Heart disease has become the leading cause of death in world population. Approximately 25 percent of world population is dead from heart disease. This is a common disease which affects both men and women. Todays, deaths caused by sudden heart attacks with no preliminary symptoms are raising. Hence, it is important to find out what might cause heart disease which can possibly lead to death.

What causes heart disease?

Heart disease, which is also referred as cardiovascular disease is commonly caused by a damage to the heart itself or its blood vessels. This damage might affect either the inner or the outer layers of the coronary arteries, or sometimes both. A lot of people are prone to heart disease due to various reasons. Summing up, cardiovascular diseases are often caused by:

1. Smoking

In fact, smoking does not only contribute to heart disease. A lot of other diseases can be caused by this habit, such as cancer, lung disease, stroke, and impotency. Active smokers have a bigger chance to be exposed to heart disease, although those passive smokers—or secondhand smokers are also prone to the disease. Smoking damages the lining of someone’s arteries. Besides, the carbon monoxides in tobacco smoke reduces the amount of oxygen in your blood. This will respectively reduce blood flow back to the heart.

2. High blood pressure

High blood pressure does not only cause heart disease, but also be able to cause kidney failure. Similar to smoking, high blood pressure damages the cells of arteries inner lining. If left untreated, this will cause damages to the body without any visible symptoms. Thus, hypertension may cause a sudden heart attack leading to death.

3. Obesity

This is also a leading factor contributing to heart disease. Obesity may lead to narrowed arteries which might cause heart failure.

There are some other inducing factors which may cause heart disease. This disease has also been long related to the increasing level of cholesterol in someone’s body. High cholesterol level puts a lot of people in concern of the possibility of developing heart disease. Hence, it is important to know the relation between these two so that we might be able to avoid the deadly disease attack.

Relationship between cholesterol and heart disease

Cholesterol can be found in all cells of the body, and is in fact, very important for performing proper digestion. In our body, cholesterol has roles in producing vitamin D, making hormones, and inducing digestion. In moderate amount, cholesterol which is naturally produced by the body is needed for our health. However, the level of cholesterol in body cells can be accumulated from the consumed animal fats through our diets. When we consumed too much animal fats from meats, for instance, the amount of cholesterol in our blood flow raises more than the level needed by our body for digestion. Since not all of these cholesterol’s are digested, some of them are accumulated in the arteries lining, causing what-so-called atherosclerosis, the thickening of artery walls.

Healthy arteries should be flexible and elastic to make sure they are able to pass through the blood from and to the heart. Too much cholesterol in blood will cause these arteries walls to narrow down and thicken. Thickened arteries will result in slowing down blood flow heading to your heart. The more cholesterol you consume through fats, the thickener your arteries walls are. In our body, arteries have a role in circulating oxygen from and to the heart. When those arteries get thickened and narrowed, this blood supply is cut down. Hence, oxygen supply is also deteriorating. When your heart does not get sufficient oxygen, you will experience throbbing chest pain. Continuous arteries blocks will end up in heart disease which may lead to death.

In our bloodstream, there are two different kinds of familiar cholesterol. These are LDL (low-density-lipoprotein) and HDL (high-density-lipoprotein). LDL is the one which is related to arteries lining blockage, while the HDL works to clear cholesterol in blood stream. Fatty foods in our diets may contribute to increase the level of LDL in blood, which simultaneously increase the possibility of heart disease. Since high blood cholesterol does not give any visible symptoms, many people does not realize of this phenomenon. This is why high cholesterol often lead to sudden death.