Researchers have found that heart attacks and heart failure are really the late complications of a whole chain of events termed the cardiovascular continuum. The cardiovascular continuum links various risk factors, like hypertension, high blood cholesterol, and being overweight, with different types of heart disease. Heart disease can become progressively more severe, and more debilitating, throughout a person's life. Heart disease that occurs later in the continuum, like atherosclerosis, heart tissue death, and heart failure, is difficult and sometimes impossible to reverse.

The significance of the cardiovascular continuum is its emphasis on prevention. By treating risk factors that occur early in the cardiovascular continuum, like hypertension, diabetes, high blood fat levels, and smoking, it may be possible to prevent or slow the development of heart disease and to prolong life. These risk factors are in themselves rarely life threatening, but because they are usually without symptoms, it's important to be tested for them and to treat them through lifestyle changes and drug treatment.

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The Cardiovascular Continuum

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