Angina: Don't Take It Lightly

Medical Author: Benjamin C. Wedro, MD, FAAEM
Medical Editor: Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD

I'm a fan of "Pardon the Interruption", a talk show on ESPN, only because I enjoy the wit, wisdom and camaraderie of the hosts, Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon. Unfortunately for me and more unfortunately for Mr. Wilbon, instead of being in front of the camera, he was underneath one in a heart cath lab undergoing an angioplasty to open a blocked blood vessel to his heart.

Heart disease remains the number one killer in the United States, and each case is a potential failure because risk management wasn't aggressive enough. There are five major risk factors for heart disease:

• smoking,
• high blood pressure,
• high cholesterol,
• diabetes, and
• family history.

You can't do anything about the genes you inherited, but the other four need life long vigilance to minimize the risk of not only heart attack but also stroke and peripheral vascular disease. All risk factors involve narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to the body and the consequences that occur when organs don't get enough blood and start to fail.