Coronary heart disease (CHD) accounts for the largest portion of heart disease and is the leading cause of death for all people in the United States. About 12 million people in the United States have CHD. It is a chronic illness in which the coronary arteries, the vessels that supply oxygen-carrying blood to the heart, become narrowed or clogged and unable to supply a normal amount of blood.

When its blood supply is reduced, the heart does not receive a sufficient amount of oxygen. This often leads to two main consequences: chest pain known as angina pectoris, and a heart attack, in which part of the heart dies because of oxygen deprivation.

 

 

 In general, the heart disease death rates have been consistently higher in the African American population than in the white population. Mortality from coronary heart disease is 40% higher in African Americans than it is in whites.
African American women are 34% more likely to die of heart disease than white women. African American men are 26% more likely than white men, and almost twice as likely as Hispanic men to die of heart disease. In addition to suffering higher heart disease death rates, African-American men are also more likely to die from heart disease at an early age than other men. An estimated 40% of heart deaths in black men occurred before age 65, compared with 21% of heart deaths in white men.

 

 

Some of the risk factors for coronary heart disease are beyond a person's control. For example, a person's risk of developing coronary heart disease increases with age. Hereditary factors may also increase the risk for the disease. Males were once thought to be at greater risk of coronary heart disease, but more recent studies show this is not true. About equal numbers of women and men develop coronary heart disease.

Heart attacks in women are more likely to be fatal than in men. Females, in general, have poorer outcomes following a heart attack than males do: 44% of females who have a heart attack die within a year, compared with 27% of males. At older ages, females who have a heart attack are twice as likely as males to die within a few weeks. These differences are explained, in part, by the presence of coexisting conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and congestive heart failure.
Other risk factors for coronary heart disease can be changed depending on a person's lifestyle. These modifiable risk factors include cigarette smoking, obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Perhaps the most important modifiable risk factor, however, is high blood cholesterol. When excess cholesterol

 

 

circulates in the blood, it deposits in the wall of the arteries, hastening the progression of atherosclerosis. There is no cure for coronary heart disease. However, proper treatment can slow or even halt the progression of atherosclerosis so that the coronary arteries do not become further narrowed. Treatment can also help reduce the risk of a heart attack in people who have coronary heart disease. The first step in fighting coronary heart disease is to make lifestyle changes to reduce risk factors. Doctors recommend that heart patients eat a low-fat diet and keep their blood cholesterol low.

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