Each year, 1.1 million Americans suffer heart attacks, and nearly one-third of them don't survive. By addressing risk factors and recognizing symptoms right way, you can help lower your chance of developing or dying from a heart attack. It can be caused by a blood clot. If the blood supply is cut off severely for a long time, muscle cells suffer irreversible damage and die, depending on how much the heart muscle is damaged. About four out of five people who die of coronary heart disease are ages 65 or older.
Men have a greater risk of heart attack than women, and they have attacks earlier in life.
At older ages, women who have heart attacks are twice as likely as men to die from them within a few weeks. Children of parents with heart disease are more likely to develop it themselves. African Americans have more severe hypertension than whites and consequently, are at greater risk. A smoker's risk of heart attack is more than twice that of non-smokers. The risk of coronary heart disease rises as blood cholesterol levels rise.