Love your heart

We've all heard of heart disease. Many of us may even know someone - a friend or family member, perhaps - who is living with it (or, sadly, someone who has died from it). But like so many other health problems we tend to think heart disease is something that can never happen to us.

Heart disease kills more people than any other disease in this country. According to the latest statistics from the British Heart Foundation, in 2009 one in five male and one in eight female deaths were caused by coronary heart disease (CHD) - the most common type of heart disease. That's a total of around 82,000 deaths.

Almost 2.7 million people in the UK are currently living with CHD. That includes around a million men and nearly half a million women who have had a heart attack and 2 million who suffer with angina. Every year there are 124,000 heart attacks in the UK - which works out at around one heart attack every two minutes. In England, for example, there are an estimated 62,000 heart attacks in men and 39,000 in women.

What is CHD?

CHD happens when, over the course of many years, your artery walls have developed a build-up of fatty substances, also known as atheroma - a process known as atherosclerosis. And if your coronary arteries become so narrow because of atherosclerosis that your heart receives a restricted blood supply, that can cause chest pains (angina).

Angina - which can often feel like indigestion - can be triggered by exercise as well as stress. If you suffer from angina, your doctor may prescribe tablets or a spray that can help relieve the symptoms.

However, if your coronary arteries are so furred up that they become completely blocked, you may suffer a heart attack (myocardial infarction). This causes similar but often far more severe symptoms as angina, accompanied by breathlessness, nausea, light-headedness and sweating. If you think you or someone else is having a heart attack, call 999 immediately.

Another condition that can affect people with CHD is heart failure. This is when the heart is too weak to operate properly, which can cause a build-up of fluid in the lungs and lead to breathing difficulties.

Who's at risk?

There are several important risk factors for the development of the fatty build-up of the coronary arteries that leads to CHD, including the following:

SMOKING: 24 percent higher risk of developing heart disease than non-smokers, thanks to the damage to the arteries caused by chemicals in cigarette smoke. Two in particular - nicotine and carbon monoxide - also make your heart pump faster, which puts it under strain.

HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE: If you have high blood pressure (hypertension), like smoking it puts a strain on your heart, and that can lead to CHD. High blood pressure is defined as more than 140/90 (the top figure is the systolic pressure, which is when your heart contracts and pumps out blood, the bottom figure is the diastolic pressure, that is when your heart isn't pumping but is filling up with blood).

If you don't know what your blood pressure is, ask your pharmacist about blood pressure testing. It only takes a few minutes, and it could help diagnose a problem before your heart is put under too much strain.

HIGH CHOLESTEROL: Most people realise that high cholesterol can lead to heart problems. Current official recommendations state a healthy cholesterol is less than 5 (total cholesterol), and a LDL cholesterol level of less than 3 (LDL is the so-called 'bad' cholesterol). If, however, you have been diagnosed with CHD you should aim for an even lower reading.

Again, if you don't know your cholesterol, ask your pharmacist about tests. Many pharmacies offer a variety of screening services: to find your nearest pharmacy, visit www.allabouthealth.org.uk

INACTIVITY: Reports suggest that people who don't exercise are twice as likely to have a heart attack as those who work out regularly. There may be several reasons why - for instance, exercise helps lower your blood pressure and cholesterol, plus exercise gets your heart working and keeps it healthy.

DIABETES: According to statistics, diabetics are five times more likely to develop CHD than those who don't have diabetes. That's because high levels of glucose in the blood - which results from diabetes - can also cause the furring of the coronary arteries that causes CHD.

WEIGHT PROBLEMS: If you're overweight or obese, you also have a higher risk of developing heart disease than someone whose weight is normal.

FAMILY HISTORY: If CHD runs in your family, your risk may be higher - especially if a male family member developed CHD before the age of 55 or a female under the age of 64. Your ethnic background may also put you at a higher risk: people who originate from South Asia, for instance, are thought to have a 50 percent higher risk for CHD than the UK average.

HEART FACTS: The heart is a fascinating organ. A muscle that's about the size of your fist, it beats around 100,000 times a day - indeed the human heart beats more than 2.5 billion times during the average lifetime - in order to pump blood around your body.

In fact, the 5.6 litres or so of blood you have circulates around your body three times a minute - in one day, all that blood is estimated to have travelled a total of 12,000 miles. You've got to admit, that's pretty impressive.