Heart attack kills nearly half million Americans each year

Jay Johnson, former U.S. Rep and a longtime Green Bay TV news anchor, died Saturday Oct 17 at his suburban Washington DC home apparently of heart attack. He was 66.

He is survived by his wife and two stepchildren. His funeral has yet to be arranged.

Heart attack is one of the major killers in the United States. Luckily this condition is largely preventable by following a healthy lifestyle including a healthy diet although that does not mean that Mr Johnson followed a unhealthy lifestyle.

Below is some basics about heart attack. But those who seriously want to avoid what Mr. Johnson experienced need to do their homework to decide what they need to do to reduce their risk for the health condition that kills nearly half million Americans each year.

What is heart attack?

By definition, a heart attack occurs when a section of heart muscle does not receive blood flow due to the artery blockage. The blood flow if not restored within minutes, the heart muscle becomes damaged from lack of oxygen and begins to die.

Each year in the United States, about 1.1 million Americans suffer a heart attack and about 460,000 of heart attacks are fatal.

What are heart attack causes?

Plaque buildup in coronary artery is the cause for most cases of heart attacks. Heart attack also can occur due to microvascular disease and a severe spasm of a coronary artery resulting sometimes from taking some drugs, emotional stress or pain, exposure to extreme cold, and cigarette smoking.

What are the risk factors?

The adjustable major risk factors for heart attack include smoking, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, overweight and obesity, physical inactivity, and diabetes.

Risk factors that you can do nothing about include age and family history of early cardiovascular disease.

Heart attack symptoms

Not every heart attack victims experience the same signs or symptoms. Many cases start slowly as mild pain or discomfort. Some people do not have any symptoms at all.

Angina (pain in the chest) is something people need to watch out. Other signs include upper body discomfort in one or two arms, the back, neck jaw or stomach, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, lightheadedness or fainting or breaking out in a cold sweat.

How to prevent heart attack.

Following a low-fat diet rich in fruits and vegetables are proved to be effective in reversing artery plaque buildup. Interested readers should try Ornish diet. Methods that may also help include losing weight if you're overweight or obese, quitting smoking and doing physical activity to improve heart health.

By david Liu