Code Blue

Nothing instills fear in a physician more than a nurse yelling "code blue, ," especially if the patient is having a heart attack. Heart disease, specifically heart attacks, the leading cause of death in the United States, is triggered by a variety of factors. The most important of these factors include: family history, cholesterol levels, smoking, high blood pressure, race, obesity, and gender.

Heart disease is hereditary. The single most important cause of the illness is family history. This is to say that if one has heart disease, then his or her progeny will be at an increased risk of suffering from the disorder. If a patient knows that his or her family has had problems related to the heart, preventive measures can be instituted.

Many people experience troubles with their heart because they have levels of cholesterol that are not conducive to good health. Red meat is extremely high in cholesterol content. There are two basic types of cholesterol: Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL) and High Density Lipoproteins (HDL). LDL is a harmful type of cholesterol, whereas HDL is key in the prevention of heart disease. Thus, there are two ways that cholesterol level can potentially attack the heart: a high LDL level or a low HDL level in the blood.

Another very common cause of heart trouble is smoking. It is a known fact that a higher percentage of smokers have heart attacks than non-sm...