Heart disease what is it?

Heart and blood vessels
Heart disease is a collective name of a number of disorders. Some are harmless, other life-threatening.

The most known are disorders in which the blood supply to the heart is not good, but there are even more heart disease. Cardiovascular diseases are the number one cause of death in women and number two cause of death in men in England. Forty percent of all deaths is caused by diseases of heart and blood vessels.

Risk Factors
Heart disease have a lot to do with the way of life. Risk factors for heart disease include smoking, lack of exercise, poor diet, high blood pressure and stress. Sometimes play also hereditary factors, such as high cholesterol, a role.

Prevention
The risk of getting heart disease can be reduced by quitting smoking, to eat healthy and get enough exercise. In addition, it is important to avoid stress as much as possible and seek a healthy body weight.

Diet and heart disease
There is a link between diet and heart disease. For example, an excess of saturated fats raises cholesterol levels in the blood and thus the risk of cardiovascular problems.Sodium (salt) can increase blood pressure. And high blood pressure increases the risk of a stroke. That are so adverse influences.

Good influences are there too. Healthy eating lowers blood cholesterol levels and thereby helps the arteries to keep clean. In addition, health food (varied, and not too much) the body weight within limits and can help prevent high blood pressure.

Vitamins, minerals and heart disease
Vitamins can also make a positive contribution to the prevention of heart disease.

So is there a significant relationship between the B vitamins and heart disease. B vitamins decrease homocysteine levels in the blood. Homocysteine is a substance that occurs in the metabolism of proteins. An increased homocysteine levels in the blood is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke. How homocysteine leads to heart disease is not yet clear. Folic acid (vitamin B11) lowers homocysteine levels by an average of 25%, an extra dose of vitamin B12 (0.5 mg per day) provides an additional decrease of 7%. Vitamin B6 also plays a role, albeit to a somewhat lesser degree.

Also the antioxidant vitamins beta carotene, vitamin E and vitamin C are often associated with lowering the risk of heart disease. But investigations in this area give much different results.

Previously it was assumed that there was a link between the amount of iron in the body and reduce the risk of heart disease. From more recent and more reliable research shows no correlation between the amount of iron in the diet, the iron stores in the body and heart disease. Well there are some indications that a higher consumption of products with heme iron the risk of heart disease increases. Real evidence for this is however not yet delivered.

Research shows extra calcium (1000-2000 milligrams per day) in individuals with high blood pressure, systolic blood pressure slightly reduce. For magnesium is not proven an effect on blood pressure.