CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH
YOUR CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM
Your cardiovascular system is a real workhorse when it comes to your body’s overall health. Cardiovascular health issues, known generally as heart disease, are the number one cause of death for both men and women. Heart disease kills about 647,000 Americans each year. Types of heart disease fall into three categories: again. To give you a sense of the size and complexity of this system, if all of your vessels were laid end to end, they would circle the Earth more than twice! non-oxygenated blood back to your heart, where the process starts over Y our cardiovascular system consists of your heart and circulatory system. The heart is a pump that beats in a steady rhythm, about 60 to 100 times per minute, or 100,000 times per day. Each beat of your heart sends oxygenated blood throughout your body via your circulatory system— a complex network of arteries, arterioles and capillaries. Your veins then carry • Conditions of the heart itself, such as valve disorders, aorta disease, heart failure or congenital heart defects present at birth • Conditions a ecting the circulatory system, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, peripheral vascular disease and coronary artery disease — the most common type of heart disease
• Conditions a ecting the electrical impulses that regulate your heart beat such as atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter Each of these disease types will be treated by di erent types of specialists using di erent methods, so it’s important to work with your doctors to understand which type of heart condition you have.
Heart disease is the number
one cause of death in the United
States, killing about 647,000
Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Texas Heart Institute, WebMD
Americans each year.
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MEDICA MAGAZINE | SPRING 2020
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