Every year, about 1.2 million Americans have heart attacks and almost fifty percent of those coronary events result in death. But, also every year there are advancements that help to prevent heart attacks and that can help people to improve their heart conditions.

The heart is a muscle, much as any other muscle in your body. However, it is one of the few muscles that is never at rest. In order to perform well, the body must have a constant supply of nutrients and oxygen which is dispatched via the blood through the network of coronary arteries, all powered by the beating of your heart.

The vital flow of blood can be constrained by atherosclerosis, which is a process through which fatty substances, called plaque, build up on the interior walls of the blood vessels. The plaque attracts components of the blood that then stick to the inner surface of the walls as it passes through the vessels.

This process is called atherosclerosis. It can affect any blood vessels in your system and it causes them to become more narrow and also to harden and lose elasticity. This condition develops over the course of many years and depending on genetic, environmental and dietary factors, can even begin during childhood.

In the case of heart disease, atherosclerosis damages the coronary arteries and the fatty buildup can break open and cause the forming of a blood clot. The clot then covers the site where the rupture occurred reducing the blood flow further.

Over time the blood clot becomes hard and then the whole process starts anew: fatty buildup occurs, the plaque ruptures, narrowing of the arteries continues and progressively less and less blood is able to reach the heart muscle.

Any time not enough blood is able to get to any part of the body, this state is called ischemia. When this happens to the heart, it is referred to as a cardiac ischemia. In an instance where the blood supply is completely or nearly cut off, a heart attack is the result and the cells of the heart muscle begin to die off because of the lack of oxygen. The more time it takes to get treatment and recover, the greater will be the damage to the organ. Because heart cells do not regenerate, the loss of those cells is permanent.

The warning signs that you might be having a heart attack are: pain or discomfort in the middle of the chest area, shortness of breath, discomfort in the neck, jaw, arms, back or stomach, light-headedness or nausea and breaking out with a cold sweat.

The most frequent warning sign is the chest discomfort and it is the same for both men and women. It has been reported that females are more likely than males to experience some of the other symptoms, most particularly the shortness of breath, nausea and back or jaw pain.

Women generally have heart disease in later years than men do, usually around tens years later. They also often have other accompanying conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes. With the combination of greater age and the additional health challenges they face, it is even more critical that women are treated for coronary problems as fast as possible.