Heart Disease

A family history of heart disease, diabetes, stroke or high blood pressure isn't good for your heart. Children of parents with heart and blood vessel diseases are more likely to develop them too. Plus, a person with a congenital heart defect is slightly more likely to have a baby with a heart defect.

Causes
The most common cause of heart disease is a narrowing or blockage in the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle (coronary artery disease). Some heart diseases are present at birth (congenital heart disease).
Other causes include:
• abnormal heart rhythm
• Operation abnormal heart valve
• High blood pressure (hypertension)
• Cardiomyopathy - weakening of the pumping capacity of the heart, commonly caused by cardiac disease, viral infection or toxins


Prevention
• Heart attacks are relatively rare in populations that consume olive oil in large quantities - even when the total fat content of their food is raised. Use olive oil in place of other fats whenever possible.
• If people smoke in your house, bad news: your risk of heart disease increased by about 20%, even if you have never smoked.
• Excess iron can contribute to heart disease in older people. In a recent study, for each monthly increase above 50 mg Iron 250 mg (from food and supplements), the increased risk of heart disease in one and half males and half times and three women older than 60 years . Older people should not take supplements containing iron without the recommendation of their doctors.
• Some of the benefits of vitamins C and E in cardiac protection can be immediate, according to a recent study. Meals rich in fat appear to inhibit the ability of the artery to expand when needed. But when 20 study participants took 1,000 mg of vitamin C and 800 IU of vitamin E before eating a high fat meal, the arteries worked normally. Meals low in fat had no discernible effect on the arteries, and the vitamins showed no other benefits.