If you're like most people, you think that heart disease is a problem for other folks. But heart disease is the number one killer in the U.S. It is also a major cause of disability. There are many different forms of heart disease. The most common cause of heart disease is narrowing or blockage of the coronary arteries, the blood vessels that supply blood to the heart itself.

Heart disease is an umbrella term for a number of different diseases affecting the heart. As of 2007, it is the leading cause of death in the United States,[1][2] England, Canada and Wales,[3] killing one person every 34 seconds in the United States alone.

Symptoms of Heart disease

The symptoms of heart disorder include certain types of pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, palpitations (awareness of slow, fast, or irregular heartbeats), light-headedness, fainting, and swelling in the legs, ankles, and feet. However, these symptoms do not necessarily indicate a heart disorder.

Symptoms may be very noticeable, but sometimes you can have the disease and not have any symptoms.

Chest pain or discomfort (angina) is the most common symptom. You feel this pain when the heart is not getting enough blood or oxygen. How bad the pain is varies from person to person.

Causes of Heart Diseases

Too much low-density lipoprotein (LDL or "bad cholesterol") in the blood causes plaque to form on artery walls, which starts a disease process called atherosclerosis. When plaque builds up in the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart, you are at greater risk of having a heart attack.

Many distinguished scientists have pointed to serious flaws in this theory, beginning with the fact that heart disease in America has increased during the period when consumption of saturated fat has decreased. "The diet-heart idea," said the distinguished George Mann, "is the greatest scam in the history of medicine.

Stress Contribute to Heart Disease

Medical researchers aren't sure exactly how stress increases the risk of heart disease. Stress itself might be a risk factor, or it could be that high levels of stress make other risk factors (such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure) worse. For example, if you are under stress, your blood pressure goes up, you may overeat, you may exercise less and you may be more likely to smoke.

Treatment of Heart Disease

Diagnosis and Conventional Treatment

In many cases the first indication of cardiovascular disease is a sudden heart attack. There are more than 1.5 million heart attacks in the United States every year and 30% of them are fatal within the first month(5,24). As one popular medical textbook puts it: "Sudden death is the first and only manifestation of coronary heart disease in about 25% of patients."

Intermittent claudicating involves pain in a muscle to which the blood supply has been restricted due to atherosclerosis. The pains occur with exercise and subside within a couple of minutes once the exercise is stopped. Conventional medical therapy includes an emphasis on daily walks, weight reduction, and total avoidance of smoking.