When asking how many people die from heart disease most people know some do, but may not have a grasp on the true scope of the problem. The main culprit in these figures is a heart attack, which generally occurs when blood supply to the heart muscle is cut off. When this happens it is only a matter of minutes until oxygen deprived heart cells begin to die. The longer the elapsed time between the coronary event and restoring blood flow the greater the damage.
According to the American Heart Association, approximately 785,000 Americans have their first heart attack each year with an additional 470,000 experiencing a recurrent heart attack. That equals a staggering 1,255,000 Americans each year falling prey to a heart attack.
But the question we are asking is how many people die from heart disease (heart attack) and that number is approximately 632,000. Broken down as a percentage that is one out of every four disease related deaths in the United States are attributed to heart disease. Out of all the types of heart disease coronary heart disease accounted for two out of every three of these.
Certainly, these are shocking numbers and their financial impact on the American economy is substantial, eclipsing the 3 billion dollars a year mark according to recent estimates. Now that we know how many people die from heart disease the most logical next question is why?
There are many different factors that contribute to these numbers but perhaps the three most obvious are inactivity, diet, and cigarette or pipe smoking.
For many the idea that inactivity could be the evil wizard behind the curtain of coronary death may come as a surprise. According for the Center For Disease Control approximately 4 out of every 10 people who have heart disease are also inactive. When you think about it you have to admit it makes a lot of sense. As we get older we may become less and less active. We no longer feel the need to exercise vigorously to attract a mate, find a date, or to interact with new friends. Instead we sit around and watch television, focus on work, spend time with our kids, or surf the net looking new games to play or participate in social networking. It is simply a matter of our priorities changing over time.
Diet is also another factor that is a major contributing factor as for how many people die from heart disease. As Americans we love a hearty high fat breakfasts, fast foods, high fat desserts, and deep fried specialties. According to AHA a heart healthy diet should consist of no more than 7 percent of total calories coming from saturated fat, and now more than 30 percent of total calories form overall fat. Considering that cheese contains 27 percent saturated and luncheon meats are somewhere from 10 to 30 percent it is easy to see how we might fall a little short of these lofty goals.
Perhaps out of all the risk factors cigarette and/or pipe smoking are two of the worst. One out of five people with heart disease are smokers. Smoking causes arteries to constrict lessening blood flow to the heart. Smoking also reduces the amount of protective HDL cholesterol and increases the amount of harmful LDL cholesterol.
What else? Other risk factors are being overweight, stress, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
In summary, how many people die of from heart disease should cause for you to drop that cheeseburger in the middle of big bite and run to the nearest salad or vegetable shop! Additionally, research suggests that by taking steps to modify diet, exercising 5 days a week, saying no to smoking, and adding a natural cholesterol reduction supplement a person can substantially reduce their chances of becoming just another heart attack death statistic.