- Next time you find yourself philosophizing about the
nature of progress, stop and consider cardiac disease, which is
generally considered a twentieth-century ailment—and for good reason. Cardiac disease
afflicts mainly people who live in Western, industrialized nations. It kills nearly one
million Americans a year and is the leading cause of death in the United States.
Scientists who study the history of disease believe that heart disease was rare among our
earliest human ancestors.
The heart can be likened to an engine that drives
the body. It uses a vast network of blood vessels to pump blood to every cell in your
body. As you probably know, blood is responsible for transporting important life-giving
commodities such as oxygen, nutrients, chemical messengers and infection fighters to your
cells. It also carts away unneeded debris, such as carbon dioxide, urea and lactic acid,
to your kidneys for disposal. Together the heart and blood vessels are called the
cardiovascular system.
How have we managed to create a
modern-day plague on the most basic of our bodily systems? Medical science points an
accusing finger at a diet rich in fat, salt and too many processed foods, among other risk
factors. People are taking this knowledge to heart, and dietary changes alone have
dramatically reduced deaths from heart disease in the United States.
Stress and lack of exercise are also commonly named as
factors contributing to heart disease. In addition, the American Medical Association warns
that cigarette smoking increases your chance of dying from heart or artery disease by up
to 300 percent! This is because nicotine constricts arteries and the carbon monoxide in
tobacco smoke reduces the amount of oxygen in the blood.
