What Causes Heart Disease

To understand heart disease causes, it's first necessary to understand how the heart works.

An amazing organ

The heart is really an amazing organ. As you know, the heart is a pump. It’s located in the left center of your chest and is about the size of your fist.

It is divided into a right side and a left side. This keeps oxygen-poor blood (blood that has already circulated through your body) from mixing with oxygen-rich blood.

The heart’s right side is made up of the right atrium and ventricle. It collects blood and pumps it through your pulmonary artery to your lungs. The lungs refresh your blood – giving it a new supply of oxygen – turning it red.

Four valves

There are four valves inside your heart that keep your blood moving the right way. The tricuspid, mitral, pulmonary and aortic valves work just one way like gates on a fence – and only when pushed on. Each of these valves open and close once per heart beat.

Systole and diastole

Your heart contracts and relaxes. When it contracts, it is called systole. When it relaxes, it is called diastole. You may recognize these terms form having had your blood pressure monitored as it is described as your systolic blood pressure and your diastolic pressure.

During systole, the ventricles in your heart contract, forcing blood into the vessels that go to your lungs and the rest of your body. Think of this as being like squeezing toothpaste out of a toothpaste tube. Your right ventricle contracts a little bit before the left one does. Your ventricles next relax during diastole and become filled with blood coming from your heart’s upper chambers – the right and left atria. The cycle than starts over.

And then there’s your electrical wiring 

Did you know that your heart has electrical wiring? There are electrical impulses that start high in your right atrium and travel through special pathways to the ventricles. This is the signal that tells the ventricles to pump. The conduction system keeps the heart beating in a normal and coordinated rhythm – to keep your blood circulating. What keeps you alive is the continuous exchange of the oxygen-rich blood with the oxygen-poor blood.

Heat Disease Causes

The things that most often cause heart diseases are factors such as:

•  Smoking 
• Obesity 
• Coronary heart disease) 
• Congenital (birth) defects  
• Menopause  
• Diabetes 
• Abnormal cholesterol levels 
• Excessive use of alcohol or caffein  
• Substance abuse 
• Stress  
• High blood pressure 
• High levels of fat in the blood

 As you can see, there are many heart disease causes. To get specific details about any of these heart disease causes, simply click on the cause listed above.

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 Heart Disease Causes - Stress - Heart Disease Causes - Menopause - Heart Disease Causes - High Blood Pressure - Heart Disease Causes - Congenital Heart Defects -Heart Disease Causes - Smoking - Heart disease causes - Coronary Artery Disease