In today's society, people are gaining medical knowledge at quite a fast pace. Treatments, cures, and vaccines for various diseases and disorders are being developed constantly, and yet coronary heart disease remains the number one killer in the world. Themedia today concentrates intensely on drug and alcohol abuse, homicides, AIDS and soon. What a lot of people are not realizing is that coronary heart disease actually accountsfor about 80% of all sudden deaths. In fact, the number of deaths from heart disease isapproximately equal to the number of deaths from cancer, automobile accidents, chroniclung disease, pneumonia and influenza, and others, COMBINED. One of the symptoms ofcoronary heart disease is angina pectoris. Unfortunately, a lot of people do not take itseriously, and thus not realizing that it may lead to other complications, and even death. In order to understand angina, one must know about our own heart. The humanheart is a powerful muscle in the body which is worked twice as hard as any other musclein the body. A double pump system, the heart consists of two pumps side by side, whichpump blood to all parts of the body. Its steady beating maintains the flow of blood throughthe body day and night, year after year, non-stop from birth until death. The heart is ahollow, muscular organ slightly bigger than a person's clenched fist. It is located in thecentre of the chest,under the breastbone, but it is slanted slightly to the left, giving peoplethe impression that their heart is on the left side of their chest. The heart is divided intotwo halves, which are then further divided into four chambers: the left atrium andventricle, and the right atrium and ventricle. Each chamber on one side is separated fromthe other by a valve, and it is the closure of these valves that produce the "lubb-dubb"sound so familiar to us. Like any of the other organs in our body, the heart needs aconstant supply of blood and oxygen, and coronary a...
