Take action now to avoid getting heart disease
FROM THE MOMENT it begins beating until it stops, the human heart works tirelessly. In an average lifetime, the heart beats more than 2.5 billion times without ever pausing to rest.
If the heart does not work properly, it will affect the functions of other organs and may result in death.
Heart disease is the No1 killer in adult men and women, according to the World Health Report published by the World Health Organisation.
Heart disease had long been the second-most common cause of death in Hong Kong. According to statistics provided by the Hong Kong Department of Health, more than 60,000 hospital admissions in 2000 were for heart disease. In 2002, 4,969 deaths were caused by heart disease, accounting for 14.5 per cent of all deaths in Hong Kong. Coronary heart disease was the most dominating component of heart disease deaths (67.6 per cent).
Coronary heart disease is caused by the cholesterol layers depositing on the inner walls of coronary arteries. This narrows the lumens of the arteries, diminishing the blood supply to cardiac muscle and causing a heart attack.