Understanding Heart Disease

• discomfort that spreads from the chest to the shoulders, neck and arms
• pressure or squeezing pain in the chest that may spread into the neck, shoulders and arms
• nausea, breathlessness, sweating or fainting with pain in the arms, chest or neck
• feelings of impending doom
• significant fatigue
• problems sleeping
• indigestion
• weakness in the arms

Remember, not all heart attacks begin with sudden, crushing chest pain, especially for women, for whom heart attack symptoms often are milder and less specific. Women may complain of unusual fatigue, sleep problems, indigestion and weakness in their arms in the month before a heart attack.

C-Reactive Protein & Heart Disease Risk: What's It Mean

Maybe you've heard something about C-reactive protein and your risk for developing heart disease. Here's what we know: The blood level of a protein called C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker for inflammation, may be as important a risk indicator for heart disease as cholesterol levels. Numerous studies support a strong link between high levels of CRP and heart disease, regardless of other risk factors. In fact, CRP levels appear to be a better indicator of heart attack, angina and other cardiovascular problems than LDL cholesterol levels. Studies also find that reducing CRP levels reduces the risk of heart disease, and that cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins offer an excellent way to reduce CRP levels.

So why don't we use CRP as a marker for heart disease risk instead of cholesterol? Because we still don't know how often levels should be measured or how to evaluate the findings. For instance, even though the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the American Heart Association define levels below 1 mg/L as low risk and those between 1 and 3 as average risk, there is some evidence that levels above 1 mg/L still carry an increased risk of heart disease.