Factors causing heart disease in Western society (citation)

Heart disease is a structural or functional abnormality of cardiovascular system, which might be caused of several factors. Those factors can be divided into two major factors such as behavioral risk factors and unavoidable risk factors. Behavioral risk factors associated with heart disease such as; fatty diet, lack of exercise, alcohol consume and smoking. On the other hand, aging and family history are unavoidable risk factors. This assay will discuss the factors that may associate with heart disease in western society (Campbell et al.,2003).
Generally, two major factors above increase the blood cholesterol and blood pressure that result in heart disease. People who have high level of blood cholesterol are more likely to develop heart disease. As the fact, there are two forms of cholesterol in the blood, called high-density and low-density lipoproteins. The high-density lipoprotein is a kind of bad cholesterol which possibly to mold the plaques. The plaques may clog the wall of blood vessels and if it occurs in coronary arteries, it may promote a heart attack. In addition, high blood pressure also gives rise to heart disease. High blood pressure against the wall of constricted vessel made the heart work even harder. If the condition persists, it may damage the heart and blood vessels that increasing the risk for stroke, heart attack, and heart failure (www.escardio.org; Encarta Encyclopedia, 2006; Campbell et al.,2003).
In the western society, scientists found heart disease were mainly due to behavioral risk factors. People who normally haven’t a heart disease risk genetically, nevertheless take daily risks by smoking or eating unhealthily. Eating unhealthy diet on which contain high bad cholesterol may increase the risk of vascular disease, due to the ability of cholesterol to clog arteries. Similar to lack of exercise, it can cause heart disease in which associate with accumulation of the bad cholesterol. Smoking also increases the risk of stroke by 50 percent attributable to coronary heart failure. In addition, heavy drinking can damage heart muscles in which distract the process of pumping blood (http://www.womenheart.org/; Encarta Encyclopedia, 2006).
Although, heart disease was associated mainly with behavioral risk, a strong family history of heart disease and age factor still put a patient at high risk. For example, a woman does exercise every day and careful about her diet, nevertheless she got heart attack in 43 years old. It might be caused of inherited genetically from both of her parents. Then, scientists have identified that age also be part of the cause heart disease. In addition, the probability of stroke increases as people get older, with those over age 65 at greatest risk (http//www.womenheart.org/; Encarta Encyclopedia, 2006).
Nevertheless, some scientists believe that stress reactivity plays an important key role in development of heart disease. They inquired the fact that many heart attacks occur in persons apparently free of risk factors such as high blood pressure, smoking and high cholesterol. They assumed that undeniably stressful condition of western society might contribute in causing heart disease. These could be explained by excessive unleashed of hormones and fatty fuels during stress response give rise to high blood pressure thus increased the risk of cardiovascular disease (Burg, 2008).
In conclusion, all the factors that increase the blood cholesterol and blood pressure, associated with heart disease. The factors may affect so much for some people, but may be those do not give any effect for the others. Furthermore, people can decrease the risk of heart disease by keeping their healthy life style.
References
1.Burgh, M. 2008. Stress, Behaviour and Heart Disease. Retrieved on 5th March 2008 from http://www.med.yale.edulibraryheartbk8.pdf/
2. Campbell et al.,2003. Biology. 4th. ed. Benjamin Cumming; New York
3. Encarta Encyclopedia. 2006. Heart Disease. Microsoft ® Encarta ® © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation.
4.Heart Disease.Retrieved on 5th March 2008 from http//www.womenheart.org/.
5.The human and economic cost of heart disease in Europe. Retrieved on 5th March 2008 from http://www.escardio.org/