Cardiovascular disease risk and minorities – Symphony Natural Health

Heart disease impacts us all – it’s the leading cause of death in both men and women, accounting for 1 out of every 4 deaths.¹ Your gender, race and ethnicity, lifestyle, and even zip code can all play a part in your heart health and the healthcare available to you. With so many factors impacting your heart health, it’s important to know your own personal risk factors for heart disease.

The term “heart disease” refers to many things, but here we are focusing on heart attack and coronary artery disease, or atherosclerosis – which is the narrowing of the arteries due to the buildup of plaque which is caused by fat, cholesterol and calcium. Arteries are the blood vessels that carry oxygen and nutrients from your heart to the rest of your body, so it is critical they are not closed by plaque and vascular inflammation.

Despite a great deal of public health education over the past few decades, only about 50% of women recognize that heart disease is, in fact, the number 1 cause of death in women, not breast cancer or any other women’s health issue.² And, as we collect more data and develop a deeper understand of our national demographics, we are learning that your race and ethnicity matter.

Certain minority groups in the US face significantly greater risk and these differences appear to be due to an increased prevalence of high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity seen in non-white American women. But that’s not all. There are also the influences of genetics, socioeconomic status, stress, access to healthy food, access to safe places to exercise, access to quality of healthcare, and the challenge of potential communication barriers. This is so impactful that experts in public health are often quoted as saying that your zip code is one of the most important determining factors for health and life expectancy. For example, racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. confront more barriers to cardiovascular disease diagnosis and medical care, receive lower quality of treatment, and experience worse health care outcomes than Caucasians.