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Heart Disease
Heart disease is the leading cause of The symptoms vary depending on the
death in the United States. Around type of heart disease. For many people,
630,000 Americans die of heart disease chest discomfort or a heart attack is the
each year. That’s more than one in every first sign.
four deaths in this country.1
Someone having a heart attack
The term “heart disease” refers to several may experience several symptoms,
types of heart conditions. The most including:
common type is coronary artery disease,
l Chest pain or discomfort that doesn’t
which can cause heart attack. Other
go away after a few minutes.
kinds of heart disease may involve the
valves in the heart, or the heart may not l Pain or discomfort in the jaw, neck,
pump well and cause heart failure. Some or back.
people are born with heart disease.
l Weakness, light-headedness, nausea
(feeling sick to your stomach), or
a cold sweat.
Are you at risk?
l Pain or discomfort in the arms
Anyone, including children, can
develop heart disease. It occurs when or shoulder.
a substance called plaque builds up in l Shortness of breath.
your arteries. When this happens, your
If you think that you or someone you
arteries can narrow over time, reducing
know is having a heart attack, call 9-1-1
blood flow to the heart.
immediately.
Smoking, eating an unhealthy diet, and
not getting enough exercise all increase
your risk for having heart disease.
1
CDC: Deaths: Final Data for 2006. http://www.
cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr57/nvsr57_14.pdf
1
KNOW THE FACTS ABOUT
Heart Disease
l Maintain a healthy weight. CDC’s Learn more at the following Web sites.
Healthy Weight Web site includes l Centers for Disease Control and
information and tools to help you Prevention’s Division for Heart
lose weight. Disease and Stroke Prevention:
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/ http://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/index.htm
index.html
l Centers for Disease Control and
l Eat a healthy diet. Tips on reducing Prevention’s National Center on Birth
saturated fat in your diet are available Defects & Developmental Disabilities:
on the Web site for CDC’s Division http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/
for Nutrition, Physical Activity, and birthdefects/default.htm
Obesity.
l American Heart Association:
http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/
http://www.americanheart.org
basics/fat/saturatedfat.html
l National Heart, Lung, and Blood
l Exercise regularly. Visit CDC’s
Institute:
Physical Activity Web site for more
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov
information on being active.
http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/
index.html