Coronary Artery Disease

Coronary artery disease of better known as hardening of the arteries and heart disease, is a condition in which the main arteries that supply the blood flow to your heart build up with plaque. This plaque is a waxy substance in which coats the walls of the coronary arties and narrowing the pathways overtime, in turn restricting the blood flow to the heart. The plaque in which is causing the restriction or blockage of blood flow can harden overtime. The hardening of plaque can cause the arteries to rupture causing the individual to endure a heart attack. I have chosen to conduct my research paper on heart disease, because all but one of my grandparents have passed early on in their lives with complications resulting from heart disease. This topic is important to me because I now have parents reaching an age in which their parents began to encounter problems. I want to learn as much as possible on heart disease in hopes of being able to provide help and support to family as they approach such ages.

In the late 1700's through the early 1800's heart disease at the time was classified as Angina Pectoris. Angina Pectoris is Latin for infection of the throat or "strangling of the chest", which for the time period was a very accurate diagnosis what was accurately happening. At the time professionals believed angina pectoris was predominantly a male disease, occurring in men around the age of 50 and older. Heart disease was very uncommon in women and children, and if it did occur it was usually diagnosed as something else. During a time when medical research was confined to observation and anatomic dissection, the method of treatment was bloodletting the patient. This form of medical practice was thought to release the infected blood pathogens out of the body, and would free the patient of any illnesses. Unfortunately surgical rooms at this time were very unsanitary and most individuals perished cause by infections from the medical procedures.

Coronary Artery disease is the leading cause of death for most people in the United States today, including all ethnicities except American Indians, Alaska Natives and Asian/Pacific Islanders in which heart disease is only surpassed by cancer. Every year roughly 600,000 people die from heart disease and complications that follow, that is 1 in every 4 deaths is related to heart disease. To add on to that extreme death rate about 715,000 people endure a heart attack, and of those people, 525,000 are their first heart attacks, and the rest are people who have already encounter their first. It is now the leading cause to death in both men and women, which in the past was sought to believe was predominantly a male issue. As you can see when heart disease is diagnosed early it is reasonably managed. Unfortunately heart disease is usually only discovered when a person endures their first heart attack. If they survive their first episode and follow recommendations made by their professionals,