American Heart Month: Home

What is heart disease?

The term “heart disease” refers to several types of heart conditions. The most common type of heart disease in the United States is coronary artery disease (CAD), which affects the blood flow to the heart. Decreased blood flow can cause a heart attack.

What are the symptoms of heart disease?

Sometimes, heart disease may be “silent” and not diagnosed until a person experiences signs or symptoms of a heart attack, heart failure, or an arrhythmia. When these events happen, symptoms may include:

• Heart attack: Chest pain or discomfort, upper back or neck pain, indigestion, heartburn, nausea or vomiting, extreme fatigue, upper body discomfort, dizziness, and shortness of breath.
• Arrhythmia: Fluttering feelings in the chest (palpitations).
• Heart failure: Shortness of breath, fatigue, or swelling of the feet, ankles, legs, abdomen, or veins in the neck.

For more information, please see Heart Disease.

Several health conditions, your lifestyle, and your age and family history can increase your risk for heart disease. These are called risk factors. About half of all Americans (47%) have at least 1 of 3 key risk factors for heart disease: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or a smoking habit.

Some risk factors for heart disease cannot be controlled, such as your age or family history.  However, you can take steps to lower your risk by changing the factors you can control.

For more information, please see Heart Disease Risk.

This video provides information to help women learn four key numbers that are vital to take charge of their heart health.

By living a healthy lifestyle, you can help keep your blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels normal and lower your risk for heart disease and heart attack.

You can choose healthy habits to help prevent heart disease. 

Choose Healthy Foods and Drinks 

Choose healthy meals and snacks to help prevent heart disease and its complications. Make sure to eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and fewer processed foods.  Learn more about healthy diet and nutrition at CDC’s Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity website.

Keep a Healthy Weight 

People with overweight or obesity have a higher risk for heart disease. Carrying extra weight can put extra stress on the heart and blood vessels.

To find out if your weight is in a healthy range, you can calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI) at CDC’s Assessing Your Weight website.

Get Regular Physical Activity

Physical activity can help you maintain a healthy weight and lower your blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and blood sugar levels. For adults, the Surgeon General recommends 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, like brisk walking or bicycling, every week. Children and adolescents should get 1 hour of physical activity every day.

For more information, see CDC’s Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity website.

Don't Smoke

Cigarette smoking greatly increases your risk for heart disease. If you don’t smoke, don’t start. If you do smoke, quitting will lower your risk for heart disease. Your doctor can suggest ways to help you quit.

For more information about tobacco use and quitting, see CDC’s Smoking & Tobacco Use website.

For more information, please see Heart Disease Prevention.

• Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men, women, and people of most racial and ethnic groups in the United States.
• One person dies every 34 seconds in the United States from cardiovascular disease.
• About 697,000 people in the United States died from heart disease in 2020—that’s 1 in every 5 deaths.
• Heart disease cost the United States about $229 billion each year from 2017 to 2018. This includes the cost of health care services, medicines, and lost productivity due to death.

For more information, please see Heart Disease in the United States.

Liliana Ramirez

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men in the United States.

How does heart disease affect men?

• Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men in the United States, killing 382,776 men in 2020—that’s about 1 in every 4 male deaths.
• Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men of most racial and ethnic groups in the United States, including African Americans, American Indians or Alaska Natives, Hispanics, and whites. For Asian American or Pacific Islander men, heart disease is second only to cancer.

For more information, please see Heart Disease in Men.

Although heart disease is sometimes thought of as a man’s disease, almost as many women as men die each year of heart disease in the United States.

How does heart disease affect women?

• Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States, killing 314,186 women in 2020—or about 1 in every 5 female deaths.
• Heart disease is the leading cause of death for African American and white women in the United States. Among American Indian and Alaska Native women, heart disease and cancer cause roughly the same number of deaths each year. For Hispanic and Asian or Pacific Islander women, heart disease is second only to cancer as a cause of death.

For more information, please see Heart Disease in Women.

Black or Hispanic adults who experience cardiac arrest outside a hospital setting are substantially less likely to receive lifesaving care from a bystander.  The American Heart Association is working to change this by empowering members of these communities to learn lifesaving Hands-Only CPR. 

During Black History Month and in conjunction with American Heart Month, the American Heart Association is encouraging people to “Beat The Beat” for and in their communities by challenging every household or family to have at least one person who knows Hands-Only CPR.

For more information, please see Be The Beat

This video will teach you how to perform Hands-Only CPR on a woman.

This video will teach you how to perform Hands-Only CPR on a man.