According to authors Hahn and Chang, Cardiovascular Disease (Heart Disease) is the leading cause of death in the United States among young children and adults. Cardiovascular disease refers to many different types of heart or blood vessel problems; the word is often used to describe damage caused to your heart or blood vessels by atherosclerosis (ath-ur-oh-skluh-ROW-sis), which is a buildup of fatty plaques in your arteries. Arteries are blood vessels that carry oxygen and nutrients from your heart to the rest of your body. Healthy arteries are flexible and strong. .
On the other hand, it is also said that too much pressure in your arteries can make the walls thick and stiff, thus sometimes blocking blood flow to the organs and tissues. This is known as hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis). Atherosclerosis is the most common form of this disease. Atherosclerosis is also the most common cause of heart disease, and it's often caused by an unhealthy eating, not enough exercise, being obese and smoking. These are all major risk factors for getting atherosclerosis and, sequentially, heart disease. Academics at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine stated in JAMA that, "the lifetime risk for cardiovascular disease is more than 50% for both men and women". They also said that even among people with less or no cardiovascular risk factors, the risk is still greater than 30%.
According to the National Health Service (NHS), UK, there are presumed to be nine major risk influences linked through cardiovascular disease, they are: Hypertension (high blood pressure) - this is the one major risk factor for heart disease by far. If high blood pressure goes poorly treated, the artery walls will become injured, in turn, raising the threat of increasing a blood clot, Radiation therapy - professors from the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, described in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology that radiation therapy can raise the possibility of heart disease well ahead in life.
