| Even if you're the extreme sports type, your heart is | | | | exercise, and stress and alcohol reduction. |
| still the hardest-working muscle in your body. It pumps | | | | A second, single-page chart, the Effects of |
| blood through a system of blood vessels more than | | | | Hypertension, expands on the theme by taking a |
| 60,000 miles long, or twice around the world, and does | | | | closer look at these risk factors and the damage to |
| this at the rate of 5 quarts of blood a minute - or 2,000 | | | | the heart that accrues as a result - namely damaged |
| gallons per day. | | | | blood vessels and a thickening of the heart wall. Also |
| Beating 100,000 times each day, the human heart | | | | discussed and fully illustrated are the peripheral effects |
| performs its pumping action about 2.5 billion times in a | | | | of hypertension, including an enlarged heart, kidney |
| single lifetime. Imagine a man-made engine with this | | | | failure, brain or neurological damage, and changes in |
| kind of endurance! If the heart were a car, it would last | | | | the retina at the back of the eyes. A separate but |
| 333 years. | | | | equally relevant discussion (with images) describes the |
| Nothing illustrates the hard-working heart, and its | | | | progressive plaque build-up that occurs with |
| occasional need for a tune-up, better than heart charts. | | | | hypertension. |
| In full color, with images and corresponding text, either | | | | A third mandatory chart in the series for understanding |
| as a flip chart or as single, double-sized pages, these | | | | hypertension, or high blood pressure, is the High Blood |
| charts discuss everything from a healthy heart to a | | | | Pressure chart, which gives a more detailed description |
| heart compromised by a group of medical risk factors, | | | | of the causes, effects and risk factors for |
| called Metabolic Syndrome. | | | | hypertension. This chart also suggests treatment |
| Beginning with The Heart chart, which offers an | | | | options, including diet changes, which can help |
| overview of the internal and external structures of the | | | | ameliorate blood pressure. |
| human heart, including major valves and electrical | | | | The Understanding Angina chart takes patients, and |
| pathways, the chart depicts and describes the | | | | their physicians, on a guided tour of the types of |
| circulatory system and the cardiac cycle. | | | | angina, their causes, and the treatment options |
| From there, a 12-page anatomical flip chart, | | | | available. From external views of a damaged heart to |
| Understanding Hypertension, lead to a general | | | | cross-sectional images and text showing an artery |
| discussion of a chronic condition in which blood | | | | blocked by plaque, this chart is ideally suited for |
| pressure is consistently elevated. This condition, which | | | | explaining a problem which currently plagues more |
| affects one in four American adults, is the first sign | | | | than 1.6 million Americans and is a warning sign of |
| that heart problems are accruing and suggests | | | | serious, future heart problems. |
| changes in lifestyle, including diet, smoking cessation, | | | | |