Stop Heart Disease – Leading Cause of Death In America

Heart disease is well known to be the leading cause of death in America and it has been so for a long time. Over the years previous leaders like infection and influenza have been overcome by modern medicine while other leaders have emerged such as diabetes and Alzheimer’s. Despite the changes over time however, heart disease is easily the current leader in American and it doesn’t appear to be going anywhere soon.

If you want to live a longer life then you have to take steps to minimize your risks for developing heart disease and prepare yourself to recover from it should it form despite a healthy lifestyle.

Causes of Heart Disease

Heart disease is caused for a number of reasons but most predominantly it is due to genetics, environmental factors, and lifestyle choices. Of these three, lifestyle choices account for the vast majority of heart disease cases and should be the starting point for any program designed to prevent heart disease.

Heart disease is caused primarily due to plaque buildup in the arteries and arterial plaque build up is caused mostly due to poor cholesterol levels, obesity, and hypertension. Digging a little deeper you may want to read about the leading causes of hypertension, how to lower cholesterol levels, or learn a bit about what are normal blood sugar levels, as this contributes to metabolic syndrome and heart disease.

Another one of the leading causes of heart disease is smoking and the related affects of it. People who smoke consistently have a shorter life span than people who don’t and the quality of life in the end is almost always worse off.

Why Heart Disease Is The Top Cause

So why is heart disease a leader? The answer can be simplified or discussed in thesis form but as this is merely a blog I’ll say this. Tobacco is a habit that can lead to heart disease and many people started smoking well before this was known or before they cared to understand.

Additionally fast food quickly gained in popularity at a time that was unique in American history. The women’s movement allowed many mothers to exit the home and enter the workforce causing the demand for convenience food to soar. This alone is not a problem but the convenience food found in fast food restaurants contributes in a major way to the development of heart disease because it is often loaded with sodium and fat; which makes the food cheap and allows it to last a long time.

To compound the problems that have allowed heart disease to inflate over the decades is the rise in popularity of soda and sweetened beverages. Many people do not realize it but drinking sodas, sweetened teas, and juices adds an amazing amount of calories to our diets which in the past would have been occupied by water. These calories add to our waist lines and cause obesity which increases the likelihood of developing heart disease.

Lastly, because modern medicine has nearly eliminated or minimized many of the conditions that were so significant in the past we all live longer today than ever before. This allows conditions like heart disease to develop over a lifetime. In the past people didn’t live long enough to have heart disease in abundance but now as life expectancy is much higher these diseases of long life become more apparent.

How To Prevent Heart Disease

So how do you prevent heart disease? It should be clear. Each of the above mentioned causes are lifestyle choices we all make. If we are expected to live so long and more than a quarter of us succumb to hart disease then preventing this condition by not smoking, not eating fast food, not drinking soda, and not developing obesity seems only natural. If you want to improve longevity and quality of life in your extreme old age then all you have to do is be a little proactive.  Eat right live longer and live a healthier life.