Total Access Medical - Direct Primary Care Blog

About every 40 seconds, someone in America has a heart attack. A heart attack is an urgent message that your heart needs oxygen. The most common cause is coronary artery disease. When a blockage or plaque within a coronary artery ruptures or breaks, a blood clot forms around it. This blood clot can block the oxygen-rich blood from getting to the muscle of your heart. That causes the heart muscle to start dying, and you begin to feel the symptoms of a heart attack. Your doctor may also refer to this as, “acute myocardial infarction."

Heart disease isn't just one thing. It's a number of conditions that can affect how your heart works. Heart disease can also be called cardiovascular disease, though that term covers blood vessels problems as well.

Heart disease is a major killer in the U.S., causing about 1 in 5 deaths, or about 700,000 a year.

Heart disease describes a range of conditions that affect the heart. Heart disease includes:

Everyone reacts to stress differently, and how you react can impact the chance of developing serious health issues, including heart disease.

Your body's response to stress may include muscle aches and headaches, back strain, stomach pains, and other physical symptoms. Stress also can make you tired, disturb normal sleep patterns, and leave you irritable, forgetful and out of control. When stress is constant, your body remains in high gear for days or weeks, which can lead to more significant health problems.

The advice is clear-cut: Sit less and purposefully move more for heart health. But how does exercise help keep your heart healthy?

Heart-healthy living involves understanding your risk, making healthy choices, and taking steps to reduce your chances of getting heart disease. By taking preventive measures, you can lower your risk of developing heart disease that could lead to a heart attack. You can also improve your overall health and well-being. 

Heart-healthy eating involves choosing certain foods, such as fruits and vegetables, while limiting others, such as saturated fats and added sugars.

Thyroid disease is a general term for a medical condition that keeps your thyroid from making the right amount of hormones. It can affect people of all ages.

You may not spend much time thinking about whether your thyroid gland is functioning well, but it's more important than you would probably guess. This butterfly-shaped organ wraps around your windpipe and sits just beneath the Adam’s apple.