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Vasculature of the Heart

Cardiovascular Disease Background

Heart Disease Facts

  • Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men, women, and people of most racial and ethnic groups in the U.S.  (Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and Whites)

  • One person dies every 36 seconds in the U.S. from cardiovascular disease.

  • About 659,000 people in the U.S. die from heart disease each year—that’s 1 in every 4 deaths.

  • Heart disease costs the U.S. about $363 billion each year from 2016 to 2017 — this includes the cost of health care services, medicines, and lost productivity due to death.

 

Coronary Artery Disease

  • Coronary heart disease is the most common type of heart disease, killing 360,900 people in 2019.

  • About 18.2 million adults aged 20 and older have CAD.

  • About 2 in 10 deaths from CAD happen in adults less than 65 years old.

 

Heart Attack

  • In the U.S., someone has a heart attack every 40 seconds.

  • Every year, about 805,000 people in the U.S. have a heart attack.  Of these,

    • 605,000 are a first heart attack

    • 200,000 happen to people who have already had a heart attack

    • About 1 in 5 heart attacks is silent—the damage is done, but the person is not aware of it.

 

Other

  • 75% of stroke victims have normal blood pressure levels.  4 out of 5 stroke victims have no apparent warning signs

  • Heart Disease causes more death in the U.S. that AIDS and ALL cancers combined

  • Heart Disease is the most expensive and costly of the chronic diseases, almost by a 2 to 1 margin

  • A person with a family history of heart disease is ten times more likely to have some form of cardiovascular disease 

  • Twice as many people die from a silent heart attack compared with those who experience the typical symptoms. 

  • About 42% of people who experience a heart attack in a given year will die from it, and about 66% of heart attack patients do not make a complete recovery

  • 50% of heart attack victims have normal blood pressure

  • 50% of heart attack victims have normal cholesterol

  • Two-thirds of U.S. women who die suddenly of a heart attack had no symptoms

    • Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women over age 25 in the U.S.

    (data from CDC)

Cardiovascular Disease is Progressive

Everyone starts life with a healthy vascular system. For many, family history plays a major role in determining cardiovascular disease.  Additionally, the development of heart disease can be attributed to lifestyle, nutritional habits and inactivity.

 

Testing for the the presence of cardiovascular disease should begin as early as possible.  HeartSavers Clinics recommends it start as early as age 40.  But if you're in your 50's or 60's and have never been tested, it's not too late to do so.  The individualized treatment plan you'll get from HeartSavers Clinics (which can be shared with your doctor) is based on your individual biological factors, health history, and demographics (age, gender, ethnicity, etc.) 

 

The graphic below shows the progression of cardiovascular disease. HeartSavers Clinics is able to test the elasticity of your large and small C1 and C2 arteries and gauge the health of your arteries with its patented, proprietary CVProfilor.  Heart disease is not curable, but it is treatable and the goal of HeartSavers Clinics is to help you "bend your personal curve" so you can avoid cardiac events giving you the opportunity to live a long, happy and healthy life.  

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