YOUR HEART WAS DESIGNED TO LAST A LIFETIME

Two days ago a man here at work died of a sudden heart attack, He was shockingly only 34 years old. My immediate thoughts were with his family and I silently wondered if he had told his family that day that he loved them. I learned a heart attack kills an American every 26 seconds and that heart disease is often a silent and without warning killer! Please, to all of you, let this be a reminder of how fragile we truly are, please take care of your heart and your health. When its all said and done its our one truly great possession.
Cardiovascular Disease Statistics
Estimates for the year 2005 are that 80,700,000 people in the United States have one or more forms of cardiovascular disease (CVD).
High blood pressure — 73,000,000.
Coronary heart disease — 16,000,000.
Myocardial infarction (mi"o-KAR'de-al in-FARK'shun) (acute heart attack) — 8,100,000. Angina pectoris (AN'jih-nah or an-JI'nah PEK'tor-is) (chest pain or discomfort caused by reduced blood supply to the heart muscle) — 9,100,000.
Stroke — 5,800,000.
Heart Failure — 5,300,000
Cardiovascular diseases
Claimed 869,724 lives in 2004 (final mortality) (36.3 percent of all deaths or 1 of every 2.8 deaths).
Other final 2004 mortality: total cancer 553,888; accidents 112,012; HIV (AIDS) 13,063.
Over 148,000 Americans killed by CVD in 2004 were under age 65.
2004 final death rates from CVD were 335.1 for white males and 454.0 for black males; for white females 238.0 and for black females 333.6. (Death rates are per 100,000 population. The rates listed use the year 2000 standard U.S. population as the base for age adjustment.)
From 1994 to 2004, death rates from CVD declined 24.7 percent.
In the same 10-year period the actual number of deaths declined 8 percent.
Coronary heart disease
Coronary heart disease is caused by atherosclerosis (ath"er-o-skleh-RO'sis), the narrowing of the coronary arteries due to fatty build ups of plaque. It's likely to produce angina pectoris (chest pain), heart attack, or both.
Coronary heart disease caused 451,326 deaths in 2004 and is the single leading cause of death in America today.
16,000,000 people alive today have a history of heart attack, angina pectoris or both. This is about 8,700,000 males and 7,300,000 females.
This year an estimated 1.2 million Americans will have a new or recurrent coronary attack.
About 310,000 people a year die of coronary attack in an Emergency Department or without being hospitalized. Most of these are sudden deaths caused by cardiac arrest, usually resulting from ventricular fibrillation (ven-TRIK'u-ler fib"rih-LA'shun).
From 1994 to 2004 the death rate from coronary heart disease declined 33 percent.
In 2004, coronary heart disease death rates per 100,000 people were 194.2 for white males and 223.9 for black males; and 114.7 for white females and 148.7 for black females. (Death rates are per 100,000 population. The rates use the year 2000 standard population for age adjustment.)