Coronary Heart Disease

What is it? Do we need to do more?

By: Josh Lyder

 In this paper I will discuss the condition known as Coronary Heart Disease (CHD)

also known as Coronary Artery Disease. First I will talk a little about its history, but

mainly what it is and what it does to the body. Second I will discuss the statistics of it and

how it affects not only our daily lives but also the condition of American Health. Then I

will discuss how it is controlled and treated my doctors once you have it. After that I will

analyze exactly what weve done in the past to help. I will talk a little about why we

need to do more in our effort to combat this terrible disease to better the average

Americans health. Finally I will share popular discussion points on what we can do to

fight it as well as share some of my personal opinions on policies that may be a possible

help. By the time Im done I hope that you have a better understanding of how big of a

problem that this is and see how simple it can be to turn things around.

Did you know that out of the top six causes of death in the United States of

America five of them are easily preventable? Its true, and if Americans simply stopped

smoking and ate healthier, not even extremely healthy just followed standard nutritional

guidelines, the our average life span could reach 80. This is an extremely interesting fact

especially considering we are currently far behind the rest of the developed world at 17th

on the average life expectancy list. Do I have you convinced we need a change yet?

Coronary Heart Disease tops the list at the number one killer of Americans. This data is

even more troubling when you compare it to the rest of the world where heart disease is

only the 5th most common cause of death behind tuberculosis, pneumonia, diarrheal

infections, and liver disease. Now these conditions can be prevented, however not

without large amounts of money, while America can prevent our number one killer

simply by eating less junk. For all these reasons I think its quite clear that America needs
to know more about what were dealing with and take some action to ensure that our

future generations do not inherit the terrible habits that we have been growing over the

last 50 years.

First off I want to talk a little bit about what Coronary Artery Disease is. Well a

healthy heart pumps oxygenated blood throughout your body. Simply put the oxygen is

like the electricity that powers your body, the more oxygen enriched blood that is

pumping through your system the more energy youll have and proportionally the more

strength and speed youll have. Another important part is the more oxygen rich blood is

pushed through your brain the more alert and able to learn youll be. So a healthier heart

directly correlates to the quality of life you experience. So what changes in coronary

heart disease? Well fatty tissue begins to develop on the inner lining of the arteries, which

pump blood to the heart. When this happens it narrows the size of area that the blood has

to get from the body to the heart and back out. The exact definition is Coronary heart

disease (CHD) is a narrowing of the small blood vessels that supply blood and oxygen to

the heart. CHD is also called coronary artery disease. (A.D.A.M.). Now as I just

explained the more oxygen pumped through the body the better it operates. Well its easy

to assume that once the arteries or a heart have been narrowed by fatty build up they will

not be able to pump near as much blood to the body, people can live with very high

percent blockage. This can severely lower the quality to which the body runs, taking

away all energy and alertness to the point where has difficulty living their daily life.

However the heart does attempt to make up for this blockage and this is what can be very

deadly. The heart attempts to make up by working increasingly harder and harder, if it

attempts to work beyond its limits this will result in a heart attack. This is a very
common story for the majority of America as it is the most common cause of death in the

United States. And I am not just referring to heart failure because that can happen just of

old age, I am indeed referring to the CHD causing heart failure.

In America for every 100 people 30 will die of Coronary heart disease, this is

unbelievable compared to the rest of the world who are far below 20. It is also the

number two killer in the United States, as well as the world, as a result of smoking

obviously behind lung cancer. With all the unsettling statistics ive given its even more sad

to say that the united states has cut its CHD death rates in half over the last 20 years. As

far as who it affects, it is the number one killer of male and females of every race in

America, however it does affect them differently. It hits African Americans the hardest

with Latino/Latina Americans not far behind. Then there is a fairly large gap with white

and Indian in the middle and after another gap Asians come in with the lowest occurrence

rate. Just a side note Japan is the number two best country for life expectancy, just

something to think about.

So how do doctors treat the disease? Well there is a large variety of prescription

medications that can be taken to combat the effects that CHD has on the heart. ACE

inhibitors can be used to lower blood pressure and protects the heart and kidneys. Aspirin,

with or without Plavix (Clopidogrel) or Effient (Prasugrel) which help prevent blood

clots, Beta-Blockers lower heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen used by the heart,

Calcium Channels to relax arteries, Diuretics to lower blood pressure, Nitrates to stop

chest pain, and Statins to lower cholesterol. All of these medications are meant to fight a

certain trait of CHD to lessen the likelihood of heart failure. There are certain treatments

that can help reduce the risk and the severity of the diseases symptoms
Treatments depend on the symptoms shown and the severity. These are the only options,

there is no discovered cure.

Its hasnt been hard over the last couple decades to see what our communities

and government has done to attempt to lessen the impact of CHD. In recent years the

United States have taken steps to try and assure a healthier future. In the last decade

school lunches have been completely changed. Schools are now required to offer

healthier options and cut some of the fattiest products. Vending machines have seen a

major overhaul in the quality of food you can find, from crackers and pretzels to all diet

sodas and milk. Also almost every major brand is coming out with a healthier product

for the public, however many of these products contain other substances, while not

causing CHD still can cause serious medical problems. Weve seen nationwide health

campaigns driven by politicians, celebrities, or anyone else they can get to influence the

country. There is also continuing research into the genetic aspects of the disease so that

we can maybe one day find a way to cure it. However this practice is completely under

funding and not appreciated by the American public. More money is given to Susan G.

Komen for the Cure every year than is given to the American Heart Association, this is

ridiculous that there is a whole month where we wear pink for the cure but Americas

number one killer goes practically unnoticed.

We absolutely need to do more to make Coronary Heart disease a main focus to

the American public. CHD is the number one killer in America so why isnt it our number

one health concern? Doesnt it make sense to fight what is the biggest threat to you? Not

only does the cause need more support so we can setup programs and institute policy, but

also we need money to continue the research so we can find more efficient ways to fight
and maybe one day cure CHD. From the time kids grow up we teach them that junk food

id bad and that you dont want to eat too much fat and you need to follow the food

pyramid, but we need to show them as early as 5th or 6th grade how extremely common

this actually is. As kids they just think its another stupid thing that adults are saying, I

mean we scare kids about driving during drivers education but all we do in health class

is show them a pretty picture and a 15 year old video.

So it comes down to how can we make a difference? First of all if everyone just

worried about their own health first then we would definitely see an immediate

improvement. Next we could start really pushing it on kids that they know how actually

serious this is instead of just telling them to eat healthy to grow up big and strong. Now a

government regulation on what you can or cannot eat would be on a constitutional line at

the very least, but its the influences to put money into the healthy food industry is a good

idea. My personal opinion is a national nonprofit organization that is funded by donation

and governmental grants who can raise and grow heart healthy foods. The nonprofit side

would allow them to sell healthy foods to family at a very affordable price, because one

of the biggest obstacles to a healthy lifestyle is how expensive it can be. Finally we need

to be putting more money into research organizations and less into flashier but less

crucial organization such as Susan Komen or even the ASPCA has more yearly

donations.

In conclusion as the number one killer in America Coronary Heart Disease needs

a lot more attention from the public and should be our number one health concern. Its

obvious we need help in this area and there are many ways to do it, but what we need to

do is change the American perception of the condition and that will be life saving.
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