of the courageous lifestyles that inspire the masses.

A heart attack, known medically as a myocardial infarction (MI), occurs when one of the three coronary arteries that supply oxygen-rich blood to the heart muscle (myocardium) becomes severely or totally blocked, usually by a blood clot. When the heart muscle doesn’t receive enough oxygenated blood, it begins to die.

When tests reveal that you have narrowing of one, two, or three of the coronary arteries, your physician develops a plan for how best to treat your unstable angina. This plan may include the use of medicines, angioplasty (PCI), or coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG). Medical therapy A variety of medications that decrease the work of the heart or decrease the propensity of blood to clot at the sites of fatty plaques may be used to treat stable and unstable angina.

A stroke occurs when a blood clot or bleeding suddenly interrupts the flow of blood to an area of the brain. When deprived of blood, brain cells lose their ability to function and, if deprived for too long, die. Because brain cells and groups of brain cells have highly specialized functions, the location of stroke damage determines what loss of neurological and bodily function occurs as a result of stroke.

While you're sitting still, your heart is beating at 70 to 80 contractions per minute (unless you're extremely fit). With each contraction, the right ventricle discharges about three-quarters of the blood it contains into the vessels of the lungs where it receives oxygen. At the same time, the left ventricle is discharging about three-quarters of the blood that it contains into the aorta and arterial system to feed the oxygen to all the organs and muscles.

Hypertension isn't called a killer for nothing. High blood pressure is a significant risk factor for developing coronary artery disease (CAD), the leading cause of death in the United States, and it's considered a significant risk for stroke, heart failure, and kidney failure. Anyone with poorly treated hypertension at least doubles his or her risk of developing all of these conditions.

You know that you are carrying more pounds that you ought to. You’re ready to start a weight loss plan. But how overweight are you? How much weight overall should you lose? How can you set interim weight loss goals that will help you see progress quickly and stay motivated? You can use your Body Mass Index (BMI) measurement and a BMI chart (or the BMI calculator link) to help you answer all these questions.

Many people mistakenly think that you either have hypertension or you don’t. In fact, blood pressure readings span a continuum ranging all the way from normal to severely elevated. Experiencing one elevated reading does not mean that you have hypertension. Everyone’s blood pressure tends to spike up in situations that produce anger, pain, fear, or high stress.