Category: Heart Diseases

As more people become aware of just how widespread heart conditions really are, as well as how deadly they can be, topics like how does coronary heart disease affect the body will continue to garner more attention. Here are a few quick numbers for you to drive home this point. This year over 1 million Americans will have a heart attack, of those half will die. This number accounts for 1 out of every 5 deaths caused by all diseases. Also, it is estimated that 41 million women in America have heart disease, debunking the myth that it is primarily a condition that affects men.

But how does coronary artery disease affect the body?

For me this has always been a fascinating topic. When I was a kid I used to see a lot of men over 40 who showed many of the symptoms of coronary artery disease such as excessive sweating, shortness of breath, occasional lapses in mental clarity, chest and back pain, and numbness in their legs, arms, and fingers. At the time I had no idea what I was observing and simply thought this was a natural part of getting older.

Most of them were inactive, smoked, and ate a diet high in foods that we now know contribute to heart disease such as high saturated fat foods like stick butter, burgers, cheese, breakfast gravy, sausage, whole milk, and franks. But in their defense at the time it was not well understood as how does coronary heart disease affect the body.

The main component of heart disease is a reduction, and ultimately a blockage of blood flow in the arteries supplying blood to the heart. The primary cause of this is arterial plaque which can start to form in the arteries as early as the age of 3 (that is not a misprint). Over the course of time more and more plaque accumulates reducing blood flow to the heart thus forcing the heart to have to work harder and harder to supply your body with the essential nutrients and oxygen necessary for life. This shortage of oxygen can cause breathing to become labored, as the body struggles to get the necessary amount of oxygen to the muscles and cells.

Can anything be done to halt the progression or reverse this condition?

The answer is yes! A recent study involving over 20,000 individuals found that a combination of a low saturated fat diet, moderate daily exercise, maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking, and a glass of red wine a day reduced the chances of heart attack by ninety percent.

Additionally, many are finding that by combining the natural lifestyle choices above with a
natural cholesterol reduction supplement they are able to improve heart and artery health even more.

In summary, rather than asking how does coronary heart disease affect the body one should really be asking what can I do about it to avoid becoming just another heart attack statistic.

Brush your teeth or you’ll have a heart attack!”

This is not an admonishment that I either heard as a child or ever made to my own children or patients. However it is becoming increasingly evident that maintaining good dental hygiene and treating periodontal disease is one of the easiest and most important things that we can do to prevent heart disease, stroke and several other illnesses.

Periodontitis is defined as inflammation of the supporting tissues of the tooth. These tissues include bone, the periodontal membrane and the gums. Gingivitis (infection of the gums) is a common cause of periodontitis as is the dental plaque that forms on the other periodontal tissues. Periodontitis has been known for centuries to be responsible for a large proportion of dental problems but recent research has shown that its deleterious effects extend far beyond the mouth.

In a recent article I wrote about a condition called chronic systemic inflammation which is a low grade, pervasive form of inflammation that damages the endothelial linings of arteries and has also been implicated in causing harm to a variety of other tissues and organs.

Periodontitis is a very important cause of this sinister inflammatory process and is associated with infection and inflammation of the periodontal tissues and the release of bacteria, toxins, protein acids, pro-inflammatory chemical messengers and other harmful compounds into the mouth and blood stream. Once in the blood stream these agents stimulate a systemic inflammatory response that in turn causes problems a long way from the mouth. Some of the most important targets of periodontitis-induced systemic inflammation are the blood vessels especially the endothelial linings of the arteries.

These inflammatory agents cause narrowing and rigidity of the arteries that results in reduced blood supply to the heart, brain, kidneys and other organs. In addition, systemic inflammation is thought to contribute to an inflammatory process in the arterial endothelium itself. Inflammation in this important part of the blood vessel aggravates the formation of cholesterol plaques in the arteries and ultimately causes the rupture of these plaques events that result in heart attack or stroke.

The theory of the effects of periodontitis on heart disease and other illnesses is backed up by several very recent clinical trials.

One study found that those who had recently suffered a heart attack had far higher levels of pathogenic bacteria in their mouths than those in a non-heart attack control group. In another study arterial blood flow was measured in those with periodontal disease before and after intensive treatment for their periodontal disease. Interestingly, the arterial blood flow in these patients diminished slightly over the first few days following the treatment but a few weeks later it increased substantially and was significantly better than that of the untreated control group.