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Heart disease is an old aged
disease that affects those who are 40 years old and above. The truth is
heart disease affects people as young as 15 years old.
Post mortem done on teenage children who
died in accidents in America shows that atherosclerosis exist.
Atherosclerosis is the clue to heart disease and a process which lead
to the hardening of arteries.
A study conducted during the Korean war
in the late 40's showed the presence of this fatty streaks in 76% of
the soldiers who died in the war. The average age of the soldiers was
23 and that was in the 40's where the presence of trans fat in food
back then was not as much as now. This is one symptom of heart disease
which many are still in doubt.
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Cholesterol are wrongly blamed for
the root cause of heart disease. It has been previously thought that
cholesterol is the agent that built up the plaque that block the
arteries.
Atherosclerosis which has been thought as
cholesterol storage disease previously is now being diagnosed as an
inflammatory disorder.
Chemicals such as chlorine which is
easily available and used as anti bacteria in public swimming pools is
one of the source that create the damage to the endothelial layer that
lines the blood vessels. When this happens, the inflammation starts.
A research shows that 30 out of 100 heart
attack patients do not indicate any sign of elevated cholesterol level.
The rest of the 70 patients have normal or borderline cholesterol at
5.2-5.6mmol/l.
Cholesterol level has been made the
scapegoat by the pharmaceutical companies as being the biggest reason
for the symptom of heart disease for their own interest. In fact
inflammation is the biggest culprit for causing heart disease.
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Heart Attack is only men disease.
Heart attack pick no gender. The fact is heart disease symptom in not
prevalent in women but they do attack women as well. According to
statistic, about 33% women die from heart compare to only 4% from
breast cancer.
The gender difference between of heart
attack in women compare to men are as follows:
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heart attack usually occur in women
during post menopause
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about 67% of the heart attack cases in
women do not show any sign of heart disease prior to the attack
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heart attack occur in women at their
later age than men
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chest pain is the usual symptom of heart
disease in men compare to women who complain of neck and shoulder pain,
abdominal pain, nausea, fatigue, vomiting and shortness of breath. This
one big reason doctor sometimes diagnose women heart attack as
something else.
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when the doctor misdiagnosed heart attack
with some other disease, treatment is not directly induced for the
patient. In this case, aggressive clot busting treatment is not
administered at all.
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studies also shown that women do not
respond to aspirin as men do for primary heart attack prevention.
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We have been told that the symptom of
heart attack occur in the arteries that are severely blocked by
plaque. The truth is heart attack happen to those who have only 50%
blocked arteries contrarily to the 90% as believed.
The initial stage when plaque built up under the endothelial layer in the arteries are
unstable and immature. During this period of time, the wall of the
arteries could rupture at any time due to physical or emotional stress.
In the event if the artery wall rupture,
sometimes intimal flap occurs, blood will start to clot around that
area which result in total blocked artery. This process is termed as
thrombosis. The heart will go into chaotic electrical conductivity
state until it stop permanently.
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Thread Mill Test is the most accurate
test for sign of heart disease. According to the American Heart
Association Guideline for Exercise Testing, the tread mill can only
detect blockages that is above 65%-70%. The actual fact is that when
blockages is at that level, the plaque in the arteries have already
passed the critical stage of rupturing.
There is not so much of an alarm when the
blockages reaches 70%. The stress test in this scenario is of no
significant use to measure heart attack possibilities. Thread mill test
is useful to detect the arteries that are closing up to 90% or more
which are termed as obstructive.