THE RISKS OF CORONARY HEART DISEASE

WHAT IS CORONARY HEART DISEASE (CHD)?

Coronary Heart Disease is the UK’s biggest killer, responsible for around 120,000 deaths each year and approximately one heart attack every two minutes. Death rates from CHD in the UK are amongst the highest in the world ultimately leading to one in four deaths in men and one in six deaths in women. See Premature deaths by cause, UK.

Sufferers of CHD have one main thing in common: the blood supply to their heart is insufficient to keep the heart functioning normally.

Blood flows to the heart through the coronary arteries. Over the course of one's early life through to middle age, your arteries become 'furred up' and narrowed with plaque or atheroma (the Greek word for porridge – which is what the 'furring up' looks and feels like). In addition, the walls of the arteries themselves become hardened (or sclerosed, the Greek word for stone). This makes the arteries less flexible and more prone to damage and blockage. Hence the medical term for this condition – atherosclerosis (porridge and stone).

Furred-up coronary arteries can suddenly become fully blocked by blood clots, starving the heart of blood flow and leading to a heart attack.

Over time, these arteries can become fully blocked, starving the heart of blood flow and leading to heart attacks.