What Increases The Risks Of CVD And What Are The Possible Non-Surgical Treatments?

Submitted By jaackbaaker
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What is CVD, What increases the risk of CVD and what are the possible non-surgical treatments?

What is CVD?
CVD stands for Cardiovascular Disease it is not a specific illness that effects one area other than it is a general term given that effects the heart and its blood vessels. Cardiovascular disease is extremely likely as it is the highest cause of death in all EU countries of men and women 42% in total died from a form of cardiovascular disease every year that’s 1.9 million deaths. It doesn’t just effect EU countries as in America a huge figure of 68 million Americans currently have some form of cardiovascular disease.
Cardiovascular disease can cause a range of problems the major and most likely to kill is a heart attack, someone dies from a heart attack every six minutes that’s 10 people every hour and in total, 146,000 people have a heart attack every year and 94,000 of them die. As well as heart attacks it can also cause major stroke causing fatal damage to your body leaving the patient with server health issues is they survive.
But how do these problems arise, the main cause of almost every heart attack starts with atherosclerosis a condition here the walls of the arteries become narrow reducing blood flow resulting in a heart attack. Atherosclerosis starts when the layer of cells covering the artery walls allowing the blood to flow becomes damaged these cells are called endothelium cells. This damage allows LDL cholesterol to start to build up in the damaged area, white blood cells are sent by the body to the damaged area to repair the cells but some cells become stuck at the damaged site. Over time this process continues and the white blood cells and LDL cholesterol builds up and forms a very hard plaque. This plaque as it grows narrows the artery limiting the blood flow through the artery this high pressure and limited blood flow can cause serious problems like heart attack and prolonging the process can cause further blood clots leading to more serious heart attacks the coronary artery is at risk if that becomes blocked heart attacks are a potential issue. This process can be repeated but in the blood vessels surrounding the brain or neck leading to strokes.
Other problems that can be cause by atherosclerosis include angina, angina is a sharp chest pain across the chest and often into the shoulders, and it is caused when a patient does a little more exercise than normal and the oxygen supply isn’t great enough for the body through the narrowing of the artery. Angina is separated into 2 types stable where the pain comes and goes very quickly and can be treated with medication and unstable in a case of unstable angina the patient would need urgent hospital care as the attacks are happening in unpredictable circumstances and not in obvious times.
Another serious problem resulting from atherosclerosis is thrombosis or DVT Deep Vein Thrombosis. This condition is where a large body vein is blocked through a blood clot this could be a large vein in the leg or lung and can lead to large amounts of swelling and pain. These are all conditions that result from a blood clot a blockage in the arteries or vein that lead to major problems.
CVD Risk Factors

There are three main factors that cannot be changed in regard to cardiovascular disease they are age, gender and heredity or genetics. These three factors are aspects that a person can’t change they can do nothing to help it apart from limit the further factors that I will cover later.
Age
As we grow older our risk of cardiovascular disease increases, in fact it is the strongest predictor at notifying people of the disease. More than half of people who have a heart attack are 65 or older and 4 out of 5 who die from heart attack are 65 or older. Although we can’t change our age taking into consideration exercise and diet control, can limit the chances of the disease.
Gender
Research has shown that men are more likely to develop the cardiovascular disease like