Heart disease remains the number one killer in the United States. It takes the life of four in every ten people.
Cardiac Interventionalist Dr. Anthony Chapekis said that in most cases, it is not the heart that is the problem but disease in the arteries that feed our body's most important organ.
"Coronary artery disease is a buildup of fat and cholesterol in the blood vessels of the body. It’s kind of a mysterious thing as to what sets it off. We certainly know there are risk factors for it, but some can develop it without risk factors," Chapekis said.
Chapekis said the predominant risk factors to watch for include family history, high blood pressure, cholesterol, diet, diabetes and smoking. But the cardiologist said that no matter how many risk factors you have, you can turn your risk around.
"We know once you develop coronary disease, if we work hard on risk factors we can stabilize and sometimes reverse it. For instance if people quit smoking, after ten years their risk of coronary disease goes back to as if they'd never smoked. That's different than for instance, lung cancer, where if you've always smoked there is always some risk," Chapekis said.
The development of statins like Lipitor, daily Aspirin therapy and blood pressure meds have proven effective in stabilizing the disease progression, but Chapekis is most excited about the development of surgical tests and procedures from stress tests to angioplasty to open heart bypass and how they have evolved during his more than two decades in the field.
"The treatments since I started are revolutionary and people now I believe can mostly live with this disease rather than it being the reason for your demise," he said.
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