Cardiovascular disease, also known as heart disease, is a term used for diseases involving the heart, arteries, capillaries and veins. The problems associated with cardiovascular disease are often a result of atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is caused by a buildup of plaque in artery walls, which disrupts blood flow through the arteries (American Heart Association, 2011). Cardiovascular disease causes a variety of conditions including heart attacks, ischemic stroke, heart failure, coronary artery disease, arrhythmias and heart valve problems (American Heart Association, 2011). These conditions lead to serious health related issues for individuals, including death. Every year there are around 600,000 individuals in the United States that die from cardiovascular disease, making heart disease the leading cause of death in both men and women (CDC, 2014). Although there are ways to decrease the risk of heart disease, the rate has been consistently increasing over the years, costing America billions of dollars in health care services annually. Contributing factors to the rise in heart disease includes the rate of obesity and a lack of physical activity (Dhaliwal, Welborn & Howat, 2013; Poirier, Giles, Bray, Hong, Pi-Sunyer & Eckel, 2006). These articles provide research that answers the question of how obesity and physical activity are linked to cardiovascular disease.
Obesity and Cardiovascular Disease
Along with an increase in cardiovascular disease, the rate of obesity is rising as well. Obesity is linked to a number of other diseases, known as comorbidities, including cardiovascular disease. Because of the adjustments the body must make to function in severely overweight individuals, cardiac structure must adapt to the adipose tiss...
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...al conditions of cardiovascular disease that have been linked to obesity, including strokes, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure and arrhythmias. All of these conditions can be improved or prevented by the individual losing ten percent of their body weight. Physical activity also plays a crucial role in cardiovascular disease. Studies have shown that the greater the amount of physical activity, the less the chance for developing cardiovascular disease, even when other factors, such as Framingham’s scale, are accounted for. Regarding future research, a study further researching genetic and environmental links to cardiovascular disease would provide helpful information. Also, research studying the effects of physical activity after the onset of cardiovascular disease could be beneficial to determine if physical activity can improve patients’ conditions.
A number of health –related behaviors contribute remarkably to the onset cardiovascular disease. Smokers are two times as likely to have a heart attack as non-smokers, and one fifth of the annual 1,000,000 deaths from CVD can be attributed to smoking. A sedentary lifestyle increases one’s risk of heart disease. However, America remains predominantly sedentary, and more than half of American adults do not practice the recommended level of physical activity, while more than one-fourth are completely sedentary Between 20-30%, approximately 58 million people, of the nation’s adults are obese. Obesity severely increases risk for hypertension, high cholesterol, and other chronic diseases which have been proven to cause heart disease. As one can clearly see cardiovascular disease is a very broad topic encom...
Harvard Medical Group “Best medicine: The science of exercise shows benefits beyond weight …..loss.” Harvard Heart Letter. 23(11) (2013) 6
It was to this respect that, the search could detect ‘’hypertension’’ as the leading risk factor for heart disease. And this preceded three quarters of heart failures cases as compared to coronary artery disease, which led to most heart failures in less than 40% of the cases. Also, an increase in left ventricular end-diastolic diameter became a mirror to the Framingham study as incident heart diseases in the individuals who are free from myocardial infarction. Although studies have shown that, the manifestation of heart failures can be present without the left ventricular systolic dysfunction, other risk factors could lead to that. Also, they (Framingham study) were able to detect ‘’too much of cholesterol’’ as a link to cardiovascular diseases. Moreover, research believed that has elevated among certain heart diseases such as coronary heart often leads to stroke, too high blood pressure among numerous patients. Having said that, the search discovered ‘’obesity’’ also as a concomitantly with hypertension which elevates lipids and diabetes versus questions on smoking behavior. Having said that, these risk factors are believed to have attributed to heart diseases. Therefore, it became a national concern to the general US population and that of the fourth director of Framingham heart study, William Castelli
An artery is an elastic blood vessel that transports blood away from the heart. There are two main types of arteries: pulmonary arteries and systemic arteries.
It is essential to the human body that the heart pump sufficient nutrient rich blood to the body’s cells, because the body won’t be able to function normally otherwise. When a heart muscle is unable to pump enough blood through to meet the body’s regular demand it is characterized as heart failure. Heart failure can usually be treated through conventional heart therapies and symptom management strategies, however conventional therapies don’t work for all patients with heart failure, this is what is depicted as advanced heart failure or end-stage heart failure. In other words “End stage” heart failure is when the condition becomes so severe that all conventional treatments no longer work, the only treatment that works for end stage heart failure is to have a heart transplantation-surgery to remove a person's diseased heart and replace it with a healthy heart from a deceased donor. However there are two large encompassing problems with this treatment. The first problem is that the patient is subject to shortages in donor organ availability and thus possible further decompensation and potential death while awaiting transplantation. According to the American Heart Association, there are over 500,000 new cases of end-stage heart failure in the United States every year. With only 2200 donor hearts available every year nearly 20-30% of the patients who die while they await a transplant. The second problem with this mode of treatment is that not all patients qualify for heart transplantation. Patients who have another disease in addition to end-stage heart failure do not qualify for heart transplantation. The discrepancy between the clinical need for donor hearts and the total number of hearts available, as well as the lack of treatment o...
Today, cardiovascular disease is “the number one killer in the United States and the developed world” (Sapolsky, 2004, p. 41). Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the most common form of cardiovascular disease, and is responsible for claiming an unreasonable amount of lives every year. CHD can begin to accumulate in young adults, but is prominently found in both men and women in their later adult lives. As a result of CHD, men typically experience heart attacks, whereas women present with chest pains, known as angina (Matthews, 2005).
Hyperlipidemia or increased cholesterol builds up causing narrowing in the arteries, which reduces oxygen rich blood flow to the heart and tissues, also increasing the risk for myocardial infarction. Obesity increases the risk of developing diabetes, high blood pressure, and hyperlipidemia, increasing the risk of atherosclerosis, and therefore increasing
Although many individuals are uncertain about the increasing statistics associated with obesity, more than seventy percent of men and virtually sixty-two percent of women within the United States adult population are overweight or obese (Wilmore, Costill, & Kenney). Obesity refers to the condition of having an excessive amount of body fat. If an individual’s amount of body fat becomes too excessive, he/she is at a much greater risk of developing life-altering diseases such as heart failure, hypertension, type II diabetes, cancer, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, etc. (Wilmore, et al., 2008).
Heart disease and obesity goes hand in hand. There is much more of a common occurrence for people who are overweight will more and li...
Obesity is becoming a major health problem in developing countries like Australia, North America, Europe and other developing nations. The Australian Diabetes, obesity and life style study (AUSDIAB) predicts the changes in glucose indices; health behaviour and incidence of diabetes in 5 year follow up experiments among 5842 participants (Barr et al., 2007). This study suggests that a large number of Australians suffered mortality due to cardiovascular diseases associated with abnormal glucose metabolism every year. The Framingham Heart Study revealed that hypertension, diabetes and left ventricular remodelling lead to the development of congestive heart failure (Levy et al., 1996). The Framingham Heart Study also found that a 5% increase in weight increases the chance of hypertension by 30% over a four-year period of time. An increased sympathetic activity, impaired renin-angiotensin system, retention of fluid volume, peripheral vasoconstriction, dyslipidaemia, increased blood viscosity due to the increased haematocrit and fibrinogen may increase pressure overload on heart in obesity (Schunkert, 2002). Several studies also suggest that the cause of hypertension itself may contribute to left ventricular hypertrophy in obese individuals as the increase of BMI increases the chance of hypertension (De Simone et al., 1994; Avelar et al., 2007). High dietary fat intake increases the expression of angiotensin IB(AT1B) and Endothelin A (ETA) receptors (Neilsen et al., 2004; Zhang et al., 2005). Plasma concentrations of angiotensin II and endothelin 1 (physiological vasoconstrictor agents) were increased in both obese patients and animal models (Barton et al., 2000; Neilsen et al., 2004; Zhang et al., 2005). Recent studies have shown that reduced synthesis of nitric oxide (NO; a major vasodilator) from L-arginine in endothelial cells is a major factor contributing to the impaired action of insulin in the vasculature of obese and diabetic subjects. Obesity results from an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure. Growing evidence suggests that arginine plays an important role in regulating metabolism of energy substrates in mammals (Frank et al. 2007; Jobgen et al. 2006). NO is synthesized from L-arginine by NO synthase. As a signalling molecule, physiological levels of NO stimulate glucose uptake, as well as glucose and fatty-acid oxidation in skeletal muscle, heart, liver, and adipose tissues (Jobgen et al. 2006). Nitric oxide also inhibits the synthesis of glucose, glycogen and lipid in liver and adipose tissues and enhances lipolysis in subcutaneous adipocytes (Jobgen et al.
“Obesity Information.” American Heart Association Obesity Information. American heart Association, 27 February 2014. Web. 04 Apr. 2014
Atherosclerosis, one of the leading causes of death in the country, is a condition in the arteries that is characterized by the deposition of plaque on the arterial walls. While the exact cause of atherosclerosis is unknown, it is a slow, complex disease that begins developing during childhood, and progresses faster with age.1 Certain factors such as smoking, obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and increased concentrations of sugar in the blood (or diabetes), play a role in the development of atherosclerosis by damaging the endothelium and inner layers of the arteries.1 Plaque begins to build up and harden in the areas where the inner layers of the arteries are damaged.1 These areas of plaque potentially rupture or burst, which encourages platelets to attack to the site of the injury and clump there, forming blood clots.1 These blood clots combined with plaque narrow arteries even more, which further limits the flow and delivery of oxygenated blood to the rest of the body.1 Atherosclerosis can ultimately cause a heart attack (blood flow to the heart is blocked), a stroke (blood flow to the brain is blocked), or angina (chest pain) depending on the artery damaged.1
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is caused by reduced blood flow in the coronary arteries. This subsequently leads to reduced oxygenation to the myocardium, resulting in transient ischemia or angina. CAD may cause permanent damage to myocardial cells or infarction. The left ventricle of the heart is most susceptible to CAD.
Atherosclerosis is a disease that occurs when arteries become blocked, inflamed, or hardened. As a result of this, blood cannot easily pass through the artery, and blood pressure increases. Many people suffer from atherosclerosis as they age, but young people can be affected by atherosclerosis also. There are many preventative steps that can be taken to decrease the risk of atherosclerosis; however, if atherosclerosis does develop in the arteries, medications can be given to help the individual receive adequate blood flow to important tissues. Atherosclerosis is a very serious condition that requires medical attention and a change in life style because it is a precursor to many dangerous and potentially fatal diseases.
Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a group of syndromes that are caused from plaque built up inside the coronary arteries1. CHD is the most common cause of death worldwide, with more than 7 million deaths per year2. As a significant public health issue, CHD has been intensively studied for its risk prediction3–8. The initial models have been developed with risk factors such as age, blood pressure, cigarette smoking, total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, and diabetes status3. To improve prediction of CHD beyond traditional risk factors, there were endeavors to add emerging risk factors such as C-reactive protein8–10 and risk scores using candidate genes11,12. Advances in genomic technologies led to identification of novel CHD susceptibility genes from large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in various ethnicities 13–39.