Cardiovascular Disease

Essay from the year 2003 in the subject Medicine - Internal Medicine, grade: 1.1 (A+), Oxford University (New College), language: English, abstract: Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide and thereforemany scientists are interested in finding both ways to prevent and to treat it. Itis a multifactorial disease and thus is being influenced by a variety ofenvironmental and genetic factors and therefore it is difficult to establish themost important risk factors involved in the development of the disease. Theterm risk factor describes those characteristics found, in healthy individuals, tobe independently related to the subsequent occurrence of cardiovasculardisease and, where modifiable, to be reversible. This term includes modifiablelifestyle and biochemical and physiologic characteristics as well as nonmodifiablepersonal characteristics such as age, sex, genetic makeup, earlylife influences and family history of premature cardiovascular disease. When aperson develops cardiovascular disease, the modifiable risk factors continue tocontribute to the progression of the disease and prognosis. Risk factorsinclude smoking, hypertension, changes to lipid levels (e.g. raised totalcholesterol), raised blood glucose, obesity, family history of prematurecardiovascular disease, female hormonal status, dyslipidemia, diabetes, etc. Except for female hormonal status, no risk factor has been recognised asacting on one gender but not on the other. [...]