Heart health expert Dr. Carolyn Dean talks about how you can improve your heart health, avoid heart attack, and live a healthier life.
Coronary heart disease (CHD) causes about 1 out of every 5 deaths in the United States and in 2009, according to the American Heart Association, an estimated 785,000 Americans will have a new coronary attack, and about 470,000 will have a recurrent attack.
- About every 25 seconds, an American will have a coronary event, and about every minute, someone will die from one
- Each year, about 795,000 people experience a new or recurrent stroke. About 610,000 of these are first attacks, and 185,000 are recurrent attacks. On average, every 40 seconds, someone in the United States has a stroke
- Every 33 seconds someone in the Untied States dies of cardiovascular disease, that is approaching 1 million deaths annually
It is not surprising that approximately 95,000 people per month search the internet by keying in “Attack Symptoms Heart” to find answers.
Why Americans are Prone to Heart Disease and Heart Attack
Americans are prone to heart disease and heart attack because the present American diet is heavily biased toward processed flour, sugar, and unhealthy fats which leads to unhealthy eating and a deficiency in the mineral—magnesium, which is vital to having a healthy heart.
Between our mineral-depleted diet and the depletion of minerals from our soils and the fact that most Americans do not get the RDA for magnesium, over 75 percent of Americans are magnesium deficient.
Clinical studies have shown that chronic magnesium depletion has direct consequences for both the heart and the blood vessels. These include the following:
- Arrhythmias (irregular heart rhythms) and tachycardia (too rapid heartbeats) due to abnormal shifts of the mineral potassium into and out of heart cells
- Abnormal electrical activity in the heart, shown by electrocardiagram (EKG or ECG) results
- Arteriosclerosis (stiffening and inflexibility of the blood vessels). This can develop even in children.
- Constriction of the arteries and spasms in blood vessels
- High blood pressure
- Angina (chest pain due to heart disease)
