![]() The heart’s two major arteries branch off from the aorta, the artery that sends blood to the rest of the body. If you have a systolic pressure of 130 or higher, or a diastolic pressure of 80 or higher, it’s critical to reduce it. HBP hardens and thickens your arteries, reducing blood flow. It is the result of plaque buildups in your arteries that reduce the amount of blood that reaches your heart, leaving you at higher risk for heart attack, heart failure, and stroke. Having high blood pressure (HBD), aka hypertension-which has no symptoms-ups your odds of developing numerous other types of heart disease, including CAD. Let’s review some of the major types of heart disease and how to recognize them: Hypertension And some types of heart disease have no symptoms at all. While some diseases that affect the heart share similar symptoms, others vary greatly. How does your body tell you that something’s troubling your heart? It depends on the type of trouble. Other factors-not all of them healthy, like smoking and over-indulging in alcohol-can also affect your heart rate. When you exercise, your nervous system signals your heart to speed up in order to pump more blood. These electrical signals originate in your heart’s right atrium and are controlled by your central autonomic nervous system, telling your heart how fast or slow it should beat. ![]() Your heart contracts with each beat, and the timing of those beats must remain precise so that those contractions stay in sync. You need your heart to beat properly in order to supply your body with sufficient blood and oxygen. In fact, it needs a bigger supply of blood than any other muscle in the body, so it relies on its own network of coronary arteries to provide that blood.Įlectricity powers the beating of your heart and sets its pace. Like the rest of the body, the heart requires blood in order to thrive. If you’re quite fit-an athlete, for example-your heart works more efficiently, and your resting heart rate may be closer to 40 beats per minute. As a pump, it provides sufficient pressure so that your entire blood supply cycles through your body every 60 seconds.Ī healthy adult’s heart will beat anywhere from 60 to 100 times per minute while lounging around. Remember, the heart is a muscle, and when it’s healthy, it’s quite strong. Those chambers work in tandem, employing a system of valves that open and close as your heart beats in order to bring blood in and pump blood out. On the bottom are the left and right ventricles. How does your ticker make all this happen? For starters, the heart is made up of four chambers: Once back in the heart, the blood flows along to the lungs, where it disposes of carbon dioxide and restocks its supply of oxygen before cycling through your body once more. Once it’s made its deliveries, blood returns via your veins to the heart, discarding toxins (via the kidneys) along the way. ![]() (Fun fact: According to the Cleveland Clinic, you have approximately 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body.)Īs it flows out from your heart through the arteries in your circulatory system, blood provides oxygen and other essential nutrients to all the cells in your body. That blood passes through your arteries, veins, and capillaries that form your blood vessels. And heart disease does not discriminate: Whether you are a man or a woman of any race or ethnicity, cardiovascular disease is your number-one health threat.Ī one-pound, fist-sized muscle with an oversized job, the heart is responsible for the nonstop circulation of blood throughout your body. That’s about one death every 37 seconds-a shocking number, to be sure. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 650,000 people die of heart disease annually. Heart disease accounts for more deaths each year than any other health concern. You might have also heard of something called Broken Heart Syndrome, a form of heart disease with origins still unclear to researchers. Some of the more common forms of heart disease include:Ītrial fibrillation and other arrhythmias (irregular heartbeat) That’s because it’s not a single disease but one that refers to all sorts of heart-related health conditions, many of them chronic, that impact how well your heart functions. The term heart disease encompasses a huge amount of cardiovascular territory.
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