What’s the leading cause of death? Cancer? Accidents? No. Cardiovascular disease. It is the number one killer of adults in the United States. It kills about 960,000 people each year, claiming more lives than the next seven leading causes of death combined. One in five Americans has some type of cardiovascular disease and, in 2002, the cost of cardiovascular diseases was an estimated 329.5 billion dollars.
Cardiovascular diseases include diseases of the heart and blood vessel systems. February is Heart Disease month and is a time to educate everyone about their risk of the diseases. Heart disease can be prevented in some cases and it is also important to learn how to prevent and treat them. If you know more about the diseases, you have a better chance of helping someone you love.
Currently there is someone close to me that is going through problems with his heart. My better half’s father had a quadruple bi-pass a couple of years ago and now he is faced with a failing heart. He is only 63 years old and he is a great man. He looks young and healthy but inside his core is breaking down. He is beginning to schedule another surgery because after realizing that he only has about 20 percent of his heart working, they found that he also has a leaky heart valve and a blood clot in his lung. I don’t ever let him know but sometimes I am scared when we go to Maine to visit him. At any moment his heart could stop, even though the doctors say he has about two more years left of his precious life. But those two years will only last if he makes it through this next surgery that only gives him a 50 percent survival rate. The only thing that comforts me when I’m scared to be around him is that I know how to deal with a cardiac emergency. Here at Plymouth State College, I have taken CPR and First Aid courses to renew my certifications. I will always keep up with these certifications because I never know when I will have to use them.
One of the most frequent heart diseases is of course the heart attack. Historically thought to be a man’s disease, heart disease is finally being looked at seriously as a non-gender specific disease. Women were never in heart disease studies because men were, and still are, having heart attacks ten to twenty years before women were. We now know that every two minutes a woman dies of heart disease and doctors are finally beginning to take it seriously. The scary part about heart attacks in is that when they are about to have, or are having, a heart attack the signs and symptoms are not very specific. Signs and symptoms for men are persistent discomfort, pain in the arm, shoulder, jaw and neck, trouble breathing, and ashen skin. Most often, these can be easily defined. The signs and symptoms for a woman are unexplained fatigue, indigestion, abdominal pain, and lower back pain. How is one supposed to diagnose that?
Another chilling aspect of heart disease is cardiac arrest (which can be brought on by a heart attack). About 74 to 80 percent of all sudden cardiac arrests happen at home and cardiac arrests that happen outside of a hospital account for 250,000 deaths annually. Cardiac arrest is most often caused by an irregular heart rhythm that usually results from cardiovascular disease but may result from drowning or electrocution. About 95 percent of cardiac arrest victims die before they make it to the hospital. This is because when they have the arrest their heart will eventually stop beating. You can only live so long without oxygen to the brain, you know?
One way people can be prepared is to live a healthy life (which everyone already knows but needs to put into play). Another way we can be prepared is to learn Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR). This will help us keep our loved ones around. Since 74 to 80 percent of cardiac arrests happen at home, there may be a good chance of having to use CPR eventually. Effective CPR can double someone’s chance of survival, but, most likely, resuscitation will not be successful if treatment is not provided within minutes. Even though the chance of survival is not high, if more people knew CPR then more lives might be saved. If you were presented with the situation you would probably feel better if you could at least attempt to save a life. I’m sure that everyone reading this right now has known or does know someone with cardiovascular disease. It would be nice if we all knew how to help keep them alive.