Cardiovascular Disease (CVD)

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a general term for disease of the heart and blood vessels like coronary artery disease, stroke and high blood pressure. According to Khan, S., Chauhan, U. K., Dwivedi, M. K., Tripathi, A. K., and Shukla, S. (2010), an approximately 17 million people die for every year from cardiovascular disease (CVD) and most of them caused by heart attacks and stroke. In United States, cardiovascular diseases are leading cause of illness and death. According to federal government National Center for Health Statistic, more than 68 million Americans have symptoms of cardiovascular disease.

This type of disease can affect anyone at any age level either younger or elder. It also can affect men and women. So, anyone have a probability to get this type of disease if not take a good care about the lifestyle. Many factors can influence the risk for this type of disease. Some of them can be control and some of them can’t be control. There are several factors that contributing to this cardiovascular disease such as smoking habits, physical inactivity and high blood pressure.

Henry (n. d.) stated that smoking behavior is a major contributor to coronary heart disease, stroke and peripheral vascular. As we know, smoking has a lot of disadvantages and it is danger to the heart health. There are a lot of advertisements about the smoking and most of them tell about the bad effects and dangers of smoking habits because smoking are harmful to health and increase the risk to get cardiovascular disease. There are too many of cases that related to the smoking behavior. Most of all cases are related to the big heart health problems. It is not only smokers get the effects but the people who are nearest or lives around the smokers also get the effects. So, everyone can get the effect of smoking even they are smoking or not.

Smoking contributes to the development of blocked arteries which is can lead to the damage of heart. The damage of heart is also known as coronary heart disease. Smoking is also one of the major risk factor for coronary heart disease. The coronary heart infection is the most general form of cardiovascular disease. Smoking habit also increases the risk of blood clots. The increasing of blood clots will lead to the strokes disease and it is occur when blood clot blocks an artery in the brain. The most common cause is atherosclerosis in which fatty deposits form in the vessel walls of the brain. Other than that, cigarette smoking also reduces the oxygen in the blood and increase blood pressure. The increasing of blood pressure will lead to the hypertension which is also known as high blood pressure. High blood pressure or hypertension also known as the “silent killer” and it is one of the major risk factors for the coronary heart disease and stroke.

Other than smoking habits, physical inactivity is also a cardiovascular risk factor which is often called as lifestyle factor. People who are lack of exercise have twice risk to having heart disease and stroke. By having a regular exercise, it will reduce the likelihood of a heart attack and may improve the chances of survival if one does occur. Physical inactivity also will decrease the HDL which is high density lipoprotein and increase the low density lipoprotein (LDL). Low density lipoprotein is also known as “bad cholesterol” because it increases the coronary heart disease risk. The bad cholesterol must be less than 100mg/ dL and if it achieve to 190mg/ dL and above, it will cause the danger to the health because it is very high. High density lipoprotein is known as “good cholesterol” because it protects the arteries by taking cholesterol to the liver for disposal. High level of HDL is good to the health. Henry (n. d.) stated that the person who have a cardiovascular disease don’t have a chance of survival if they are still not doing an exercise. It is because; physical activity or exercise may improve the chance of survival for the person who has cardiovascular disease. There are a lot of advantages of regular physical activity that related to the cardiovascular system such as improved functioning of the cardiovascular system, reduced levels of blood lipids that associated with cardiovascular disease and can increase the stamina.