Nutrition and Heart Disease
Carol D’Anca MS, CNS Speaks Out on the What is the Major Cause of Heart Disease and the Connection Between Nutrition and Heart Disease.
What is the Major Cause of Heart Disease
Here, we will take a look about “what is the Major Cause of Heart Disease”
The American Heart Association estimates that 81 million people living in the United States have some form of heart disease (also called coronary artery disease.) This is an astounding figure for a country as powerful and advanced as ours. If we dig even a little deeper we learn that every 25 seconds someone has a “coronary event” and approximately every minute someone dies of one. 1 If that isn’t bad enough, we spend a staggering $21B (yes that’s U.S. Dollars) on statin drugs, $5B on stents, and $50B on bypass surgeries each year.2 Yet, despite these interventions the lines in the pharmacies, to the cardiac catherization labs and in the surgical suites are not getting any shorter.
I’ve asked myself hundreds of times, why we can’t we find the major cause of heart disease (the number one cause of death in the U.S.) instead of just treating the symptoms and allowing heart disease to continue to take its toll?
I’ve done battle with this killer over the past 15 years, not personally but personally enough through the life of a loved one and I’ve searched for answers hundreds of times while sitting in doctor’s offices, waiting outside of cardiac catherization labs, surgical suites and in lines at the pharmacy. I’ve begun to find those answers, and many of the major reasons for heart disease are as close as our own cupboards, and within our daily lives.
Nutrition and Heart Disease
Here, we will take a look about “Nutrition and Heart Disease“.
A few brave souls (physicians, researchers, nutritionists and others) have come forward to acknowledge the direct correlation between nutrition and heart disease. Some have gone as far as saying that heart disease is a “paper tiger” that doesn’t need to exist and if it does exist, it can be reversed. Others may say that it’s all genetics and there is nothing we can do, but the truth is, changes in our diets and lifestyle have taken their toll on our health and mainly through heart disease.
While I’m not surprised that I didn’t learn about the connection between nutrition and heart disease in my undergraduate education in biology and chemistry, but I’m really surprised that I didn’t learn about the undeniable connection between nutrition and heart disease while studying for my master’s degree at medical school. The evidence is undeniable and I’m going to do my part to help others avoid the despair and complexities of the 15 year “journey” that we took. Dealing with the major causes of heart disease takes work and change but not dealing with them is a path I hope you don’t take.
Nutrition and Heart Disease
You may want to read the book, Food not Meds, Eat, Live, Love or if you or someone close to you has been recently diagnosed, sign in and receive Seven Critical Mistakes Most People Make When Someone Close to them is Diagnosed with Heart Disease, Sage Advice from Someone with 15 Years’ Experience.
References:
1. American Heart Association Update, 2011
2. American Journal of Cardiology 2010
Download PDF: Seven Critical Mistakes
