A heart attack is unexpected and can happen in an instant. A series of health missteps, which allow fats, cholesterol and other substances to coat the arteries and block normal blood flow, usually cause this health scare. Those missteps cut off the heart from the blood and oxygen it needs to survive.
Heart disease is also the country’s leading cause of death with one in three deaths attributed to the condition. And experts consider it a silent killer because most people don’t even realize the plaque gathering in their arteries is cutting off the flow of oxygen to the body’s most important muscle.