Cardiovascular disease

What is cardiovascular disease
Cardiovascular disease refers to diseases of the heart and blood vessels. This term usually refers to the process of atherosclerosis of the blood vessels that leads to plaque build up and narrowing of the arteries thereby reducing the supply of blood.

Statistics on cardiovascular disease

 * About 600,000 people pass away of cardiovascular diseases in the United States every year–that’s in every 4 deaths.
 * Heart disease is the numero uno cause of death for both men and women, in the United States. More than half of men that died in 2009 died of heart disease or cardiovascular diseases.
 * Coronary heart disease or CAD is the most common kind of CVS diseases, leading to a total loss of 385,000 people annually.
 * Every year about 715,000 Americans have a heart attack or episode of coronary artery disease. Of these, 525,000 are a first timers and 190,000 happen in persons who have already had a heart attack.

Annual cost of cardiovascular diseases in the United States

 * Coronary heart disease has a huge economic burden on the nation of United States with a total cost of $108.9 billion each year which encompasses the cost of health care services, medications, and lost productivity.
 * Cardiovascular disease is also a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide including many developping countries.

Risk factors for cardiovascular disease

 * diabetes, metabolic syndrome or prediabetes
 * Overweight and obesity, especially belly fat
 * Poor diet that leads to insulin resistance and increased inflammation
 * Physical inactivity or lack of required amout of physical activity
 * Smoking
 * Genetic risk factors
 * Elevated blood pressure
 * Elevated blood cholesterols
 * Age (older you get, higher the risk)
 * Gender (men havve a higher risk)
 * Race (South East Asians, Hispanics, and African Americans at higher risk)

Types of cardiovascular disease

 * Coronary artery disease
 * Peripheral vascular disease
 * Cerebrovascular disease
 * Other types

Causes of cardiovascular disease
While there are many risk factors for cardiovascular disease including smoking, cholesterol, family history, and lack of physical activity, one of the major causes of the phenomenal raise of cardiovascular disease has to do with our misunderstanding of the role of inflammation that comes from belly fat and metabolic syndrome

As more and more people in the United States and the word have insulin resistance, and 35% of the population already having metabolic syndrome, a lot of the population have increased belly fats.

Belly fat as a source of inflammation
Studies have shown that increased belly fat leads to increased levels of inflammation leading a raise in atherosclerosis.

Cholesterol and inflammation
The blood cholesterol and inflammation are two sides to the same coin - imagine inflammation as the source of fire (it literally means fire in Greek) and cholesterol as the fuel. You need both in order to have cardiovascular disease!

How did we contribute to increased risk?
Since we failed to realize the role of insulin resistance in causing belly fat, which in turn increase the inflammation, and since we were too focussed on the fuel which is cholesterol, all our efforts until recently were focussed on lowering blood cholesterol. This is the basis for the so called food pyramid which ended up causing more insulin resistance, more belly fat, and increased inflammation in the body.

Understand how insulin leads to belly fat and how insulin resistance leads to metabolic syndrome

Prevention of cardiovascular disease
Research from Yale Preventive Medicine Center and other places shows that up to 80% of cardiovascular disease is preventable with weight loss and other life style interventions. Read more on the interview of Dr. David Katz,MD, director of Yale Preventive Medicine Research Center by WebMD.

Cost of cardiovascular disease
As noted above, the annual cost of cardiovascular disease is a staggering 108.9 billion each year in the United States. If you take the fact that 80% of the cardiovascular disease is prevental through weight loss and other lifestyle interventions, the preventable cost of cardiovascular disease in the United States comes down to about 87.12 Billion annually in the United States based on 2007-2009 data from Centers for Disease Control.

Metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease
Affecting up to 35% of the entire population, a significant portion of the preventable cardiovascular disease has to do with metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance. This is the principal reason for the amazing health benefits of losing weight.

Weight loss and cardiovascular disease
Lose weight and reduce the risk of not only cardiovascular disease but up to 50 other medical problems. Some people may have central weight gain although they are not necessarily overweight or obese, leading a condition called metabolically obese, normal weight.

How to reduce the overall risk of inflammation and cardiovascular disease
Understand the 3 things wrong with our diet that lead to increased inflammation and increased cardiovascular diseases.